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Re: keyboard problems
jonnosan wrote:
On May 14, 10:41 am, Mike Spurgeon <m...@spurgeon.net> wrote:
jonnosan wrote:
There's a photo of my solder work athttp://www.flickr.com/photos/jonnosan/495779045/
(not for the squemish)
Geeze... You just had to bridge the crack, not rewire...
Mike,
As should be pretty obvious, I don't have much experience with
soldering :-)
So I'm not sure what you mean by the distinguishing bridging vs
rewiring - is there any online docs you could recommend?
As Raymond (Silicon Sam) pointed out, if you scrape the solder mask off
the traces for about 1/4" on either side of the crack, you can "tin" the
traces (quickly so as not to overheat the adhesive holding the traces to
the board) with solder, then lay 1/2" of solid tinned copper wire down
over the tinned trace, "bridging" the crack, and quickly "reflow" solder
over the wire, reestablishing continuity (and providing some mechanical
reinforcement as well).
Your approach certainly works, but it results in a lot more wire, which
can be a physical issue as well as an esthetic one. ;-)
BTW, to work on boards like this, you should use a small (1/8" or less)
diameter chisel-tipped soldering iron of about 15 watts--one of the
inexpensive "pencil-grip" irons is well suited. And use only rosin-core
solder. (Acid core solder, or acid flux, is an electronics killer.)
You will find that thin wire solder (about 0.025" diameter) is easiest
to use, and makes it easier to avoid getting too much solder on a joint.
If you don't have much experience soldering electronic items, it would
be best to practice on a printed circuit board that doesn't matter to
hone your technique.
There are lots of web pages on electronic soldering technique.
-michael
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