iPod touch Ripped off solder pad on iPod Touch...

[Lej]

Well, I've got a friends iPod here, (4th Gen, 64gb Black).. And told him I could fix it. He had already tried to remove the screen himself, practically breaking everything. (Speaker, wifi-antennae, etc) and most importantly, the main ribbon-flex-cable. The one that has both volume buttoms, and the top lock button. He ripped it. SO I bought a new one, and was going to solder it on, but upon inspecting, one of the pads had actually been pulled up with the ribbon cable. I've cut the ribbon around the pad so you can see it better, but I'm not sure what to do now....

How would something like this get fixed?

What should I do?

 

[dchao]

I have a few years of experience in the SMT rework industry, as far as I know, if a solder pad is pulled, the entire circuit board is toasted.

 

[biasx31]

I have a few years of experience in the SMT rework industry, as far as I know, if a solder pad is pulled, the entire circuit board is toasted.

Wrong.

In most cases I was able to find and alternative solder point by following the track. If thats not possible you can always try to open the track with a sharp knife and solder directly to the track. (probably your only choice here)

 

[Lej]

Exactly, I'm wondering if this one here would be a good applicant:

 

[biasx31]

Probably not. Looks like track leads to another layer of the pcb. I would try to scrape off a little bit of the protective layer right next to the ripped off solder point and then:

a) Use a multimeter to find an alternative point
or
b) Solder directly to the track

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

There is (or was) a pen like thing that was like a paint pen that would lay down a metallic substance that would allow someone to fix a cut trace or other injury to a board trace. I've seen some of its handy work on refurbed or reworked boards occasionally. Something on the order of this handy thing. All you have to do is clear away the surface to get enough to scribble it on. I had also seen something for replacing pads that involved using stick on pads that had bare metal edges that would solder to the traces at either end. Trouble is, I can't find that stuff at the moment.

Here is an idea from a very tangential site that I've c&p'ed to save you the trouble:

Broken pcb traces and pads, bridging pcb holes that are too small for the component leg going through, so solder cracks, etc

Eventually found a hobby shop with what I was after 2 copper and 2 brass 80 mesh 5 x 6 inch sheets, bit finer than I was after but finer is better than coarser.

Amaco of Indianapolis, Wireform Metal Mesh and Wiremesh woven Fabric. Presumably bigger sheets of it are used by the mind control nutters. A 2 hole paper punch makes neat 5mm pads and a needle to make a pilot hole.

Although this idea *could* actually work, it would involve having the mesh solder to the two ends of the existing traces AND the pad from the cable. If the board is single sided/single layered, you might get away with drilling a small hole that you could fill with solder making it a solder sink that would give you the opportunity to fake a pad, but I would strongly doubt that that board fits either of those criteria.

Oh, another idea is to form a 'solder bridge' between the two traces and then solder to that. Be careful that you don't extend the bridge over to other traces, use solder sparingly...

----------

And actually from the picture, it looks like part of the cable is stuck, and the pad is OK. GRanted, the picture is a little fuzzy...

 

[fwhh]

Check if you can see where the copper from this pad leads to.
This pictures shows how it should look like:
iFixit Pic
It seems that there is a small trace of copper going to the right. Use a sharp knive or better a glassfiber pen to scratch off the coating of the pcb on this trace. Use a really small single strand insulated copper wire (magnet wire) to connect the trace with the pad on the new ribbon cable.

 

[LHARAW]

I am having this problem too...

what i did was, as in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f89vuVhLTxw

Just scratch the epoxy coating that where you peeled off pad resided before. carefully... untill you see a copper coloured blings.

Then solder it a bit, plain.

Then put on your flex, solder to it as usual... wallahhhh... there u go.

 

[thetechfixer]

I believe the board is done