Prevent this issue by first soldering only one pin, check if the header is aligned properly. If not, heat the solder and fix the alignment. Then solder the other pins.
@@gownerjones The pins can tilt with enough of an angle to get inserted one row off in the breadboard, especially with machine pins. I like to seat the pins first, then place the board on the pins, tack the end pins, then finish in the vise. Also I've melted breadboards before. I don't know if it was because the breadboard in the kit was too cheap, or if I had my iron set too hot, but it can happen.
This is one of my jobs for today! I need to desolder headers on a breakout with castellated pads so that I can solder it to a PCB. Thanks for the very handy tip!
The cutting of the plastic can be tough on the board, if you heat the pin for a little bit longer you can pull it out without removing the plastic first, the heat will soften the plastic.
This only works if the pins are not connected to each other usually the plastic this connects all pins. Always a pain to desolder, I use low melt solder ball and go around all of them while pulling, breaking the Plastic is much faster
I used to use a soldering iron with replaceable heads, i would generally just use the like 1 inch long chisel head to heat them all at once, if you move quick enough you can switch between sides and get them all melted again
One more addition that can make things much easier is adding a little rosin flux to the solder wick. Actually, a little extra flux helps with everything. Clean up isn’t really necessary but it’s still a good idea, try to find the strongest isopropyl alcohol you can for best results.
You can actually remove block stabilisers by slidong it gradually. Furthermore you can heat the pin without removing stabilisers because as pin heats up it will become loose on the stabalizers
That works for a few pins but, not so much for long runs. It's very hard to keep more than one pin molten and movable. Yes, ChipQuick is a thing to help with keeping things liquid to aid in the de-soldering process, but, you probably wont have any or know where it is in the moment. Hot air helps but not everyone has that capability. Also one person's method that works for them may not work for another person.
I found that removing solder stuck in the hole with solder wick was pretty difficult. A solder sucker did the job much more easily. It helped to use a pointed tip on the soldering iron, rather than say the wedge shape, because I could push the point right into the hole. Flux seemed to help, of course, always does.
If you're having siginificant issues with this, odds are high you're not making proper contact for adequate heat transfer. This is one of those times when liberal amounts of flux can make a big difference. But you also need solid heat transfer, so that *all* the solder melts _and_ the wick remains substantially hotter than the pads, pins and through-hole plating. If dealing with factory or RoHS solder (melting point close to 220°C or more), it will be of great aid to "water down" that solder alloy to lower the melting point, with leaded solder (183°C for 63/37), or even Bismuth based solder (138°C for the common Ni-Sn-Cu mix), Mechanic XW6 is a cheap no-fakery option in 0.6mm "wire" form. Just make sure you clean up your pads, parts and solder tip(s) well after using bismuth, because if that solder alloy gets contaminated with lead too, you may end up with an alloy that melt at under 100°C; within normal operating range of many products. But equally important: make sure you use a soldering iron and tip/cartridge fit for purpose. You want as large a contact area as possible that will fit safely. Making that contact can be aided by introducing some molten solder between the tip and target joint - then _introduce the wick only when the solder is properly molten all the way through._ I you introduce the wick too early, and only melt the surface level solder of a throughole joint - once the wick soaks up that little bit of solder then the thermal conductivity path between the wick and the remaining solder is _vastly_ diminished. If you make this mistake, consider adding new solder and trying again.You want an iron and tip with enough power and thermal mass, to sustain its temperature while doing this, as modern day boards especially, tend to have very large beefy ground and power rail planes, that will soak up a tonne of heat. If your iron and tip combo cannot deliver more thermal energy than what the board soaks up, your tip temperature will instantly plummit on contact, and the solder won't properly melt and wet until the entire board has heated up to a small enough temperature delta that your iron/tip can handle. Increasing the iron temperature _temporarily_ by 50-70 degrees _can_ be adventageous in adding that extra little bit of thermal energy the moment you make contact - but be careful. It can be hard on both tips and components.
Solder one pin on the end of the row first, then flip it over make sure it's straight. If not adjust accordingly by reheating the solder, then soder the rest after everything is perfectly straight. it's that easy.
I actually put a huge amount of solder on all the pins to connect them all, then with all that solder molten, I pull it out all at once so the header can be reused
Have been there, soldered raspberry pi zero w headers wrong side. I use a slightly different technique. I cut the pins flush with the board use solder sucker on one side while heating with iron on the other side and the hole is perfect in one go. Repeat for all pins, and no post cleanup needed.
Funny thing is this method is way way way easier and less damaging than using a desoldering gun. Reason being, you usually leave a small bit of solder using the gun and damage the board trying to pop it out. Pulling them out and using the wick gets 100% of solder without stress on the hole.
@@ParadigmUnkn0wn the 5 dollar solder suckers work pretty good, but if you have the means (aka do it professionally) the 750 dollar Hakko solder sucker soldering iron combo is pretty damn OP.
If I want to keep the header pins in place, I use a 4 inch wide putty knife as a heat shield and heat all the pins with my hot air solder station to heat all the pins until I can straiten the header. But that wouldn't happen in the first place because I plug the headers into breadboard before soldering.
I soldered my first prototype board yesterday and I did it while in was in my breadboard. Didn’t have any issues with it and the pins are perfectly straight
Alternatively, you could hold the board with some helper hands floating , add some flux of all of the pins, please some copper wire on each side of the pins, cover it all in solder. The pens will fall right out with a little bit of push.
I've overheated the plastic part before, to the point where it was very easy to just pull it off the pins. You can actually do this even without overheating the pins, you just need to apply leverage between the plastic and the board.
When it happens I usually try to fix the pins using the solder tip to heat the tin and put the pin straight... with a bit skill it usually works and is easier and less time consuming
It's very time taking process. Doing instead of this ai just make a copper wire rail, put on the all pins, fill up with solder for heat distribution to all pin then heating with soldering iron and apply little push. It easily removes within 20 sec.
Also tapping your elbow to the table while holding the board (creating a little flick motion) will cause the pin to fall off as well as the excess solder leaving a nice hole 🕳️ :D but unfortunately it will leave solder everywhere so be careful. Also make sure to have protection. You don't want to get any solder splashes on your face, eyes or hands
Another solution is to solder a copper wire to all pins so all them get hot at the same time. Then quickly adjust and pull away the copper wire. Tada 🎉
Used to unsolder 40 pin ICs from circuit boards with a solder sucker bulb when I worked at NCR. Do they even sell them anymore? Collin has probably the most reliable way to remove the headers.
Desoldering pins leads in my case often to clogged holes. Any hint to clear this holes? I have tried solder wick, add flux, but not a really good result.
there are tools for this...like the weird little pen tube things? essentially what you do is use the soldering iron to melt the metal and the tool will suck up any unwanted metal pieces.
Also, add flux. I used to do this with low melt alloy, but now i just cut the pins off before desoldering. Often these pins can't be salvaged or repurposed anyway.
Now show me how I can get some heat shrink on some wires After I've soldered an XT60 on one side and the other side I had to pull out the 200W iron for to make a solid connection (HP DPS PSU pads for example)
Best way is to only solder one of the pins, check and make any adjustments, THEN do the rest. Really easy to align with only 1 soldered, not so much with more than 10
It's a board that costs less than $10. Use the needle nose pliers to bend them straight. If you damage something, it's a prototype board that costs less than $10... buy another. @nkronert is right, though. Just make sure it's right before soldering all of the pins.
Where was this video a week ago? 😅 I had soldered a six pin header to my Teensy but it sticks out too much to fit into my project, and I wasn't using it. Tried for 5 minutes to desolder, then gave up and just cut the ends of the pins off. Wish I'd seen this!
Just make sure you get a good brand of solder wick. The cheap stuff is usually total shit and has no flux in it. If the cheap wick is all you have you MUST add your own liquid flux to it.
Plug in one side in the board , bend gently , plug in the other side of the board bend gently and then voila , just like magic you solved it without the time wasting over complication of this video.
Prevent this issue by first soldering only one pin, check if the header is aligned properly. If not, heat the solder and fix the alignment. Then solder the other pins.
Or just align pins on a bread board
@@izuminarakiisn’t that how the video started with him taking it off of one?
Solder the pins while in the bread board. That way it’s perfectly straight. The tiny residual heat won’t hurt anything.
I've always done it like that and I've never melted the breadboard.
There's one caveat, make sure the pins are straight up and down, I've accidentally offset by one row
@@maximman102n7 How does that happen? The arduino pins are exact multiples of 0.1 inches away from each other. Or am I misunderstanding you?
@@gownerjones The pins can tilt with enough of an angle to get inserted one row off in the breadboard, especially with machine pins. I like to seat the pins first, then place the board on the pins, tack the end pins, then finish in the vise.
Also I've melted breadboards before. I don't know if it was because the breadboard in the kit was too cheap, or if I had my iron set too hot, but it can happen.
Um. No. Cheaper (grey) breadboards may melt and deform the holes.
Oh man, why did I never think of removing the plastic stabilizers first? Brilliant.
why? because it's stupid!
This is one of my jobs for today! I need to desolder headers on a breakout with castellated pads so that I can solder it to a PCB. Thanks for the very handy tip!
I've never soldered anything in my life but I love this channels videos for some reason
The cutting of the plastic can be tough on the board, if you heat the pin for a little bit longer you can pull it out without removing the plastic first, the heat will soften the plastic.
Using this so many time, and works!
This only works if the pins are not connected to each other usually the plastic this connects all pins. Always a pain to desolder, I use low melt solder ball and go around all of them while pulling, breaking the Plastic is much faster
I used to use a soldering iron with replaceable heads, i would generally just use the like 1 inch long chisel head to heat them all at once, if you move quick enough you can switch between sides and get them all melted again
Yes I was thinking the same. Tha way you don't have to damage the pins.
One more addition that can make things much easier is adding a little rosin flux to the solder wick. Actually, a little extra flux helps with everything. Clean up isn’t really necessary but it’s still a good idea, try to find the strongest isopropyl alcohol you can for best results.
You can actually remove block stabilisers by slidong it gradually. Furthermore you can heat the pin without removing stabilisers because as pin heats up it will become loose on the stabalizers
or you could just heat and straighten it... Im not clear how or why starting over was your choice?
That works for a few pins but, not so much for long runs. It's very hard to keep more than one pin molten and movable.
Yes, ChipQuick is a thing to help with keeping things liquid to aid in the de-soldering process, but, you probably wont have any or know where it is in the moment.
Hot air helps but not everyone has that capability.
Also one person's method that works for them may not work for another person.
Holy crap! I just did this! I havent soldered a lot of things, so this is a great idea!
Collins, you rock!
I totally needed this for my RPi Pico about 2 months ago! Thanks
If I got this 1 year ago my 2 board would not have damaged 😫
I found that removing solder stuck in the hole with solder wick was pretty difficult. A solder sucker did the job much more easily. It helped to use a pointed tip on the soldering iron, rather than say the wedge shape, because I could push the point right into the hole. Flux seemed to help, of course, always does.
When In doubt, flux it out
Another method to remove solder from a hole is the heat the solder then tap the board on the table.
If you're having siginificant issues with this, odds are high you're not making proper contact for adequate heat transfer. This is one of those times when liberal amounts of flux can make a big difference. But you also need solid heat transfer, so that *all* the solder melts _and_ the wick remains substantially hotter than the pads, pins and through-hole plating. If dealing with factory or RoHS solder (melting point close to 220°C or more), it will be of great aid to "water down" that solder alloy to lower the melting point, with leaded solder (183°C for 63/37), or even Bismuth based solder (138°C for the common Ni-Sn-Cu mix), Mechanic XW6 is a cheap no-fakery option in 0.6mm "wire" form. Just make sure you clean up your pads, parts and solder tip(s) well after using bismuth, because if that solder alloy gets contaminated with lead too, you may end up with an alloy that melt at under 100°C; within normal operating range of many products.
But equally important: make sure you use a soldering iron and tip/cartridge fit for purpose. You want as large a contact area as possible that will fit safely. Making that contact can be aided by introducing some molten solder between the tip and target joint - then _introduce the wick only when the solder is properly molten all the way through._ I you introduce the wick too early, and only melt the surface level solder of a throughole joint - once the wick soaks up that little bit of solder then the thermal conductivity path between the wick and the remaining solder is _vastly_ diminished. If you make this mistake, consider adding new solder and trying again.You want an iron and tip with enough power and thermal mass, to sustain its temperature while doing this, as modern day boards especially, tend to have very large beefy ground and power rail planes, that will soak up a tonne of heat. If your iron and tip combo cannot deliver more thermal energy than what the board soaks up, your tip temperature will instantly plummit on contact, and the solder won't properly melt and wet until the entire board has heated up to a small enough temperature delta that your iron/tip can handle. Increasing the iron temperature _temporarily_ by 50-70 degrees _can_ be adventageous in adding that extra little bit of thermal energy the moment you make contact - but be careful. It can be hard on both tips and components.
@@marioghioneto1275 Exactly. My success rate with braid went up _tremendously_ when I started dipping it in (paste) flux first.
Yeah, I just bend the headers at 90 with my hands 👌
Cool. Glad I'm not the only one. 🤣
Exactly, i hope this video is a joke.
Your voice makes my brain rattle in the best way
This one saved my life! Thank you so much :)
Solder one pin on the end of the row first, then flip it over make sure it's straight. If not adjust accordingly by reheating the solder, then soder the rest after everything is perfectly straight. it's that easy.
I actually put a huge amount of solder on all the pins to connect them all, then with all that solder molten, I pull it out all at once so the header can be reused
yeah yeah i do!
i have never done any metal work in my life
Great tips!!! Been a maker for so long and always struggled with this >_
@Rex Dorchester After cutting them off, slide a razor blade carefully and pry it up, then use pliers.
Have been there, soldered raspberry pi zero w headers wrong side. I use a slightly different technique.
I cut the pins flush with the board use solder sucker on one side while heating with iron on the other side and the hole is perfect in one go. Repeat for all pins, and no post cleanup needed.
Funny thing is this method is way way way easier and less damaging than using a desoldering gun. Reason being, you usually leave a small bit of solder using the gun and damage the board trying to pop it out. Pulling them out and using the wick gets 100% of solder without stress on the hole.
Before desoldering, solder more, this makes the paste go liquefied easier and you can pull better
Haven't tried it yet but THANK YOU
Use compressed air to blow out molten solder. Don't pull the pins, allow them to get out by themselves. Otherwise they may rip the pads and traces.
I would recommend suction over pressure. Molten lead splatter isn't fun.
You have to be careful though. If you are using the board again, the solder may get blown somewhere on the board causing a short.
@@ParadigmUnkn0wn the 5 dollar solder suckers work pretty good, but if you have the means (aka do it professionally) the 750 dollar Hakko solder sucker soldering iron combo is pretty damn OP.
I have never soldered a single thing but I sure want to now!
Pretty good I hate it when I soldering pcb boards wrong especially SMD components
If I want to keep the header pins in place, I use a 4 inch wide putty knife as a heat shield and heat all the pins with my hot air solder station to heat all the pins until I can straiten the header. But that wouldn't happen in the first place because I plug the headers into breadboard before soldering.
These videos are awesome. Thank you.
At first I thought this was gonna be some weird "Bend it back into shape" and I'm so glad it wasn't
I always tack my headers down with a drop of super glue first so they stay securely in place while I'm soldering them.
Solder tac
I soldered my first prototype board yesterday and I did it while in was in my breadboard. Didn’t have any issues with it and the pins are perfectly straight
Thanks !
Alternatively, you could hold the board with some helper hands floating , add some flux of all of the pins, please some copper wire on each side of the pins, cover it all in solder. The pens will fall right out with a little bit of push.
I've overheated the plastic part before, to the point where it was very easy to just pull it off the pins. You can actually do this even without overheating the pins, you just need to apply leverage between the plastic and the board.
When it happens I usually try to fix the pins using the solder tip to heat the tin and put the pin straight... with a bit skill it usually works and is easier and less time consuming
His soldering iron: 🪝 🏴☠️
Could heat pins and straighten. Also compressed air works wonders blowing molten solder off a board only thing I use.
You have to be careful with compressed air. The molten solder can easily end up on the board shorting something out.
Just when I needed it 🦍
I usually just stick one side of the pins in The breadboard and bend the pins until it is aligned correctly
It's very time taking process. Doing instead of this ai just make a copper wire rail, put on the all pins, fill up with solder for heat distribution to all pin then heating with soldering iron and apply little push. It easily removes within 20 sec.
if you used pertinax board, you have to cut that board to get your kit back. I always solder female pins, this way i can just push my board in
Also tapping your elbow to the table while holding the board (creating a little flick motion) will cause the pin to fall off as well as the excess solder leaving a nice hole 🕳️ :D but unfortunately it will leave solder everywhere so be careful. Also make sure to have protection. You don't want to get any solder splashes on your face, eyes or hands
I agree, there is no bigger satisfaction than cleaning solder from a board
Collin is psychic. Because I just did this YESTERDAY. With two boards.
Another solution is to solder a copper wire to all pins so all them get hot at the same time. Then quickly adjust and pull away the copper wire. Tada 🎉
Used to unsolder 40 pin ICs from circuit boards with a solder sucker bulb when I worked at NCR. Do they even sell them anymore? Collin has probably the most reliable way to remove the headers.
Thank you for this tip!
And this is when I learned what that weird copper wire is for
Thanks for the tip
Desoldering pins leads in my case often to clogged holes. Any hint to clear this holes? I have tried solder wick, add flux, but not a really good result.
Love this guy !
Love the problem solving of this! Cause I make mistakes and want to know how to get back on track 😂
there are tools for this...like the weird little pen tube things? essentially what you do is use the soldering iron to melt the metal and the tool will suck up any unwanted metal pieces.
Also, add flux. I used to do this with low melt alloy, but now i just cut the pins off before desoldering. Often these pins can't be salvaged or repurposed anyway.
Never thought I'd learn how to use solder wick from a yt short
Oo man!!
Take the soldering iron,
Melt the lead,
Take a brush in another hand and clean the melted lead asap..
You done
Thanks man
take 2 inches of solid copper wire and allign it with the solder joints, heat up the wire, add some solder and watch the pins fall out.
Using a desoldering station is even better, one can reuse the header pins.
I used this technique to desolder
Headers on module boards i wanted to wire permanently...
Useful tips 👍
It's more of a reset than a fix 😉
want it done quicker? use the length of the iron to melt all the joints at once, straigthen the pins, remove the iron.
To Hold/add neodymium magnet instead of pliers.
Just heat up the header 4 pins at a time while applying torque and move the iron across the strip. No need to replace the headers.
I usually solder first and last pins. Then solder all the other.
I thought this was going somewhere entirely different when he brought out the pliers xD
What would happen if you just bent the pins into the right position with pliers?
short video will be ended with in a second
I get the pins hot enough until I can bend them into place
Now show me how I can get some heat shrink on some wires After I've soldered an XT60 on one side and the other side I had to pull out the 200W iron for to make a solid connection (HP DPS PSU pads for example)
Great tip..
Measure twice cut once goes all the way back to the stone ages.
You know that feeling that a desoldering pump might do the work?
Yeah, I did do that once on a teensy dev board and accidentally killed it. So not really a good way to go about it sometimes.
Best way is to only solder one of the pins, check and make any adjustments, THEN do the rest. Really easy to align with only 1 soldered, not so much with more than 10
Yes, same technique for welding. Tack first, then check alignment before fully welding or soldering.
It's a board that costs less than $10. Use the needle nose pliers to bend them straight. If you damage something, it's a prototype board that costs less than $10... buy another.
@nkronert is right, though. Just make sure it's right before soldering all of the pins.
Where was this video a week ago? 😅 I had soldered a six pin header to my Teensy but it sticks out too much to fit into my project, and I wasn't using it. Tried for 5 minutes to desolder, then gave up and just cut the ends of the pins off. Wish I'd seen this!
Na mate those pins look perfect, I don't see an issue 👍
I was expecting for u to bend the pin back straight, which is what I would have done
Just make sure you get a good brand of solder wick. The cheap stuff is usually total shit and has no flux in it. If the cheap wick is all you have you MUST add your own liquid flux to it.
Thank you...
What if it is a double row header
Is there a way to desolder the header pins so that they can still be used for another board ?
Not worth it. They are so cheap to buy that you may as well buy a new set of pins.
Would kapton tape + a heat gun not do the jub, while it's still in the breadboard?
Cleaning up to the same thing just backwards curious question
surely they can just be bent out straight? no need to remove?
I was going to solder my arduino nano but now you made nervous😂😅😅
Plug in one side in the board , bend gently , plug in the other side of the board bend gently and then voila , just like magic you solved it without the time wasting over complication of this video.
How to clean the clogged holes?
why you need to remove plastic before removing lead?
Are you using Metcal soldering station?
A solder sucker works way better than copper braid.
How to remove the flux from the board?
Hold my beer. Just melt the solder joint and pull the pin from below. The plastic will soften from the heat.
Good vid. Tbh. A bit slow paced for my preference
Copper wick, noted.
what do I do if one individual pin is bent?
So you then need to buy new header pins?