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Male/female pin converter?

madbilly

Hi everyone,

First, this is my first post in element14 so I don't know if there is a better subforum for my question - if there is, then mods please move it there.

 

I'm trying to find some pin converters, by which I mean something which will change a male pin into a female socket. This is primarily for stacking shield boards on top of a microcontroller board when I've got the wrong sense pins soldered in and don't want to change them. For example, I have two boards which I want to stack, both have male pins, so how do I connect them? I've looked around a lot of sites trying to find these but haven't succeeded yet and when I was thinking of where I could ask element14 seemed like the logical choice.

 

Helpful suggestions much appreciated.

Cheers image

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  • Hi all,

    Thanks for the great suggestions, I think that if I can't make one of these work then there's no helping me! image

     

    One remark on replacing male headers with female ones - I've previously tried this and found them very difficult to remove. Since the pins are connected to each other, one pin cannot be easily removed without the others, and removing all the solder to detach them all before removing the whole assembly is very difficult. I tried to just push the pins through when the solder was molten, but this resulted in damage to a board so I've not tried it again.

     

    I'm still very surprised that such a simple and convenient thing as a male to male connection adapter doesn't exist off the shelf, but since it doesn't I have to consider all other options.

     

    Cheers image

  • in reply to madbilly

    To desolder headers this is what I'd do: use a flush-cutter to clip the pins as much as you can from the soldered side, then remove the header plastic retainer -use the flush cutter as well for this, the pins now are individually held just by the solder. Then desolder them one by one (they are going to fall by themselves or use a tweezer to help removing them), use a solder pump in this step to desolder them and/or to clean the pads after. If you try to desolder the header without disassembling it, chances are you will end up burning the copper traces.

     

    Luis

  • in reply to luislabmo

    That's exactly what happened - the traces got damaged image Thanks for the suggestions for doing it more efficiently image

  • in reply to luislabmo

    Sounds like a voice of experience.

     

    My soldering career is long behind me. I assume the process of solder sucking  each pin individually with a good vacuum device doesn't work?

     

    I seem to recall this was the process for removing IC's. Now the pin on an IC moves slightly when pressure is applied. Maybe not so much with a connector leaving solder behind that binds.

  • in reply to colporteur

    In my experience, it requires a good soldering pump to do it without extra effort -like you said. The popular solder pumps (the ones with nylon tip that most people have) will probably give you extra work image

     

    Luis

  • in reply to luislabmo

    Those blue plastic single action pumps are fine for a small job but for professional solder removal a more robust device with a steady vacuum is required.

     

    I do like the idea of cropping the header before removal. Definitely make it easier removing a pin at a time.

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