I received my units and want to make sure I don’t jack anything up. I have the soldering supplies . My question specifically is would it make sense to solder on a female header to the unit and just solder the male header to the screen? I obviously would have to purchase a female header at Microcenter. It seems like the screen would be attached flimsy otherwise. Maybe I am overthinking this and the female header is overkill.
I am not a practiced solderer so I will be practicing a bit beforehand but I am worried. Thanks and sorry for such an elementary question. I am located in Denver area so if anyone is around perhaps we can mesh it up in the future.
Good morning @cjlos welcome to the meshtastic community!
I think soldering a female connector on the board is a good option in case you want to change the screen or if the screen breaks
Also you can put a dupont cable to extend it
Now if you are afraid that it will be a bit weak you can connect more pins than necessary, not only the i2c and power, so you can have the gpio available
You could also ask for help at a hackspace in Denver
If you use headers, you may find that the screen is very far above the board, and this will restrict you from using the common 3d-printed case designs (as they assume screen is close to the board). Otherwise headers are a good idea.
I did remove a screen from one of my T-beams, and it was pretty hard to do without damage. I’d try some dupont/ribbon cable if I was going to do it again. Also take care to get the screen straight, hold it firmly in place before soldering - most of mine are wonky. Nonetheless the screens are cheap - no big deal if you mess it up.
Well I killed my first unit LOL. The units are t-beams. I think I may need a better soldering iron or station as the one I have does not seem to get hot enough and I have to hold it on the pins/pads too long and melt the solder. The other one which was the same cheapie model did not heat up at all. That’s my story anyway. After practicing on the first unit it is obvious that no femaie header is needed. This is a hobby activity so I am not interested in having someone else do it.for me. I bought extra screens which was a good thing. Thanks all for the advice. I will slink back to the basement once I upgrade the iron.
Thats a possibility as I have used those in the past to attach to a lcd hat to a pi zero a few years back. I kind of want/need to develop soldering skills. I would like to do other soldering projects as well so it is an excuse to upgrade. Thanks for a great suggestion.
