Ahh crap! I think I killed my GP-Wiz!

[_) (V) (-)]

Here's the deal, I'd broken off one of the wires soldiered onto my GP-Wiz board and figured I'd take the opportunity to move a few others around while I was in there with the iron all warmed up and everything.

Well, it didn't care much for this idea and maybe it was because I held the iron on one place for too long, but, I'd lifted a trace right off the PCB. Dammit!

Also lost a couple of them rings around the holes you put the wires into.

Now I'm not sure how many layers that board is but I figure it's shot. Sent Randy a PM to see if he might have a replacement PCB I could transfer the chip over to but don't know if it's even worth the hassle or not. He'll probably just laugh at me and I wouldn't blame him.

I followed the trace and it goes to a leg on the chip. Now I'd bet I could tack the wire directly to the chip but if it's a layered board I don't think the rest of the circuit will have continuity.

Any advice from the pros here?

[Kaytrim]

Tough break CykoMF.  I use the same board from GGG and I love it.  I got the no solder version and I am glad I did after reading what you did to yours.  Look at my FrankenMAME thread and see how I used mine, link in sig.

[rockin_rick]

You got the trace too hot.  Most likely your iron is too large of a wattage.

While I don't have one of those boards, I'd bet my life that it is not more than 2 layers, and if it is double sided, it has plated through holes.  So you should be able to solder (with a lower wattage iron) to the IC's pin on either side of the board and be fine.  The IC's pin is soldered to the board and the plated through hole would transfer the signal to both sides of the board.

I'd lower your irons temp or get a smaller iron before doing this...

Good luck,
Rick

[RandyT]

Lifted traces are usually caused by applying too much heat.  A small 15-watt or less soldering iron with just enough contact time for a good joint is what you want.

That being said, all is not lost.  You can solder a jumper wire directly to the pin on the main processor and it will still be fine (though not as pretty).  Again, not too much heat or the processor will be unforgiving as well.

RandyT

[_) (V) (-)]

Cool, I'll give it a shot.

For the record, I am using a 15 watt iron. Should have cut the wires first I guess.

Worst case, I buy another one. 

[_) (V) (-)]

Good news!
I managed to fix this thing AND made it better than before!

I scavenged the IDE cable mount from an old dead hard drive and used that to solider into the holes on the PCB, then ran some tiny little jumpers from the chip over the previously damaged traces to the pins on the IDE connector.

Now all the pins are working again AND I get to use a cool IDE ribbon cable for a quick disconnect method. 

I even had the misfortune of dropping the thing off the table while working on it. It seems to be 100% functional again.

(It's not like I was trying to kill it, honestly I wasn't) 

[Havok]

Sweet! Now it's a FrankenWiz!

The encoder that would not die!

Coming this holiday season to a cab near you...

 

[whammoed]

I feel your pain.  My kids lifted a trace on a car dvd player for the dc input connector  (one of them jerked the cable).  Luckily the trace is rather large and I was able to remove some solder mask and make the repair easily.  Glad you got it running, but lets see a pic of the handy work eh?

[Kaytrim]

Sweet! Now it's a FrankenWiz!

 

[_) (V) (-)]

Good one Havok!!

Here is a pic, not much to see really, the connector pretty much hides the trace lead. 

[Kaytrim]

Nice repair job.  I think that you will like having that IDE cable whenever you need to make changes.  I am sure glad that I did it that way with mine.

[_) (V) (-)]

Thanks!

Now I've got to see what I can do with the rest of this hard drive,

Helllloooooo Spinner hack!