Went to a local meetup last night and saw someone's solder joints starting to crack under their hotswap sockets

I noticed three boards with loose connections on the same row of switches at the Columbus keyboard club gathering, has anyone else seen this issue with thinner PCB material?

2 comments

2 Comments

david_stone1mo ago

Man, that's frustrating. I've seen the same thing with thin 1.2mm boards on my Xeno build, the flex just pops those tiny solder points right out. It's almost always the thinner PCB material or the cheap hotswap sockets that don't grab tight enough. A friend of mine had to reflow his entire left shift row because the board was too flimsy. I'd rather use a thick FR4 plate or a mill-max socket setup than deal with that nonsense again.

julia_fisher281mo ago

Gotta disagree a bit though. I've had really good luck with thin 1.2mm boards when I use a good set of mill-max sockets and don't crank the switches in too hard. The flex actually helps with the typing feel for me, softer on the fingers. But yeah if the hotswap sockets are cheap, you're gonna have a bad time no matter what.