I am trying to use the P5 header on the RasPi for soldering a switch to act as a safe shutdown button. But I am unable to solder the connections onto the headers. The reason for this, I believe, is the lacquer coating on the PCB. I tried acetone (nail polish remover) and isopropyl alcohol to remove the coating but neither of them worked. Several videos on the internet seem to be soldering components onto the Pi with relative ease.
How can I make this work?
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1I have never had to solder to the Pi, but have on many other similar boards e.g. Gertboard. I don't think there is any coating. I suspect your problem is different. I agree it can be difficult to melt the existing solder as this is lead free, and and has a high melting point. This can be a problem with the soldering irons used by many hobbyists. If you have an adjustable iron use a higher setting and make sure you have wetted the iron to ensure heat transfer to the board.– MilliwaysCommented Sep 29, 2014 at 10:48
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1Also, try to scratch a bit the pins with a file– RobertoCommented Sep 29, 2014 at 11:34
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1Try increasing your irons temperature and/or add some solder to the pads first (afterwards remove any excess)– GerbenCommented Sep 29, 2014 at 15:28
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Or just make a small breadboard that sits on top of it or use some mosfet header pins to make a clean connection– PariahCommented Sep 30, 2014 at 10:01
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Soldering to the board is a serious commitment to you own ideas, I think the fun just starts there. ;-) By all means, solder away! I had a cheap and clumsy soldering iron at first and it was almost impossible to solder anything with it. Very frustrating. I switched to a solder station with adjustable temparature etc. This is probably what you need. What you describe sounds a lot, like the material you want to connect to is not hot enough, so wetting the iron like @Milliways describes does probably the trick.– StowodaCommented Feb 3, 2017 at 21:52
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1 Answer
I would definitely recommend you not to solder directly to your Pi. In my opinion, it is too easy to do damage to the device with the soldering iron.
Consider using some kind of connector between the pi and what you are soldering - so that it can be kept separate while you're doing the soldering itself. An example would be a GPIO header.
