Should jumper pads have solder mask between them?

[skybrian]

In the standard “Jumper” footprint library, the footprints have pads that are intended to have traces cut between them to disconnect them, or alternately bridged with solder to connect them.

It looks like there is solder mask between the pads.

I have no experience with this but it doesn’t seem like that’s right? I’m thinking it might be easier to cut a trace with a knife if there is no solder mask. Similar, it might be easier to bridge two pads with solder if there is no mask between them. (Of course this is the opposite of what you’d want normally with pads.)

[Rene_Poschl]

Yes it might indeed be a good idea to ensure that soldermask is removed between the pads.

I opened an issue on the library repo to discuss this with the maintainers: https://github.com/KiCad/kicad-footprints/issues/2078

[maui]

In case of wave soldering, having the mask will avoid the solder to cover the jumper. Without the solder mask this will add extra solder to the trace to be cut.

[Rene_Poschl]

Hm a similar risk exists for reflow soldering if the pads are on the paste layer. So possibly a handsolder variation without mask layer.

[SembazuruCDE]

For reflow soldering, why would the pads of the jumpers include the paste layer? Maybe the better alternate would be a wave solder version that includes mask between the pads, and the regular version has no paste layer with no mask between the pads.