Adding M2 slot to 2 x m920q - questions on soldering

[alexruffell]

Thank you so much for this guide!! I've been researching whether it was possible for close to 2 years and finally found your awesome guide. I purchased all the materials from Mouser as per your list.

I have both a Weller 1010NA with a variety of tips (several of which have tiny tips ~1.5mm) and a Quick hot air station which I am not super familiar with yet. What method you you recommend for soldering the components? I have syringe with flux and solder paste as well as the 0.8mm solder wire.

Did you pull the board out of the chassis? I am guessing you did but just wondering as leaving it in the chassis would protect it a bit more.

[badger707]

@alexruffell I have used Pinecil soldering iron (Pine64) with KU tip, 0.8 solder wire, some noname "no clean" flux in syringe, desoldering wick/braid, iFixit tweezers, no hot air. You must take out the board for sure - need easy access to all soldering spots, especially new m.2 connector. Soldering steps are pretty classic - clean pads with flux and desoldering wick/braid, apply a little bit of flux on pads (if flux is not transparent and you can not see pads then you can heat up flux on applied pad with soldering iron tip), grab component with tweezers and put to spot, add some solder on soldering iron tip and touch both component ends while still holding with tweezers. Make sure you have enough flux. Solder paste & hot air - too messy and disaster waiting to happen if not experienced enough.

[alexruffell]

@badger707 This was the first time I embarked in such a mod and thought I had destroyed the motherboard many times as I did not think I could get it done... especially when I had to remove the NVME connector the first time around because I botched the first attempt. BUT, it is working now!!

Below are a few pictures of my crappy work. I had to do everything under a usb microscope because I don't have a stereo optical microscope. I used a Weller 1010NA soldering station, and quite a few different tips trying to replicate what I saw online on how to solder these tiny components. Easier said than done.

The connector, however, is not a good fit for the pads. It leaves little to no pad space on the front (under SSD). It took me dozens of attempts for all pins and 2 connectors. I have another system that I'd like to mod but not with this connector... I need to find one similar to the original one. Any idea what the PN is?

The pins kept bridging and even when they looked fine, I found tons of shorts. Even though I cleaned the pads off of the unleaded solder, put some leaded solder on, and cleaned them off again, I had a super hard time to wet the cleaned off pads with enough (but not too much) solder and often the pins where not adhering. On my second go, I left I tiny layer of solder on the pads thinking it would help but ended up with the feet being raised so the flux would get in between the feet and the pads. In the end I had to push each pin down with a tweezer tip and solder it individually. I tested all pins for loose ones (tons at first) and for shorts once done (found several). The only way to get rid of those was to warm then adjacent pins up with a chisel tip wet with a tiny bit of solder and if planets aligned it would "pop" the joints into place (can't think of how to explain it but that is what youtube video said to do and I only occasionally succeeded doing it)