Hey everyone, I finally got in on the mechanical keyboard band wagon in May with a black widow.
Sometimes when I went off site on a job, I would work on an older IBM keyboard and I loved the feel but didn't know exactly that was what mechanical keyboards were for.
I had a bunch of gift cards from friends/work. And I used to work at Best Buy so I was able to haggle it down to under $40.
So far it's been great, but I've noticed on occasion, the 6 key will sometimes double or triple process, makes it interesting when 666 keeps popping up.
I read elsewhere you can swap the switch with a lesser used like Scroll lock.
Now I see some differences with pcb vs plate mounted.
I saw a video where they popped out the top off of one with a mini flathead, but I wasn't getting any where with that.
I think this may be the one that's soldered on.
Anyone know for certain?
Luckily I have experience soldering from doing arcade stick mods, to xbox mod chips, to swapping the LEDs on xbox ring of light and controllers, So I think I should be fine with a big old switch.
Switch swapping on a Razer BlackWidow Ultimate
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RC-1140
- Location: Germany
- Main keyboard: Unicomp Terminal Emulator
- Main mouse: Razer Mamba
- Favorite switch: Buckling Spring
- DT Pro Member: -
Even though this was more than covered by multiple other threads, I'll explain.
Basically the difference between PCB and Plate mount is the metal plate between the switch top and the PCB. The Black Widow is Plate mounted.
You can open PCB mounted switches without desoldering them, but you can't do so on plate mounted boards (except some custom ones, which have plates designed specially for that). Because of that all you need to do is opening this thing up, desoldering both the faulty key (6) and the Scroll Lock key (if you want to swap it). The switches will have two pins on the bottom, and two pins for the LEDs. You will have to desolder the LEDs on these two switches as well. You can either desolder all four pins, and remove switch and LED as a whole, or desolder the LED first, and then desolder the switch.
After desoldering the switch is still being hold in place by one clip on the left and right side. Remove the switch, exchange both switches, and then solder them both in again. And your done!
Basically the difference between PCB and Plate mount is the metal plate between the switch top and the PCB. The Black Widow is Plate mounted.
You can open PCB mounted switches without desoldering them, but you can't do so on plate mounted boards (except some custom ones, which have plates designed specially for that). Because of that all you need to do is opening this thing up, desoldering both the faulty key (6) and the Scroll Lock key (if you want to swap it). The switches will have two pins on the bottom, and two pins for the LEDs. You will have to desolder the LEDs on these two switches as well. You can either desolder all four pins, and remove switch and LED as a whole, or desolder the LED first, and then desolder the switch.
After desoldering the switch is still being hold in place by one clip on the left and right side. Remove the switch, exchange both switches, and then solder them both in again. And your done!
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bounce
- Location: Germany, Hannover
- Main keyboard: SS 7G
- Main mouse: Mx518
- Favorite switch: maybe blues
- DT Pro Member: -
ive done that switch swapping on my steelseries 7g (platemounted aswell) and i can tell you it was a rather simple
yet time consuming (if u wanted to swap all switches like i did) task.
Eventhough i had no experience in soldering before it proved to be no problem.
yet time consuming (if u wanted to swap all switches like i did) task.
Eventhough i had no experience in soldering before it proved to be no problem.
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zer0
- Location: Slovenia (EU)
- Main keyboard: Razer Blackwidow 2013
- Main mouse: Razer Mamba
- Favorite switch: Cherry blue
- DT Pro Member: -
Hi man, I have the same keyboard 2013 model, no problems here (knock knock) but if u have time, post some pictures how you did your excange, if I ever need to do the same. There is no pictures or videos of this on the net(for this keyboard)
Thanks
Thanks
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TheGlow
- Main keyboard: Razer Blackwidow Ultimate
- Main mouse: Razer Naga 2012
- Favorite switch: Cherry mx blue
- DT Pro Member: -
I jinxed myself. Although the 6 key hadn't done that to me in weeks, and only lasted a few days, my H key has been doing it somewhat often.
As it had a 1 year warranty, I don't want to open it myself just yet. I'll see how this rides out until May.
I may just do it myself anyway because I hear some horror stories of Razer just sending back refurbs and no guarantee it's better than your own one. Since I take good care of my things, the chances of getting something same or better is slimmer.
RC-1140, you say it's been mentioned before. I can't seem to find any hits with some screenshots.
Do you know of any in particular?
As it had a 1 year warranty, I don't want to open it myself just yet. I'll see how this rides out until May.
I may just do it myself anyway because I hear some horror stories of Razer just sending back refurbs and no guarantee it's better than your own one. Since I take good care of my things, the chances of getting something same or better is slimmer.
RC-1140, you say it's been mentioned before. I can't seem to find any hits with some screenshots.
Do you know of any in particular?
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TheGlow
- Main keyboard: Razer Blackwidow Ultimate
- Main mouse: Razer Naga 2012
- Favorite switch: Cherry mx blue
- DT Pro Member: -
Sadly, this may be software related.
I came home Friday night the M key was now also experiencing the occasional double tap.
I check Synapse and surprise, theres an update. No mention of Blackwidow related.
Download, rerun Synapse, and now after a good 10 lines of m m m spam in notepad, no more double m's.
Also the H's dropped drastically. In 1 line of notepad I could have 2-4 double H's. now after 10 lines of them, maybe 1 or 2 sets.
I tried to force a firmware rollback. App reports it as successful, but then the PC doesn't detect it anymore unless I hold FN for bootloader mode.
I'll fiddle with this on another machine with no software in it to narrow it down.
I never wanted to use synapse but I upgraded my old Blue Naga mouse and got a green 2012, which NEEDS synapse sadly.
Bad enough the green led's dont match.
I came home Friday night the M key was now also experiencing the occasional double tap.
I check Synapse and surprise, theres an update. No mention of Blackwidow related.
Download, rerun Synapse, and now after a good 10 lines of m m m spam in notepad, no more double m's.
Also the H's dropped drastically. In 1 line of notepad I could have 2-4 double H's. now after 10 lines of them, maybe 1 or 2 sets.
I tried to force a firmware rollback. App reports it as successful, but then the PC doesn't detect it anymore unless I hold FN for bootloader mode.
I'll fiddle with this on another machine with no software in it to narrow it down.
I never wanted to use synapse but I upgraded my old Blue Naga mouse and got a green 2012, which NEEDS synapse sadly.
Bad enough the green led's dont match.
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TheGlow
- Main keyboard: Razer Blackwidow Ultimate
- Main mouse: Razer Naga 2012
- Favorite switch: Cherry mx blue
- DT Pro Member: -
Well I finally got around to doing this on Saturday, as the H key was starting to triple up more frequently or just outright nothing was coming out.
Sadly I didn't take any pictures, however I found this fairly new vid on youtube,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UwAgsLNa1Q
That covered the opening up fine.
From there my basic solder skills kicked in. It took me awhile as I normally use a 15w iron for doing xbox stuff, which didn't seem as effect to heat up the solder already on the switches.
Also I forgot to apply new solder which can help, as I only have desoldering braid which wasn't working too well for me. I had an old spare 40w iron with a nasty tip but it did the job.
Basically held the LED in some cheapo tweezers, and held the iron horizontally and was able to touch both tips and able to pull it out.
The switch was a similar deal. I took a precision screwdriver to apply pressure down on the center of the switch, touched both tips and POP the switch hit the floor.
I definitely need to get a desolder bulb or vacuum as I could only get proper opening on 1 leg for the switch.
And same backwards. Used scroll lock to replace H. Put it in as best as I could tell, heated 1 point at a time and shimmied it in there. Led I had to plug in the keyboard and touch the back to confirm polarity, afterwards staring at it harder and the ones still on the board I confirmed orientation.
I still have a month to Bestbuy 1 year manufacturer exchange, So I may still do that as my friend said I could swap up to the 2013.
Although I much prefer the blue leds.
Im very tempted to desolder them all, then return it, and swap out all the greens. That will keep me busy for a little while.
Whats a good spot to buy LEDs that won't cost the same as a whole keyboard?
Any issues with certain colors? I remember trying purple LEDs in a 360 control and finding out theres not enough voltage to light them, but fine for the ring of light on the console itself since it's wired power.
Sadly I didn't take any pictures, however I found this fairly new vid on youtube,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UwAgsLNa1Q
That covered the opening up fine.
From there my basic solder skills kicked in. It took me awhile as I normally use a 15w iron for doing xbox stuff, which didn't seem as effect to heat up the solder already on the switches.
Also I forgot to apply new solder which can help, as I only have desoldering braid which wasn't working too well for me. I had an old spare 40w iron with a nasty tip but it did the job.
Basically held the LED in some cheapo tweezers, and held the iron horizontally and was able to touch both tips and able to pull it out.
The switch was a similar deal. I took a precision screwdriver to apply pressure down on the center of the switch, touched both tips and POP the switch hit the floor.
I definitely need to get a desolder bulb or vacuum as I could only get proper opening on 1 leg for the switch.
And same backwards. Used scroll lock to replace H. Put it in as best as I could tell, heated 1 point at a time and shimmied it in there. Led I had to plug in the keyboard and touch the back to confirm polarity, afterwards staring at it harder and the ones still on the board I confirmed orientation.
I still have a month to Bestbuy 1 year manufacturer exchange, So I may still do that as my friend said I could swap up to the 2013.
Although I much prefer the blue leds.
Im very tempted to desolder them all, then return it, and swap out all the greens. That will keep me busy for a little while.
Whats a good spot to buy LEDs that won't cost the same as a whole keyboard?
Any issues with certain colors? I remember trying purple LEDs in a 360 control and finding out theres not enough voltage to light them, but fine for the ring of light on the console itself since it's wired power.