Steve, A very useful tip.
I purchased a small reel of tinned copper wire about 22SWG (don't know the AWG) and use that when bridging across cut tracks etc. 73 Stewart G3RXQ On Sat, 23 Jul 2005 14:01:25 -0500, Steven Pituch wrote: > 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. > > 72, > Steve, W2MY _______________________________________________ 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
