Electronic – Reworking WAGO 2060 on MCPCB

soldering

I have about 50 or so 1'x2' Al-clad MCPCBs, each with hundreds of LEDs attached. Each panel has 4x WAGO 2060 terminal blocks mounted at the corners.

Unfortunately the WAGO connectors have sustained some mechanical damage and I need to remove and (ideally) replace all of them (~200 PCS).

I have basic soldering skills but am having trouble using a basic soldering iron approach due to the high thermal conductivity of the MCPCB and the fact that the components are lead free soldered – i.e. I cannot get the solder to melt and the terminal blocks to detach.

The soldermask is pure white so I am also concerned about excessive and uneven heating on the circuitbaord as prior experience has shown this approach to cause soldermask discoloration (yellowing = lower reflectance).

What would be the best way to rework the damaged terminal blocks? I would be open to buying specialized equipment, with a budget of < $300 USD.

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Best Answer

They are broken already. Just break them some more and make your life easier:

Use diagonal cutters to clip away the damaged connector.

Then, you can unsolder and remove each pin individually.

Use a solder sucker or solder wick to clear the holes after the pins are out.

Once that is done, you can insert and solder the new connectors.


That is the method we used to replace bad through hole parts when I worked in a factory building 2-way radios. It is less damaging to the PCB than trying to unsolder a broken part.

It is also what we did if we suspected a bad part. It was cheaper (and faster) to assume the part bad, clip it out, and replace it than to try to figure out if it was really the problem.

I mean, replace a 5cent part in five minutes or spend an hour diddling with it. Clip out and replace wins, hands down.