Filco modding project ••• step one: help with cable :(

[phinix]

I always look back on all those first mech keyboards I used years ago and when I think of new keyboard, I keep thinking of getting one.
I like mx blacks and thought I could get a Filco TKL keyboard, but cannot find one with defualt mx blacks, so thought I would buy one with whatever switches, desolder it and solder some Oil Kings I really like.

Do you guys think its too much hustle with this? I'm not good with de-soldering, worried I could ruin some pcb when doing it.

Reason for going for Filco is that those stabilisers are pretty good when lubed. I had sooo many custom keyboards in last 10 years and never really liked cherry stabilisers, even when I lubed them, they always felt not perfect, I'm so pissed off now on that stabs, that only keyboards I like are Topre and my old CM Quickfire Rapid with mx blacks.

[rezenew]

It's worth it if it's worth it to you.

I had good fun buying gateron inks to lube and swap into my Pok3r which had cherry mx blacks. It was my first mech and wanted to spruce it up a little. So I can see the appeal.

[Findecanor]

There is a risk of damaging a pad while desoldering using a soldering iron and solder wick.

If you could borrow a desoldering gun, I believe that would be a safer option.

[fohat]

For desoldering on the cheap, I think that a "solder sucker" works pretty well, maybe using the braid to tidy up.

Of course, using the quality, expensive tools is always best.

What I hate is when they have bent all the legs down tight ....

[phinix]

There is a risk of damaging a pad while desoldering using a soldering iron and solder wick.

If you could borrow a desoldering gun, I believe that would be a safer option.

I damaged that pad once when was desoldering one keyboard - that metal ring came off, but I managed to wire it - did not look nice but fixed the problem. So yeah, I'm worried doing it again.

[phinix]

For desoldering on the cheap, I think that a "solder sucker" works pretty well, maybe using the braid to tidy up.

Of course, using the quality, expensive tools is always best.

What I hate is when they have bent all the legs down tight ....

Hey fohat!
Yeah, will be using solder sucker/puncher or whatever it is called.
I'm hoping that Filco wont have bent legs, just nice and straight, so I would be able to pull them out.

[phinix]

What the hell.. just bought brand new Filco on ebay for just £50.
Gonna desolder it and solder oil kings 80g :0

[phinix]

OK, going to need help with cable modding.
Pexon, who I previously bought cable mods from, has moved on and does not do cables anymore, so will have to do it by myself.

Simply, want to mod filco cable to be short and end with USB, ideally USB-C female socket.
Do you guys know how to do it?

[sliceoflemon]

I actually made this very modification to a Filco Majestouch 2 Hakua that I purchased second hand a few years ago. I cut the cable and soldered on a USB-C female port. I got the instructions to do so from a youtube video. It's taken me a few days to find the link again, but here it is :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0O0fFIrijA

The results aren't perfect cosmetically, but it works :

cable_mod1.jpg (225.86 KiB) Viewed 10690 times

cable_mod2.jpg (90.93 KiB) Viewed 10690 times

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cable_mod4.jpg (162.15 KiB) Viewed 10690 times

I unfortunately wrapped the internals of the USB-C port in gaffer tape at the time, so the wires connected to it are not visible.

I used jewellery files to gradually enlarge the hole originally used by the cable to run out of the case until it was large enough to fit the USB-C female port. Note that the USB-C female port I used itself slightly protrudes from the small circuit board it comes with, which is how I was able to do this.

The USB-C female port is held in place by epoxy putty. Some sanding and painting was needed. As the epoxy putty is grey, it was a bit hard to paint over it.

The result is a recessed female USB-C port but it is still shallow enough for me to plug in my USB cable. It works, but isn't too pretty. Should you go this route, you'll probably do a better job than this.