Removed a large switch, is the board okay?

flipmodemedian

New member
Well, I'm building the Spatialist and I managed to solder the 1P8T switch to the wrong (top) side of the board. Great job, me. The switch has 9 pins, 8 of them in a circle and the 9th in the middle.

Tried to desolder it and did not have much success. There was almost no clearance between the board and two of the pins on the outside circle on the top of the board...and then there's that 9th pin, which is impossible to reach from the top of the board. So, after wicking and sucking and wicking some more, I still could not get the thing off. I really didn't want to damage the two ICs next to it, so I was also trying to be judicious with how much time I spent applying heat to the board in any one area.

Ultimately, I decided to sacrifice the switch and just clip it off. That worked, but my snips rubbed some of the coating off the board, exposing some copper underneath. I'm particularly worried about a potential short at that large scrape on the right. Just not sure if I can try and finalize this thing, or if I need to try and salvage what components I can off the board and build it on a new one.

Learning lessons everyday 🫠 Thanks for any thoughts.

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A few things...

1) We can check the switch connections with some continuity tests, I'll post a trace image in a bit

2) Next time put the 24LC32A in a socket. You very likely might want to swap that / re-program it at some point

3) You do realize you have the switch on the wrong side of the board now, right? The rotary switch and pots go on the back side, opposite to the rest of the components
 
Aquire a multi meter and use your continuity mode to check if there are any connections where there shouldn't be. Your board looks okay, but I would run a bit more solder over your 24LC32A IC's pin 1 as it looks a little wonky from the photo.

For solder wick I like to use superwick 425-lf, it's really good. The trick with removing stuff is to take your time and get all the solder out without overheating the board, before gently working the part back and forth. Sacrificing the switch was the right call
 
This really should be a fairly easy fix, even in the worst case scenario, and that's assuming a fix is required at all.

If the absolute worst happens don't trash the board... I can salvage the FV-1 IC for you. (Hopefully not necessary)
 
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