003 fire wire chip

[tomdeg]

Help and advice needed to replace a fire wire chip in a 003
my a quote from a approved avid engineers £450 + 25 postage they told me don’t work down to component level just replace the board' this is after I sent the 003 to them there charging me £25 inspection plus £ 25 return postage to tell me what I all ready new the firewire chip was fried

If I can locate the correct chip I'm thinking to have a go and use a dremel cuter and cut the legs close to the chip body the use a low watt iron to remove the legs from the pad I hope using this method it shouldn’t damage the pads if any other advise please reply
tom
pt 10.3

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by tomdeg

Help and advice needed to replace a fire wire chip in a 003
my a quote from a approved avid engineers £450 + 25 postage they told me don’t work down to component level just replace the board' this is after I sent the 003 to them there charging me £25 inspection plus £ 25 return postage to tell me what I all ready new the firewire chip was fried

If I can locate the correct chip I'm thinking to have a go and use a dremel cuter and cut the legs close to the chip body the use a low watt iron to remove the legs from the pad I hope using this method it shouldn’t damage the pads if any other advise please reply
tom
pt 10.3

As someone (was NASA certified in soldering) who's done more than his fair share of soldering on both through-hole parts and surface mounts what you're proposing is a complete disaster. The pads on a pc board are incredibly fragile and will not stand the abuse you'd inflict on them with a Dremel rotary tool (and I use a Dremel tool on my model trains quite a lot and even under the best of circumstances they are hard to control). A low watt iron doesn't mean anything as it's the temperature at the tip that's the culprit. Surface mount parts don't like to see temps much over 500 deg F for any length of time. Any more and you risk destroying the part - even the one you're putting in new.

Even though it's not my day job anymore I still have all the specialized tools to do the job and believe me the local Radio Shack or electronics parts shop will NOT have what you need. It takes a very steady hand and good lighting and good magnification to get things done right. And a tip on the soldering device that's very small. Almost forgot you have to have proper anti0static protection as well.

Trust me - it's not a job for the weekend hack.

Nobody works down to the component level anymore - it's all board replacement. Part of the reason is just what I outlined above - they just don't have the tools or knowledge to do the job right. The other is it's faster to just put in a new board (assuming they even have one for an old piece of equipment).

I'd be more interested on how you fried the firewire chip. Probably a dry winter day and a static zap happened which you probably didn't even feel. Or even hot-plugging something in and that's something I never trusted - connecting computer stuff when it's powered up.

[tomdeg]

Thanks for the advice solder wick tape then might as well have ago nothing to lose I'm not paying £500 for a replacement board

[JoelG]

Honestly, I'd just buy a used one off eBay:http://www.ebay.com/sch/Audio-MIDI-I...op=15&_nkw=003 or look at changing to another interface completely.

You're looking at spending $500 to repair an old interface, and at the end you will still have an old interface.

BTW, did you "hotplug" the firewire connection? I think this is likely the most common cause of FW chipset damage.

Joel

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by tomdeg

Thanks for the advice solder wick tape then might as well have ago nothing to lose I'm not paying £500 for a replacement board

Solder wick is only part of the situation. You're totally missing the rest of what I wrote. Surface mount solder work isn't easy, even for someone who has the proper tools and training. Give it up; you're going to be wasting your time, and that's assuming you can even get the right chip. You'll have to get the exact replacement piece and they aren't generic like a 6L6 tube.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by JoelG

Honestly, I'd just buy a used one off eBay:http://www.ebay.com/sch/Audio-MIDI-I...op=15&_nkw=003 or look at changing to another interface completely.

You're looking at spending $500 to repair an old interface, and at the end you will still have an old interface.

BTW, did you "hotplug" the firewire connection? I think this is likely the most common cause of FW chipset damage.

Joel

Either hotplugging which I mentioned or even worse - making a connection with one piece powered on and the other off. The latter is death to chips. Retired EE here so I've seen all kinds of things go wrong with improperly making connections.

[JoelG]

It's actually a design flaw of the 6pin firewire connector. It can go in slightly crooked and short pins. You can hotplug 4pin and 9pin firewire connectors just fine.

Joel

[albee1952]

You need serious skill in Micro-soldering, and a solder station that is designed for this. If I were you, I would either buy a used 003 and move to a newer interface. This is NOT a DIY repair(Do It Yourself)

[Keybeeetsss]

Originally Posted by albee1952

You need serious skill in Micro-soldering, and a solder station that is designed for this. If I were you, I would either buy a used 003 and move to a newer interface. This is NOT a DIY repair(Do It Yourself)

Eggzackly...

[bcwiz]

Originally Posted by tomdeg

Help and advice needed to replace a fire wire chip in a 003
my a quote from a approved avid engineers £450 + 25 postage they told me don’t work down to component level just replace the board' this is after I sent the 003 to them there charging me £25 inspection plus £ 25 return postage to tell me what I all ready new the firewire chip was fried

If I can locate the correct chip I'm thinking to have a go and use a dremel cuter and cut the legs close to the chip body the use a low watt iron to remove the legs from the pad I hope using this method it shouldn’t damage the pads if any other advise please reply
tom
pt 10.3

The chip is Agere FW802b 64 pin quad (approx.$5)
I have done two 003s and a Motu. It's not easy but it can be done.