EQ6 board fried

[George]

Been slowly returning my observatory to use this week after being mothballed for 7 years.

Powered the EQ6 pro up today and nothing, no led but the area surrounding the power connecter was warm to say the least:

 

So any experts think this is repairable or am I looking at a £120 replacement 😩

[MarkAR]

No expert but I think a repair will be difficult especially if the board traces are damaged.

Getting odd components is also very difficult .

[George]

Managed to find one on Astroboot for £83.00......now to double check all the electrics in the observatory

[theropod]

One method to “fix” burned out, or otherwise ruined, circuit traces is to replace them with single strands of copper wire following the EXACT path.

This can be done by following the trace to the next component/pin, carefully soldering from one source to another. Test that the wire is conducting properly, and then use enamel varnish to secure the wire to the board. “Magnet wire” found in all diameters, works very well for this as it already has an insulated coating, and only requires a thin coat of adhesive to secure it to the board. Of course this wire must be bent to match the trace, and be of the same length. Magnet wire will need to have the tips striped of the insulation, but careful scraping with an exacto will do a fine job. Otherwise the wire will not accept soldering. 

Sometimes a trace can be exposed with an exacto far enough away from the damaged area to avoid a long run, and the new jumper wire soldered to this “fresh” trace point. Careful work can remove the insulation overcoat on the trace and provide a solid point without lifting it from the substrate.

All this being said the real issue becomes the downstream components that may have had the magic smoke released when the fault happened. One failed component could have caused a cascade of failures across the board. I’ve fixed surface mount voltage regulators using this hack, but it requires patience and a magnifying work light is a big help.

[Gina]

It used to be possible to get insulated copper wire where the insulation didn't need stripping off for soldering.  That was decades ago and I don't know if it's still available.  I used it for making transformers and coils for radio.  When making a lot of coils with tappings etc. it saved a lot of time and effort.

[DaveS]

It still is

From RS

[DaveL59]

yep, enamelled copper wire, handy if you need to redo an inductor too

[Gina]

But is this the sort of enamel that doesn't need stripping off for soldering as I was describing?

[DaveL59]

The times I've used it in the past you'd need to clean the enamel from the end before soldering. Not seen any of this type that you don't need to, since if the insulation gave way under heat it'd be of limited use in a winding that carries any current load.

[Gina]

I know it was different from normal enamelled copper wire - the coating was a lighter colour if I remember right.

[symmetal]

You're probably thinking of Verowire Gina. 

Alan

[theropod]

To me, the issue with this fault is the component labels are burned away. Unless a schematic can be had that lists which part is what, or a known working example can be used for reference/comparison, it might be next to impossible to make repairs no matter how the traces are fixed.