Favorite tech for repairing board trace?

[frmboybuck]

I recently bought another lincoln 2 from a ham friend. He said he bought it used and was told it was "unconvertable". After taking the covers off, I figured out why. Whoever tried to convert it burnt the trace off of the board and I don't feel comfortable repairing it myself. Looking for a reputable tech to operate on it

 

[brandon7861]

I don't have a tech to recommend, but in the event you decide to try it yourself, I can recommend a technique. And I could use the practice because I've only done it a couple times, so heres some pics. Couldn't sleep anyhow.

Find junk radio to practice on, desolder something, turn iron to max and cook the trace off while lifting with tweezers, clean surface, then, with 10x more patience than you initially expect to utilize, lay out new traces with copper foil tape and an exacto knife, press down copper tape with mars pencil eraser to help it stick down, then with the finest tip soldering iron on the a lower temperature (so to not lift trace again), bridge any splices in the tape, now poke holes through foil where parts go, then with a fine paint brush, go around solder points and over new trace with UV mask to keep the trace in place, cure for 5 minutes under UV, and finally, put the parts back in just for fun.





You may spot evidence that this took me 2 tries with the foil cutting, so its not easy, but not impossible either with minimal practice.

 

[frmboybuck]

What are these patience that you speak of? I'm pretty sure I ran out of those years ago, lol.

 

[Shadetree Mechanic]

While it is great to replace a bad trace, in the past I have used 24awg telephone wire and used that to connect the component leads to the trace. Or to bridge across a broken trace too. It doesn't have to be pretty, it just has to work.

 

[DTB Radio]

The radio in question uses a double-side board. It may not be a simple fix in this case, as a board via may have been damaged as well. Would you be able to take a close-up photo or two of the damaged area? Might help with coming up with a solution.

 

[frmboybuck]

The radio in question uses a double-side board. It may not be a simple fix in this case, as a board via may have been damaged as well. Would you be able to take a close-up photo or two of the damaged area? Might help with coming up with a solution.

Yup, sure can. I'll take a couple when I get home this afternoon

 

[frmboybuck]

I can probably clean it up some bit I haven't touched it because the radio still works flawlessly

 

[brandon7861]

Someone butchered the export mod with a 4lb soldering iron when simply clipping it would have sufficed Clean it up with some acetone and call it a day.

 

[frmboybuck]

Someone butchered the export mod with a 4lb soldering iron when simply clipping it would have sufficed Clean it up with some acetone and call it a day.

Well they definitely butchered it but there's no clipping the lincoln. You need to add a 1k resistor to the board. Appears they used way to much heat and melted the trace from the board. Cleaning it up won't get me 27 mhz

 

[brandon7861]

Well they definitely butchered it but there's no clipping the lincoln. You need to add a 1k resistor to the board. Appears they used way to much heat and melted the trace from the board. Cleaning it up won't get me 27 mhz

I understand what is done is done, but clipped leads would have offered something to solder that resistor to..

 

[brandon7861]

Looks like its not ruined though. I looked at the manual (which has the trace layouts). The via that is carved out appears to be to the ground plane on the back side (and the schematic agrees).

I don't consider myself a tech, but I'd be willing to clean up the solder mess and add the resistor if you feel it is worth the return shipping plus $20. I would probably just clean everything around the original location, then move down that trace where it goes along the ground fill, remove a tiny bit of mask, then place a surface mount 1k across the two.

I live on a no maintenance road the postal service will not go down and the FedEx guy likes to drop my packages at the end of the road without me texting him back, so you would need to use UPS.

 

[AudioShockwav]

Ouch.
Nice offer, as Dave said above just check to find out if the connection " passes through" the board to the bottom.
I have repaired a 2600 that was damaged by someone removing the CPU and they pulled out the copper "tube" that connected the top and bottom trace together.

73
Jeff

 

[frmboybuck]

Looks like its not ruined though. I looked at the manual (which has the trace layouts). The via that is carved out appears to be to the ground plane on the back side (and the schematic agrees).

I don't consider myself a tech, but I'd be willing to clean up the solder mess and add the resistor if you feel it is worth the return shipping plus $20. I would probably just clean everything around the original location, then move down that trace where it goes along the ground fill, remove a tiny bit of mask, then place a surface mount 1k across the two.

I live on a no maintenance road the postal service will not go down and the FedEx guy likes to drop my packages at the end of the road without me texting him back, so you would need to use UPS.

That's a generous offer and I'd be up for that...I really appreciate it. It'll probably be after the first of the year before I can get to the ups store but I'll get it boxed up and ready. Message me your address when you get a minute

 

[Eldorado828]

Looks like its not ruined though. I looked at the manual (which has the trace layouts). The via that is carved out appears to be to the ground plane on the back side (and the schematic agrees).

I don't consider myself a tech, but I'd be willing to clean up the solder mess and add the resistor if you feel it is worth the return shipping plus $20. I would probably just clean everything around the original location, then move down that trace where it goes along the ground fill, remove a tiny bit of mask, then place a surface mount 1k across the two.

I live on a no maintenance road the postal service will not go down and the FedEx guy likes to drop my packages at the end of the road without me texting him back, so you would need to use UPS.

What's definitely a generous offer, you're a good dude.

That's a generous offer and I'd be up for that...I really appreciate it. It'll probably be after the first of the year before I can get to the ups store but I'll get it boxed up and ready. Message me your address when you get a minute

You can't pass that one up

 

[brandon7861]

Ouch.
Nice offer, as Dave said above just check to find out if the connection " passes through" the board to the bottom.
I have repaired a 2600 that was damaged by someone removing the CPU and they pulled out the copper "tube" that connected the top and bottom trace together.

73
Jeff

The manual shows it going through the board. Luckily, I think in this case, if the via tube is gone, that it wound't matter as that via didn't feed anything else on the other side. I think it will clean up nice. Maybe I can get some blue UV mask in time, currently have red and green only. Those bare copper traces need to be covered up, would be nice if it matched. (edit: blue mask arriving on the 5th)