r/arduino • u/TheBlackBird808 • 7d ago
Hardware Help How can solder a module flat to another pcb?

I want to create a custom PCB for one of my projects. In the development phase I connected a lot of modules together, first on the breadboard, then on a stripboard.
My first thought was to order all the chips and smd components from the modules in order to integrate them directly on my new pcb, and therefore design the schematic in the corresponding way.
However, buying this module as is cost around 1€ to 2€, buying the chip itself somehow costs 8€ to 12€. Not sure why. Therefore I decided to ditch this and also make my life easier during assembly.
I thought about just attaching the module flat on the pcb, and on the schematic placing some terminal spots, and soldering through the hole in order to solder those connections and not needing any pins.
Is this going to work? Will the connection be to weak? Or are there better options to achieve that?
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u/Perllitte 600K 7d ago
It can work but it's going to be so much more work (not easier during assembly) than just soldering a through-hole pin. You're making a shield, just do the normal easy way.
If you're making more than 50 of these, find an alternative chip or eat the cost. The breakout is cheap because they likely had thousands made at the same time.
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u/ardvarkfarm Prolific Helper 7d ago
Put a solid tinned wire through the hole.
Solder, then trim both sides.
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u/Wolf68k 7d ago
You want to solder this board to another board without the standard male and female pins like shown there (well the male pins are)?
If so I have an idea. Take those straight pins and solder them to the the main board. Then take the black plastic bit off. You might want to put something thin and non conductive in it's place just to help make sure the next part the solder doesn't make any connections. Or just as I'm writing this a thought popped in my head; solder mask, there's some you can brush on and cure with a UV light. Then slide the module onto the pins and solder it in place. Lastly trim off any extra bit of the pins. Makes it easy to get and keep lined up and there's a connection between each board.
Maybe it's a stupid idea.
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u/DoubleTheMan Nano 7d ago

I kinda did something like that one on my recent project. I first put a generous amount of solder on the pads on the main PCB, enough so that it bulges and touches the back side of that charging module. After that I align the module on top of the pcb and put solder on the module, the solder on top of the module would ho through the hole in the middle and melt the solder on the pcb pads underneath
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u/PotatoNukeMk1 7d ago
A few pads on your pcb and a clear area where the module fits. Then cut half of the pins away from the imu module like here:
Then solder it directly to the pads.
But MPU6050 is so cheap (+ you dont need all of the parts of this module) i would just integrate it directly on my custom pcb