Building a Lily58 Pro split keyboard

I recently got into mechanical keyboards. I tried the Keychron K series first, then landed up on a Lily58 Pro.

I got introduced to mechanical keyboard D.I.Y (Thanks to Barkek).

I've owend one mechanical keyboard before this, the Keychron K6, loved it. Had a 65% layout, aluminium case and bluetooth etc.

Like a good nerd I did my research... watching every YouTuber (nearly) I could find on the subject.

Lily58 build

This is an account of my experience building the board. Here is the official build guide

Enter the Lily58 Pro split keyboard hobby pack.

It was a serious undertaking, a true test of patience, do not attempt to build this thing without having the right tools. Or bad things will happen, trust me on this.

If by mistake you solder something in the wrong place, you will need some soldering wick and some flux to remove the part/s, or risk damaging the PCB board while applying beginners (un)luck attempts at fixing things.

What you need

whatyouneed

Soldering iron, get one with thin tip for this kind of PCB board.
Crocodile hands with magnifier (nice to have, helpful when connecting the micro-controller)
Soldering matt (nice to have)
Lead free solder at size of 0.5mm was good for the detailed works
Weller tip activator, to clean your soldering iron tip
Soldering tip cleaner
Weller Flux, to help desolder parts off the PCB board
Desoldering wick/wire, works with the flux to smoothly and safely remove parts of the PCB board

Seems like a lot, but they all had their part to playin the build.

The build 🚧

Took some pictures to give you sense of how it might go. Absolute first timer with soldering... here we go.

The first attempt did not go so well

Initialy I got got the standard Lily58, black PCB board, no bluetooth capabilities.

attempt2

Sadley I soldered the Machine pins incorrectly, so I I tried removing it without desoldering wire or flux and that was the result.

attempt21

What a mess

attempt22

even though I managed to get all the diods in correctly, I had to get a new board after this as it was proper broken

Lily58 Pro build

Had to buy new PCB boards. This time I sprung 💸 for the Pro version which gives you hot swapable sockets so you can change out your switches. NICE. I also got wireless controllers the nice!nano V2 Wireless Controller which I should have done in the first place.