Hi there fellow people,

I was building an Aurora Sofle_v2 and I may have screwed things up. I melted one of the RGBs with the soldering iron and in the process of trying to remove it the solder pad was removed as well

After that I tried to "fix" it a handful of times, and now I believe that the connectors might be gone =(

Is there a way for me to salvage this RGB? (Or perhaps to link the previous one with the following one on the chain, so at least it works for the others)

I was thinking of connecting things using cables, is this an option?

Update: Bodge wiring worked! I got some spare cable pieces I had laying around and soldered it to the board The back doesn't look pretty, but at least it's lighting up (except the last RGB where I accidentally soldered two pins together, after this I'm not going through the troubles to fix it)

top 8 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

Conceivably it should work, but I'm afraid this one got away from you a little bit, and I can't quite tell where the traces would need to go to bridge them with wire. Are you using an open source PCB where you could examine the schematic.

Not judging, by the way. Half the reason I build my own boards is because of how annoyed I got with myself after failing to repair the spacebar on an FL-Esports 1800 and eventually lifting a pad. That board ended up supplying hotswap sockets to two others and was eventually re-wired to see if I would could do a board that big and if I might like red switches. For the record, "Yes I could," and "No I don't." I still have cold joints sometimes, but I generally spot them before I declare a project done.

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [+] 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)
  • [–] [S] 1 point 1 year ago (2 children)

    I admit that my soldering skills are fairly limited, and I have a very basic soldering iron (I don't know if I should upgrade to a better one, as I don't have any use for it besides this keyboard)

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 0 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

    It's usually more an issue of technique than it is the tools. Does your iron have adjustable heat settings (they usually do)? Make sure you have that high enough. Additionally you need to hold the iron to the pads long enough for them to heat up and have the solder bond to them. If the pads aren't hot enough even if the solder melts it won't flow over the pad and make a good connection. Using flux is a must. Flux helps remove the layer of oxide and any foreign contaminants from the contacts allowing the solder to flow and bond easily as well.

    The easiest way to tell if the pad is hot enough is the solder will flow across it instead of staying balled up.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] [S] 1 point 1 year ago

    Ahh, things are starting to make more sense now hahahaha, I didn't think we were supposed to heat the board, I always tried to heat the tin directly above the pads and let it flow down. Also, I don't think the iron has adjustable temperature, I literally bought the cheapest one on the store (bad call on my end)

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] [S] 3 points 1 year ago

    This is what the board currently looks like on my desk, I love it (even though the missing RGBs look silly hahahha)

  • source
  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    Hello,

    Feel free to crosspost to !mechanical_keyboards@programming.dev for wider reach

  • source
  • 8 comments in c/mechanical_keyboards@programming.dev view that post
    [–] 1 point 1 year ago (2 children)

    You mean SW8? Hard to tell anything given how dirty the PCB is. You might need to clean everything to actually see the traces. The RGB above it does also look damaged.

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] [S] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    Yeah, it is evident that I am very bad at this hahaha, the other RGBs work fine (at least for now), but this SW8 is gone.

    What do I need to buy to clean the PCB? (I'm based in Portugal BTW), I tried to use something that was labeled as a 'pickling agent', but that didn't work out well (as we can see in the picture)

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    Anything with higher % of alcohol (say >60%) will work, including IPA based disinfectant. Ideally you use pure alcohol, specifically ethanol or isopropanol or propanol.

    As the other person suggested, you can save it, but it is harder than soldiering, so perhaps practice.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    If you have lifted the pad off, the only way to fix it is to use a bodge wire. You should be able to run a wire between the broken pad and the previous functional one in the network. If you look up bodge wire you'll see this is a pretty standard practice, especially when prototyping PCBs.

  • source
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] [S] 1 point 1 year ago (2 children)

    Hmmm, you mean a special wire for soldering right? I was initially thinking in soldering some scraps from a copper cable I had laying around but quickly realized it was not going to work

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    You normally just use very tiny wire. Anything is technically fine but certain types make it easier. Generally something solid core, 30-40AWG. Some people have a specific preference for Kynar or Teflon but there's no hard and fast rules.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    Solder to the the far point first, lay down the wire, glue it in place, then solder the other end of the wire to the component.

    Or one can scrape off the enamel coat from the trace, solder the bodge wire to the trace, and then tack it to the component.

    Be sure to get the parts thoroughly wet with solder to cover any exposed copper. It will prevent corrosion.

  • source
  • parent