Friends, I'm not proud of myself.
I had a spare ESP32 Wroom and a LoRa SX1278 module, so I thought I'd make an APRS gateway, but very compact to put in its own antenna tube. So I tried to desolder the microcontroller pins to save space, wanting to solder the wires directly into the holes.
The 450° C soldering iron and copper braid weren't very effective, so I removed the pins, but alas, the PCB pads became a disaster :(
Isopropyl alcohol rubbed vigorously didn't help, on the contrary.
Of course, I still tried to solder the wires between the Wroom and the LoRa module, but as expected, they couldn't communicate.
I already had my finger on the basket validation button to get a new microcontroller delivered when I thought it was too stupid to waste 4€ like that. So I re-soldered two rows of pins, but this time I blew up the plastic spacer-guides, and put solder on top and underneath the pads, so as to have twice the chance of making connections! But the 3.3V pin was irretrievably lost. So I soldered the LoRa module power wire directly onto the chip pad!
Victory! The ugliest LoRa APRS gateway works! I hesitate to drown the whole thing in hot glue...