Tried a hotswap PCB after swearing by soldered builds

I was dead set on soldered boards for like 2 years. Thought hotswap was just for people being lazy. Then last month at my desk, I was trying to swap a switch on my solder board and the pad lifted right off. Took me 10 minutes with a desoldering pump and it still looked terrible. Picked up a cheap hotswap board from a local meetup in Portland just to try it. Now I get why people like them. I can swap switches in 30 seconds without worrying about frying anything. Still like soldered for the feel but I'm not gonna pretend hotswap is bad anymore. Anyone else have a moment where they changed their mind about a keyboard thing?

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reed.ray6d ago

Yo man I feel this. I actually read somewhere that hotswap boards were getting popular for like, the opposite reason - people were tired of having to buy a whole new board just to try different switches. That really clicked for me after I ruined a solder pad on a vintage board trying to swap some box jades. Now I keep a hotswap board just for testing switches before I commit them to a soldered build. It's like having a test bench but for your whole keyboard.