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lifted pad on grubdac

post #1 of 9
11/3/10 at 5:59pm
Thread Starter 

Hi guys, my soldering iron is too hot (40w) and I lifted the first pad you solder onto the dac. I'm going to pick up a new soldering iron anyway, is there anyway to repair that teeny tiny pad? I bought the dac to practice on, however I already messed up.

 

Also, can anyone suggest a soldering iron in the 40 dollar range?

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post #2 of 9
11/3/10 at 7:15pm

I can't recommend any cheap soldering irons, but this is what I use.

You can sometimes find them on sale for under $100, probably

cheaper in the US. Works a charm for me, I can even change the

tips while hot.

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post #3 of 9
11/3/10 at 7:37pm
Thread Starter 

Yeah, I talked to tomb and he suggested the Hakko 936, which I am going to buy. I'm going to put this to the side until I get my new soldering iron and some solder. Should I do anything special to the lifted pad, or should I just bend the tab down so that it touches the copper?

 

I find it sad how I always make mistakes on the first step...

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post #4 of 9
11/4/10 at 1:08am

I use a Tenma that's basically a cheaper clone of a Weller.  By no means an ideal situation though, you can't go wrong with Hakko or Weller.

 

As far as repairing the lifted pad, green wire fixes are the big thing.  Its not all that pleasing and you may just opt for a new board, but that's really the only way I've found to fix lifted pads.

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post #5 of 9
11/5/10 at 8:56pm

The cheap iron i recommend is the adjustable-power Xytronic 258. I once purchased one for $11 + $5 ship, but the price has gone up a bit.

 

http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&pa=116572&productId=116572&keyCode=WSF&CID=GMC

 

$20 at jameco. While you're there you can buy some wall-wart enclosures, if you're so inclined. Note that it does not include any sort of stand to hold the thing - so buy one if you lack one. Jameco sells the xytronic stand for $5.

 

This is the iron i use if i can't bring the work to the Weller WTCPT on my work bench.

 

My WTCPT, fwiw, also cost me about $40 - used, on ebay. I *heart* it.

 

A word on technique: While 40w is probably too hot for a constant-power iron and small electronics, I find that a too-cold iron is more likely to do damage. Use enough good flux to let the solder do it's thing quickly and you'll never have to hold the iron in place so long that pads start lifting off. Unless we're talking desoldering - whole other ball game.


Edited by ericj - 11/5/10 at 9:01pm
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post #6 of 9
11/12/10 at 8:12pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by mewrei View Post

As far as repairing the lifted pad, green wire fixes are the big thing.  Its not all that pleasing and you may just opt for a new board, but that's really the only way I've found to fix lifted pads.


OK guys, just bought the Hakko 936. And I'm going to buy some solder as soon as my headphones sell. The pad I lifted off is tiny, and I'm not sure if the fix you linked will work. I'm going to go take a picture in a second, hopefully the pin I lifted leads to ground. I'll look at the schematic. At any rate, this dac is just practice for bigger and better things, I wanted to practice smd soldering before I ruined something (more) expensive

 

One thing though, I'm looking at Cardas Quad solder. Is it worth the slight price increase? I can't find anything else for a good price on ebay, or anywhere else for that matter.photo (1).JPG

 

That's the best focus I could get, but it's the first pad on the bottom left of the pic.

 

EDIT: looked at the scematic on the grubdac website. The particular pad I lifted is green instead of light green, whatever that means.

GrubDAC-lay.jpg


Edited by BobSaysHi - 11/12/10 at 8:18pm
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post #7 of 9
11/13/10 at 7:46am

fwiw dark green in that picture seems to indicate no connection

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post #8 of 9
11/13/10 at 10:44am
Thread Starter 

Ok, thats good news. I hoped that would be the case.

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post #9 of 9
11/15/10 at 7:14am

Dark green are not connected pads, so if you lifted on you should be fine.

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