Corne with premium case: bottom row on the left split stopped working
Hi, I've recently bought a full corne kit (pcbs, nanos, views, premium case). It's been working great until this afternoon, when the left hand bottom row stopped responding.
I've done full reset procedure, and reflashed firmware but ther result was the same. I've had a couple of nanos in different keyboards so I salvaged one, again full reset, full reflash firmware, and it worked fine.
I think one of my nanos is toast.
Order number: TA13167
42 Replies
It sounds like you're experiencing an issue with the bottom row on the left half of your Corne keyboard. This is often related to hardware, specifically soldering issues. Here are some steps to troubleshoot the problem:
1. Check the Switch: If you're using hotswap sockets, the switch may not be seated properly. Remove the switch and inspect the pins for any bending. If they are bent, carefully straighten them with tweezers. If the switch appears fine, try replacing it with a known working switch.
2. Inspect the Hotswap Socket: Sometimes, the contacts on the back of the hotswap socket can bend and fail to make contact with the switch. Remove the plate or case and gently bend the gold contacts to ensure they make proper contact with the switch.
3. Examine the Diode: Each switch has a diode that could be the issue. Check to ensure the diode is oriented correctly, soldered properly, and not cracked. The diode is the small rectangle with silver solder on each end, located near the switch.
4. Check Solder Joints: If the above steps don’t resolve the issue, inspect the solder joints on the nice!nano for the pins associated with the bottom row. Ensure they are well soldered and not shorted to any nearby pins.
5. Look for Shorts: If the solder joints appear fine, check for any solder bridges or shorts between pins. A multimeter in continuity mode can help identify any unintended connections.
If you've gone through these steps and the issue persists, you may want to refer to the troubleshooting section in the documentation for further guidance. Good luck!
Solder job photos
🤔
you weren't using any magnetic usb cables right?
and you tested the nano by shorting the pin manually outside the pcb?
nah, since i've been told not to, i havent been using magnetic connector
what do you mean?
i mean, another nano works on this pcb, this one doesn't. i will try one more thing: resetting both nanos and swapping them, see what happens
(swapping between split halfs)
using a tweezer or something to touch the hole at 115 to the one at 100
wondering if your having the same issue I did see Pin 24 on NiceNano stopped working
was it plugged in when it stopped working?
nope
it was chilling in it's case
what supposed to happen when i do that?
i mean, via key tester doesn't register anything
it simulates a key press
I swapped the PCBs between the halves and now the bottom row on the right side doesn't work
so could be like mine and that pin is dead
do all of your columns work?
everything except those 6 keys
oh this is after you swapped right
(nm,./ rshft)
yup
hmm mine was charging the couple of times a row went out
i guess this is more data points for them to see if there is a possible issue
I'm gonna try reflowing all the pins on the nano
well
try using a tweezer to test it first
did that before, nothing happened
and i don't know what pin does what so i'd rather not short something that's not supposed to be shorted
reflowing didn't help, the failing nano behaves the same it did before
Troubleshooting | Typeractive.xyz Documentation
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that has the pin matrix for the corne pcb
your best bet is either to e-mail them about it or wait for one of them to drop in since it's a hardware issue and there isn't anymore troubleshooting to be done really
Yeah, then it looks like p1.00 is dead
@Micky @Nick your thoughts?
Can you please DM your order number to me?
@Micky @Nick the very same thing just happened again: happily coding for a couple hours today on the keyboard, went to grab a coffee, came back to a left half bottom row not responding. pins reflow/nano reset did not help; the same bottom row not working after swapping nano between the halves.
magetic connector was never used.
since it's the second time there must be a pattern.
I suspect either the left pcb or the alu premium case.
Was the left half nano plugged into your computer when this happened?
it was
it was low on power so while I was grabbing coffee i wanted to charge it a bit (I don't like working on wired peritherals)
the same cable was used to charge and flash firmware in 5 other nano-based keyboards I have. Including the right half of this corne that's 9 different devices used with it in the last 3-4 years, not counting all the standard wired keyboards I used in that time. Only this particular pcb - alu case combo failed twice in a period of like a month.
just before I started charging the left half I charged the right half while I was working, and it was connected for about 3h
cable connected directly to the PC motherboard, asus b650e-i, powered by asus loki 850w ATX 3.0 psu
on that note, when it previously happened, the keyboard was not connected to anything, just bluetooth
for me i suspect it's due to static in the room, none of my other electronics have issues (knock on wood) but something causes an issue with the static discharge on the left side with the aluminum right now I've been really careful and haven't had any issues (touching something metallic before touching the keyboard and also running a humidifier in my office because it is pretty dry during winter)
I'm thinking the issue must be with the USB port. As it's being plugged in I'm assuming a short from the nano's USB and the USB cable is causing this static discharge.
I'm still thinking about what to do about this. It's only affecting a few people, but that's a lot! Something about your set ups seems to be causing static discharge build up on the case that's shorting out when plugging in. I'm wondering if we need to create a rubber grommet to put in that USB opening to prevent that metal on metal contact.
@Nordar @codafoo ^
There's no other metal on metal contact, so this is likely the culprit
There’s another…
@Nick but to your point: that is likely, left half is charged (connected via cable) at least twice as often as the right one.
As an anecdotal evidence to your point - I use a number of other nice!nanos in all of my different builds but with FR4 or 3d printed cases, never had any of those issues, and now this happened twice in a short period of time as soon as I got an alu case.
maybe a rubber/plastic gasket around the usb-c port plus screw in nyron standofs instead of integrated ones would solve all potential short issues
Are those actually touching?
Do you get continuity on a multimeter I guess 🙂
Do you have a 3D printer? I can design a simple plastic ring you can push into there for now. I'll look into a longer term solution though.
I think they don’t
That’s the closest I can get without a stronger light source
Yeah they shouldn’t actually touch. I know it’s close though haha
I’ll look into the 3D printed ring today though
There is no continuity even on the case itself, I mean, it’s painted, right. And yeah I got a 3d printer.
I only get continuity when I stick the probes in the threaded standoffs
it’s anodized, which helps but can still have a small amount of conductivity
My cheap-a$$ multimeter (Uni-T UT60EU) doesn’t register anything anywhere apart from the standoff threads
Yeah not too surprising. I’m still not quite sure what is causing all of this 😦 but insulating the usb plug area better is my best guess at the moment
@Nick it's happened to me without it being plugged in as well but it seems to be focused on that 3rd row
let me check for continuity there
interesting....
thanks for the data point. I just don't know what it'd be then
it hasn't re-occurred yet but I've been good about discharging any static i have to my other aluminum keyboard I have on my desk before touching the corne
no continuity against any of the aluminum around the standoffs for me at least on the backside
i never had an issue on the right side though so I feel it is the left sides design somehow
Left side certainly gets plugged in more often :thunk: and there have been some right sides failing so I don't think it's just left side, just way more often on left side.
were the majority of the left side failures on row 3 or column 1?
for me row 3 consistently died on the microcontroller
but that is usually the first key that is pressed for me as my password starts with d on that computer 🤣
using colemak layout but besides col 3 not working col 1 also stopped working, when it wasn't plugged in I was literally pushing in the switches to test functionality and i believe it stopped working when I connected row 3 col 1, i had a switch in row 3 that worked fine 4-5 switches prior
For me it has been the bottom row on the left side both times, once non-plugged and once plugged
When testing with via key tester (tab in the via software), it sometimes registers the first keypress on the bottom row after a reset but then it sees it as constantly pressed, ex lshft. When I click that lshft on another keyboard while that’s happening, the software doesn’t registers it as constantly pressed any more, nor does it register any following presses on that row until the next nano reset.
Hope that tells you more about what might be happening.