experts, let's make a how-to on how to fix solder pad/trace lifts

mecha

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experts, let's make a how-to on how to fix solder pad/trace lifts

what do people do to fix lifting solder pads/traces on monitor chassis and neckboards?

I read somewhere, sometime, that you can use super glue on the traces. does this work on solder pads, just be very delicate when you go to solder whatever component into it?
 
I desolder both points of the gap I want to span. Get a resistor or capacitor lead (or insulated solid core wire for large spans) make small loops on the ends and solder it on. For small gaps on neckboards just scrape off the green stuff and solder the resistor lead to the trace on both sides.

Here are a couple I have done recently.

Sorry for the crappy phone pic

850A0129.jpg


100_2954.jpg
 
This trace on the Amplifone HV board was pretty well cooked... I used solid bus wire and flowed it together with solder to create a new connection that is capable of carrying the current.

Amplifone-HVBoardSolderSide.jpg
 
I just fixed a Mario Bros board that had completely missing pads where the resistor at R63 had caught fire, most likely due to a swapped JB/JC on the sound amp. I ended up soldering the middle leg of the 2sc1815 transistor to the end of a 1k resistor and a wire, and soldered the other end of the wire to the test point at the end of the trace. I then stuck the other end of the resistor through the hole and soldered another wire onto the leg of the resistor, and the other end of the wire to a test point on the ground.

It's not pretty, but it works. I can probably post pictures later for everyone to laugh at.
 
If you replace a lifted trace, how do you determine what size wire to use?

Jeff

I always use solid wire and go by the width of the trace as a rule of thumb... For really really wide traces I will use more than one piece and solder them together (as shown in the pic). 18 guage is probably the largest you will ever need (for high current traces) and 22-24 gauge is fine for most everything else.
 
If you replace a lifted trace, how do you determine what size wire to use?

Jeff

Better to be a little too big than too little. Traces may seem small, but being connected to the board dissipates more heat than a tiny wire in the air will be able to.

I just use cut off cap/resistor leads, they are good enough to carry power to the components, so they are more than good with solder all the way around them on a trace.
 
i have seen people use that to trick computer motherboards that a cpu runs at a certain speed or something like that

yeah, was common on the old AMD Athlons about 10 years ago or so (can't vouch for today's chips, I don't follow the computer stuff like I used to). basically you bridged some contacts on the CPU and it would unlock the multiplier on it so you could overclock without having to crank the FSB.

I forgot about that magic pen. lol how would you use that, carve out where the old trace was and draw the new one? and do you have to go over it with solder afterward?

that's ingenius if it's that easy.
 
yeah, was common on the old AMD Athlons about 10 years ago or so (can't vouch for today's chips, I don't follow the computer stuff like I used to). basically you bridged some contacts on the CPU and it would unlock the multiplier on it so you could overclock without having to crank the FSB.

I forgot about that magic pen. lol how would you use that, carve out where the old trace was and draw the new one? and do you have to go over it with solder afterward?

that's ingenius if it's that easy.

someone did it last year with a dual core cpu but i dont remember much of it
 
Those pens won't work for anything pulling anything more than tiny amounts of current. And you can't solder to it.

Use copper trace tape. If you need solder pads, you can buy solder pads that stick on the board. They have a special adhesive to stick under heat.

DO NOT use super glue! It will vaporize under the heat of the soldering iron and those fumes are toxic. Cyanoacrilates anyone?
 
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