Desoldering switches

[Andy]

A quick question before I do this.

Any heads up before I desolder the switches on the TinyScreen+? I need to remove them, solder on leads that go to momentary switches that will be on the enclosure I will be making. I am unable to add a breakout board and tap off of that as I am keeping the profile as low as possible.

Thanks in advance if anyone has a "watch out for this..."

[Ben Rose]

I would recommend leaving them on and simply soldering to the leads if possible- they're a bit messy to remove from the board and it's easy to lift the traces afterward. If you need to remove the plastic plunger, you can easily pop the top metal can off that holds it in place.

Otherwise, electrically it's a straightforward swap- one pair of leads to an IO pin on the microcontroller, one pair to ground.

[Andy]

Thanks Ben,

Good point on the traces lifting! I can just leave the plungers there as they will not be accessible. I'm going to take pics along the way with a write up and send it over to you when done in case it is of any use.

[Andy]

Unfortunately the base of the switch is plastic with those 2 little plugs going into the board. That plastic melts and makes a mess (like glue gun poop) so I wound up having to completely remove the switches down to the solder pads. That gave me more room to use as I put 30 gauge leads on them. Since the switches are surface mount they don't really tear up the solder pads or traces fortunately when removed.

Next time you are getting panels, could you have 2 boards on a panel not have the switches populated for me? That would save me the desoldering.