Soldering Pins

[LR_Sul]

Hello,

I was installing RTC to raspberry Pi and soldered only those 6 pins that are used to attach RTC clock, so I am curious if I need to solder the rest?
I soldered only 1,2,3,4,5,6.
This is the type of pins used:
Just wondering if there is any electrical circuit involved that will cause some troubles if not all pins are soldered.

Thanks!

[carbone]

Those are designed to be cut to size. You can see the marking for where to divide between the pins so you can use side cutters or similar to remove the extra pins and save for use in the future.

[alphanumeric]

It should be fine leaving it as is.

[Timescale]

It should be fine, but I would simply solder all the pins because it's practice and it does add a bit of rigidity to the entire connector. It's not like it takes hours!

[alphanumeric]

I would also solder all the pins, but I'm an old hand at soldering, so for me its no big deal.

[LTolledo]

soldering pins 39 and 40 (the far end of the header) will give it better stability that it is now.

however, as with the others before me I recommend soldering all remaining pins as well.

[DougieLawson]

Replace that Zero with a Zero WH (header already soldered in) and save that one without pins for another project.

[LR_Sul]

Hello everyone,

I appreciate your replies and help!
This clears things up.

Thank you!

[carbone]

Forgive me but why spend time soldering pins you don't need when the component is designed to be cut to the length desired?

[Burngate]

Forgive me but why spend time soldering pins you don't need when the component is designed to be cut to the length desired?

Because next week or the week after, your goals will have changed, and you'll need more.

[carbone]

Then you solder in more pins otherwise using the pins you've saved for another project. You can even use two single rows side by side. That's the design.

[HawaiianPi]

Forgive me but why spend time soldering pins you don't need when the component is designed to be cut to the length desired?

It takes far longer to set up my soldering station and wait for it to warm up than it does to actually solder the header. So why would I spend that time and not solder on a full header? It's more versatile and useful to have the full header than a truncated one, and I don't have to waste more time later soldering on more truncated headers if my needs change.

[hippy]

There are pro's and con's no matter what one does.

On some Pi Zeroes and other non-Pi boards I have sometimes only soldered in the headers I need so there's less chance of incorrectly fitting what I connect, miscounting pin numbers.

Normally though I would fit a 2x20 or two 1x20 header, solder every pin, and have done with it.

[alphanumeric]

How proficient you are at soldering factors into it as well. If your new to doing it, and or nervous doing it, your more inclined to only solder the pins you have to. Less chance of botching it up etc.

[HawaiianPi]

How proficient you are at soldering factors into it as well. If your new to doing it, and or nervous doing it, your more inclined to only solder the pins you have to. Less chance of botching it up etc.

The solution to that is purchasing a Pi0WH (with the 2x20 header installed).

Or learn how to solder by practicing on scrap hardware until you are proficient.

[Imperf3kt]

Forgive me but why spend time soldering pins you don't need when the component is designed to be cut to the length desired?

I believe some attachments rely on the unused pins to be soldered for tensile strength - a hat or similar wants to populate 40 pins, and only 6 at one end might not be enough to hold it in place.

[alphanumeric]

I use standoffs when possible to firmly hold my pHat or Hat in place. I don't rely on the GPIO connection to hold things in place. I'm not saying its a bad thing to do, just that I try to avoid it if possible.
And for what its worth, the RTC that the OP connected only has a 6 pin header and is postage stamp sized. It only requires power and the two i2c pins.

[DougieLawson]

How proficient you are at soldering factors into it as well. If your new to doing it, and or nervous doing it, your more inclined to only solder the pins you have to. Less chance of botching it up etc.

The solution to that is purchasing a Pi0WH (with the 2x20 header installed).

Or learn how to solder by practicing on scrap hardware until you are proficient.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/view ... 9#p1604839
Looks like there's an echo in here.