DIY Electronics Repair

"Future Heap Owner" (aperiodic) 01/27/2019 at 21:23 • Filed to: God when is he gonna post about cars, ipoddositelock, Electronics, DIY, Electronics repair, Soldering

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The battery connector on my iPod’s motherboard snapped off after one too many drops. I decided to try re-soldering it myself before rolling the broken iPod eBay dice.

My task is to solder those tiny leads above to these pads on the mobo:

I’ve done a good amount of soldering in my time, but I’ve never attempted to solder surface mount components before, let alone ones these small. But I’ve got nothing to lose!

First step is to clean up the pads on the mobo, since there’s a bit of a solder dome left on each. After a few minutes with the desoldering braid, they’re looking a little better than before:

In retrospect, I should have spent more time on this. I don’t think I’d gotten the hang of the desoldering braid, and I think I could have gotten them cleaner. But on to the next step.

I place the connector in preparation for the soldering, and after a bit of extremely gentle tapping with an exacto knife, I have this:

obamanotbad.jpg, though I probably should buy some tweezers for the next time.

Now for the dangerous part. With my right hand holding the connector down with a spudger, I tack some solder on to both sides with my superior hand. After that I don’t have to worry about knocking it loose, so I go back in and make sure the joins get fully warmed up and the solder works its way in between the pads and leads. That gives me this:

The far side (with 2 leads) is looking good. I’m not so confident about the other side (the second photo above ), but there’s very little room to work between the components, so I think it’s as good as I’m gonna get.

The last step with the iron is to grab more desoldering braid and clean up those globs so the connections only connect to what they’re supposed to. After a good 15-20 minutes doing this (during which I do figure out how to use the braid okay), here’s how it looks:

Pretty good! Honestly, I didn’t think I was gonna be able to clean them up that well, especially on the crowded side. I’m still not expecting this to work, but I’m allowing a chance that it might.

After re-assembling everything, I slide the hold switch off orange and hit the center button:

Holy shit it actually works!! Fantastic! I’ve got my iPod back, and it turns out I can actually do surface-mount soldering. This should come in handy.

In conclusion, surface-mount component soldering isn’t as hard as it may seem. With basic soldering experience, the right tools, YouTube videos, and patience, you can probably do it too!

Nibby > Future Heap Owner 01/27/2019 at 21:33

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Only Vespas... > Future Heap Owner 01/27/2019 at 21:36

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Nice job, man.  I always built/repaired stuff.  Here in NYC I belong to the Fixer’s Collective.  If you have anything broken, anything at all, we will show you how to fix it. Five buck donation.  We have been at it for like nine years...

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Future Heap Owner 01/27/2019 at 21:38

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Don’t roll the eBay dice; go to www.swappa.com.

But cong rats on the repair!

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Nibby 01/27/2019 at 21:38

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Now we know what your workday looks like.

Agrajag > Future Heap Owner 01/27/2019 at 21:43

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Nicely done.

Nibby > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 01/27/2019 at 21:58

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it looks more like this

glemon > Future Heap Owner 01/27/2019 at 22:03

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Wow, I will try to fix just about anything, but after a couple attempts with circuit boards, gave up on them.  My melting metal skills, soldering and welding, are pretty crappy.  Well done.

Chariotoflove > Future Heap Owner 01/27/2019 at 22:10

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Impressive. Looks like you mangled the plastic a bit, but who cares. I’ve never been able to do as well, and I’ve tried. 

shop-teacher > Nibby 01/27/2019 at 22:12

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I kinda miss minesweeper.

Nibby > shop-teacher 01/27/2019 at 22:13

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http://www.minesweeper.info/downloads/WinmineXP.html

MM54 > Future Heap Owner 01/27/2019 at 22:13

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Nicely done!

MM54 > Nibby 01/27/2019 at 22:14

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Oh man, I forgot about Hover!

shop-teacher > Nibby 01/27/2019 at 22:14

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Woot! Thanks!

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Nibby 01/27/2019 at 22:15

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I honestly have not the faintest idea what I am looking at.

Nibby > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 01/27/2019 at 22:24

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NBA on TNT has a feature called Audio Assist... it animates in and out of the screen like that so if you pause it at the right moment...

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > Future Heap Owner 01/27/2019 at 22:43

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I 100% prefer reworking surface mount to reworking through hole.  Good work!

Future Heap Owner > Only Vespas... 01/27/2019 at 22:52

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That’s awesome! We have a cool place here in Portland called FreeGeek that’s kinda similar, but they more fix  things up to resell or donate to people in need.

Future Heap Owner > Nibby 01/27/2019 at 22:52

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Space Cadet! I played the crap outta that when I was a kid

Future Heap Owner > glemon 01/27/2019 at 22:53

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Thanks!

Future Heap Owner > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 01/27/2019 at 22:54

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It is a lot easier to get them off  in the first place. Is that the main reason you prefer it?

Future Heap Owner > Agrajag 01/27/2019 at 22:54

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Thanks!

Future Heap Owner > MM54 01/27/2019 at 22:54

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Thanks!

Future Heap Owner > Chariotoflove 01/27/2019 at 23:00

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Yeah, I did melt the inner side a bit. I was worried that the other part of the connector (which fits in the grooves on the skinny sides) might not mate because of the melting, but it went in there well enough. Thanks!

Future Heap Owner > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 01/27/2019 at 23:03

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By rolling the eBay dice, I mean finding one that’s got a broken screen or hard drive and hoping that the motherboard is fine. I don’t want to buy whole ‘nother working  one if I don’t have to. Do they do that sort of thing on swappa too?

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Nibby 01/27/2019 at 23:11

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Clearly, I need to develop more and different skills.

Future Heap Owner > glemon 01/28/2019 at 00:09

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It does help that it was obvious what was wrong. If I had to diagnose a boars that had all the pieces it was supposed to have, but didn’t boot, I wouldn’t know where to start.

Jwinnett > Future Heap Owner 01/28/2019 at 00:43

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Wth the correct equipment and knowledge, it's pretty simple, if you have a steady hand.

Jwinnett > Future Heap Owner 01/28/2019 at 00:52

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Great job. Red pill or blue pi ll ? Blue pill and the story ends.

Red pill: read on.

Next time, use some flux to help you extract the old solder. Most of it’s flux is gone. Flux is what helps it liquify. With the right amount of flux, you should be able to desolder a point in a few seconds. Then, tin(and a bit of new solder) to the solder pads. Hold the component in place and heat one pin. That will hold it in place will you do the others. Just heat the next pin and repeat.

Note, you need a proper tip on your iron. Some of that is preference.

See EEVBlog on youtube. He has a great video on SMD soldering(and many others). If you have a $5 soldering iron that isn’t temperature controlled and want to go further down the rabbit hole, get a decent iron. Can be had for under $50 fr china. Any 936 clone will do.

Cheers

winterlegacy, here 'till the end > Future Heap Owner 01/28/2019 at 01:34

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This reminds me that I need to tear apart my Droid Turbo and see if I can fix the charging port.

Or just rip out the battery, drain it dry, put it back in, and go through my previous sequence to get the damn thing to boot long enough to back it up.

Future Heap Owner > winterlegacy, here 'till the end 01/28/2019 at 02:19

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Do it! Back it up, then give fixing the port a shot . If it doesn’t work out, you didn’t make anything worse, and you at least figured out some things not to do.

winterlegacy, here 'till the end > Future Heap Owner 01/28/2019 at 02:21

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I have a moto g6 as a replacement phone for it, I just care about getting the data off it.

I need a tiny plastic spudger I can wedge between the case back, though, and some way to pull it off, and a Torx bit that fits the screws inside it so I can pop out the battery.

Then again I’m just wondering if maybe my screen connector’s buggered...

Future Heap Owner > winterlegacy, here 'till the end 01/28/2019 at 02:25

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You can probably get both of those in one of these iPhone repair kits:

https://www.amazon.com/d/Computer-Repair-Kits/Vastar-Pieces-Repair-iPhone-Cleaning/B00X60B0GY/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1548660155&sr=8-3&keywords=iphone+repair+kit

I use these tools for all my phone opening and closing needs. Except for the spudger, which I use for everything because it’s awesome.

Future Heap Owner > Jwinnett 01/28/2019 at 04:10

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I keep hearing about flux; I do need to try that.

I actually have a fairly nice temperature controlled iron from SparkFun, and the tip is a lot narrower than the $15 RadioShack fire starter I used to use. Maybe I could get a thinner tip  though.

Thanks for the pointers!