First Soldering, First Uncap, First Recap (soon) !

[Polom]

A friend just gave me a ton of Amiga hardware a while ago, including some very nice things (Blizzard 2060, Toccata, OpalVision...). Most of it is leaking acid and needs maintenance before it's too late, therefore and I decided to use a soldering iron for the first time in my life, after watching a bunch of videos and doing some tests on an old non Amiga PCB (nah, I didn't torture an Atari ).

My tools:

• Cheap (30€) soldering station
• Several "heads" for this iron (what's the proper word?)
• Flux pen
• Leaded solder wire
• Solder braid (with solder on it)
• Various pliers
• Anti-static brushes
• Isopropyl alcohol

First target: an allegedly dead A600. It was coverd with layers of dust. and near capacitors, with a mud created by dust and acid.

I cleaned it with A BATH of IPA and a brush. Once it was done, I didn't notice anything bad, actually is seemed as new. If something is damaged, it will be under the capacitors.

The first thing is did after cleaning was plugging this A600 it to a monitor and a power supply. Black screen.

Then I begun to un-solder.

The first capacitor i removed was C612, the one above the 555 Timer (U14). Usual suspect. Testing boot without C612 and... it works ! After all that A600 wasn't dead, it needed some love, just like all Amiga do




After that, I removed all the others except C312 and C334. They are notoriously difficult for newbies and can wait a bit (not much, I won't forget them).





As you can see, C235 is missing a pad. I don't know how it happened, I didn't use force :/

Do you guys know what's supposed to be done about it ? Just filling the little hollow with solder ?

The other problem I have identified is in C408. One of the hole is stuck.

https://i.ibb.co/tHGx5L1/1.jpg

I didn't want to force thru it but I'll have to find a way. I used a pointy Iron head for it, without success so far.


Any remark would be very welcome. If you notice something terrible, if I killed this little A600 or did mistakes it would be very kind of you guys to let me know. And there's that missing 'pad'. Is filling it with solder the way to go?

I won't touch the holy A1000 sleeping upstairs or the A2060 (super leaky) before knowing what I do. No hurry.

Again, comments are very welcome! That's how I'll learn.

Thanks you guys!

[Jpor]

Does your soldering station have a heat setting? If so what temp are you using? As a rule of thumb try 350 degrees or 360 degrees max! Too much heat and you will start to remove pads.

[Polom]

Originally Posted by Jpor

Does your soldering station have a heat setting? If so what temp are you using? As a rule of thumb try 350 degrees or 360 degrees max! Too much heat and you will start to remove pads.

It does and I set it at 290° for that first real work. Possibly a bit low but I wasn't sure

[jbenam]

Missing pads can be fixed by scratching a little bit of the track going to the now-missing pad with a hobby knife, enough to let the copper show. Then you can either directly put the SMD cap close enough that you can solder the track and the cap pad together, or you can use a small kynar wire as an "extension".

Put some hot glue next to the cap to make it more stable (if it gets torn this time it will take the entire track with it) and it's done.

About the stuck hole, use a solid core wire to push whatever is inside out. The wire will get most of the heat of your soldering iron, working as an extension of some sort.

Good luck, and I would seriously consider a hot air station for removing SMD caps, that way you can avoid tearing pads

[Polom]

Originally Posted by jbenam

Missing pads can be fixed by scratching a little bit of the track going to the now-missing pad with a hobby knife, enough to let the copper show. Then you can either directly put the SMD cap close enough that you can solder the track and the cap pad together, or you can use a small kynar wire as an "extension".

Put some hot glue next to the cap to make it more stable (if it gets torn this time it will take the entire track with it) and it's done.

About the stuck hole, use a solid core wire to push whatever is inside out. The wire will get most of the heat of your soldering iron, working as an extension of some sort.

Good luck, and I would seriously consider a hot air station for removing SMD caps, that way you can avoid tearing pads

Thank you jbenam!

Indeed I've seen videos of capacitors removal with hot hair (usually protective tape, sometimes without, experts going to fast it didn't seem dangerous) and it's amazing. However for now I have to work on a budget. I would also need a 'sucker'.

And look at that amazing Hakko tool for SMDs (I don't what to know the price