[geekmaster]

WARNING!

I just dug out my K4NT to take a photo for yifanlu. With very light pressure, I lifted the cable up for a better photo, and it snapped right off the circuit board where it was soldered. The tiny little TxD and RxD pads popped off the circuit board and are still attached to the tiny little wires! Almost no force at all!

Now I will have to find another place to attach the wires (probably at the small surface-mount resistors next to them). The ground pad is the only one still on the circuit board.

I posted this as a warning so you will be extra careful. After attaching the wires you should secure them down against the board with adhesive tape to prevent this from happening to your k4nt.

P.S. I used an temperature-controlled soldering station set to 650F, with an electrically grounded needle tip, and just a quick touch to the pads to prevent overheating. The problem is that the adhesion strength of the pads to the board is so slight that they can be easily lifted right off the board with a small lifting pressure applied to an attached cable. There are extra soldering pads give a *real* connector extra mechanical strength, but I did not use them (no connector). I soldered my cable only to the electrical pins.

Next time I would use a 5-wire cable instead of 3-wire, and I would solder the outer 2 wires to the larger P2 outer connecter pads for mechanical bonding and strength. I would also tape the cable to the board as suggested above.