Jonathan Oxer, over at SuperHouseTV, has been running a series of video episodes on the Sonoff product line recently and I really recommend his latest. The theme of the video is Sonoff-specific hints and hint #1 is how to upgrade the memory chip in a Sonoff. Jonathan does a great job of demonstrating how to remove the chip with nothing more than “a big, old, clunky soldering iron” and a screwdriver. A picture is worth a thousand words, so you need to multiply that by whatever the frame rate of a YouTube video is. Watch it! It’s worth it.
-
Follow
Following
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
esp8266hints 
I trashed two Sonoff Basics last night, pulling up the pads with the memory chips. I was careful, but pulling them up is too easy to do. I tried running wires, but it didn’t work. Now I have a couple of donors.
I finally found an easier way on the third and fourth. Since I don’t have a tiny pair of diagonal clippers, I used an X-Acto knife and carefully cut the leads on the old memory chip, after which cleaning up the remaining pieces of leads took only seconds. I may not be able to reuse the chip, but the ease, safety, and time savings is more than worth it.
LikeLike
Chip,
Thanks for letting us know about your unfortunate experience with Jonathan’s “big iron” method. I used to do board rework for a computer manufacturer and we had all sorts of fancy de-soldering tools, but before the advent of hot air we always just clipped the legs and junked the old chip anyway; it was a lot safer than taking the chance of lifting a track (those were the days when just the CPU took up a 15″ square, very expensive PCB).
In the case of the Sonoff, I doubt that there will be many people actually re-using the original chip anyway, so your “sacrificial” method is a winner for anyone who doesn’t have a really big, hot iron, too. I’d highly recommend a small pair of “flush cut” side cutters, though.
Best of luck with future upgrades!
-John-
LikeLike