# Spirit Box - I put this in upside down didn’t I



## Oh_Discordia! (Feb 17, 2022)

Took my time, drilled everything properly….damn jacks have nowhere to live.   I’m thinking the reverb module needs to live on the other side of the board.   Yea?


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## Paradox916 (Feb 17, 2022)

Yup, the brick goes on the other side of the board.


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## peccary (Feb 17, 2022)

On the bright side you just got a great opportunity to work on de-soldering.


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## music6000 (Feb 17, 2022)

Lowtide said:


> View attachment 23165
> Took my time, drilled everything properly….damn jacks have nowhere to live.   I’m thinking the reverb module needs to live on the other side of the board.   Yea?



You have a bit of room to lift the pins but don't go to far to try to bend them, they are prone to to break!  
Sits on the Underside as pictured!


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## Oh_Discordia! (Feb 17, 2022)

What’s the best way to approach this?   I tried a (cheap) sucker and some solder wick. Just made myself frustrated.


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## slacjs (Feb 17, 2022)

Lowtide said:


> What’s the best way to approach this?   I tried a (cheap) sucker and some solder wick. Just made myself frustrated.


I find flux makes a huge difference when using wick.


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## peccary (Feb 17, 2022)

Lowtide said:


> What’s the best way to approach this?   I tried a (cheap) sucker and some solder wick. Just made myself frustrated.


De-soldering can be tough and you just have to get a feel for it. If you have some strip board or anything else you can solder some leads to it and practice I think that'd be best. 

I like a solder sucker and use the fancy "Engineer" branded one from Amazon. Lots of people like braid as well, but just find what works best for you. If you start to get frustrated just sit it down and walk away for a while.


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## music6000 (Feb 17, 2022)

Lowtide said:


> What’s the best way to approach this?   I tried a (cheap) sucker and some solder wick. Just made myself frustrated.


Solder some solder on the Pad first then straight away use the Solder Wick, Seems to draw up the solder better!!!


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## jimilee (Feb 17, 2022)

The good news is, you can solder wire to the leads if they break, don’t ask me how I know.


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## flemming (Feb 17, 2022)

If you just snipped the pins off as close to the board as possible do you think you'd have enough left to resolder from other side? I used a leaf style socket for mine and had to cut the pins down a bit on purpose.  See:






						Spirit Box w/ Mods
					

It seems like I was always one part short of finishing this one for months now.  I did the fuzzdog mods changing R4 -> 18k, R8 -> 12k, and the Dwell pot to B25K .  For me the dwell change is honestly probably useless, but there wasn't really a downside.  One thing I did that might be helpful to...




					forum.pedalpcb.com
				




It'll be far easier to remove the remnants of each pin one at a time than to try and get the whole thing out. You could also just tack some wire onto the pins like @jimilee suggested above if you end up a bit short.


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## Oh_Discordia! (Feb 17, 2022)

flemming said:


> If you just snipped the pins off as close to the board as possible do you think you'd have enough left to resolder from other side? I used a leaf style socket for mine and had to cut the pins down a bit on purpose.  See:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


after a 2nd try I've decided to snip/clean out the pads and resolder.   there should be enough pin left even if I need to reshape them to fit through the holes.


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## jimilee (Feb 17, 2022)

Lowtide said:


> after a 2nd try I've decided to snip/clean out the pads and resolder.   there should be enough pin left even if I need to reshape them to fit through the holes.


Good luck and god speed. May the force be with you.


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## JamieJ (Feb 18, 2022)

Get one of these:



			Engineer SS-02 Solder Sucker – Thonk – DIY Synthesizer Kits & Components
		


They make desoldering so much easier.


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## Matmosphere (Feb 18, 2022)

I always use a higher temp when I desolder, especially with solder wick. 

Use a higher temp, be quick with the iron and take your time. This isn’t an in and out in five minute job. 

If you’ve got a cheap solder pump don’t bother with it. The ss-02 works really well because of the silicon tip having a little flexibility to it. Hard tipped ones are not easy to use, especially where there are other components nearby that can get in the way. 

There are good tips above about using wick, flux helps, adding a little solder does sometimes as well. Remember to tin your iron every time you use the wick, cause the wick will suck your tip dry as well and it needs to be tinned to transfer heat to the pad. 

Let the board and pads cool for a little bit between each pad. It might take a couple tries for each, letting things cool between tries will actually make it easier. 

As pointed out by Jimi, you can always run wire if you need to, but hopefully it doesn’t come to that.


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## Matmosphere (Feb 18, 2022)

Also, you could leave it like that and just get a 1590bb and chalk it up to learning. 

Other than the jacks not fitting it should work like that. The pins are all still connected in the correct order.


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## pcb rookie (Feb 18, 2022)

peccary said:


> De-soldering can be tough and you just have to get a feel for it. If you have some strip board or anything else you can solder some leads to it and practice I think that'd be best.
> 
> I like a solder sucker and use the fancy "Engineer" branded one from Amazon. Lots of people like braid as well, but just find what works best for you. If you start to get frustrated just sit it down and walk away for a while.


I've been using the Engineer solder sucker as well for the past few month. There is no going back. The flexible tip and the amount of suction makes it one of the most useful tool in my box ...


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