Desoldering SMD-mounted Raspberry Pi Picos

My solution to desoldering a Raspberry Pi Pico that has been mounted SMD-style

Tim - DJ8TK

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Description

I could not find any documentation on how to desolder a Pi Pico mounted through the castellated edge without using a hotplate or hot air. Thus, I decided to document what worked for me. I wanted to try a method that uses copper wire to heat multiple solder joints simultaneously that I saw in a video by Mr SolderFix.

A project of mine could greatly benefit from the addition of the FPU in the RP2350. Luckily, the Pico 2 is a drop-in replacement. The only problem was that some idiot (me) was lazy and decided to mount the Pico 1 as an SMD component. Populating a new board would have required ordering some components. So desoldering it was.

Details

Components

2 × Decent soldering iron
1 × Thick copper wire
1 × Leaded solder

Build Instructions

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1

Wire preparation

The thick piece of copper wire creates a thermal connection between all solder joints of the pi pico. The concept is similar to what is explained in this Video.
2

Add solder

Adding a lot of leaded solder helps here.
3

Heat with two soldering irons

A single soldering iron did not work for me. One side already solidified while heating the other. Using two decently powered soldering irons worked well to heat both sides at the same time. With a little patience, I could melt all connections simultaneously after ca. 1 minute.