Time Stamp: 0:00 Intro 0:39 Solder 0:58 Soldering station and temperature settings 1:39 Keeping track of the tiny little bits 1:58 SMD diode soldering 3:25 Kailh Hotswap socket soldering
great guide. With my limited soldering skills, lead free solder and a cheap-as-they-get iron I was really worried for the smd diodes. But after testing them all with a multimeter they were just fine. Most of them look horrible, but if I can make them work, everybody can. Looking forward to those big ass hotswap pads now.
It's as simple as that! That's reassuring. I haven't had any issues with my hotswap board yet, but as I'm looking to get more hotswap kits to experiment with, I worried about the possibility of damaging a socket from time to time. Good to know they can be fixed that easily.
Exactly the video I was looking for. Thank you so much! Love your voice too--you captured it with excellent quality, and that's just doubly appreciated
The melting point of lead is considerably hotter than a soldering iron can get. There is no lead in the fumes. I still wouldn't recommend inhaling any fumes
SMD diodes, surface mount diodes. "A diode is an electronic component which only allows for the flow of current in one direction". They let your keyboard have n-key rollover.
Hey I've been looking for PCBs on which I should be able to just solder Kailh hot swap sockets, but I can't really find anything except keyboard kits and kailh hot swap sockets themselves. Would you happen to know where I can find a stand-alone PCB or PCB files that would allow me to do that? Thanks a lot
These are surface mount ones. I don't know that it is necessary to use them but it's better to have them. "A diode is an electronic component which only allows for the flow of current in one direction". They let your keyboard have n-key rollover.
I have a question, If I want to mod a keyboard wasn’t supposed to be opened for example Corsair K70 Can I install the Hot swappable socket or i must get the diode thing installed? Perhaps the board doesn’t have a diode, I don’t know much just want to know before doing anything stupid.
The keyboard will already have diodes installed, or they'll do something funky to solve the same problem. With these the pcb has to be specifically designed for them. So if it's not already hotswappable they won't work. However often times you can get Holtite sockets which will can go into the holes on a traditional through hole pcb to make it hotswappable. Now they don't fit into every pcb, but you can buy small order of them, desolder one switch, and see if they'll fit in the holes.
@@couldntthingofone269 yes I have looked into that a while back, I was planning to fix the Kailh HotSwap Sockets, but since probably it won’t work I have to go with those tin/gold sockets. The issues I’m having no custom Keyboards has Full Size with the stuff I need like top mount and gasket mount.. etc So I will probably get a keyboard that has some cool features and I mod it myself. I hope i can work on that soon. Thank you so much, your answer helped a lot
Those Chinese soldering Irons have been pretty much improving. An 80W Digital soldering iron can melt lead solder by about 180C and lead free solder for 210/220C. When it was set to 350C by the factory, it glowed red hot and pretty fast. It feels like getting a Hakko feels like a huge ripoff now.
Just in case you haven't already found the answer, it does take a certain kind of keyboard. If the switches aren't swappable then these won't work. Most hot swappable keyboards on the market usually use the kailh hotswap sockets. Often times it'll mention it in the description. Now you can potentially convert your conventional keyboard to hot swap with holtit sockets. They go into the regular holes in the PCB. Now those hole sizes as well as the pin sizes on the switches might make this a no go.
@@couldntthingofone269 Thanks..but so sad. I want to put Kailh Box Navy switches in my board and thought it'd be super nice if I could make it hotswap friendly because then I could easily put in Box Jades or other nice things without having to do the whole soldering thing again. And as I only am comfortable with fullsize and larger keyboards soldering always takes a painful amount of time.
That sounds like a hand wired build, and I don't know if I've ever seen it done with both hot swap sockets and LEDs. I believe I've seen all of those separate parts before, but yeah you could do that. It'll be tricky to do though. That's on the more advanced side of hand wiring let alone keyboard building. Essentially you're just soldering everything bare to a pro micro or similar micro controller that is supported by QMK and just programming it from there. The hot swap socket pins would just be replacing the the switch pins. I would check out the mechanical keyboard sub on reddit and geek hack for tutorials. I haven't done a hand wired build myself yet so I wouldn't be much help with the details.
The Anne Pro 2 wouldn't be able to use them. The Kailh hot swap sockets can only be used for PCBs specifically made for them. Unlike the Mill Max that can retrofit a standard through hole pcb like the The Anne Pro 2 to hot swap. GMMK makes keyboards with them, and KBDfans sells pcbs outfitted with them. None of those are Bluetooth though. They do. They do the same thing as the Mill Max. They just go about it a different way.
Do you or anyone you know have a guide on how to setup a Kailh hotswap macropad from scratch? I'm trying to build one for a personal project and I have half of everything from various sources. Attempting to build a PCB in KiCad is rather intense for a complete beginner / first project type. 'A horse given water drinks for a day - show them how to find it and it'll drink for a lifetime.'
Would this work in my case to fix the pcb? My keyboard pcb has a dead row from a faulty cable that came with my keyboard (gk64), which doesn't register presses, but it does have the rgb working still. The keyboard uses the kailh sockets. Would removing the dead ones and then re-soldering new ones fix the row and make it usable again? or is it a different issue? The reason the row stopped working was that the cable moved ever so slightly a certain way and turned off and on my keyboard many times, and when I changed the cord, this is what greeted me.
So im having issues getting the solder to stick to the pad. I have the correct wire and my solder gets plenty hot. What could be the cause and or how do I fix it?
You might already be doing this, but this is the first things that comes to mind. Try coating the tip of the soldering iron with a bit of solder. "Tinning" usually helps with a lot of things. You might also need to clean the tip of the soldering iron as well. That's a too much too little kind of thing. Now if it doesn't pretty much instantly melt on contact when you put the solder onto the pad then you might need to raise the temp on the soldering iron. Check to see if you're in Celsius or Fahrenheit. If you are using leadless solder it can take a bit more heat, but not significantly more. If all else fails then get a flux pen. If everything is done right then the solder should pretty much near instantly melt when making contact with the pad and iron, then when you lift the soldering iron away from the pad after a second or two the melted solder should stick to the pad and not the soldering iron. The pad not getting hot enough is what I run into the most.
Depends on the keyboard. Most if not all keyboard kits I've come across use diodes (whether through hole or smd). They are a good way to solve a couple of problems with keyboards in general. If you get a pre soldered PCB then that stuff is usually already on there. For example if you get one of the hotswap 60% kits from KBDfans those just need the switches inserted. The CRKBD pcb is completely bare, so everything has to be soldered on. Little Keyboards where I picked this one up also offers an assembly service, but that increases the cost of the PCB. It will usually say in the description of most kits if you have to solder any components.
So diodes are necessary for the functionality in general, or at least they are a good way of solving some issues. Things like ghosting and rollover. Now whether they have to be smd depends on the keyboard. A lot of them just use through hole diodes, some do both, and some are just smd. You'll also have some pcbs are mostly pre-soldered and you just have to solder the switches. For example, this one is the hotswap version of the corne keyboard and it's smd only. The non hotswap version of the corne you can use through hole diodes. I should mention that if you are doing a choc keyboard with a plate you want to make sure you get those legs trimmed down as low as you can because contact with between the plate and legs can cause some issues.
No, they are for pcbs specifically designed for them. However you can check out Holtite sockets that are meant to retrofit traditional through hole style pcbs into hotswappable ones.
No, Kailh hot swap sockets only work on PCBs made for them. The Ducky One 2 Mini is through hole for the switches. What you want to look into are Mill Max sockets. Those are designed to pretty much retrofit a non hotswap pcb to have that capability. however it does depend on the size hole in the pcb for the switch pins. I haven't used them myself yet, but Keybonbon did a pretty good video on them.
What are the smd diodes for in this case? I was thinking about just slapping some kailh sockets on a kit which was meant to be used with souldered switches, im abit confused by the diodes tho. Are they just there to replace the led's so that the circuit doesnt get underloaded form the missing diodes or?
@@lewissison6557 Ok so assuming my pcb does come with these diodes/resistors. Do I need extra resistors to have per key led's working or is that cleared out by the existing ones? And couldn't I mount the switches on the top plate, and put the pcb on, and from the bottom slide in the hot swap socket and then solder them on?
Time Stamp:
0:00 Intro
0:39 Solder
0:58 Soldering station and temperature settings
1:39 Keeping track of the tiny little bits
1:58 SMD diode soldering
3:25 Kailh Hotswap socket soldering
just soldered for the first time w a cheap Amazon kit using ur guide and I didn't scuff the job. keys work. thanks a million
Your voice is reassuring, like the Bob Ross of mechanical keyboard tutorials.
great guide. With my limited soldering skills, lead free solder and a cheap-as-they-get iron I was really worried for the smd diodes. But after testing them all with a multimeter they were just fine. Most of them look horrible, but if I can make them work, everybody can. Looking forward to those big ass hotswap pads now.
It's as simple as that! That's reassuring. I haven't had any issues with my hotswap board yet, but as I'm looking to get more hotswap kits to experiment with, I worried about the possibility of damaging a socket from time to time. Good to know they can be fixed that easily.
cheers man, that looks less scary than i thought it would've been
Great video. Good voiceover and image quality! Helped me out a lot!
Happy it helped!
Exactly the video I was looking for. Thank you so much! Love your voice too--you captured it with excellent quality, and that's just doubly appreciated
ONe of the best tutorials for this specific thing out there, thank youl
The melting point of lead is considerably hotter than a soldering iron can get. There is no lead in the fumes. I still wouldn't recommend inhaling any fumes
Quick and precise. Thank you.
Thanks, Shifty. I was looking forward to grabbing a corne kit from keyhive now they're out of stock. I think you got the last one 😂
Lol! Check out littlekeyboards they also carry them. Ones fingers should not be deprived of the tiny ergo goodness for too long.
Solid vid! How about desoldering hotswap sockets?
play the video in reverse.
Please someone reply
@@misterperson7070 😩🇬🇪
If i want to make my non-hotswap pcb a hotswap with the kailh sockets, do i need the diodes you showed in your video?
same question...i still finding info about that also
Same here, it's been a couple of weeks already. No information.
For most boards, no it will have the diodes already, or something similar.
Late to the party, but I think if your PCB is not made for hotswaps specifically your only chance are those mill-max sockets.
i had a cougar puri tkl keyboard, is compatible with the sockets?, how i can know it?
I'm kind of lost, and a lot of this went over my head hahaha. what are the SDM Diodes for?
These are the lights in the keyboard. RGB and other shit :)
SMD diodes, surface mount diodes. "A diode is an electronic component which only allows for the flow of current in one direction". They let your keyboard have n-key rollover.
And you can do this with any keyboard board? For example, I have a k95 platinum that I would love to turn into a hotswap
No, it must be hotswap compatible.
Hey I've been looking for PCBs on which I should be able to just solder Kailh hot swap sockets, but I can't really find anything except keyboard kits and kailh hot swap sockets themselves. Would you happen to know where I can find a stand-alone PCB or PCB files that would allow me to do that? Thanks a lot
quick question, can u replace outemu socket with gateron socket ?
Can you explain the use of SMD diodes? is it necessary to use it?
It's light bruh
These are surface mount ones. I don't know that it is necessary to use them but it's better to have them. "A diode is an electronic component which only allows for the flow of current in one direction". They let your keyboard have n-key rollover.
THANK YOU.
I ordered a sofle kit and I feel like I'm a bit over my head with the SMD diodes and stuff. @.@
I have a question, If I want to mod a keyboard wasn’t supposed to be opened for example Corsair K70
Can I install the Hot swappable socket or i must get the diode thing installed? Perhaps the board doesn’t have a diode, I don’t know much just want to know before doing anything stupid.
The keyboard will already have diodes installed, or they'll do something funky to solve the same problem. With these the pcb has to be specifically designed for them. So if it's not already hotswappable they won't work. However often times you can get Holtite sockets which will can go into the holes on a traditional through hole pcb to make it hotswappable. Now they don't fit into every pcb, but you can buy small order of them, desolder one switch, and see if they'll fit in the holes.
@@couldntthingofone269 yes I have looked into that a while back, I was planning to fix the Kailh HotSwap Sockets, but since probably it won’t work I have to go with those tin/gold sockets.
The issues I’m having no custom Keyboards has Full Size with the stuff I need like top mount and gasket mount.. etc
So I will probably get a keyboard that has some cool features and I mod it myself. I hope i can work on that soon.
Thank you so much, your answer helped a lot
Those Chinese soldering Irons have been pretty much improving. An 80W Digital soldering iron can melt lead solder by about 180C and lead free solder for 210/220C. When it was set to 350C by the factory, it glowed red hot and pretty fast. It feels like getting a Hakko feels like a huge ripoff now.
I have a Roccat Ryos MK Pro. Think I could solder those in? Or do I have to use a specific type of board?
Just in case you haven't already found the answer, it does take a certain kind of keyboard. If the switches aren't swappable then these won't work. Most hot swappable keyboards on the market usually use the kailh hotswap sockets. Often times it'll mention it in the description. Now you can potentially convert your conventional keyboard to hot swap with holtit sockets. They go into the regular holes in the PCB. Now those hole sizes as well as the pin sizes on the switches might make this a no go.
@@couldntthingofone269 Thanks..but so sad. I want to put Kailh Box Navy switches in my board and thought it'd be super nice if I could make it hotswap friendly because then I could easily put in Box Jades or other nice things without having to do the whole soldering thing again. And as I only am comfortable with fullsize and larger keyboards soldering always takes a painful amount of time.
Is 0.8 solder okay?
Yeah should be fine. If you notice any issues just turn the temp on the iron up a little.
Could I do this too a kbd67 rev2 because I want a acrylic case but no pcbs have underglow and hot swap
That sounds like a hand wired build, and I don't know if I've ever seen it done with both hot swap sockets and LEDs. I believe I've seen all of those separate parts before, but yeah you could do that. It'll be tricky to do though. That's on the more advanced side of hand wiring let alone keyboard building. Essentially you're just soldering everything bare to a pro micro or similar micro controller that is supported by QMK and just programming it from there. The hot swap socket pins would just be replacing the the switch pins. I would check out the mechanical keyboard sub on reddit and geek hack for tutorials. I haven't done a hand wired build myself yet so I wouldn't be much help with the details.
can i use them in the anne pro 2 with the kailh box red?
And one last question, do they make the keyboard completely hot swappable? Like the mill max?
The Anne Pro 2 wouldn't be able to use them. The Kailh hot swap sockets can only be used for PCBs specifically made for them. Unlike the Mill Max that can retrofit a standard through hole pcb like the The Anne Pro 2 to hot swap. GMMK makes keyboards with them, and KBDfans sells pcbs outfitted with them. None of those are Bluetooth though.
They do. They do the same thing as the Mill Max. They just go about it a different way.
@@couldntthingofone269 thank you so much
What if that pad is missing
Hi umm will this work with any keyboard and can I use any switch with these sockets?
Do you or anyone you know have a guide on how to setup a Kailh hotswap macropad from scratch? I'm trying to build one for a personal project and I have half of everything from various sources. Attempting to build a PCB in KiCad is rather intense for a complete beginner / first project type. 'A horse given water drinks for a day - show them how to find it and it'll drink for a lifetime.'
thank you so much bro
Would this work in my case to fix the pcb?
My keyboard pcb has a dead row from a faulty cable that came with my keyboard (gk64), which doesn't register presses, but it does have the rgb working still. The keyboard uses the kailh sockets. Would removing the dead ones and then re-soldering new ones fix the row and make it usable again? or is it a different issue? The reason the row stopped working was that the cable moved ever so slightly a certain way and turned off and on my keyboard many times, and when I changed the cord, this is what greeted me.
I have a bad column in my GMMK full size...trying to figure out how to fix it myself.
So im having issues getting the solder to stick to the pad. I have the correct wire and my solder gets plenty hot. What could be the cause and or how do I fix it?
You might already be doing this, but this is the first things that comes to mind. Try coating the tip of the soldering iron with a bit of solder. "Tinning" usually helps with a lot of things. You might also need to clean the tip of the soldering iron as well. That's a too much too little kind of thing. Now if it doesn't pretty much instantly melt on contact when you put the solder onto the pad then you might need to raise the temp on the soldering iron. Check to see if you're in Celsius or Fahrenheit. If you are using leadless solder it can take a bit more heat, but not significantly more. If all else fails then get a flux pen. If everything is done right then the solder should pretty much near instantly melt when making contact with the pad and iron, then when you lift the soldering iron away from the pad after a second or two the melted solder should stick to the pad and not the soldering iron. The pad not getting hot enough is what I run into the most.
can you install hotswap socket without soldering diodes?
Depends on the keyboard. Most if not all keyboard kits I've come across use diodes (whether through hole or smd). They are a good way to solve a couple of problems with keyboards in general. If you get a pre soldered PCB then that stuff is usually already on there. For example if you get one of the hotswap 60% kits from KBDfans those just need the switches inserted. The CRKBD pcb is completely bare, so everything has to be soldered on. Little Keyboards where I picked this one up also offers an assembly service, but that increases the cost of the PCB. It will usually say in the description of most kits if you have to solder any components.
The SMD diode is not necessary for keyboard functionality, correct?
So diodes are necessary for the functionality in general, or at least they are a good way of solving some issues. Things like ghosting and rollover. Now whether they have to be smd depends on the keyboard. A lot of them just use through hole diodes, some do both, and some are just smd. You'll also have some pcbs are mostly pre-soldered and you just have to solder the switches. For example, this one is the hotswap version of the corne keyboard and it's smd only. The non hotswap version of the corne you can use through hole diodes. I should mention that if you are doing a choc keyboard with a plate you want to make sure you get those legs trimmed down as low as you can because contact with between the plate and legs can cause some issues.
So does this make my non hotswappable keyboard hotswappable? Im replying really early im only 1 min in
No, they are for pcbs specifically designed for them. However you can check out Holtite sockets that are meant to retrofit traditional through hole style pcbs into hotswappable ones.
@@couldntthingofone269 ah ok thank u
Thank you so much for a well lit and explained video on this! I appreciate it sooooo much :)
Would this work on a ducky one 2 mini?
No, Kailh hot swap sockets only work on PCBs made for them. The Ducky One 2 Mini is through hole for the switches. What you want to look into are Mill Max sockets. Those are designed to pretty much retrofit a non hotswap pcb to have that capability. however it does depend on the size hole in the pcb for the switch pins. I haven't used them myself yet, but Keybonbon did a pretty good video on them.
@@couldntthingofone269 ty
What are the smd diodes for in this case?
I was thinking about just slapping some kailh sockets on a kit which was meant to be used with souldered switches, im abit confused by the diodes tho. Are they just there to replace the led's so that the circuit doesnt get underloaded form the missing diodes or?
some pcbs have diodes pre soldered. It just depends on your pcb if it has it or not. Its just a key component for function
@@lewissison6557 Ok so assuming my pcb does come with these diodes/resistors. Do I need extra resistors to have per key led's working or is that cleared out by the existing ones?
And couldn't I mount the switches on the top plate, and put the pcb on, and from the bottom slide in the hot swap socket and then solder them on?
nah I'd try trought hole first
Hello I broke my escape key hot swap socket on my dz64? pcb… can this be a substitute for it? Thank You!