I have a small circuit board that has no mounting holes but does provide unpopulated test point pads. Is there any option for machine screws or standoffs that I could solder into these for mounting the board?
Electronic – Do solder-mount screws exist
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Related Solutions
I would suggest you look at some shapelock. Shapelock.com
You can mold any type of mount you want with this. You could also buy gearboxes that are designed to mount on these hobby motors. But as cheap as they are you may want to consider buying some with the gearbox already attached.
Most hobby supply stores have assortments of wheels, sprockets, gears and pulleys for these or you can find them on ebay.
Good luck and let us know what you build.
I'd suggest a surface mount LED and some glue. They are available in sizes from almost-to-small-to-see up to huge-enough-to-be-used-for-a-car-brake-light. Also available in any color you want. Here are some smaller varieties:
You might attach small wires directly to the LED, or attach the LED to a small PCB and attach wires in turn to that. Or, you might make a one-off PCB with some copper-clad board and a razor blade. Depends on where you want the wires, and what your production methods are, I suppose.
Another possibility is to mount the LED behind the panel, and bring the light through the panel with a hole or a lightpipe. See this page from the Mouser catalog for some ideas.
There are also square LEDs that will fit in that space nicely, which could be mounted simply by cutting the right sized hole. Then either glue it in place, or stick some perfboard on the backside of your panel, and solder the LED to that to hold it in place. If you must have a replaceable LED, you could probably find a way to mount a header behind the panel, and shove the LED leads into it, and friction will be enough to retain the LED if you don't have extreme vibration.
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Best Answer
Surface mount, reflow solderable stand-offs are available, for low mechanical stress applications.
See for instance the PEM ReelFast SMT product range. They offer spacers, nuts and snap fasteners in a range of sizes. These do not require plated through holes.
The parts come in the reel with removable Kapton patches on top, covering the holes, for vacuum pick-up, so they can be used for pick-and-place assembly as well.