FTDI programming without soldered header

[KanyonKris]

Here's a tip that may be useful:

One of my Moteinos will be going in a tight enclosure so I didn't want to solder the right-angle programming header onto it for prototyping then have to desolder it to get it in the enclosure. So I've been programming it by plugging the right-angle header into the FTDI board then placing the through holes of the Moteino onto the header pins. It works pretty good. I let the Moteino hang off the FTDI board so gravity helps make a better connection. If it doesn't program I push down on the end of the Moteino to flex the pins a little to get a good connection.

[pko]

Loose connection may leads to unreliable data transmission.  Better solutions are:

1. pay the extra $4 for the flash memory to allow for wireless programming
2. use another circuit board (can be a protyping board) and pogo pins to connect to Moteino - see Felix's idea at http://lowpowerlab.com/blog/2013/06/27/illustrated-guide-to-making-simple-jigs-for-programming-and-testing/

I am actually working on option 2 - not because of space limitation, more for too lazy to solder the header and impatient to wait before I can load some test scratch to check out the new hardware.

[KanyonKris]

Loose connection may leads to unreliable data transmission.

And it has several times, but has not bricked my Moteino. The transfer simply fails then I either readjust the connection or push down on the Moteino then retry the sketch upload. A little touchy but it's simple, easy and uses parts that came with my Moteino.

[Felix]

Kris's idea is not bad at all. It's perhaps a step down from using pogo pins.
Another idea is to insert POGOs into the female header of the FTDI instead of the male header, then just hold it against the Moteino header while programming.