So I got a soldering iron and some Flux as suggested a while back.
My issue this time was I was soldering header pins to a motor shield. I was soldering a row of header pins right next to an existing row on the shield. So I inserted the pins into the holes and to be able to solder the short side of the pins, I had to turn the shield over. But after soldering I noticed the header pin row had shifted and the result was an un-leveled row of pins.
What is the correct way to do this such that the row of header pins doesn't move around while soldering?
Oh crap, I just noticed I soldered the row upside down anyway!
Solder the two outside pins first.
Pick the board up in your free hand, lightly press on the header while reheating the solder on an outside pin.
This will flush that side of the header row to the PCB.
Repeat with the other soldered pin.
Next make sure the header pins are at 90 degrees to the PCB, reheat and position as needed.
Finally solder the remaining inside pins (use flux).
Oh crap, I just noticed I soldered the row upside down anyway!
Sh*t happens.
Use flush cut nippers to remove each pin up to the plastic.
Carefully pull off the plastic.
Heat solder one pin at a time lightly pull on the pin with tweezers to remove.
Apply flux to solder on the header holes.
Use solder wick (with flux) to remove the solder from each hole.
Solder new header in place, on the correct side
If its a shield plug the headers into the Arduino and the shield can be soldered with all
the headers held in the correct position by the Arduino's sockets.
It is a shield but the header pins I'm soldering are not "shield pins" in the sense that they don't go into the board. They are additional pins that adding to the shield.
I figured out it wasn't going to be easy to solder-OUT the old pins. So I decided on a two step process:
1). Push the old pins out for the top using the soldering iron tip. Which I did until the point where the tips of the pins were flush with the pcb
2). Use the new header pin set to push out the old ones out the bottom as I heated the top-new-header pins.
I sorta got it but now I have both the new-top pins and the old-bottom pins stuck to the pcb. The bottom ones are bent and I even melted the plastic on them. I don't know how to finish the job of pushing the old ones out.
I usually have very small spring clamps kicking around to make sure that header pins are both held down in the correct orientation and orthogonal to the board. I hold down the row on the opposite end that I start soldering, and once the first pin has been set in place I am free to remove the clamp.
The pictures make me think you are trying to solder the pins on both sides of the circuit board. The holes in the board are plated-through, so solder the easy to get to side. The solder will wick into the hole and firmly solder the pin.
Thanks. No, the problem was I put the pins in the wrong way. The long pins were supposed to be facing up on the shield so that the actual shield-pins-that-connect-to-arduino are facing the other way.
