Hello,

I’m building my first keyboard (a dumbpad), and I have a basic question which should be easy to solve when you know how to do it.

I’ve choosen to socket the microcontroller (in case of error, bad choice…) but I have now a question for putting the screen above: what kind of header should I use ? Is there high profile header or should I stack multiples headers ?

What would you use for this ?

  • apfelEnglish
    2•1 year ago

    Wait, you socketed the controller and then put those sockets into more sockets?

    • @ChimrodOPEnglish
      2•1 year ago

      I’ve soldered the female headers on the board:

      The the male on the controler :

      • apfelEnglish
        4•1 year ago

        I see. So you have two sets of sockets: soldered ones (those on your controller) and hot-swappable ones (those on your board), and you’ve stacked them. It will probably work fine, but the usual approach is using only one of these.

        Example for the hot-swappable ones:

        Hot-swappable sockets on board, pins on controller

        Controller fitted into socket

        • @ChimrodOPEnglish
          4•1 year ago

          Thanks ! I understand what I did wrong. I do not have the motivation to remove the header from the controller and put them in a proper way. I will keep it as is — as the result from my first attempt to solder my keyboard!

          Now I have to find a way to stack three layer for the screen!

          • apfelEnglish
            3•1 year ago

            Just happy little accidents! :)

  • @Kimcha87English
    1•1 year ago

    I am a bit confused by your photo and the other comment.

    Usually you installed female headers on the board and male pins on the controller.

    Most keyboard designs also ask for the controller to be installed with the components facing down and not up like in your image.

    So make sure to double check the correct direction for your keyboard before turning it on.

    For the display you can use the same female headers and then just make the male pins that you solder to the display longer.

    I recommend watching this stream of a lily58 keyboard build. It’s done by the creator of the nice nano.

    https://youtu.be/kRrzfWv39G4

    He shows how to properly solder controllers, sockets, diodes and so on. o

    • @ChimrodOPEnglish
      1•1 year ago

      Thanks for taking your time and your remarks !

      The dumbpad requires the controller to be facing up. The PCB helps because the pinout is printed on the board, and I’ve double checked the “GND” pins with the square hole on the controller. I’ve already plugged the controller and test the reset button: everything worked fine !

      Thanks for your video ! I will see if I can keep some diode legs as male pin the screen.