I've killed my gertboard ! ( and havent even finished it )

Well this is amusing.. Whilst attempting to solder one of the grains of sand in the kit, I've managed to burn a couple of surfacemount pads on the board . It's on one of the resistors, I think I had the iron way to hot.

I was wondering ( hoping ) if anyone could advise on a way to fix it..

Thanks in advance.

Ash.

Former Member over 13 years ago

you can by another resistor for it and get a better soldering iron
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Former Member over 13 years ago in reply to Former Member

wait theres damege on the board get a new gert board new soldering iron and a helpinghands for magnifing the smt
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johnbeetem over 13 years ago

A photo would help show the situation, but generally you can fix this sort of thing by adding thin wires to replace any destroyed traces. Usually the best wire is solid AWG 30 with kynar insulation, which old timers still refer to as "wire-wrap wire".
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Former Member over 13 years ago

It's the R1 pads, both of them, rather than the view above,, I have two brown marks where the pads used to be..

I have invested in a decent iron since..lol

I'll try and pick up some of the AWG30 and have a go at a repair.

https://community.element14.com/resized-image/__size/1200x900/__key/communityserver-discussions-components-files/91/3821.contentimage_5F00_175229.html

Ash.
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johnbeetem over 13 years ago in reply to Former Member

According to the Gertboard schematic from rev 1.0 of the Gertboard User Manual, R1 and R2 are both pull-ups to +3.3V. So I think you can just connect the labeled ends of R1 and R2 using a short non-insulated jumper wire. For the other end of R1, you could scrape the solder resist off the diagonal trace and solder a short bare wire to the exposed trace. You'll need a sharp X-acto knife or equivalent and stop scraping as soon as you see metal. Then pre-tin the trace by heating it up with your soldering iron while melting solder onto the trace. This makes it much easier to solder the actual wire to R1. Be careful not to short to the copper fill beside the trace.

You could also make the repair on the back side of the board, soldering one end of R1 to the through-hole pin it's supposed to pull up (J11 pin 4) and solder an insulated wire to +3.3V (J7 pin 2) from the other end of R1.
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Former Member over 13 years ago in reply to johnbeetem

Brilliant, thanks :-) I dont feel quite so sad now, I was thinking of the bin for it ....

I'll have a stab and post back..

The new iron is much better, so hopefully I can finish the board without any further problems

Ash>
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Former Member over 13 years ago in reply to johnbeetem

just a thought..... could I use a standard 10K resistor in place of the SMT one?
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Former Member over 13 years ago in reply to johnbeetem

just a thought..... could I use a standard 10K resistor in place of the SMT one?
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johnbeetem over 13 years ago in reply to Former Member

ash068 wrote:

just a thought..... could I use a standard [axial] 10K resistor in place of the SMT one?
Sure, totally. 1/8 watt is a good size for a 10K pull-up to 3.3V, though it doesn't hurt to go larger. You can strip the insulation off some spare wire and put it over the resistor axial leads. You'll want to put it on the back side of the Gertboard.
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Former Member over 13 years ago in reply to johnbeetem

Superb, Thank John, you have been very helpful. Off to my local shop for a resistor.

Thanks
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