Mechanical Keyboards

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Used keyboard I bought has keys that don't respond when pressed. Any hope in saving? (lemmy.sdf.org)

submitted 1 year ago by JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.sdf.org to c/mechanicalkeyboards@lemmy.ml

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Its a Razer Blackwidow elite I got for cheap, the listing just said "sold as is" and had some pictures. Didn't mention anything about bad keys. Kicking myself now for trying to cheap out. My question is if there is anything I can do to repair it. If so is it worth doing? The switches are not hot swappable if that's important.

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[–] hallettj@beehaw.org 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's likely fixable. It might need some switches replaced, or there might be some damaged circuit board connections or traces that could be re-soldered or bypassed. I think any fix is going to require soldering, and maybe a multimeter. Whether fixing it is cheaper than buying a new board depends on whether you can borrow tools, and the cost of replacement switches if you need those.

I know the switches are not hot-swappable, but you can de-solder switches on just about any mechanical keyboard. Add a solder sucker to your tools list if you need to do that. There are guides online for replacing keys on the specific board you have.

More details would be helpful for diagnosing the problem:

Are there rows or columns of keys that don't work? (This could indicate a problem with the circuit board, or maybe a diode that needs to be re-soldered or replaced. I don't know if the Blackwidow has diodes or not. In any case it's multimeter time.)
Or is it a key here and there that doesn't work? (This is more likely to be a problem with switches. The might need their solder joints touched up, or they might need to be replaced.)

[–] tal@lemmy.today 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Are there rows or columns of keys that don’t work

Given that Razor's a "gaming company", it might have N-key rollover, might not use a matrix encoder.

googles

Nope. Looks like their Huntsman models do have N-key rollover, but not the Blackwidow line.

[–] hallettj@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thanks for looking that up! I could be wrong, but I think that boards with N-key rollover generally do use a matrix but with the addition of diodes to prevent ghosting. (Details on Deskthority.) The only designs I've seen that don't use a matrix are small split boards with fewer two dozen keys per side/controller where it's practical to get a controller with enough IO pins to use a separate pin for each key.

[–] tal@lemmy.today 1 points 1 year ago

Thanks, looks like that is correct.