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When things go very bad

January 11th, 2019, 2:44 pm

I took on a simple repair job for a client. I had to replace a USB connector on a USB receiver board on a music server.
I did not take pics of the mangled connector befor I removed it. but here is the completed repair.
Attachments
fix1.jpg

Re: When things go very bad

January 11th, 2019, 2:49 pm

when I was putting things together and connecting a 12 connector cable to the other side of the board the socket just popped off.
fix2.jpg

fix3.jpg

here is a close up
fix4.jpg

Re: When things go very bad

January 11th, 2019, 2:53 pm

To me the pads look like cold solder joints.
Any way it was a pain getting this soldered back on
fix5.jpg


Instead of a 15 minute repair it was a 30 minute repair

Don't know if I will recover from this disaster today

Re: When things go very bad

January 11th, 2019, 3:43 pm

Pelliott321 wrote:when I was putting things together and connecting a 12 connector cable to the other side of the board the socket just popped off.
fix2.jpg

fix3.jpg

here is a close up
fix4.jpg



HOLY CRAP!!!! Cold solder joints all! Murphy's Law at work.

Re: When things go very bad

January 11th, 2019, 6:05 pm

If anyone ever needs to repair a board with surface mount components I have a hot air re-flow station you can use.

Re: When things go very bad

January 11th, 2019, 10:34 pm

One does not need fancy equipment to do surface mount work

Re: When things go very bad

January 12th, 2019, 10:17 am

Pelliott321 wrote:One does not need fancy equipment to do surface mount work


No, but it sure helps make it much easier.

Re: When things go very bad

January 12th, 2019, 12:37 pm

DaveR wrote:
Pelliott321 wrote:One does not need fancy equipment to do surface mount work


No, but it sure helps make it much easier.

Amen to that

Re: When things go very bad

January 13th, 2019, 8:59 am

Part of my problem besides being _______(you an fill in the blank), is I really do not understand how the hot air thingy works or how to use one. I guess this is a good one for YouTube

Re: When things go very bad

January 13th, 2019, 1:06 pm

Pelliott321 wrote:Part of my problem besides being _______(you an fill in the blank), is I really do not understand how the hot air thingy works or how to use one. I guess this is a good one for YouTube



I don't envy your task -- I am imitated by surface-mount anything. Specialized equipment is required.

During manufacture -- the parts are loaded using robotics and then flow-soldered as a unit. Apparently, the device you are working on would have benefited by a hole-through version of the multi-pin connector. Looking at your photos it seems to me that you can clean the pads and connections of solder -- set the connector in place and hand solder each pad individually with a solder pencil.

I would wear a jewelers bi-optic magnifier to get a close look while working. I believe you can pull it off. Once you solder tack the first pin -- that will anchor the connector which will enable working on the rest of them. I think if you try to re-flow them as a group you may still end up with cold joints that will not be reliable.
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