2 nice!nanos died in a year
Just a bit of data for folks; no real question here. I got the corne keyboard that's on the typeractive.xyz front page - hypersonic keycaps, choc reds, nice!view and nice!nano v2's, aluminum case, etc.
I got it last January. It's been great for the most part but when I got it, one of the rows didn't work and I had to get one of the nice!nanos replaced as a column died within a month.
Since replacing, it's been fine. I use it as my primary keyboard at work (and it's a lot of fun) but now in Nov. another nice!nano just died (middle row) and I had to replace it again. I did several diagnosis steps: (1) there were no shorts on the board, (2) I swapped the nano from the other KB half and it received inputs from the PCB just fine, and (3) I swapped the no-solder pins between the sides with no change in functionality.
I use a case when I transport the corne, and most of the time they're in a temperature controlled office building - nothin' crazy going on.
I've had a great time using this, it's a beautiful conversation starter and fun to use. I just have to wonder whether I should just stock an extra nano in reserve for when another one blows out.
1 Reply
Having two nice!nanos lose a row/column like that is definitely not typical, especially with the usage pattern you described. You shouldn’t have to treat them as consumables.
From the ZMK/Corne side, dead rows/columns are almost always traced back to the specific pin path rather than the whole board failing. The usual suspects (per our docs) are:
- Bad solder joint on the row/column pin (either on the nice!nano or PCB side)
- A short/bridge between that pin and a neighbor or trace
- Poor contact through the hotswap/no‑solder header You’ve already done solid diagnostics (swapping halves, headers, etc.), so if it really follows the individual nice!nano and a replacement fixes it, that suggests the MCU pin itself has gone bad on those boards. For next time, if a row/column dies, it’s worth going through the steps in Row(s) or Column(s) Not Working before resigning a nano to the bin, just to fully rule out something external damaging that pin. Stocking a spare nice!nano isn’t a bad idea if this is your daily driver and downtime hurts, but it’s not something we expect you to be burning through regularly. If another one goes, I’d really recommend emailing hello@typeractive.xyz with your order info and a description of which row/column died so we can dig deeper. If you want to walk through anything in detail (photos, which pins, etc.), reply here or tag me and I can help step through it.
- A short/bridge between that pin and a neighbor or trace
- Poor contact through the hotswap/no‑solder header You’ve already done solid diagnostics (swapping halves, headers, etc.), so if it really follows the individual nice!nano and a replacement fixes it, that suggests the MCU pin itself has gone bad on those boards. For next time, if a row/column dies, it’s worth going through the steps in Row(s) or Column(s) Not Working before resigning a nano to the bin, just to fully rule out something external damaging that pin. Stocking a spare nice!nano isn’t a bad idea if this is your daily driver and downtime hurts, but it’s not something we expect you to be burning through regularly. If another one goes, I’d really recommend emailing hello@typeractive.xyz with your order info and a description of which row/column died so we can dig deeper. If you want to walk through anything in detail (photos, which pins, etc.), reply here or tag me and I can help step through it.
Row(s) or Column(s) Not Working | Typeractive.xyz Documentation
Fix row(s) or column(s) not working on your keyboard.