2.3 KiB
Expanding your boards
Each of the boards has an area on the right hand side for adding an expansion board.
640 board
The expansion area on the blue 640 board has solder already applied to it to make it easier to add your expansion board.
ESCAPE board
The expansion area on the blue ESCAPE board has solder already applied to it to make it easier to add your expansion board.
SOAR board
The expansion area on the blue SOAR board doesn't have solder pre-applied, so adding an expansion board will to this will be slightly different.
Required equipment
To add an expansion board you will need a few tools and bits and pieces.
Solering iron
I assume you already own a soldering iron, but in case you don't, we recommend getting an iron with a digital temperature control. They may be slightly more expensive than the soldering irons that just plug into the power socket but if you are going to be doing a lot of soldering then it's worth it in the end.
Solder
We use Lead Free solder here, but if you prefer leaded then that should be fine as well.
Flux pen
A Flux pen is a must have item really - you will never regret buying one. We use this one - Electrolube SMF12P Surface Mount Rework Flux Pen 12ml
Flux remover
Flux, whilst useful, can leave nasty sticky areas on your board. You should always use flux remover on your board once you've soldered it to remove it and make things nice again.
We use this one - Ambersil 30216-AB Flux Remover 400ml
Adding your board
The expansion boards have small notches on the side (that are called castellated vias) that we need to solder to the pads on the main board. Soldering these maybe new to you and seem a bit daunting - don't worry though as it's not as difficult as it looks.
Sparkfun tutorial
We recommend watching this video by Sparkfun before you get started as it goes through the process we'll describe later in a lot of detail.