Electronic – Noob soldering help: test pad repair

padpcbrepairsolderingtest

So I haven't soldered in years and only have experience with through hole soldering and large components. Today I attempted a repair with a HTC Vive controller. I know where to solder and managed to do one side but the others points where I had to solder I think I've screwed up. So my question is how do I fix this? (If it's even possible) And was it the result of too much heat?

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I know how to repair trace points and pads that lead to obvious places but these pads I think which are test pads I don't have a schematic, any ideas?

EDIT

For reference this is what I intended to do to fix my broken power cable. https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/How+to+fix+broken+power+button+ribbon/119514?permalink=1#comment-694934

I know they are test points. I need to solder to them because the ribbon cable connection on the main board on the other side was damaged, this bypasses that. If I have lifted the pads is it possible to fix ?

Best Answer

I'm a pretty new electrical engineer, but I do a decent amount of soldering at work (I work as a test engineer and I have to layout PCBs for testing a myriad of electronics).

Depending on the frequency of the trace, lifting a pad can mean a new board for me. But if these are just test points (which I agree I think they are) and you don't know where they lead to, then you couldn't get any use out of them anyway... so I wouldn't sweat it.

As far as fixing lifted pads, I think the best bet is to try and flow solder into the pad area. Make sure the solder is also connected to the incoming trace. You should scratch some of the soldermask away from the trace to ensure a good connection. It's not nearly as nice, and you will burn the dielectric doing it. And if its a trace carrying a +100MHz signal I would be very wary.

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