05-07-2014, 02:19 PM
Running Bear Wrote:Nothing particular on the schedule today. No projects to work on. I worked on a couple of drive controller cards last night. That didn't go well. There are several chips soldered to the cards. Guess which ones have the problem. Yeah, at least one per card and they're soldered ones. So those cards are going in the trash. No worries on those as they sell for cheap online. If I need one I can always find one there.
I used to rework and repair silent watchmen alarm systems once upon a time, "chips" that had a high failure rate got replaced with a dip socket matched to the size of the chip, making future repairs a lot easier. With the proper tools and some skill rework/repair is a breeze-however the cost of those tools far outweigh most circuit boards for a hobbyists on a budget. Solderpaults general do not work very well and the better ones require cleaning and re-lubed, solder wick(also called braid) is better but can be damaging to pc board if not used properly and it comes in various weaves and sizes, the best results comes from a rework/de-soldering station with a vacuum (wish I had one like I used to use I think the brand was Hakco) If you want a real challenge try to replace smt(surface mount components) with very fine pitch(distance between pins) by hand :ugeek: