Well this just arrived today: So naturally the first thing we do to a new keyboard is change the LED's, and since tok3n started a topic asking how difficult it was to change the LED's in a keyboard, I thought I'd show all the steps So, first remove the front cover: Then remove the little cover at the top for the various multimedia buttons: The various circuit boards withing the keyboard are connected using these push-in connectors: Just pull them out from the circuit board containing the LED's: And after unscrewing the PCB from the keyboard tray you're left with the PCB that we need to make changes to: Here's the LED's that need removing. They're 3mm Tinted Green LED's: And use a soldering iron and desoldering tool to remove them: And within a minute, out come the LED's ...and in go the new ones, with their legs bent sideways to keep them in place while turning the PCB over for soldering: Then solder and trim the leads: Put the keyboard back together: And plug it in and enjoy! Bright RED TADA!! And there you go. Easy. Hope that helps tok3n.
SteveyG - if all my forum questions were answered like that, it would be amazing. Awesome job You did a fantastic solder job (IMHO). Any tips? I have various watts (15,40,30), desoldering bulb, etc. When soldering, I usually heat the components and touch the solder to the heated part to melt. But the leds didn't seem to get hot enough. Do I need to heat the contact on the pcb? Or do you melt the solder on the iron first then drop it on the contact? Also to get to the PCB - do you need to take out the layer with the keys? It looks like its under there.
I find it easiest to solder with a fine tipped soldering iron, and put the tip right in the joint between the component lead and the pad, and add solder directly to this point more or less straight away. It's a very quick action. Each joint would normally take around one second. It comes with practice though, which I've had a lot of when I used to build solid state boards and capture systems for pipe/theater organs (around 320 transistors, 1280 diodes, and about twice as many resistors per board...). You also need a good soldering iron. I have a 50W soldering station that's a couple of years old, but cost £180 when I bought it, but you can get just as good results with a soldering iron around £15, but it's no use using a 30W iron if it has a huge tip, or one of those terrible tips that look like a flathead screwdriver, because they simply aren't designed for light electronics work. You may find it easier to solder use some good solder, but just standard 60/40 solder has served me well for many years. You may also find it hard to solder if your tip is totally oxidised, there's some cheap tip cleaners/tinners out there that can help. The only other problem you may come across is if the contacts aren't clean, so a small wire brush and a tin of flux are useful here. The PCB with the LED's on was the bottom thing in the keyboard, so the lid had to come off, then the layer with the keys, which finally gave access to the PCB. It's very simple to do. It took me 15 minutes, and that included all the time taken to take some pictures. Good luck.
Sandpaper does wonders and is cheaper/free. Do you have to worry about using the wrong leds? For instance, I am going blue, so do I need to worry about their voltage needs?
