If you buy an RTK Postcard with the Portability shield beware soldering headers on the Shield board. I’m pretty good at the soldering game however, somehow, even though I was seemingly quite a distance from the Portability Shield on and off switch I managed to melt the heck out of it. At first I thought it wasn’t me but photos and videos of the bagged items clearly reveal the switch was there and in perfect shape. (Any time a box has a ding or something I video it. I do lots of reviews of gear.)
So I decided to remove the shield which was easy. I stuck my iron between the grounded metal shield and board, being careful not to touch the board, and it lifted off in like 1 second.
Then I cleaned the mess with a plastic scraper and a soft brush with isopropyl alcohol. I actually did a really good job with that.
I knew I could solder an external switch onto those solder pads easy enough but despite the fact I’ve been tearing stuff apart and soldering since the 70’s I couldn’t find an appropriate switch in my boxes and boxes of electronic parts.
Switch, switch, switch. What can I use for a switch? Then I did the WWMD. What would MacGyver do?
Soldered on a male and female dupont cable to the pads and ran them out the switch hole on the enclosure and around the back. Hey, it works. Don’t laugh too hard. Or get a good laugh at my expense. I’m good with it.
And yes, I went and ordered another Portability Shield although I think this is good enough for what I do which is just tinker, experiment, and blog about it.
