VOGONS


First post, by Eleanor1967

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Hey folks,

I've got this 486SPM motherboard which suffered some battery leakage. I've already neutralized the acid and cleaned/scrubbed of the corrosion. Question is how do I now continue with it. I tried just retinning the traces but it didn't really stick to the traces. How would you go about rearing these traces? Two don't have continuity anymore. Also what would you use to protect the fixed traces after repair? I want to do it right, amongst other things, because I can't quickly test the board anyway since I desolderer a crystal and the power connectors.

Best regards
Eleanor1967

Reply 1 of 6, by BeginnerGuy

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Maybe scrape the traces with steel wool and try tinning again. Use flux generously so the solder doesn't just form into beads and fall off. Once that is sucessful i would tin a matching gauge wire and solder it on top of the trace and seal with glue from my glue gun. Just an idea.

I think the normal solution here is to just find two solder pads on the trace and bridge it with wire wrap, you can then glue down the wire along the old trace to make it look a little cleaner.

The right way would certainly be to order copper trace / repair kit or make your own traces, im not quite sure how to re-seal it as the original coating is some type of plastic. Cutting the copper trace with an xacto knife can be a real pain though!!

Sup. I like computers. Are you a computer?

Reply 2 of 6, by Nprod

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Try putting some flux on the traces and retinning again. If it doesn't work you can either use very thin pieces of wire, or a trace repair kit. After the repair is done you have to coat it with new soldermask, they sell it on websites like Aliexpress - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/High-quality- … 2662488165.html

The soldermask cures under UV light, specifically UV-A. You can either get UV-A diodes or flourescent bulbs. They often have these types of lights at beauty salon shops because the compound they use for manicures is similar to soldermask and cures the same way.

Reply 3 of 6, by Predator99

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Sorry I wont try all this. Such trace repairs takes ages and in most cases it doesnt look very good. Look on the backside and locate the start- and end-point of a trace. Then solder a wire between both. This repair is reversible and you wont see the wires when the board is installed in a case.

Reply 6 of 6, by quicknick

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I've had very similar damage on an identical board. You must be more thorough in removing all the corrosion, scrape away using a razor blade and medium-fine sandpaper until there's only shiny copper or else it won't solder properly. Also, use plenty of flux, and double the broken traces with copper wire of appropriate gauge.

The photo below shows about the midpoint of my repair, I don't have one of the end result (I could take one but you won't see much anyway, almost all area is covered by the CR2032 holder - I applied feipoa's mod). I also cut a plastic washer/shim below the crystal, take care or else the case will short to the trace below, now that it will be stripped of the insulating soldermask.

The attachment 486SPM_corr.jpg is no longer available