I had a broken keyboard...

In the beginning
In my first year of high school, my Media Communications teacher graciously gifted me an extra soldering iron that she had left over from a summer camp she taught, recognizing my engineering brain from day one. 

I was thrilled, and immediately started looking for things that I could try to fix with my newfound tool. Little did I know - I wouldn’t have to look, it would come. People knew I was someone who could solve problems and fix things. So when the USB port on a MIDI keyboard in my department got just one too many harsh tugs, it was given to me on a “if you can fix it, you can keep it” basis.

Whoops
Something any experienced solderer would probably tell you is that it is far easier to solder new components onto a new PCB with nice, clean pads. They would definitely tell a beginning solderer that they should get some experience with soldering before trying to desolder old components on a tiny commercial circuit board and replace them. Nobody told me this, and I love trying to learn new things by doing them, so I went ahead and ordered replacement through-hole USB ports, plugged in the soldering iron, cranked it up way too high, and got to work.

This is how I scorched my first circuit board. And I really, really scorched it. Inconsistent application of an overheated iron as I yanked out pieces of this port left me with no pads to solder to (which I didn’t understand as important at the time), and my repeated attempts to re-solder tiny pins on my replacement ports only left things worse.

Only sort of giving up...
There was a point where I just had to stop, recognizing that I didn’t know what I was doing well enough to continue. But I wouldn’t give up. So that keyboard sat in my closet, and every 6 months or so, I would pull it out, each time with a little more experience under my belt as I soldered more, fixed electronics, designed my own circuit boards, and understood how to solder effectively. But the pads that I was used to soldering to were obliterated, and every time, I would try again to install this port but be unable to make any progress.

Definitely not giving up (Fun technical section)
In the early days of Summer 2026, I pulled out my soldering iron, convinced that, with my relative soldering and circuit analysis proficiency, I was ready to take this seemingly impossible fix on. I gave up on the pads, but after reading online about a technique where you can scrape away the coating on traces (the little “wires” inside a printed circuit board) and solder directly to them, I decided I would try that instead. So with a tiny craft knife, a multimeter, and a lot of hope, I very slowly found the traces that I needed, testing each one with a component on the circuit board I knew should be connected to it. (For instance, if I thought I had found the 5V trace, I would check continuity with that trace and the voltage regulator using my multimeter)

After finding those traces, I still had my work cut out for me. Using the tiniest wires I could find (salvaged from a cable) and a blank breadboard, I very meticulously attached each wire to an exposed trace. An hour later, I soldered on a USB port to my breadboard, and I was ready to plug the keyboard in for a test. Of course, it didn’t work, but after cleaning up a few solder joints, the keyboard blinked to life. I could not have been happier.

My conclusions
I think this keyboard is an excellent representation of how far I have come as an engineer and repairer of things, as well as my style of learning. 

When I first got this keyboard and my soldering iron, I had no idea what I was doing, but I tried it anyway, flinging myself into the world of soldering, circuits, and electrical engineering. I’m not sure I would be where I am today without it. And over the years, as I decided, “that sounds fun to try,” I built up my skills to a point where today I am able to do a pretty advanced repair! I am proud of myself for this intrinsically-fueled learning, which is a trait of mine I hold dear. 

I am excited that it’s finally out of my closet as a broken thing and… back in my closet as a working thing. And I’ve already been having loads of fun using it to make music, including a theme song for my awesome math tutoring lessons.