Steve, That method works, but beware that if the board flexes, the solder only repair will have a tendency to fracture (solder is not as ductile as the copper traces). I highly recommend scraping off a small bit of the green solder mask stuff at the cut location and lay a strand or two of bare wire across the cut - solder the wire in place and you have a permanent repair. And it doesn't look unsightly at all IMHO, YMMV.
73, Don W3FPR > -----Original Message----- > > Hi all, > This is just a helpful tip for those who might need to debug an Elecraft > product. > > I needed to isolate some items on my KPA100 that used the 5V > line. If I cut > a couple of traces it would be very easy to do the trouble > shooting. What I > was afraid of was that the trace repairs would be unsightly. For > the first > cut I made sure that I choose the narrowest section of the trace > thinking I > would do the least amount of damage. However, I was wrong. Because the > trace was so thin I could not get the solder to bridge the slit in the > trace. By the way, the cuts I made were with a straight edge razor which > were very thin. So I had to use the nice green insulated hook up wire > contained in one of the Elecraft kits and bridge the two solder lands > nearest either side of the cut. > > The next cut I made was in a much thicker section of another trace. This > time the width was about equal to the width of a solder land for > the typical > IC socket pin. When it was time to repair the trace I gently > scratched away > the green coating on the trace on either side of the cut for a width about > equal to a solder land for an IC socket pin. When I added the solder it > bridged the cut very nicely. In fact the repair looks just like the IC > socket pin land after it is soldered. Very neat and hardly noticeable. > > So in summary, if you are going to cut a trace for diagnostic purposes and > intend to repair it later on, make sure you choose a part of the > trace that > is wide enough to allow you to bridge some solder over the gap when you do > the repair. The results will not even be noticeable. > Conversely, repairing > narrow traces are difficult to impossible, at the best unsightly, and will > require a wire jumper repair to bypass the trace. > > -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.338 / Virus Database: 267.9.4/57 - Release Date: 7/22/2005 _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
