Beginner question re: 3PDT breakout board (Pharmacist build)

[gabbaghoul]

Hi all - trying to wire up a newly built Pharmacist, unfortunately as a beginner I got some solder stuck in one of the small holes on the included breakoutboard and can't clear it for the life of me. I scrounged around and found a couple unused pedalpcb breakout boards - one with 7 holes, and one with 6 like the one included in my kit. Would either of these be able to replace it? Pic attached - thanks so much for your help!

 

[chris.knudson]

Yes, you could probably use either one of those, but why don't you try salvaging the one with the solder in the hole. There are four things you can do (actually probably more than that, but I'm going to give you four options here).

1. Heat the pad, and stick a toothpick through the hole - the toothpick won't bond to the pad, and you can pull it out leaving the hole open.
2. Heat up the pad, and just stick the wire through. This is my favorite option -- super simple, no fuss way to get a component into a hole that has solder in it -- (works best with solid core wire)
3. Use a solder sucker. If you have a solder sucker, it's pretty easy to stand the pcb vertically in a clamp, and apply heat to one side of the pad, while getting a good flush connections with the solder sucker to the other side of the pad, and POW -- one click of the thumb press and the hole is nice and clean and ready for a fresh insertion (phrasing).
4. Use some solder wick -- I'll admit that this isn't the best option (sometimes makes more of a mess that it fixes). It is an option.

 

[Robert]

The breakout board on the left should work, but the LED / GND pads are reversed so you'd have to do some wire yoga. The breakout board on the right is meant for a buffered bypass PCB so wouldn't be the best match.

As for salvaging yours, the wire doesn't necessarily have to go through the PCB, you could put a little blob of solder on the pad and surface mount the wire.

 

[spi]

If you don't have good solder sucker, try a needle. I heat up the solder (sometimes it takes adding more solder to allow it to get a nice pool), then stick a needle through to clear the hole.

 

[gabbaghoul]

Thanks so much, everyone! I'll take another run at it. I didn't want to damage the pad, but I obviously have way more options than I considered.