Bent leads to unbend help

I ordered a 37 in 1 sensor kit and it showed up like this in a single bag.

Many of the solid wire surface mounted components like leds, or mucury switch and other parts using the type of lead a resistor/led have where once you bend it will all most forsure snap if you try to rebend it back.

How can i restore the original shapre of these wires in a pretty close state without snapping them?

Also if any do snap and theres not enough length left to re mount how can i fix / replace the lead?

Thanks.

those are meant to be at 90°

is that your question ?

if you don't like them, you unsolder the headers and solder something else - straight or just wires
they don't break easily though, so they can take a bit of abuse (slide them in a breadboard and change the angle a bit)

PS/ some other sellers do a better job at packing their sensors in a kit...






No i mean the longer ones between the soldered on part and the solder connection.

Wither many are deformed or twisted or bent, or just at a different orientation than the state in the example pics.

Your examples show horrible soldering as well as too long and bent leads. Likely done by teenagers being conscripted to work in a government factory and had to produce a set number of board per hour.

But the long leads on the LEDs could be there for heat dissipation reasons. The others, there is no valid reason.

Regardless of why they are as such, the orig question is how to take this type of metal wire and rebend it without snapping it, and if it does snap how to replace it or solder the fracture or some other method.

Also, im not sure if the angle / direction off board matters on aome of these.
As the pic shows the wire on some being 90 degs or more different alignment than mine, (in terms of the ones not deformed and had been made that way, so not sure if i should leave it, or bend it to match example pic.

Use one or two needle nose pliers to straighten the leads. All of the pictures show plated copper leads. A few of the devices may use a steel alloy because they match the expansion of the glass part of the component. Both type of metal leads are easily straightened with the pliers.

If I'm worried about the wire from the bend possibly snapping , could I heat it up with the soldering pen enough to not melt the solder at the end of the lead to hopefully allow the reforming of the shape to have more flexibility or something.

Or with this actually make it more likely to snap?
On the ones that you say there's way too much wire length would I be better off just unsoldering them and resoldering it clipping off the excess wire so that it's less likely to bend in the future?

And if I was to do that how do I determine which of these 37 sensors should have the extra length versus shouldn't and if the angle it's mounted at really matters?

The actual truth is you should quit worrying about what might be and begin to use the boards. You can likely bend each lead a dozen times without is breaking.

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@mythn7 Indeed what @Paul_KD7HB said is right, they can have some bending. And what he said in the post before is also truth. Be aware of a good soldering nose, not too big and not too heat.

You can also use a little bit flux for smd components and paste , but be aware not too make the soldering too hot, use a soldering station which you can control and use a fine head like mentioned before. Some people use flux and a hair dryer to unsolder a component, but it´s risky I guess you need a good solder.
I´ve done it once with a smd pic on a tft screen and unsoldering a component before but it isn´t that easy. With 2 wires or connections, it won´t be a big problem but with headers or pics is something else.
The flux can be removed with pure alcohol or isopropyl alcohol.

Good luck!

That’s clearly a very crappy kit you got there… hopefully it was really cheap…

The bending of some of the components is not too bad, and it does not matter much for the functioning of the sensor as long as leads do not touch each other. Don’t apply string pressure just at the base of the component or soldering point.

The quality of the soldering for some elements is more worrisome…

What you mean by string pressure?

Typo - I meant a strong pressure

This knock sensor (the clear part) is normally crooked/angled like this. The legs are normally bent at 90 degrees to let the device "stand up" in a breadboard. This one looks good to me.

knock

Here is one on ebay.

This tilt sensor is fine in any state above 90 degrees. The mercury will open the circuit if the device is bumped even lightly. Bend to your desired "level"

This looks like a two-axis tilt sensor. This device expects to be moved. The shrink tube on the legs indicates the legs will probably be bent (and avoids shorts) to the need of the project.

This is a vibration sensor. It matters not how the glass tube rests. It is more sensitive than the knock sensor, but does the same work.

All of these leads/legs are soft, malleable metal. Bend the legs as you see fit, with your fingers if you want.

Hi, @mythn7

I suggest you stop "overthinking" the situation and get a pair of pliers and gently bend the components back into line.
The wires didn't break getting into those shapes and it will be highly unlikely they will break if bend them back.

Can you please tell us your electronics, programming, arduino, hardware experience?

Thanks.. Tom... :grinning: :+1: :coffee: :australia:

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