I was happily testing away, and broke the BOOTSEL button on the pico!
The buttons on these types of boards are so tiny, I suppose it's inevitable this will happen if the button is pressed a few times perhaps at a slight angle.
Bit of a mess of wires..
Yep, that happened to me with my Pico too. Mine broke way back in 2021... used superglue to fix and has been working fine ever since. Surprised they haven't fixed this.
| {gallery:autoplay=false}Pico Bootsel |
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I tried fixing it today since it was just a 5-minute job, using my normal 1mm bevel (aka sloped) soldering iron bit. I just placed a blob of solder on the iron, and placed it on the left side pads, and heated the left side plastic too, it soon disintegrates, and then repeated on the right side (some resistors are quite close).I think the button is glued down, but heating from the top softened it all up, and simultaneously inserting pointy tweezers between the button and the PCB lifted it off.
For the replacement button, I applied a very tiny amount of solder to the underside pads of the button (blue-tack helps to hold it!) and then placed it on the board, holding it in place with tweezers and re-melting the solder (without any additional flux in case that runs inside the button).
In the photo the corner pads look like they may be shorting with the metal surround of the button, but that's not the case, it is insulating plastic there.
That was a 4x3mm body sized button (the tabs extend about 0.75 mm on either side), fits nicely diagonally, and it's all functioning again now. I might add a bit of glue later to strengthen it.
