Alright peeps, so I dug up the youtube videos Naked Snake suggested, from a channel called NSC Modz, and it was... interesting. The main takeaway, really, was where exactly to scratch away the solder mask so you have more room to install the tantalums. I'd definitely
not watch the whole thing, just jump to around the 00:56:00 mark, where he shows where to remove the mask, and why, and then 1:04:00, where he removes the mask.
Things he did well:
- Explains clearly where to remove the mask
Things he did I would not recommend
- He harvested the tantalums from the top of the board, instead of sourcing new ones. That was probably the most baffling event in the video.
- He used a combination of electric grill and and industrial heat gun to remove the tokins. The finished job looks very neat and clean, and the tokins are intact afterwards, so kudos there! But you can see, starting around 56:11, how a number of smc caps got knocked out of place.
- He used a screw driver to scratch the masking. He was very careful, and seemed to not have done any further damage, so kudos there too. But it would take just a carefully placed whoopsie, and now you have a nice gouge on the board.
- We never did see if the repair actually worked.
I'm not trying to be overly harsh! I'm just saying that a number of things he did are definitely recommended, especially if you're new to soldering. What I'd do instead is
- Get a good grade heat gun that is meant for repair work. Just as an example, here's one that Voultar recommends -- https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MR2IWBN (~$40)
- Use a fiberglass pen to scratch off the masking -- they're only around $10 on amazon. I'd imagine you can also use very fine sand paper, but I haven't tried that myself. Just please don't use a screw driver.
- Don't use an electric grill! Just be patient, and use flux.
- Watch lots of tutorials on soldering - Voultar has a few, and just about anything out of EEVBlog is excellent
- Buy new caps. Research so far tends to show that lower voltage ones (in the 2.5v range) are cheaper than the 6.3v, at the same UF range.
Here's the link, finally. Posted at the end so people will hopefully read my ramblings before they go clicking on it