Mechanical Keyboard switch change

Introduction

Today I’ll cover how to change switches in a mechanical keyboard. Although not exactly common, it may be needed it a faulty switch or connection is found, or if, as for my case, a different sensitivity was needed.

There are quite some options available when it comes to mechanical keyboard switches: soft, hard, clicky, smooth, with or without dust protection. Each and every user and environment may have different needs, so those options are very welcome.

In particular the keyboard I purchased, does not feature hot swap, a fairly fancy way to tell that the switches are simply plugged in. My mechanical keyboard, an acgame AG-109R, simply has switches soldered all around the breadboard.

The most famous switches are the cherry MX ones, but as my keyboard is low-end (Chinese manufacturer) it mounts compatible switches (replicas, namely outemu).

I’m no expert in the field and my insight is therefore limited, but I’d bet that the information you’ll find later in the post will suit perfectly regardless whether you are wearing originals or replicas.

Talking about the reason why I’m willing to change switches, all in all I’m really happy with the product, both hardware, and software are nice and with the right amount of customization, but the blue switches are, unfortunately very noisy. They are kind of affecting even the stream of thoughts when writing a document, but above all, they are not exactly welcome in an environment with babies, particularly at night.

Those reasons led me to the choice of changing them for something a bit less noisy.

Table of switches

Each manufacturer will have its own tables that may differ slightly, but the color codes are kind of an industry standards. The table below collects the main features of the different switches. You’ll have also the option to play the little video I made, where the keyboard was set to “coloured equalizer” mode, so you may hear the clicks but also kind of see them. The first part of the video has still the blue switches while the second part has the red ones already mounted. I choose to click the same key (and in both cases with the keycaps mounted) to replicate the environment as close as possible. The microphone in the keyboard is located in a small slot in the area of the spacebar.

Courtesy of aliexpress

Tools needed

• A mechanical keyboard : in my case this one
• Switches at will: in my case outemu
• Screwdriver
• Solder
• Tin wire (choose wisely your tin wire, it’s diameter and composition make a huge difference. Personally I’m very happy with a thin, hi flux tin wire).
• Desoldering tool (or alternatively wick, flux, and a lot, a lot of patience). I’ve purchased this relatively inexpensive desoldering pump and is doing just fine. There are other more expensive to alternatives in the market, but I feel those are meant for professional use.
• An universal keycap remover tool is very very useful: in my case this one

Procedure

This section will go through the steps needed for chaining switches in a mechanical keyboard:

1. Unplug the keyboard
2. Remove all the key caps (an universal keycap remover will ease this step a lot)
3. Unscrew all the screws of the panel
4. This should unlock the back of the keyboard from the top.
5. Gently rotate the top, and disconnect the USB cable connector.
6. With the keyboard breadboard bottom up, start de soldering all the switches. Depending on the configuration it may imply that you are removing 104×2 solder points!
7. Turn upside the keyboard. Remove all the switches. For this task the switch remove tool will ease you a lot the job.
8. Put in place the new switches.
9. With the breadboard bottom up, solder all the pins.
10. Repeat points 5. to 1.

Concluding remarks

After the modification I can finally use the keyboard also at night, which I actually don’t know whether is an advantage or not.

All in all we are talking about a three hours process. Having said that, I would not recommend considering it without owing a desoldering tool. The process is a bit boring per se with the desoldering tool (which takes 1 second for every soldering point), so it would become horrifying with the traditional wick / flux way.