How to solder headers to board

@ronalex4203

Personally, I usually set it to about 300 C for normal stuff and 350-400C when I'm working on something with more metal or surface area.

Just try at some temp that melts the solder easily, try higher and lower values and stop when you get something that melts the solder easily in what YOU feel is a comfortable amount of time.

Also, you'll find your life much easier if you use leaded solder (prepares for flames from rest of forum 🙂

@will I have 1 roll of very thin (0.8mm) solder with a flux core. It's 60/40 Tin/Lead. This roll will likely last me the rest of my life so it is what it is.

@ronalex4203 

Sounds perfect, that's what I use all the time.

Although I do have a small roll of 2mm w/ flux that I only use to add a dob of solder on the tip after I turn it off.

@will I just discovered 1/2 my soldering station isn't working. It's the part I have never seen before, it blows hot air through various nozzles. I think it's for de-soldering. I am sure it was working but I also think I dropped it one day and now the temperature lights do not light up and of course no hot air. Any ideas where to start, I am relatively comfortable opening it up and probing the guts with my VOM, but not sure where to start.

@ronalex4203 

That part of the station is primarily used for surface mount devices (SMD), so you won't need it at all until/unless you get into SMD construction. Don't worry about it.

For normal (iron) soldering, it's great for blowing on shrink-wrap tubing to get it to contract around the joint. You can always use a lighter or the hot side of the iron to shrink that.

@will I have a big and medium heat gun but would love to have that small one as well. When I have a lull in my other projects I will put on my detective cap and see if I can find out what is wrong.

BTW, I just finished the 2 side headers and did the 9V battery test. The one marked 5 is in fact the 5V board. Next I will check the other board to make sure it's 3.3V. Thanks for the solution!

Looking at the board, on the end nearest the reset switch are 3 holes marked GND, A6, and A7 with GND in the middle. All the enclosed headers are accounted for. My guess is they are Address 6 and 7 and jumping one of those to GND changes the board behaviour in some way.

@ronalex4203 

The pins labeled with an "A" are analog pins. The other pins can register HIGH and LOW (VCC and GND) whereas the A0-A7 pins can measure VCC in steps from 0-1023.

Don't connect the A6  or A7 pins to GND. They're input only pins.

I suggest that you Google the pin layout for the Pro Mini and study the organization and use of the pins. Pay special attention to the A0-A7 and also the PWM capable pins.

Posted by: @ronalex4203

I have never worked with headers and PCB boards. I think I stick the headers into a solderless breadboard then solder away. My concern is heat and plastic don't mix well. Is there another way?

I share your concerns about plastic... I was particularly concerned about the plastic that holds the solderless breadboard contact springs in place, as the heat will travel through the pins, across the contacts, and into the frame.

My approach is to use a stack of PCB prototyping boards as a base to solder on. Something like this. I use them for projects fairly frequently anyways.

@jker That's an interesting idea. I will need to find a Canadian (cheap) source, that ebay item does not ship to Canada. The same item is on amazon.ca for about $1 more and free shipping. Even better deals on aliexpress, but the wait is much longer.

I have done a couple boards with no problems using the breadboard. The only issue I had was a pin melted it's plastic holder and dropped down. The continuity test was ok, so no real harm. I haven't done any amount of soldering in probably 40+ years so I am re-learning. Much different now, I actually got rid of my old Weller gun when we down sized. about 5 years ago. Now I just found out the hot air thing on my new soldering station isn't working. Opened the case but nothing obvious. I think I will ask for recomendations over on the tools forum.