I soldered the U2 28 pin Mico processor directly to the board by mistake. What is the effect short term and long term. Did I change anything by use of the heat from the soldering iron?
Assuming that the board powers up and works you should not have any problems. The reason that a socket is used is if you would need to replace the IC, it makes it much easier. The program burned onto the IC has the ability to update the processor's firmware without being removed so there should be no need to remove it.
