Pi zero male header soldered upside-down

Hello! I’ve just bought a raspberry zero starter kit together with the envirophat.

I was following the tutorial on how to assemble the envirophat when I realized that I had soldered the male header of the raspberry pi zero in the wrong order. (Pic here: https://prnt.sc/mksh1n)

I would like to know if the envirophat would be still be usable in the case that I assemble the pibow case.

Furthermore I would like to know if I can stack the Blinkit board as well and how should I do it since it’s my first electronic project. For instance, how do you “secure” the male/female headers together? Just by applying pressure or do I need something else.

Thanks!

thats solder on the right way, the enviro pHAT goes on top of the pi, and yes it just connects with the pressure it takes to push it onto the Pi,.and the case will work ,because the phat is on the top … check the picture of it all together , here
https://learn.pimoroni.com/tutorial/sandyj/getting-started-with-enviro-phat

Thank you for the quick reply!

Pins got soldered below the line of the pi zero board. So, if I have to make the squared pins match on the envirophat and on the pizero, they enviro will be placed below (https://prnt.sc/mkstbn).

The pictures from the tutorial don’t match my setup facepalm.

sorry about that ,my bad your are right ,I was thinking the sd card was under the zero,but it will work placed below , if the pins are soldered on correctly

Do you think that the sensors will be interefed if they are “looking” to the inside even though the pi wll be inside the case?

Is it possible to stack the blinkit as well?

Thanks!

You can check here to see if they can be put together .
https://pinout.xyz/phatstack
not sure how the sensors will react ,sorry , but i think they might
i use these for multiple hats\phat
https://shop.pimoroni.com/?q=Black%20HAT%20Hack3

If you solder the female header on the enviro hat so its on the top instead of the bottom, you could then plug it into that Pi Zero and it would work. The Pi Zero would plug in on top of the Enviro Phat instead of under it. Any other way and you get the connections crossed and bad things are likely to happen. You’ll only ever be able to use that enviro phat on that Pi Zero though.

Soldering the male header on the wrong side flips the pins around. Pin 1 becomes pin 2 and pin 2 pin 1 etc. Lay the Pi zero down with the header pointing up. Then look and see where pin 1 is. Its the square solder pad. It should be as follows
2 4 6…
1 3 5…
Yours will be
1 3 5 …
2 4 6…

I can see why Jack missed it was reversed at first, all other Pi’s have the micro SD card slot on the bottom, not the top.

If you haven’t soldered the header on the enviro phat yet, you have options.
Buy anther Pi zero and solder the header on the correct way.
Or try to unsolder the current header. Not for the novice IMHO.
One way to do it is to carefully remove that black plastic base part. Once you get it moving it should slide right off. Don’t worry about bending the pins, they are coming out anyway. Just don’t scratch of damage the Pi zero.
Once thats off, heat up you soldering iron and touch the solder pad for a pin. When the solder melts a gentile tap down should have the pin fall out. Hold the Pi zero in your hand long side of the pins pointing down, solder pad up. As soon as the solder melts tap your hand on your workbench like your knocking on a door. The pin and most of the solder should come out. I’d do every second or third pin then go back and do the ones you skipped. It will spread the heat out and help prevent any damage.
Once all the pins are out, then go back and clean up any pads blocked by solder.

Even with the header in backwards, that Pi is still usable for other things. Or with female jumper wires etc. Just double check what pins you have your jumpers on.

Thanks for your detailed answered, alphanumeric!

This is the first time I’m actually soldering on a circuit board. I tried using a soldering wick and removing the soldered joints but it was impossible. It may not be instant to translate a skill from youtube to your own hands haha. Although I did not try to do exactly what you say. I might give it a try anyway.

What you’re saying about the connectors is, basically, match the square connectors and it will be fine, right? Because if it is usable, y might try that option since it’s the cheapest and the less dangerous.

Thanks for the links! They should be compatible! :D

Yes, the square solder pad marks pin 1. If pin 1 on the Pi goes to pin 1 on the pHat the others will all be correct.
Circuit boards have what they call a component side and a solder side. In the old days anyway. lol.
Your resistors and capacitors were inserted from the top (component side) and soldered on the back side (solder side). Everything is SMT Surface Mount Technology now a days though.
Anyway as long as both your Pi Zero and the enviro pHat have thier component sides pointing up (both in the same direction), everything should be fine. You’ll just have them in reverse order. Normally its Pi on the bottom Hat on top. Nothing wrong with phat on bottom and Pi on top. It just makes them incompatible with doing it the normal way.
I’m an electronic technician by trade. I tied to remove a GPIO header with solder wick once. It didn’t go well. I now have a vacuum pump solder sucker. Even with that trying to unsolder 40 pins is no easy feat. I do it the way I mentioned, pull one pin out at a time.

Excellent answer. Thank you very much.

Do you think that is it relatively safe to remove the male header in the way you’ve described it? And do you think that the sensors of the envirophat will be affected if put below the pi zero, and facing towards the back of the pibow? Because I think that I can get it to work like that.

Thanks again!

Removing the header, no matter which way you do it has some risks. The heat from the iron isn’t good if its held on too long etc. You could also lift a pad off of the board, or damage it in some other way.
I wouldn’t try it on a more expensive model like PI 3 B for instance. I’ve done what I described with 6 and 8 pin headers. I had a powerboost 1000c fail on me. I had to remove one from another project as a replacement. I unsoldered the pins with my solder sucker but it would not let go. I pulled the black plastic part off and pulled the pins one by one. Then soldered on a new header and I was back in business.

Having the Pi on top may be better for the temperature sensor. Heat rises. Might not be so good for the light sensor though, if you use that sensor.

I’ve done non standard setups. Like putting a female header on the bottom side of a Pi Zero instead of a male header on top. It lets me plug the Pi Zero directly into the pHat Stack or Mini Black Hat Hack3r without having to use the ribbon cable. In your case two wrongs do make a right. ;)

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Real easy cure for pi zero pins soldered upside-down.
you will need a 40 pin complete ribbon cable and 2x20 or 40 double long male header (male header on top & bottom).
plug the ribbon cable onto the upside down pi zero header, on the other open end of the ribbon cable have the dbl long or dbl male header plugged in.
now you have a traditional orientated header coming out of the ribbon cable facing up. remember a ribbon cable mirrors itself in connections. so since the header enters down into on end of the ribbon cable the other end mirrors that coming up. the ribbon cable has female ends that is why you will need double male 2x20 rows of pins to reverse the mirrored end from female to male to have a traditional male rPi gpio.

This will work too


Female header pointing up, and a male header pointing up.
Plugging a Hat or pHat in may be tricky though, you’d have to use booster header, or two.
Another option would be a solder yourself pHat Stack or mini Black Hat Hak3r board. Swap in a female header for one of the male headers and plug the zero into that. Plugging in a Hat or pHat would be easier.