So, here’s a (hopefully) fun topic: what mistakes do you make that you know you should have learned by now?
Let me give an example… Tonight I ordered a whole bunch of switches, and I ordered 80 of each of them because I was thinking about building out my 71-key keyboards.
However, I quite a few TKL and 98 key keyboards sitting around here that I would like to re-build as well. So, I won’t be able to use any of these batches of switches to build out those keyboards until I order more.
But, it gets worse, this isn’t the first time I’ve done this. In fact, most of the switches I have here I don’t have enough to build out a 98 key keyboard…despite having several of them sitting around for 2+ months.
I once started putting switches in a Kara’s PCB without the plate (they’re not optional). Nothing like that sort of smooth brain moment (and pulling 20 or so switches) to keep you humble.
For the longest time I always got confused which way certain stabs should go in. I know now, but I’ve brainfarted on live stream builds before and it was always embarrassing lol
Soldering a control board down in the wrong position and not realizing until the last joint (they suddenly resemble a millipede)
Pulling a stab wire from a soldered keeb
A goof that took a while for me to realize was a goof, after doing it a few times:
Using too firm a material to shim loose fits between keycaps and switches or stabs resulting in cracked stems (plastic wrap and bag shreds bad, PTFE thread tape good)
Adding to my embarrassment with another that I just remembered. I ruined more than a handful of switches in my early days of lubing and filming switches by putting the top housing back on backwards. I inadvertently made the smoothest switch of all time but that’s because my mistake resulted in the leaf being ripped out when I tried to correct it.
Totally where I started this thread after realizing I bought 5 sets of switches, all of them in groups of 80… Not considering I have two TKL’s and a 98-key here that I should build.
This sounds like something I will do in the future. I’ve done that with other hobbies. (In fact, I still have an Edison Diamond Disc player sitting in my basement that needs to be restored.)
After being used to building 60% boards, I forgot to put in a stabilizer in a TKL I was building (R Shift vs my normal split R Shift). It was completely built…
Yep. I got lucky - my board only reset and managed not to get fried, but I was worried there for a minute. I heard the SNAP! and saw the LEDs go dark - it was then I realized that it might be a good idea to save the aluminum case keebs for the warm months. My love of flannel probably doesn’t help.
RE: ESD protection - I’ve heard some boards have some kind of this, but I’ve also heard… well not much good in terms of effectiveness. The board I ESD’d was a KBD67 v3 (KBD67 mkii pcb in an aluminum sandwich case) - that PCB comes with a little mesh-covered pad that’s supposed to be used between the PCB and case for ESD protection, but I remember reading that people actually had worse issues with the thing in place, so I didn’t use it. Granted it’s a sample size of one, but hey - my PCB survived a shock without it.
