The soldering pad came off on my pcengine duo HELP!

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treepop
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The soldering pad came off on my pcengine duo HELP!

Post by treepop »

I was replacing the capacitors on my pcengine duo because my sound decided to just stop working (starting acting all distorted and then just quit on me) so I followed this guide:

http://www.pcenginefx.com/forums/index.php?topic=960.0

and began replacing the capacitors. 1 capacitor in and the dang pad came OFF. I tried supergluing the pad back on, but the heat of the solder keeps taking it back off, plus I'm not sure if that will even work.

Here is what my mess looks like now:

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Re: The soldering pad came off on my pcengine duo HELP!

Post by AppleQueso »

Best thing to do would probably be to follow the trace to another point to soldier the capacitor onto.
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Re: The soldering pad came off on my pcengine duo HELP!

Post by treepop »

AppleQueso wrote:Best thing to do would probably be to follow the trace to another point to soldier the capacitor onto.
Kinda a noob here, can you elaborate? To me it looks like the trace just goes in kinda a circle (shown in that pic), with the capacitor acting as the thing that links them together...
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Re: The soldering pad came off on my pcengine duo HELP!

Post by elmagicochrisg »

treepop wrote:
AppleQueso wrote:Best thing to do would probably be to follow the trace to another point to soldier the capacitor onto.
Kinda a noob here, can you elaborate? To me it looks like the trace just goes in kinda a circle (shown in that pic), with the capacitor acting as the thing that links them together...
That's exactly what the capacitor does. Link those 2 points together with the capacitor in the middle...

But both points have to come from somewhere and go somewhere. You should be able to see the trace on either the top or bottom side of the board. If you can't, hold it next to a good light source and you should be able to see the trace inside the board. With a little luck the trace should emerge on another point on the PCB. That's the point you should use instead of the broken point...
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Re: The soldering pad came off on my pcengine duo HELP!

Post by Hobie-wan »

The white printing is just infotmational. The lighter green bits are the metal traces under the green varnish. So you need to follow where that light green bit goes from the messed up part and solder a wire that goes to the leg of the capacitor to somewhere else where the trade has exposed metal. This might be wherever some other item is soldered in. Keep in mind that the trace might not go anywhere on this side of the board, it might be on the other side.

You cannot super glue electrical stuff. Glue doesn't conduct electricity. Solder does. Also keep in mind that capacitors only go one way like batteries. You have to make sure they're put on the right way.
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Re: The soldering pad came off on my pcengine duo HELP!

Post by elmagicochrisg »

Hobie-wan wrote:The white printing is just infotmational. The lighter green bits are the metal traces under the green varnish.
Yes. From what I can tell one of the legs can be traced back to one side of that small resistor with 153 on it. Looks like the other leg will have its trace on the other side of the board...

Don't take my word for it though. Check before you solder. And be very careful. Those resistors are very small. Also, don't use too much heat on the same spot for too long or you may fry the component. Maybe try adding a little solder to one side of the resistor before you attach a wire to it...
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Re: The soldering pad came off on my pcengine duo HELP!

Post by CRTGAMER »

elmagicochrisg wrote:
Hobie-wan wrote:The white printing is just informational. The lighter green bits are the metal traces under the green varnish.
Yes. From what I can tell one of the legs can be traced back to one side of that small resistor with 153 on it. Looks like the other leg will have its trace on the other side of the board...

Don't take my word for it though. Check before you solder. And be very careful. Those resistors are very small. Also, don't use too much heat on the same spot for too long or you may fry the component. Maybe try adding a little solder to one side of the resistor before you attach a wire to it...
Both good points. Any common solder location going back to the damaged solder pad can be utilized, even scrapping away the green coating off a trace. Find a good spot away from tiny components and run jumper wires back to where you want to attach the capacitor legs.
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Re: The soldering pad came off on my pcengine duo HELP!

Post by treepop »

I guess I need more help :( I don't see what you guys mean by trace. I now understand the white printing is just a helpful guide, but please help me see what you mean by the trace on each side of the pad.

I guess. Why can't I just get an exacto and scrap away where the pad was. Wouldn't that result in exposing both side of the trace, since that's where they were connected to the pad?

Super frustrating. Thanks so much for your help!
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Re: The soldering pad came off on my pcengine duo HELP!

Post by elmagicochrisg »

The light green lines you see on the dark green board are the traces.

You can see one going from that capacitor to the little component with 153 on it.

You can try scraping some of the trace off to reveal the copper, yes.

But using a point where the trace surfaces is probably easier...
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Re: The soldering pad came off on my pcengine duo HELP!

Post by Hobie-wan »

The lighter green bits are metal on the board that are under a layer of green varnish. If the pad came up, there's no metal there anymore, just the fiberglass board. So you can't scrape because there's no metal there anymore to scrape down to. You need to follow the light green metal trace from wherever the pad used to be until you fine another bare metal or place where another item is soldered on so you can solder a jumper wire that goes to the leg of the capacitor in place of the trace to the nuked pad.

Watch this.

You probably also need to do some practice soldering on something else first before coming back to this system.
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