Well I got my kit yesterday and in my haste to get things started I grabed the wrong soldering iron and went to work. The iron was a 60watt and when I had to remove a header to resolder, I ended up lifting the solder pad and a small piece of a trace.
The header I had to remove is the two pin header right next to where the GPS is plugged in. When I finally got the solder out the board was a little charred, and the trace leading to the inside hole had lifted. The solder pad for both holes lifted and were ruined.
My question is, is it possible to repair this? Because of the size, I don’t know that a jumper wire would be possible to fix the trace.
Could I fix this with a conductive circuit pen?
Also what would be the best way to go about fixing the solder pad? Can I just glob the hole with solder, or possibly use the circuit pen and solder? Or is there a better way to go about this? Or am I just screwed and need to get a new APM?
Replies
You simply replace the broken foil trace with that jumper wire.
Make sure there are no via holes (connections to other circuit board layers) along that old trace that become
unconnected as a result.
You need precision pliers, a magnifying lens to view these solder points reliably, and a fine point soldering iron.
and optionally one of those handy suction tools to get rid of excessive solder.
As long as the investment is less than the cost for a new board it should be a good thing. And you learn stuff and get some tools useful for future work.