C64 keyboard detected only intermittently on Keyrah V3 hooked to PC (Linux or Windows).

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Don't Panic. Please wash hands.

    I started having trouble with my Keyrah V3 recently. I thought it was dead at first, but today I hooked it up again, and it appears that if I unplug the USB and plug it back in 5 to 10 times eventually it'll be detected. I've tried 3 USB cables so it's not that. I've also tried running it through a powered USB hub, same issue.


    I'm not dead in the water because I can reconnect the USB multiple times and eventually it'll work. It feels like a detection issue, but I really have no clue. Any ideas what it could be?


    Thanks,


    Rich

    So the USB devices are not detected?


    To rule out some weird issue with something that is connected to they keyrah - please to disconnecting the c64 keyboard and LEDs from keyrah, then connect it via the USB cable - still the same problem?

    It doesn't seem to do anything if I disconnect the LED and C64 keyboard. The USB detection does work every time if I hold down the button to enable mass storage.


    It's not a big deal. If I keep trying it eventually gets recognized within 10 attempts, sometimes sooner. I leave the power on anyway, so I'll just look at it as a pre-flight check each time I power up my emulator box. It used to work fine, so I'll chalk it up to damage from a power surge or something similar. Once it's up and running it stays running.

    Anyway, thanks for your help.

    This is an update on my situation. A few weeks ago, since I had nothing to lose, I decided to try the bake-the-board in the oven thing, where I put it in the oven at 390F for about 10 minutes. It worked after that, then failed again after a few minutes, so I gave up.

    Today I tried it again, and again it made it work for a second, but then it failed after it cooled down. I had a suspicion it was the Raspberry Pi chip on there, since the USB always works when I hold down the flash button. I put flux around that chip and then slowly dragged my hot soldering iron around all of the pins. That made it work again, but this time it made it to around 20-30 minutes without failing once. I then put the case together again and it's still working. I don't have high-hopes yet since this just barely went down, but it's promising, and it gives me an excuse to finally bite the bullet and buy a hot-air rework workstation.

    Pretty stoked so far.

    This indicates a cracked solder spot around the RP2040 chip. Whar order ID was this? I'd like to investigate when exactly it was shipped, and if that shipping process may have meant extreme temperature stress for the board.


    Jens

    I didn't order it from this site. I ordered it from amigakit.com in the UK, so who knows how long they had it in stock. It was shipped from there at the end of July in 2023 to me in in Salt Lake City, Utah, US. I doubt it will help, but my Order number from them was 75851.

    FYI, it's still working. I can get it to fail sometimes, but it seems to initialize about 60-70% (maybe more) of the time now, which I have no problem with since I leave it powered on 24/7.