dunno. my first ever soldering project was a handwired keyboard. i was popcorning when i finished. it was my first time using a mechanical switch keyboard too. not bad... 2° project, right after finishing the keyboard was soldering a PMW3360 sensor to someone's board from Github. it was a freaking blast on my 40W, 40 BRL (~ 8 USD) solder
i still have it & i'm selling handwired keyboards at a very cheap price (made with it), trying to set a non-profit that sells fair priced handwired keyboards with Vial & aims to teach the basics of electronics for teens... i can't see myself supplying anything more expensive than cheap solders, nor i can see what joy i would get from an expensive solder tool
Oh good. In the context of soldering "popcorning" typically means explosive steam formation that puffs up the package a part, often an expensive part because bigger / more complicated packaging is a risk factor. I was having trouble making that fit with the rest of the post.
That's wonderful - I used to solder with a cheap iron until university. A nice iron gets a lot hotter, and it makes everything easier and faster. It may not matter for keyboards, but on a small PCB where everything is a few mm part, the precision of a good tip matters too.
i still have it & i'm selling handwired keyboards at a very cheap price (made with it), trying to set a non-profit that sells fair priced handwired keyboards with Vial & aims to teach the basics of electronics for teens... i can't see myself supplying anything more expensive than cheap solders, nor i can see what joy i would get from an expensive solder tool
my wiring for reference -> https://happort.org/keyboard_example.png