Hey guys. I just got a Genesis Thor 300 TKL keyboard which doesnt work from my brother. I’ve got a Glorious GMMK v1 TKL keyboard. Is it possible to desolder the MX Blue switches from the broken Genesis keyboard and use them in the Glorious keyboard which at least to my knowledge is hotswappable?
Thanks in advance!
The biggest issue is that the sockets were never really designed to be for enthusiasts changing switches all the time. They were designed for the factories to have multiple versions to sell with minimal retooling. If you are extremely diligent with removing the solder from the legs of the switches and keeping them straight, then yes, there’s nothing to prevent this from working. However, a little blob here and there will make it much more likely that you tear a pad when inserting the switch into the GMMK, and also more likely that the socket will be slightly deformed and never work quite right with any other switch.
I can guarantee you’ll fry a few of them and have to buy new switches anyway. Might as well save yourself the headache and just get new switches. Desoldering is a pain in the butt.
If that’s the case I’ll turn this into an exercise. I’ll make a simple testing circuit once I’m done with my thesis and see how many I can save. Worst case I get some practice. Best case I get a set of switches for free and recycle. Most likely I’ll fry some, save others, and have a stock of spares and some experience. Thanks!
Unlikely. If you’re a skilled solderer (?) you might be able to pull it off. Otherwise you’re running into:
- Deforming the switches from overheating during desoldering
- Having uneven coating of solder on the legs of the desoldered switches which could compromise the insertion and/or contact with the sockets of the modular board
I wouldn’t call myself skilled by any means, but I have some experience with it, and have some tools available (flux, wick, etc)
@promitheas @avidamoeba totally possible. You might consider buying a decent sucking pump, like engineer ss-02.
Yeah with the right tools and experience it’s possible. I always struggle with desoldering through-hole components without overheating.
Ive got one (not the one you mentioned) which is quite good. I don’t think its quite at the level of the one you said, but it should be decent.
From personal experience I can tell you I brute force ripped out soldered-in low-profile blue switches on a Redragon Horus K619-RGB board. The switches were reusable, and the board now IS hotswap. That said, I destroyed my fingertips and snapped the point off my kiridashi, and was probably only successful due to low quality solder work from Redragon. For those wondering, this was my first “customized” mechanical keyboard, and I didn’t know they weren’t ALL supposed to be hotswap.
