Null 2 soldering pi zero onto board

[craytron]

So.. I'm new to all this, and I'm pretty sure I ruined both my pi zero and my null 2 board in trying to solder the pi onto it. Any tips or tricks or any ways to salvage this? I literally couldn't get the second pin I tried soldering to connect. Pretty frustrated. Now they are taken apart and pretty sure I pulled the lead out of one of them in doing so.

What is the trick to this? so many youtube videos make this look simple and IT'S NOT!

[rodocop]

Got any pics of what you did so we can help determine if it is actually ruined?

As for tips, make sure you have a solder tip that can fit in the pi's GPIO hole. What I would do is use tape, or little clamps to hold the pi in place. Add liquid flux. Then solder the GPIO's. So put the solder tip into the hole, and then feed some solder into it. Then remove the soldering iron. Sometimes it helps to use a small piece of wire too, so after you get solder into the hole, heat it again to molten, and then push the wire in, this can help the solder flow to the pad below.

The Ground and 5V GPIO may be a little tougher to get a good connections. Check out the minty pi videos wermy has on youtube. I think in one of them he shows how to solder the pi to the minty pi PCB, you will use the same method for the null2.

[rodocop]

These practice boards by Helder are great too. I reccomend getting some if you are new to soldering. Since flush mount soldering the pi is not that easy for a beginner.

https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/UTRejiOx

https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/voiBAAlu

[craytron]

I used the practice boards from Helder. However, I think those messed me up - because the testing pads and the GPIO holes kind of made sense when lining up. However the Null 2 test pads and GPIO holes don't follow a similar pattern and I overreacted when I wasn't getting tone from my multimeter and I think I just freaked out on it. I'm assuming this isn't salvageable??

[superbuzz]

hey, looks salvageable, but won't be as pretty.
Solder the rest of the holes on the pi as needed. then, for these two where you lifted the traces, either
a) find where the traces lead, get some really fine wire and solder from the pi to the endpoint of the traces
or
b) scratch a bit of the black surface layer off to expose the copper track, and solder the wire from the GPIO pin to the exposed copper.
Hope that makes sense.

[rodocop]

yeah, looks not bad. As mentioned above should be good to go. If those GPIO's are used for anything there should be a corresponding test pad for them, if needed you can just run a small wire from the pi to that test pad. Make sure you clean that residual solder before you try to solder the pi again.

[craytron]

I think the only one that might be a pain is that first pad: DIN. The second pad isn't used by the Null 2 as far as I can tell. The rest should be good to go as long as the Pi is Ok - does that sound right?

[craytron]

Also.. what's the best way to clean out that solder in the pi?

[rodocop]

Also.. what's the best way to clean out that solder in the pi?

I'd use some solder wick.

But you could also use a little solder pump, or even just brush a hot iron across it and see if you can drag some off.