Apologies complete novice here. I bought a Raspberry Pi Pico and RGB keypad with the express intention to learn about microprocessors. I managed to get the RGB Keypad demo.py to run. The buttons all light up one calour but the keys do nothing - so I assume I have a bad solder joint.
Attaching the headers was my first attempt at soldering and I may well have damaged the pins or the pico. Any tips or pins I should be focusing on? Or is is a software thing I have missed?
Thanks in advance.
Could you post some pictures of your soldering? That would really help.
Adafruit’s soldering guide is pretty good and shows you what problem joints will look like.
Ditto to what Shoe posted. Pictures will help.
The Ultimate Guide to Soldering - Pimoroni Yarr-niversity
Thank you both for the pointers - that is very useful. I am new to soldering and at 54 my eyesight is not the best. I was using a pointed tip and probably far too much heat.
I am not sure I am ready to make the next soldering meme by posting a photo of the carnage! I bought a solder station kit from amazon specifically for this job and while the basic iron is fine, the solder sucker and other bits are very poor. I should have got better tools, been better prepped and asked here first!
Thank you again - I will buy another board and headers and I will get some braid and clean this one up and try again.
Soldering is an acquired skill that takes a bit of practice to get good at. I’ve been doing it for a long long time and can relate to the eyesight part. I’m 63 and wear bifocals.
Something like this is handy to practice on, Mini Protoboard – Pimoroni
Even if its just some spare headers or jumper wire.
If you have never done it before it can be intimating, especially if what your working on is on the pricy side of things.
Thank you again - I will buy another board and headers
These things can often be rescued from less than ideal soldering jobs, once you get the braid it might be worth trying to rescue the board. As long as it isn’t at the point of being scorched with pads lifting off it should be OK.
If you carefully remove the black frame from around the pins they should just fall out when you reheat the solder joint. Once it starts moving it should slide of. Just cut the pins off flush with the top of it and lift one end. This is of course if your going to use new headers.
If you can get all the pins out it I would think it will be easier to clean up what’s left with the braid.