I have one of those Arduino Pro mini's that I use in a LED project. The case for this project contains both the PCB and the LED's. When the LED's aren't on the on-board LED for the Arduino is very bright. I've tried to desolder this SMD led but I cannot do it.
Do you have tips on how to do this? My soldering tip is small enough to heat the pads. My smallest tweezers were too big
Any alternatives to desoldering? E.g. can I create a jumper wire that goes to ground and pull down the current? Which side do I use?
Practice more. Obtain better tools. You cannot pull one side to Gnd - that would be like shorting power to Gnd. You could jumper across it - but if you could manage that, I would think you could just as readily remove it.
Do you have a good reference somewhere? I've found some YouTube stuff but nothing so far that has given me the insight I need. Obviously a better tweezer will be neccessary but the problem I have is that when I desolder one side, the other side is still attached.
Meanwhile, I broke it off by chiselling at it with the tweezers. Still works ... ;D
I have a few bricked boards so I will practice on those. I do have a feeling that this particular SMD led is a little too tiny to start with.
thanks again and if you have a few references that would be great.
CrossRoads:
I have a hot air rework station, makes it easy.
With standard soldering iron, just need to move quickly from side to side.
my experience is, if the LED won't be used again, try to pry your tweezers underneath the LED and heat one pad. then lift it and heat the other pad to remove it totally.
Another tip, try to first ADD some solder. It will cause the heat to get around corners more quickly and liquefy the solder all around.
Often it's easier to remove the resistor in series with the LED rather than the LED itself. On the Pro Mini, this resistor is on the other side of the voltage regulator, closer towards the FTDI pins.
