bricking my Grand Central M4 board with a soldering iron
by bebo on Mon May 27, 2019 12:46 am
I spent last week wiring and troubleshooting an escape room, and I discovered an RGB led with a loose connection within the body of the led, so I decided to unsolder the connection and solder in a new one. There was probably 24" of wire between the led and the board, but the board was powered up. I applied the soldering iron (the cheap brown one, PID#180, works great) and the board quickly died. I only applied the iron to one wire, but it seems that I was able to conduct current through the tip of the iron and into the board. Is this possible with this iron? Would a higher quality iron (Hakko) be a safe alternative if I needed to solder on a system that has already been installed? This was a hard lesson to stomach, it undid a day and a half of wiring and troubleshooting.