Elektron-Users

i've been soldering small things every now and then, but now i ran into bitchy problem:

i was about to desolder an pot that has been attaced to the PCB with soldering also the "hands" on the sides to the PCB (see the pic, similar thing).



at the end i just wasn't able to to suck all the tin off from these. somehow they were covered with a chunk of tin and at the end the tin didn't even melt anymore but the pot was getting super hot. now it's completely stuck and i'm afraid that i damage rest of the stuff on the PCB with heating it too much. am i forced to take that pot off mechanically (NO!!)? what the hell should i do?

I once tried desldering a c64 sid2sid chip extension, it wasnt pretty and signified the end of me working on my ml303.
If youre in anyway not sure/confident enough my advice would be to take it to a pro (TV repair shop for example), the bloke mine went to didnt even charge me.

tIB wrote:
I once tried desldering a c64 sid2sid chip extension, it wasnt pretty and signified the end of me working on my ml303.
If youre in anyway not sure/confident enough my advice would be to take it to a pro (TV repair shop for example), the bloke mine went to didnt even charge me.

exactly what i want to avoid: take it to a pro shop and get charged 50€ for getting that tiny piece of shit desoldered... but since i don't seem to be able to do it myself it's my destiny i guess...

I suppose it all depends on how expensive the thing your desoldering is worth; a 3 euro sid2sid was worth a gamble, the ml303 definately was not....I soon realised I wasnt cut out for it!
You could always just walk in to a component assembly factory and ask them, Ive always found most folk will help you out for nothing in an hour of soldering need.

I just did a similar thing on my Yamaha A4000 sampler. (the encoders looked just like those)

I used a copper cable like thingy. Not shure what its called in english. Looks like a flat cable. Those sucked up more than the manual pumps.

you need proper solder wick and a VERY hot iron. dont attempt it with a regular 40watt type. you need a gas iron or a bench type at about 400c degrees! get in and out fast and dont hold the iron on too long.
good luck

I've always told the engineers that work for me to sacrifice the component in preference to ruining the pcb. Depends if your trying to save what your taking out i suppose. If i had to change a DIL IC for example, i would chop all the leads, then pull them out of the pcb using some tweezers and some heat from an iron. Then desolder the holes with a sucker. Is the pot still on the board? You may find that the body of the component is sinking all the heat from your iron and thats why it wont come off - again thats a reason to chop the component off if your not trying to save it.


A

yea, thanks for tips!

well, i don't need to save that component, but it's so close and tight to the board that i feel it difficult to snap off without damaging surrounding chips'n'stuff.

wont be buying pro iron either, though that could be a good idea

cheers!

suddenly spending $50 to have it replaced sounds like the best option!
at least you wont have to kick yourself in the nutz.

Amanita wrote:
I've always told the engineers that work for me to sacrifice the component in preference to ruining the pcb. Depends if your trying to save what your taking out i suppose. If i had to change a DIL IC for example, i would chop all the leads, then pull them out of the pcb using some tweezers and some heat from an iron. Then desolder the holes with a sucker. Is the pot still on the board? You may find that the body of the component is sinking all the heat from your iron and thats why it wont come off - again thats a reason to chop the component off if your not trying to save it.

This is dead on the money advice. For a replacement like this, I'll use a small wire cutter to snap all the leads, then remove the remaining legs one by one.