CM Storm - Can I save it?

bakteria · 28 Jun 2016, 19:17

My Face W died recently and I'm broke, so a friend of mine gave me an old CM storm.
Problem is he broke it trying to fix it.
He has no knowledge about soldering what so ever and does not grasp the concept of desoldering. So he pretty much pulled or scraped the solder off of the board pulling the contact points with it.

So the question is can I save it? I'm decent with an iron but I've never done a repair like this before.
Everything works except the "C" button and the leds.

Wodan · 28 Jun 2016, 19:32

LOL hardore.

Well scrape of the silkscreen from the leads and try to create a new joint.

After all, solder is very good at making contact

Stabilized · 28 Jun 2016, 21:04

Couldn't you bridge the pin to the left side of the diode? The other pin doesn't look that bad, maybe you could use it. You will have to scrape for the LEDs though!

bakteria · 28 Jun 2016, 23:21

I fixed it. Scraped a bit more.
Leds seems like a lost cause though.

Ratfink · 28 Jun 2016, 23:32

The LED doesn't look like a lost cause. Get creative! Run tiny wires from the LED's pins to large areas on the traces they're supposed to connect to, or nearby pads on the traces. It looks like a trace is supposed to pass through the pad on the right, so you'll have to run another wire to fix that too.

Wodan · 29 Jun 2016, 08:07

bakteria wrote: I fixed it. Scraped a bit more.
Leds seems like a lost cause though.

Pics or it didn't happen

bakteria · 29 Jun 2016, 09:32

Wodan wrote:
bakteria wrote: I fixed it. Scraped a bit more.
Leds seems like a lost cause though.
Pics or it didn't happen

Will post tonight! OP shall deliver!

Ratfink wrote: The LED doesn't look like a lost cause. Get creative! Run tiny wires from the LED's pins to large areas on the traces they're supposed to connect to, or nearby pads on the traces. It looks like a trace is supposed to pass through the pad on the right, so you'll have to run another wire to fix that too.

My knowledge of pcbs is limited. Could you show me where to run the wire? The area around the led pins is walled off and all the trace must have come of when he yanked the switch out. (or whatever he did)
If needed I will supply more pics when I get home.

shreebles · 29 Jun 2016, 11:39

Yes, I do this on my QFRs (also CM Storm) all the time, when one of the solder pads breaks (happens sometimes).
Where the pad is missing, follow the trace to where the connection should be running. Run a small wire from the pin to the target pin. Make sure to use a wire that has some form of isolation or it might short with other pins when you move it.

andrewjoy · 29 Jun 2016, 12:04

Another skullfucked PCB

how do people manage it ! This is why they should not even make soldering iorns that are not temp controlled.

Mod wire from bottom pin to the diode ( Wooo MELF diode!)

mod wire from the other pin to the corresponding switch pin on the right.

EDIT

This is where you need to mod wire the LED

: 30oeHm5.jpg (897.07 KiB) Viewed 2331 times

On the left ( blue scrape off the soldermask or use some very thin ( magnet wire ) to go into the via

Same with red , should be able to go into the via as its larger

Ratfink · 29 Jun 2016, 17:16

Note: there's another trace above the top of the red line that needs to be connected too, but it runs to an out-of-focus part of the photo so I can't see where it goes exactly.