MichaelMeissner
Senior Member+
I was doing a neopixel suspender for a local steampunk event, and I did a quick job to solder some wires to the Teensy LC (Vin, the pin 17 level shifted, and ground). Afterward the show, I noticed the micro USB-B socket had come off. This was very much a jury-rigged prop. I didn't have time to properly secure the Teensy to the suspender (hey, it was 4am in the morning at that point). I likely had the Teensy hanging by the USB cable (or the USB battery hanging from the Teensy). Presumably something twisted and turned and the USB connector broke off. I do have the USB connector, as I found it still attached to the USB cable. I bought two more LC's at microcenter, so at the moment, I'm not hurting for boards.
I normally haven't done much SMT soldering. In the past, I did 1-2 psram's for the Teensy 4.1, and a few SN74AHC1G125DBVR's onto a SOT23 to DIP breakout board, but mostly I only do through hole solder. Now in the SMT soldering I've done, I could solder thin solder onto the pad, and then carefully place the chip on top of this solder, and heat the solder until it melts. But with the USB micro-B socket, I can't see where the solder meets the metal. Is there a way to do this soldering? I assume I want to put solder on the 4 pads, and possibly use a heat gun to lightly melt the solder, but with a heat gun, I would worry about unsoldering other components.
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As an aside, I had problems with all 3 of my neopixel props. The goggles prop had 2 rings inside of goggles with a small microprocessor (Gemma M0 in this case), and a lipo battery that is small enough to fit inside of the goggle. Unfortunately one of the wires to the lipo battery came out between the time when I left the house and when I got to the event.
I also have a wooden bowtie that has a Teensy 4.0 behind the tie, and lipo battery and a single 16-LED ring. In this case, the prop actually worked. The problem was my shirt collar is no longer tight to my throat (due to weight loss), and the tie kept moving down, so it would still work, but you couldn't see the ring or the tie. I think I need to rework the tie so it has clips on either side to attach to the collar so the tie keeps up. I'm thinking about moving the Teensy and battery off of the tie, and just put the microprocessor in a pocket and use an extension cable.
I normally haven't done much SMT soldering. In the past, I did 1-2 psram's for the Teensy 4.1, and a few SN74AHC1G125DBVR's onto a SOT23 to DIP breakout board, but mostly I only do through hole solder. Now in the SMT soldering I've done, I could solder thin solder onto the pad, and then carefully place the chip on top of this solder, and heat the solder until it melts. But with the USB micro-B socket, I can't see where the solder meets the metal. Is there a way to do this soldering? I assume I want to put solder on the 4 pads, and possibly use a heat gun to lightly melt the solder, but with a heat gun, I would worry about unsoldering other components.
<edit>
As an aside, I had problems with all 3 of my neopixel props. The goggles prop had 2 rings inside of goggles with a small microprocessor (Gemma M0 in this case), and a lipo battery that is small enough to fit inside of the goggle. Unfortunately one of the wires to the lipo battery came out between the time when I left the house and when I got to the event.
I also have a wooden bowtie that has a Teensy 4.0 behind the tie, and lipo battery and a single 16-LED ring. In this case, the prop actually worked. The problem was my shirt collar is no longer tight to my throat (due to weight loss), and the tie kept moving down, so it would still work, but you couldn't see the ring or the tie. I think I need to rework the tie so it has clips on either side to attach to the collar so the tie keeps up. I'm thinking about moving the Teensy and battery off of the tie, and just put the microprocessor in a pocket and use an extension cable.