rwest1389
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Dec 23, 2006
- Posts
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Well I'll start off with a caution, this story is pretty strange and kinda gross.
I bought an Alien-DAC off a head-fi'er who built it. It worked great for a long time, and then suddenly one day, the music stopped. I tested the headphones and amp, they were fine, so I knew it was the DAC. I opened up the hammond case, and what I saw was not what I expected, and very disturbing. The inside was absolutely FILLED with ants. Lots of tiny ants and some huge ones too. I think I saw a few eggs. Why they chose to make a colony in my DAC, I have no idea. After shaking them out and then torching them with lysol and a lighter, I inspected the damage. I saw that the wires connecting the plug and chip lost connection to the chip at a spot labeled "OL." I had luvdullhill check it out (I didn't tell him how the chip got messed up). He said the wires were shaky at the plug and at the chip, and redid them for me. However, the DAC still does not work, even though the solder points look great to me (although I'm no expert, only done a couple soldering projects).
My question is, could ants have caused some kind of permanent damage other than dislodging a connection (I think the ants came in around the jack, so that might have caused the connection to break)? Or do you think that it is just the solder points that are still faulty (luvdunhill admitted to not having a right supplies for soldering such a small job). I could post some picture of the solder points if that would help.
I wasn't sure where to post this problem, but figured DIYers would be most knowledgeable. Any ideas would be great, thanks.
*note: I'm no expert in DIY so bear with me if I don't have the right terminology.
I bought an Alien-DAC off a head-fi'er who built it. It worked great for a long time, and then suddenly one day, the music stopped. I tested the headphones and amp, they were fine, so I knew it was the DAC. I opened up the hammond case, and what I saw was not what I expected, and very disturbing. The inside was absolutely FILLED with ants. Lots of tiny ants and some huge ones too. I think I saw a few eggs. Why they chose to make a colony in my DAC, I have no idea. After shaking them out and then torching them with lysol and a lighter, I inspected the damage. I saw that the wires connecting the plug and chip lost connection to the chip at a spot labeled "OL." I had luvdullhill check it out (I didn't tell him how the chip got messed up). He said the wires were shaky at the plug and at the chip, and redid them for me. However, the DAC still does not work, even though the solder points look great to me (although I'm no expert, only done a couple soldering projects).
My question is, could ants have caused some kind of permanent damage other than dislodging a connection (I think the ants came in around the jack, so that might have caused the connection to break)? Or do you think that it is just the solder points that are still faulty (luvdunhill admitted to not having a right supplies for soldering such a small job). I could post some picture of the solder points if that would help.
I wasn't sure where to post this problem, but figured DIYers would be most knowledgeable. Any ideas would be great, thanks.
*note: I'm no expert in DIY so bear with me if I don't have the right terminology.