Hello all,
As the title states, I physically damaged my Teensy 3.1 while trying to remove solder paste . . . with the end of a paper clip . . .
While I am an engineer (chemical and biological systems) and a fairly skilled programmer, I am still learning about proper procedure and best practices with electronics.
In case others reach this post:
I started to troubleshoot the failure to upload a sketch:
My scratching did remove solder paste, but it also damaged at least a few of the 8 pins on that side of the chip.
I now have a soft brush and some rubbing alcohol to try with the next board.
Hope this helps someone in the future (as an object lesson of what not to do), and if anyone has any suggestions or other comments then I would be happy to read your replies. Thanks
As the title states, I physically damaged my Teensy 3.1 while trying to remove solder paste . . . with the end of a paper clip . . .
While I am an engineer (chemical and biological systems) and a fairly skilled programmer, I am still learning about proper procedure and best practices with electronics.
In case others reach this post:
- I successfully soldered the Teensy 3.1 to the OctoWS2811 Adaptor and got the BasicTest_UserMod sketch running with an Adafruit NeoPixel 8X8.
- I then started worrying about the long term effect of all the excess solder paste, so I used a chem-wipe to try and remove the residue.
- When the chem-wipe failed, I switched to a brown paper towel wrapped around a small slotted screw driver--to this point the assembly continued to work and I was able to test several other sketches . . .
- But then I went the extra distance and started really removing solder paste with the end of a paper clip . . .
I started to troubleshoot the failure to upload a sketch:
- I checked that the board was getting the correct voltage
- I checked that the program pin was being pulled to 0V when the button was pressed
- I searched high and low for any article or posting that referenced the issue
- I tried both Mac and Windows machines
- Then I decided to actually look at the board . . .
My scratching did remove solder paste, but it also damaged at least a few of the 8 pins on that side of the chip.
I now have a soft brush and some rubbing alcohol to try with the next board.
Hope this helps someone in the future (as an object lesson of what not to do), and if anyone has any suggestions or other comments then I would be happy to read your replies. Thanks