Many SMD components, including some USB C ports, have their terminals under the component. When installed, the pins are totally hidden. So, how do you solder or unsolder them? That’s the problem [Learn Electronics Repair] encountered when fixing a Lenovo Yoga, and he shows us his solution in the video below.
He showed the removal in a previous video, but removal is a bit easier since you can just heat up the area, yank the connector, and then clean up the resulting mess at your leisure. Installation is harder because once the socket is down, you no longer have access to the pads.
Unsurprisingly, the process starts out with plenty of flux and some hot air to preheat the pads. he then tins the pads with a conventional soldering iron. The penultimate step is to align the connector and preheat it almost to the melting point. Then hot air reflows the solder beneath the connector.
We were worried he might disturb the adjacent components, but he has a steady hand. We might have masked the area off with Kapton tape.
The result looked good. We’d encourage you to test for shorts or opens electrically where possible. High-end techs can inspect with X-ray, but most of us don’t have that kind of gear.
If you need some SMD practice, there are plenty of kits to try. Just remember that when doing SMD sometimes less is more.
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