Soldered J3 and J4 upside down

[cominginsecond]

By mistake I soldered J3 and J4, the input and output jumpers, upside down. The black part of the connector is still on top of the board, but with the short pins up rather than the long pins. I really would like to avoid trying to remove a multi-pin component if at all possible. Is there any reason why I can't just solder the jumpers on the short pins? I can't think of any myself, but I'm not knowledgeable in electronics.

[tele_player]

There's no electronic reason to do the jumpers one way or another, and in most cases, the jumpers on this board are set once, so they can just be done with soldered wires.

Me? I'd remove them, and do them correctly. It's not THAT hard to do. An extra pair of hands can help for this.

[cominginsecond]

Thanks.

How would you go about removing it? Tim mentions using a heat gun, but I don't have one. Do you know of a way to simultaneously heat all the leads or pads in the connector and pull the part out at the same time without a heat gun?

[tele_player]

I'd first remove as much solder as possible with solder wick (desoldering braid), then have a helper apply a gentle pull with pliers while I heat the pins with the soldering iron. After removal, clean up the holes with solder wick and reinstall.

Care must be taken to not overheat the pads, which makes them much easier to lift while removing the part.

Or you could just solder wire jumpers across what you've got, in the default settings. That's correct in nearly all cases.

[cominginsecond]

Thanks for the tip. I think I'll try to remove it, and if it gets too "scary," I'll just solder the wire jumpers.

I'm kind of anal and I'd prefer to do things the "official" way, if at all possible, but it's obviously better to improvise than to ruin the board.

[cominginsecond]

So I ended up clipping the part out of the holes and simply soldering a wire from hole 2 to hole 3. The problem is, I scratched the PCB in the process, and now there's a copper colored scratch. Is this something I should be concerned about, do you think?

[tele_player]

A scratch isn't really a problem. The green coating on the board is called 'solder mask', and its main purpose (besides looking good) is to prevent solder sticking anywhere but on the solder pads. If your scratch hasn't damaged any traces, it won't cause a problem.

[cominginsecond]

Thanks. You've been immensely helpful!