Face U/MX-mini U replica knowledge base

[DanielT]

For SIP sockets I found a really cheap source on aliexpress. I bought 100pcs 8pin DIP/SIP for $7.41 and free shipping, this should last for a lifetime

[macmakkara]

Hahaa not bad. Need to order those... 800 pcs of sockets

[DanielT]

Hahaa not bad. Need to order those... 800 pcs of sockets

Yep and at this price customs will not even give a damn anyway package value is not an issue with aliexpress, they'll put whatever value you want

[macmakkara]

Btw. Solderpads on PCB are shitty... Half of them left PCB and went to my solder sucker :/ so no more leds for mebif i don't hack and handwire them...

[Nuum]

I finally assembled my FaceU. When I plug it in (USB 2.0) it stops working after a while (approx. 1 min, maybe less). I tried to replug it, but that doesn't work. When I try to plug it into USB 3.0 afterwards, it says that it didn't recognize the USB device. I then have to uninstall all the drivers for the FaceU and plug it in again. Then it stops working again.
First I thought it shorts out because of my aluminium case, but this even happens without a case.

I believe it has to do with the NKRO, is keymain_GKP.hex the right firmware to flash for non NKRO?

Edit: I think I have bricked it, I can't get it to work at all now, although the LED is flashing, when I plug it in with Q pressed. Also the message, that it didn't recognize the USB device pops up. Has anyone had the same problem?

[Nuum]

Ok, now I've got it to (kinda) work again (don't ask how, I don't know) and I flashed an older firmware to test if this one works any better and it doesn't.
Sometimes I get the feeling, that there is a slack joint somewhere, because sometimes I can get the board to work again without replugging it. Also I get some stuck/omitted keys sometimes and if I reconnect the keyboard it sometimes works without having to uninstall the drivers.
Could it be, that the USB cable/plug is broken? I'm going to order a new cable to test it.

[beltet]

Great that you got it working! Hope it lasts.
May not be applied to your problem, but I had some problems with it disconnects and reconnects many times in a row.
My problem was a faulty USB hub. So tip to everyone, it can be another equipment aswell. Check everything thats between computer and keyboard.

[alinh]

Led doesn't seem to work on backspace. I jumped a wire from the + pad to a nearby unused + pad but the led is very dim. As I have no idea if this would be ok... any ideas?

[macmakkara]

Backspace led is numlock indicator. So if you don't have numlock on its off.

[alinh]

Backspace led is numlock indicator. So if you don't have numlock on its off.

Well... I don't want it to display numlock status. I want to have it blink as any other led

[chzel]

You would have to cut its traces, connect it parallel to a nearby led and half the resistor supplying them so the stay the same brightness.
The easiest way to half the resistance of an smd resistor is piggy-back another on top.

[alinh]

You would have to cut its traces, connect it parallel to a nearby led and half the resistor supplying them so the stay the same brightness.
The easiest way to half the resistance of an smd resistor is piggy-back another on top.

OK, so I understand the words (individually), but I'm like . Have to re-re-read this to make sense of it

[chzel]

Maybe later this afternoon i will manage to write a more detailed guide!

[alinh]

Maybe later this afternoon i will manage to write a more detailed guide!

Thanks! I want to deflect attention from my noobness in electronics by saying that such a guide will help others

So the Caps Lock led can only be turned on/off, but it will not follow the other leds patterns. I'm guessing that this is firmware based so if I remap Caps Lock to Ctrl for example this behavior will change.

[HzFaq]

Maybe later this afternoon i will manage to write a more detailed guide!

Thanks! I want to deflect attention from my noobness in electronics by saying that such a guide will help others

So the Caps Lock led can only be turned on/off, but it will not follow the other leds patterns. I'm guessing that this is firmware based so if I remap Caps Lock to Ctrl for example this behavior will change.

I don't think thats right, I've swapped capslock and control and the capslock indicator led is still in the traditional capslock position (to the left of the "a" key). Likewise, I have mapped the "backspace" key (on a split backspace) to "`¬¦" and it still acts as the numlock indicator.

[chzel]

So alinh for the benefit of others here we go!
Disclaimer: the photo is CRAP. It is from my cell through a 10x eye loupe. Edited in imgur. Please donate for decent Nikon macro lens. You will need some experience with SMD. Get an old PCB and play around a bit soldering and desoldering resistors.

Theory first! LEDs have two legs. One is called anode (the + one) and the other cathode. In this pcb all LEDs have their cathodes connected together and to GND. LEDs glow bright or dim according to how much current we let through them and the most simple way to control it is by using resistors in series with the LED.
Something like this:
Signal-----Resistor------LED----GND.
Now we want to change it to
Signal----Resistor ------LED------GND
.......................\___LED___/
In order for the LED's to be as bright we need to halve the resistor value.
Instead of telling you "Go find a 160R resistor and change it" we can use a little trick.
Connecting resistors in parallel makes their value R=(R1*R2)/(R1+R2).
So by connecting two resistors with the same value in parallel we get exactly half the resistance.

On to the crappy pic:

Spoiler:

Blue line: this is the trace you need to cut (if you don't, you connect two outputs together, which is a bad idea in general)
Green line: use a thin insulated wire (this is your new control line for the ex-Numlock led).
Orange circle: desolder this resistor and don't lose it!
Pink: Imagine a resistor there (mine is missing, if your's is missing too tell me to change the plan). Now you will solder the resistor from previous step ON TOP of this resistor. Refer to this picture to see what I mean (middle left, 2.2 KOhm resistor on top of another, effectively in parallel).

I am not much of a writer, but I hope the point got through!

PS: Led behaviour is hardwired, so no easy swaping around to follow Caps Lock.

[alinh]

Very nicely written, big thanks!

So initially I only did the "connect" part and tested with a red led I had around and it had the same brightness as in any other position. Only this weekend I tried with a different led and noticed the brightness issue.

I only have a 35W soldering iron. Is that too much for desoldering/re-soldering the smd resistor?

Sucks about Caps Lock led behavior being hard wired; kinda breaks the symmetry I was aiming for

[beltet]

One nice guide!

Nice write up. It was better then many other guides on the internet. I understand fully how to do it Thanks!

Good to know that two resistors in parallell with same value half the resistance. And Off Topic, if I connect them in series they double the resistance right? Just for my own knowlage.

[chzel]

Thank you, glad it was helpful!

I only have a 35W soldering iron. Is that too much for desoldering/re-soldering the smd resistor?

It should be perfectly ok as long as it has any kind of temperature control. In fact more wattage usually means safer soldering/desoldering since you can complete the joint faster (less risk of delamination due to overheating).
You could conceivably use a similar technique to relocate the Caps Lock, but I believe it's not really worth it!

beltet, that is correct, series resistors add up.

[Nuum]

Here are two pictures of my not really working FaceU:

DSCN3483.JPG (887.05 KiB) Viewed 5503 times

DSCN3482.JPG (892.03 KiB) Viewed 5503 times

It has 62g Clears, no plate, a Oneproduct aluminium case and it is super heavy and it feels amazing.

But it doesn't really work. Everytime I restart my PC or uninstall the drivers or wait for a few minutes and plug it in again it works for a few seconds to minutes. Also sometimes some keys get stuck until I unplug the keyboard. Sometimes keys get omitted. Every other ps2avrU firmware I tried so far has the same problem. It seems like it falls into some kind of sleep mode or the driver crashes, but I don't get any message concerning that.
I've already messed with the Windows energy saving settings, but it didn't help. At least I can get it into Flash mode every now and then. On my laptop it doesn't work at all (Both the laptop and my desktop PC are on Windows 7 64bit). I've tested the USB cable with my Soarer's converter and it works perfectly fine with it.
This way I can't use my FaceU.

Any ideas?

[javallet]

Hey guys, finally got my board assembled! Looks great, drivers install fine, LEDs work, mostly! The bottom row LEDs left of the space bar (Ctrl, Win, Alt) don't seem to light up with the rest of the LEDs. Does anyone know if this default? Should i check the resisters?

Stock firmware by the way.

[alinh]

Hey guys, finally got my board assembled! Looks great, drivers install fine, LEDs work, mostly! The bottom row LEDs left of the space bar (Ctrl, Win, Alt) don't seem to light up with the rest of the LEDs. Does anyone know if this default? Should i check the resisters?

Stock firmware by the way.

Put the leds the other way around (i.e. anode and cathode are swapped on those 3 keys)

[javallet]

Hey guys, finally got my board assembled! Looks great, drivers install fine, LEDs work, mostly! The bottom row LEDs left of the space bar (Ctrl, Win, Alt) don't seem to light up with the rest of the LEDs. Does anyone know if this default? Should i check the resisters?

Stock firmware by the way.

Put the leds the other way around (i.e. anode and cathode are swapped on those 3 keys)

Ha! That worked. Thanks a lot!

[HzFaq]

Here are two pictures of my not really working FaceU:

Spoiler:

DSCN3483.JPG

Spoiler:

DSCN3482.JPG

It has 62g Clears, no plate, a Oneproduct aluminium case and it is super heavy and it feels amazing.

But it doesn't really work. Everytime I restart my PC or uninstall the drivers or wait for a few minutes and plug it in again it works for a few seconds to minutes. Also sometimes some keys get stuck until I unplug the keyboard. Sometimes keys get omitted. Every other ps2avrU firmware I tried so far has the same problem. It seems like it falls into some kind of sleep mode or the driver crashes, but I don't get any message concerning that.
I've already messed with the Windows energy saving settings, but it didn't help. At least I can get it into Flash mode every now and then. On my laptop it doesn't work at all (Both the laptop and my desktop PC are on Windows 7 64bit). I've tested the USB cable with my Soarer's converter and it works perfectly fine with it.
This way I can't use my FaceU.

Any ideas?

Nice board, shame it isn't working properly .

When mine freaked out, I had to flash a firmware and then flash a keymap on top of that...maybe you could try doing the same? I removed the driver from Windows and then did this...

My fix was to flash the keymain_NKRO.hex file, disconnect, reconnect and let Windows install whatever it needed to, disconnect again, go back into flash mode and then flash keymap_part(whatever).hex file.

[Madhias]

I built right now my Face U. Was a lot of fun; i used MX Clears with 100g springs, the aluminum plate of this group buy, and the 60$ 60% case from Pexon. Because of using ISO SkiData caps, i had to cut the plate (as seen already here). I also did the right Shift wiring trick. So far i'm happy with it, but...

Only problem i have is that 'N' is not registering. I re-soldered the switch, and i think the switch itself should be OK. Is it the diode? Can i just do a dirty wiring trick?

[beltet]

I believe it is the diode, just as a first guess. Because of previous problems with the soldering on these boards. And others that had faulty diodes.
Do you have a multimeter to test the diode? otherwise you can find one cheap in hardware stores.
One resistor was bad soldered on mine, and I just applied a little more solder to the solderpoint and it worked well after that.
If its faulty you can remove a diode from a key that you dont use(i.e split backspace if you don't use that, or regular BS if you use a split one). And put that instead of the faulty. Think Matteo did that on one of his PCB's.

[DanielT]

Or if you have some normal diodes, like the ones used on old boards a DIP one, you can use it. The PCB supports both thru hole and SMD.

[Madhias]

It was the diode, everything works now! I changed it, and it works now. Also the <>| key did not work, there the diode was just not soldered on one end so i also re-soldered it. It was a new experience, since the diodes are really small! To remove the diode it was enough to make the existing solder hot. First i re-soldered one, and put it back in the wrong direction



Is the Wake-Up issue solved by the way? It is absolutely no problem for me since... i have a Mouse

[beltet]

Or if you have some normal diodes, like the ones used on old boards a DIP one, you can use it. The PCB supports both thru hole and SMD.

OK that I haven't realized. Good to know.

Great that you got it working madhias.

[Nuum]

Ok, I got my FaceU working, it indeed was a faulty USB cable, although the one I used works flawlessly with my Soarer's Converter. Maybe it's a power related problem and Soarer's Converter (on a Model F AT) draws less power than the FaceU (No LEDs except Caps Lock) and the power lead of said cable was broken/too thin.

Now I need to accommodate to the 60% layout, so far I like it.