Tiny Solder Advice Needed

[Timmah_C]

While working on my G4 Cube, I accidentally broke a very small (roughly 7mm across) part of the power distribution board. As a result, the machine no longer powers up properly. I have attached a macro image of the tiny part that has broken off the PDB. I've circled the areas that need to be re-soldered to the board.

My question is: how can I re-attach it to the board? Do I use a normal soldering iron, or will that be too large for such a small job? I have absolutely zero experience soldering. Please help me restore function to one of my favourite PPC Macs!

 

[z970]

While further cleaning out my MDD, I accidentally broke off the power button from the front panel board. It's a little box about the same size as your part. Its metal feet took the solder blobs with them, clean off the board.

Instead of soldering it back, I held it in place, making sure its pins were in the exact same place as they were. Then, I hot glued the piece's parallel sides and back side to the circuit board, still ensuring the pins made perfect contact to their places. I didn't reinstall it until I made sure it could securely take at least fifty more presses attached that way.

That was over four months ago. Works like a charm to this day, no soldering required.

 

[JoyBed]

As an electrical engineer I can say that you can solder it back on using a soldering iron with a fine tip, clean the pads on that part because they look that they wont be very solder friendly with this oxidation.

 

[1042686]

Take care not to tear off or damage the Trace pads on the board if when soldering, you need to adjust the component. I’ve found Apple products in particular to be fragile in this regard & if this occurs there’s no way that I know if or have read about to repair that sort of damage.

I Assume this is the advantage of a hot air station or heat gun - uniform heating of an area vs a single point.

Best of luck to you

 

[JoyBed]

Take care not to tear off or damage the Trace pads on the board if when soldering, you need to adjust the component. I’ve found Apple products in particular to be fragile in this regard & if this occurs there’s no way that I know if or have read about to repair that sort of damage.

I Assume this is the advantage of a hot air station or heat gun - uniform heating of an area vs a single point.

Best of luck to you

Can be taken care of if something like that happens, just scrape off the coating on the trace right next to the solder pad and use flus and solder the part to that... I repaired some machines like that . Just dont overheat the traces and pads too much and they wont tear of.

 

[for this]

7 mm is not difficult. Place it on the location on the board. Hold it in place with a piece of tape. Then, if the space around the component is comfortable to work with, you can use the standard procedure: solder wire on one hand and the soldering iron on another. Search youtube for tutorials, they are plenty.

If the space is tight, then apply some flux between the legs of the component and the board, melt the solder wire with the soldering iron to have some of it on the tip and touch it on the legs, the solder will flow and fuse the contacts underneath. Clean the flux off (because it can be corrosive) with isopropyl, done.

PS: as others said, the contact points on the legs look dull, try scratching the area with a knife to make them more shiny before soldering it.

 

[NikolaPPC]

Greetings @Timmah_C !

Please look on youtube how profesionals do SMD solderign with a solder iron, and what type of flux, solder, solder wick for cleaning they use.


Cheers, Nikola!

 

[Timmah_C]

Thanks everyone for your input. I really appreciate it. What a fantastic community. I haven't yet attempted to re-solder the small part to the power distribution board, as I am waiting for some solder to arrive from eBay. I'll let you know how I go once it arrives.