Oddbean new post about login | logout (S'up nerds!) Last time I attempted to remove this connector from the board with a soldering iron and solder wick I ripped the pads off which was pretty depressing... This time, I used a hot air tool with liquid gel flux in a syringe and it seriously made desoldering this connector a breeze. Cleaned up very nicely with isopropyl alcohol and then removed old solder, cleaned up, new flux and new solder, and then I soldered on a wire harness for this GPS board stolen from the homebrew FPV industry. Cut the I2C as I'm using UART to the LilyGo T-Deck. Also put a little hot glue and magical NASA Kaptan (sp?) tape to keep the wires secure to the pads. https://image.nostr.build/3da983e3aa47a7609a88e30cd3d7d559d711bfebf4534390e26976e621b400a3.jpg https://image.nostr.build/af05a981c7858e1f0847163c40c88c152cb0ce06bf5777339df8fdbb83b40cbe.jpg #meshtastic #LoRa
Pretty soon you won't even bother with connectors :) I just solder straight wires.
Yeah fair enough, I was just sort of excited to be able to reuse the wiring harness and plug it in but I still have to attempt to smash this spaghetti into a case that my friend with a 3d printer designed so we may have to lose the connector if it gets tight. What a time to be alive!
Yeah looks fine though. Kapton tape works well. Hot air and flux are my goto like you discovered. I will only use a soldering iron when I really have to get something small and targeted off, like one capacitor or so.
Yeah so true 100% agreed. I feel like I've been living in the dark ages for so many years until tonight.
Well best of luck! I was thinking for the holiday issue of somehow including a small soldering kit actually. Like a fm radio kit. Maybe I'll look into that more.
Definitely!! What about a crystal radio? Or is that lame? I am shaming myself but I've never built one. Over at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Wizards (Soldersmoke Podcast) there is a regenerative receiver kit project from a few years back the hosts have talked about sometimes that I think would be a fun build. Kind of complicated though maybe. Still, I recognize it is not called the bitpunk[ . ]am podcast so perhaps frequency modulation radio kits are the one true path. I'm down either way. If you want to research and plan a build would be happy to help. Not sure if you already have something in mind.
Lol bitpunk.am if only it was a TLD 🤣 Yeah the issue is finding a kit that's like $1. But I think I found one on ali express I just need to test it first.
Went back and looked up a bunch of FM, AM,and then combo kits. So much out there I guess the question could be what is the point, meaning, soldering lesson, building something around minimal analogue components, quick build, high quality-ish (with cheap parts) build, or maybe some other goal? What are your thoughts?
I think it would be fun! The kits I ordered (not yet received) are a FM transmitter with no crystal. So its kinda mind blown how it works with a single transistor. It both demystifies and adds more layers to radio I think. But mainly the fun. On the tape, I would walk through the soldering steps so it would be a solder-a-long.
Awesome (hopefully) sub-$10/kits...surely all things now reside inside of a Si5153 maybe thats too dark. Regardless will be fun as hell
I think the kits cost me sub $2 :). There's no IC on this transmitter even! The most complex component is a NPN transistor :) You'll like it. I can't wait until they come in.
Sounds perfect! Can't wait to hear more about it.
I too have ripped the pads off a circuit board because I didn't know to desolder with a hot air gun. It is a real bummer. Circuit frames are expensive on a gamble that you might be able to fix it. Especially since you are the idiot who just ripped the pads off because you aren't that great at soldering.
Sir: i offer you a belated 'three cheers' for the right tool for the job
