One for the electronics guys about soldering

[Munch]

I'm replacing the DC power connector on an Asus notebook. Got the old one out and when soldering the new one in I made a bit of a hash of things and I'm not sure now if the top two pins on the right (circled yellow in photo) actually have a track between them and are meant to be connected, or if I've over-soldered and bridged them by mistake.

I'm going with the first one because it looks too neat to be a mistake, plus, it doesn't seem to want to be sucked up using my vacuum desoldering station - but a bit of confirmation would be very nice!

What do you think?

[Syd Rumpo]

I would say that the six oval pads are all connected together and form part of the metal shell - they'd connect to the power plug outer - and the square pad above centre is the other connection to the centre pin or socket.

But that's not from any inside knowledge, just what seems reasonable.

Cheers

[Scott M]

The 2x3 set of pins are 0v and all there to hold the connector physically rigid to the board. The pins are connected by tracks rather than being on one big ground plane to avoid problems with heat running away when soldering.

[Munch]

Thank you Syd and Scott, much appreciated chaps :D