Soldering Tips / Suggestions - Reversible PCB

[jaspreetlall]

Has anyone built the keyboard using reversible PCB? Would be great if you can share some helpful tips.

To keep the pricing low and nobody to share the cost of PCB printing, I decided to go this route of printing reversible boards. Only after the prints were delivered, l found out that the component markings are only visible on one side.

By now you'd already know my level of skills with electronics, lol. I want to do my best efforts in 1st attempt as redoing would be a whole new level of complexity for me.

Any help or tips are welcome.

Side note - I am located in Vancouver, BC region and have spare prints in case interested in building this KB. We can split the cost, saves you printing and shipping time.

Thank you.

[LouWii]

Hey,

I haven't got the reversible PCBs built, so I can't really help right now. I made it as an experiment, but it might work. I'm willing to buy a PCB set off you and have a go at it if you want. I can even come pick it up in person. I can bring you a set of the left + right PCBs, I have a few left that I never used.

[jaspreetlall]

Oh thank you very much @LouWii! Somehow I missed the notification here. I started right side for now following the images of completed builds, haven't completed yet though.

I'll get in touch with you via email by end of the week and plan something.

[emilymclean]

You will need to solder a wire between the ground pin of the microcontroller (on the left hand board, that is the second from the top right) and the ground pin of the TRRS jack (it is the pin apart from the column of three) if you want the boards to work together over a TRRS cable.

[jaspreetlall]

@BenMMcLean thank you for the tip. Definitely helpful. Will do it towards the end of the build.

[Namgugn]

Can you share how the build went? I also ordered a Reversible PCB, and I wonder if it is possible to build with this.

[sohocoke]

I just finished a build of the reversible PCB and can confirm the reversible PCB works fine with a TRRS cable.

There's nothing too tricky – just pay attention to which side of the board you need to solder the components to, as shown in the photos. There's no need for a wire anymore.

[jaspreetlall]

I have the right side ready (except the case and the firmware) and as @sohocoke said, the process is straightforward.

I took my time to understand the correct sides from the pictures on the repo, even though those were of the non-reversible pcb, and it helped.

In my case, since I got the prints before the trrs fix, I'll need to add the ground wire.

As the repo does not have the kb-layout file for the right side, I compiled the left side and flashed on the right just to check the key presses. Still have to find time to learn and create one.

If you need some particular details, I am willing help with best of my knowledge upto this point. This is my first keyboard build experience so you may need to double check with the info I'd share.