Soldering help

[leowyatt]

Have just put a new HD and DVDRW drive in the ibook and gone to power it up and nothing :(

It seems the connector for the power button and speakers has broken a soldered connection. I can see the exact part that needs fixing but don't have any means of soldering anything and the parts bits that need doing are extremely small.

Does anyone have any ideas of the best way to get it sorted other than buy a new board :( Anyone think a yellow pages company could do it for me?

Cheers

Leo

[Dr. Z]

How small is extremely small? take a photo - it may well be the case that someone could solder it for you in return for a beverage or two ;)

[Will]

If you lived closer I'd do it for you in seconds (what's the point in being an almost professionally certfied engineer if I can't be of use :(). I know DRZ is an electronic-y type of person so I'm sure he'd be more than able to do it for you - but as he said take a pic so at least we can see. I have some micro irons I can lend if required (though they're seldom required even on tiny circuit boards).

[leowyatt]

I've actually just put the bloody thing back together but am searching for a pic on the web :)

the connections are probably less than a mil wide and around a mil in length. From what I can see one has split :(

Sorry for the huge images guys!

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/Leowyatt/1.jpg

That is the clearest picture I can get at the minute and it's the socket with the yellow box around it.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/Leowyatt/2.jpg

If you look at around 11 o'clock from the modem socket you can see it.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/Leowyatt/3.jpg

In this one the model socket is removed and you can see it better :)

[Will]

So it's one of the pins of that connector that's broken off? That is actually quite a fiddly thing to fix, best way IMO of doing it is to put a new socket on - i.e. remove the socket altogether and solder on a new socket - if that is indeed what is broken. :) Or do a ghetto fix, by sticking a new piece of copper of roughly or exactly the same diameter through the circuit board and clipping it to the correct length.

[Zirax]

I've had a think and looked at some old gfx cards I have lying around with that connection size (for the fan). I agree with Cliff's :p suggestion of taking the connector off the board just by melting the solder. If you take the board out of your laptop it shouldn't be too hard to do.

It looks like just the power on button wire is gone. I would suggest an even more ghetto fix of finding a single core piece of wire and soldering that into the board, then solder the existing power wire onto that. Alternatively be electrically safer and solder in a new socket :)

[leowyatt]

Ideally I'd want a new socket soldered on as if I was to sell the iBook on and the person had work done on it it would all be correct. Any ideas what size and type the socket is likely to be?

DRZ do you think you could repair the current part without having to replace it?

[Will]

You can get that sort of connector from RS or CPC. What they are called are PCB mounting headers - obviously you need the correct size etc... I haven't got an RS book to hand but the website is generally good.

[leowyatt]

Just updated the photos with a red circle to show the part :) Hope it makes better sense now.

[Will]

It's still called a pcb mounting header :p

[leowyatt]

okay okay :p thanks for your help :)

[Will]

If you need help finding one I can, but not right now I'm afraid :(

RS or Farnell will probably be your best bet though maplin might do it?

[leowyatt]

aye was talking to DRZ about it, hopefully we'll be able to make do with the one in there :D

[Will]

aye was talking to DRZ about it, hopefully we'll be able to make do with the one in there :D

Yeah if it's not snapped there's no reason why not. Of course taking the mobo out will make it a LOT easier :)

[leowyatt]

Of course taking the mobo out will make it a LOT easier :)

have you seen how much work that is??? :shocked: you can actually get to the top and bottom of the MB in the state I had it in

[Will]

have you seen how much work that is??? :shocked: you can actually get to the top and bottom of the MB in the state I had it in

If that's the case then that's fine. You have to be able to clear our the solder holes you see, and get to bottom side of the PCB for the solder point - just trying to make DRZs life easier :p

I have taken laptops apart and yes I always end up with a gazillion screws that I've forgotten to put back in :p

[Dr. Z]

The only thing that is mildly concerning is the possibility of surface-mount resistors close enough to become desoldered when fixing this socket.

If they come off, its game over :(

[leowyatt]

DRZ is offically a Legend I'm typing this from my newly installed iBook :D

[Robert]

So he popped over and did it? Nice one :)

[leowyatt]

So far, usb port 2, ethernet and the firewire 400 port all work ok but USB port 1 seems to be acting a little odd :(

[Will]

Nicely done Durz :cool:

[Haly]

Excellent work Durz, very kind of you to help out :)

[Davey_Pitch]

Nicely done Drz, you should have popped over to us and picked up your CD's and Paula's shoe at the same time :D

[leowyatt]

Would have been difficult as we were in Manchester :D

[Dr. Z]

Trickiest. Job. Ever.

Close proximity to other components + soldering surface mount stuff with a comparative "shovel" of an iron through a 1cm hole ftl.

Never again! :p

(Glad its holding out though :D)

[Daz]

Skills dude :cool: