Can I fix a chip board that has a small crack??

[Monty53]

Hey!! New here.. I have a pioneer FH-X785BT headunit in my car. Bumped it really hard one day and the visual stopped working but still played my last volume and input setting before the “whack”. I have taken the mcu boards out and can see a small split at the middle of the bottom, in the one that’s on the backside of the front screen. Based off the photo, do you think I can fix this to get it all Working again?

thank you

 

[silkstone]

Hey!! New here.. I have a pioneer FH-X785BT headunit in my car. Bumped it really hard one day and the visual stopped working but still played my last volume and input setting before the “whack”. I have taken the mcu boards out and can see a small split at the middle of the bottom, in the one that’s on the backside of the front screen. Based off the photo, do you think I can fix this to get it all Working again?

thank you

If you don't get any other advice, and as a 'hail Mary' attempt, you might like to 'Bake' it in the oven. Search how people do this with Video Cards. That 'may' cause some re-flow of the traces, though i highly doubt it will work as the traces are copper and have likely been severed. After using the oven method, go over the crack with some clear nail polish to give it some structural strength around the crack.

This should be a last ditch attempt when you have nothing else to lose.

If that crack goes all of the way through the PCB, I can't see anything working to fix it.

 

[Grog6]

I depends on how many layers are in that pcb.

If it's a two layer board, you might fix it; I've done it before.

Scratch the green solder mask off the copper traces on both sides of the break, and solder a bridge of solder across the crack.

Be careful not to connect anything together that's not supposed to be, and see if it works.

You will have to do both sides of the PCB, most likely.

 

[Ruru]

Baking won't fix a damaged trace. Like @Grog6 said above, bridging that trace could work, but it's not very easy. Well, at least not for me.

e: There seems to be smaller traces affected too, if they're broken, that's more difficult to fix IMO.

 

[Deleted member 67555]

I depends on how many layers are in that pcb.

If it's a two layer board, you might fix it; I've done it before.

Scratch the green solder mask off the copper traces on both sides of the break, and solder a bridge of solder across the crack.

Be careful not to connect anything together that's not supposed to be, and see if it works.

You will have to do both sides of the PCB, most likely.

I was in the middle of typing a similar response...

 

[Bones]

You can't just bake a broken trace to fix it.
You can use a fiberglass pen to scratch off the PCB coating that covers the trace at the point it's broken and bridge it with either conductive ink or perhaps a spot soldering repair, then try it. Be sure to use regular solder if doing the fix that way such as 60/40 or something similar along with flux, don't try to use lead free solder (Silver Solder), MUCH more difficult to work with and it's prone to thermal cracking.
Just ask anyone that's has a PS3 console quit (Red/Yellow LED's of death).

If the PCB itself has an actual crack at that spot you'll have to deal with that too or the trace will break again. With that, a spot of glue at and around the cracked area would be good to hold the sides of the cracked PCB in place before the actual trace fix is done.

EDIT:
Forgot to mention if soldering the trace BE CAREFUL about how hot you have the pen - You don't want to burn up the trace, really easy to do if not paying attention. Don't use any more heat than what's required to melt the solder and don't keep the trace itself hot any longer than required to do the fix.

 

[Athlonite]

It's a double sided board so yes fixing it is rather simple if you're fairly competent with an soldering iron or have a conductive pen as said by Bones & Grog6

 

[delshay]

I depends on how many layers are in that pcb.

If it's a two layer board, you might fix it; I've done it before.

Scratch the green solder mask off the copper traces on both sides of the break, and solder a bridge of solder across the crack.

Be careful not to connect anything together that's not supposed to be, and see if it works.

You will have to do both sides of the PCB, most likely.

Spot on Grog6. This is something very basic I learned many years ago, it's dead easy to do if you know what you are doing.

Opps, has no one spotted something is missing, you can see the leftover of something from two pads.

 

[silentbogo]

If you don't get any other advice, and as a 'hail Mary' attempt, you might like to 'Bake' it in the oven.

That's only going to make it worse.

Based off the photo, do you think I can fix this to get it all Working again?

Usually those are plain two-sided PCBs (it just controls the LCD and buttons). Basically you need to re-attach all tracks by hand. It's quite straight-forward for large tracks, but pain-in-the-ass for small paths down below.
It might be easier to find a used front panel for your Pioneer.
But if you still feel like it, you should probably get a decent soldering iron with a narrow point-tip, and maybe one of those toy USB microscopes for $10. Scrape away solder mask on both ends of that crack, clean it up thoroughly with IPA, tin it first, and then make a jumper. For small tracks you may need something like a roll of 0.1mm transformer wire to make those tiny jumpers.
I do this crap every day, so it's easier for me, but if you've never done this before - prepare for imminent failure.

 

[silkstone]

That's only going to make it worse.


Usually those are plain two-sided PCBs (it just controls the LCD and buttons). Basically you need to re-attach all tracks by hand. It's quite straight-forward for large tracks, but pain-in-the-ass for small paths down below.
It might be easier to find a used front panel for your Pioneer.
But if you still feel like it, you should probably get a decent soldering iron with a narrow point-tip, and maybe one of those toy USB microscopes for $10. Scrape away solder mask on both ends of that crack, clean it up thoroughly with IPA, tin it first, and then make a jumper. For small tracks you may need something like a roll of 0.1mm transformer wire to make those tiny jumpers.
I do this crap every day, so it's easier for me, but if you've never done this before - prepare for imminent failure.

Hence the 'Hail Mary' part. Nothing to lose, if it's dead anyway. Those narrow traces down at the bottom make it look like an impossible job for all but an expert. Best bet would be to look for a replacement board on ebay. I'm guessing that a silver pen repair wouldn't work either as its a mechanical break, any slight flex in the board would just re-break all those traces.

 

[Bill_Bright]

Yeah, baking is not a good idea as the heat may damage some of the other components on the board. The solder used in automobile electronics typically has a melting point somewhere around 185°C (365°F) - way too hot for most of the mounted devices on the board.

We are about to sink the boat but I too am with Grog6 on this. In a well ventilated area, use Acetone on a 100% cotton on wood (not plastic) swap to remove the urethane coating on the circuit traces, then carefully retrace the traces with a soldering pencil. If not practiced, I recommend practicing on an old circuit board you can sacrifice to get your timing down and confidence up. You want to melt the solder but not damage the board or nearby components.

If this repair is successful, be sure to recoat the damaged/repaired areas with a decent coat of urethane to seal out moisture and prevent corrosion - this is essential.

 

[joemama]

I would rather get a new one, soldering the wires back isn't an easy job