One of my Bachmann 2-8-0's is giving me difficulty. 2 female-ended plug wires coming from the tender, and plug into the small circuit board in the "firebox" bottom. One is 2-pin, the other is 4-pin. The 2-pin male on the circuit board snapped off the board when I was removing the wire.
My question is, when I solder this back to the board, does it hurt for the solder to touch on the other side of the board (opposite side from where the male plugs are located)? I don't have a lot of experience with electronics to know. If I had to guess, I'd say it would short out. How do I keep the two solder puddles from touching? Petroleum jelly maybe? Any insight is greatly appreciated.
EBTRR
The pins go through the board, and are soldered on the back.
You need a very fine tipped soldering iron. 1/16" tip.
Hold the pins in place with light pressure and one at a time heat the
pad till the solder melts, remove the iron as soon as the solder melts.
repeat for the other side. You should feel a slight movement of the pin
when the solder melts. If you have some solder flux apply a small amount
to the pins before doing the above.
What I just described is called Reflow Soldering.
It is a delicate job and you may want to find someone who does circuit
board repair to do it for you.
Tim Anders
Souderton, PA
Hello ebtrr,
I have got the same problem with my Bachmann Consolidation.
When I contacted the service department at Bachmann they suggested that I sent the loco to them to have the repairs carried out. Because I live in the Netherlands shippingcharges would exegerate to much. Besides that there is a certain risks sending a fragile loco to the US and after repairs back to the Netherlands.
Therefore I asked Bachman to send me a pair of connectors so that I can try to fix it myself. Now I am awaiting the connectors.
With the suggestions Tim Anders gave it should be possible to solve this problem myself.
Greets,
Fredy Coenen, Roermond (NL)