ways to eliminate unnecessary soldering

[jschrier]

I've been observing students have trouble with the soldering for making custom wires. Admittedly this is a pain. Some ways to eliminate this:

1. Use stepper motors 1 2 with JST or DuPont connectors (rather than bare wires) already attached to simplify the process. This will necessitate adding the proper header (if not DuPont) on to the PCB
2. Use crimpable connectors to JST or find limit switches with JST connector cables attached to eliminate the need to solder these on (or at least make the attachment easier). Need to add JST headers to PCB
3. Can also use momentary pushbuttons with crimpable contacts1 2 and use the crimpable->JST connectors above , and add PCB boards
4. Take advantage of the castellated Raspberry Pi Pico pcb to avoid having to solder header pins on to pico and cut pins

(not a concern with the pumps)

[jschrier]

Partially inspired by these ClipZin connectors for RPi Pico. (which are kind of unnecessary for our purposes)

[rodolfokeesey]

All good ideas! I think with some sourcing we can find pancake steppers with connectors already attached. Alternatively, if sourcing is difficult, we can use 1.8 degree steppers with micro-stepping, instead of the 0.9 degree ones we now use.

Another low effort solution might be to use these kinds of soldered heat-shrink connectors. You'd still need to connect the wires, but heat shrinking the wires might be a more accessible approach than soldering.

[jschrier]

Nice article on solder-less connection alternatives (with pictures) https://hackaday.com/2023/12/18/ask-hackaday-what-do-you-do-when-you-cant-solder/

[jschrier]

Apropos #4 (take advantage of the castellated PCB on the Pico to avoid having to solder on header pins and then solder those through hole joints). A helpful guide from spark fun on soldering castellated PCBs