Wesztman/brain

Is the diode direction for SW17 labeled incorrectly?

Closed this issue ยท 7 comments

Thank you for such a great 40% design--the extra thumb key and organic shape are delightful.

The diode direction on the PCB for switch 17 (left half) is reversed from the surrounding key switches, and from switch 38 (right half).
Is this by design, or a mislabeled diode direction?

brain-left-bottom
brain-right-bottom

I do not know if it's related, but I've mounted the diode on switch 38 in both polarities, but that half does not send any key codes.

@Wesztman
Would you mind answering this question when it's convenient? Thank you.

Hi @twalker!

Sorry for not responding, I had managed to turn of all notifications except @ ๐Ÿ˜‰ so good call there!

Thanks for noticing, I checked my own keyboard and in KiCad and I seem to have rotated this at some point, probably just to get a shorter path for the traces. Not thinking about that it might be confusing in the future ๐Ÿ˜…

But you should mount all diodes according to the labels ๐Ÿ˜Š so the one on switch 17 should be reversed.

Then there should be no issues, that is how it looks on my own keyboard ๐Ÿ˜Š

It's worth noting that diodes should only be mounted on the "BOTTOM" side of the PCB:s, I might add that to the readme actually.

I should go ahead and add to my todo list to rotate the 17 diode in the next release ๐Ÿ˜Š

Thank you for clearing up my confusion. Both reversing switch 17s diode direction, and noting that all diodes should be on the bottom of the PCB will help prevent confusion. All the other labeling on the board is quite clear.

I've done a fair bit of troubleshooting on the right half of my build and cannot get it to send keycodes. I'll rebuild the right half with a fresh PCB having more confidence on the diode orientation. Thanks again.

@Wesztman ,

FYI: I built a new right half following the diode labeling, and have successfully paired it with the left half. I'm pretty sure the issue with my build was not hardware-based, but not being able to pair the halves w/ZMK. However, the nice!view on the right half is still not displaying any information.

Should the nice!view display something on both displays when both halves have a display?

The nice!view should work on both halves :)

nice!view_brain

Thank you @iamDrakkir, that helps me rule out the firmware and narrow down my issue to the microcontroller.

What a classy looking build. I can't wait to get a case printed and be using a brain as a daily driver. ๐Ÿ˜ธ

FWIW, the root cause was the firmware. After flashing the erase reset firmware, the nice!view displayed properly and the halves paired.
brain