Mechanical Keyboard Sound Isn't That Simple
Figure 1: I couldn't think of a more literal way to represent this article if I tried... Looking back just a few years ago, there’s no doubt that the huge influx of people that joined the hobby at the peak of the COVID pandemic were drawn to keyboards by way of YouTube, TikTok, and other audio-visual content platforms. Even as the output from these content creators has waned in recent months, their collective impact and legacy on the keyboard hobby is rather firmly etched in the history books. As a result of all of their sound tests, build logs, and opinion videos, the message is clear to any new person joining the hobby: mechanical keyboards are all about the sound. Thock this, clack that. Whether it’s keyboards, keycaps, or even singular switches, seemingly everyone new to the hobby meticulously pores over each component of their keyboard not in an attempt to figure out how it will feel in hand, but how it will sound as they’re furiously grinding their way out from...
Mar 27, 2024
Re-flow the solder of the diode to try and fix the issue, if it's there (I mean, just touch the solder points of the diode briefly with a solder iron, brief enough to re-liquidify and re-settle the solder)
Like A0.C mentioned, it might be backwards too, so it's a good idea to check the orientation from the small scribblings on
Gateron Clears are the softest switches there is, tooooo soft, you might buy a single Cherry MX Red and use the spring inside to replace it with the Gateron Clear version
You might also push the stabiliser slider further, a lot of people experienced stabiliser issues, this is the fix, the cause is a long story, you might go back in the discussions and find a lot of discussions related to the issue
You also need to put a small amount of paper between the keycap and the stabiliser insert, so it stays in place too, but it's a different issue
In the beginning, it's hard to get costar stabs right, but when you do, the key should be very smooth
On my first mechanical keyboard, a wasd v2, I almost gave up at a similar place to where you are, I'm glad I didn't
kip.ricker, the mechanical keyboards like these have rows and columns that the processor scans, there might be something wrong with one of your columns and it might be preventing all the keys in that column from activating, it might be a good idea to check all the diodes to make sure they are on the right orientation and make sure the solder isn't making any additional connections in general
I had a similar issue with my drop1 infinity keyboard, turned out it was because of an insulation issue, the metal case was touching something, don't know what, it caused the entire column or row to fail, it only happened when I screwed the pcb into the case, so it was extremely hard to detect and fix It's probably not the same issue but, I learned that a problem at a specific place might affect some other keys too
The missing diodes are very disturbing, especially if they ripped the pcb sections with them too, I also suggest everyone to strengthen their usb connectors to the best of their ability, similar to the diodes that fall off, the usb connector isn't very strong either, it's just a small suggestion
(Apart from the issue, this is a nice read in general: http://pcbheaven.com/wikipages/How_Key_Matrices_Works/ - before reading this I didn't know what the diodes were for :)
kip.ricker: That's definitely a row/column issue indeed, is the pcb screwed into a case or is it free? Did you confirm all diodes have the same orientation?
However, I'm guessing you did all these already, after all, it might just be a damaged processor, or a very unfortunate solder blob/splash that's connecting the row/column connection to a ground line, or likely to another row/column
I know massdrop sends replacement pcb's, however with the scale of this issue, I'm guessing those replacements will be delayed, also there is no guarantee that the replacements will be without issues
If it's like the first dropped infinity keyboards, then the small lines on one side of the diode has to point downwards.
An example of how faint those lines can be, here's a picture from their ergodox kit from a while back:
A temporary solution would be to remove the diode of the rightmost 1u diode and put it on the missing key (The key doesn't serve a crucial purpose) In your situation, I would hold the diode with a tweezer and just remove it slowly by heating both ends just a bit, considering they fall off on their own, it should be easy to remove them manually (this is assuming you don't have solder wick, if you have, just wick the solder a bit, then hold the diode with a tweezer and remove it with heat)
Then you can glue it a bit in place and add just a little bit of solder to both sides, to make the key usable
In regards to the diode issue, here was my fix for that (also in another thread here):
Could have had better QC but I am excited these were things I was able to fix.
I toyed around with bending the new diodes wires to fit it into the original diodes solder points, but with this type of diode I couldn't get it to reliably work.
Glad to help.
Thanks for the help everyone!
You appear to not have enough solder on your switches. You need to fill in the whole space with solder not just put a tiny dab on there. If you look at your picture, on the bottom right, there is a switch with almost no solder in the joint. Please check all your joints and make sure that they have enough solder in them as that may be the reason for switches not working. It is also ideal if you use flux with these.
Are you also saying I need to add more solder to the missing diode's lower solder point?
Thanks for the tip.