Using previous advice here I managed to assemble a piantor and soldered the microcontroller on the pcb directly and I have to say that for a complete beginner that was very challenging.

I've gotten 5 pairs of PCBs and I kind of destroyed one pair but I am still trying to assemble at least another keyboard so I have a backup as I reckon it would take me a few days to be able to be proficient again on a non ortholinear keyboard now.

So I decided to try to use the female pin headers to be able to remove the microcontroller if I ever need to in case it dies or something of the sort.

I had the regular pin headers already and I know I can remove the pins from the white strip so I was going to solder them into the pcb while attached to the female and cut the extra length they'd have.

I got this specific female ones from Aliexpress https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005053790061.html I got the ones named "1x40P Female Tin"

When they arrived however, I ended up noticing that the regular pin headers I have do not fit the female ones. I have no idea what to search for to buy just the pins and what dimensions I'd need to get them, can anyone please advise me on what's the name of the loose pins and which ones should I buy please.

Thanks in advance, thanks to this community I have a working kb now :)

I’m joining the split keyboard group by building a piantor. I have the pcbs already and they’re lead free coated and I will use lead free solder on the components.

I’m a bit worried though as I used a borrowed split and I noticed I keep touching the soldering in the microcontroller quite a bit and the build I was going for was a bare one where we just put rubber feet directly in the pcb so there’s no case or anything.

I tend to rub my eyes and bite my nails quite a bit during the day. I was wondering if it’s safe enough on lead free solder or if this is something I should completely avoid.

Any suggestions in case I should avoid it entirely. I reckon the worst place would be the top of the pcb maybe I can use some hot glue where the solder is but I have no idea if it’s hard to pull it off later if I need to review/resolder.

This is my first project and I haven’t done anything like this before, so even the flux I’m kind of unaware how to clean, solder comes with it right, do I need to wipe it somehow or use isopropyl alcohol and wipe with maybe a paper towel?

Sorry about being a complete noob. I searched around but most people are concerned about the lead solder not lead free like me.