On Fri, 3 Jul 2009, Jens Schoenfeld wrote:
> There are no critical parts near the RCA connectors. You should be
> able to unsolder them with a regulated soldering station (don't use a
> cheap unregulated soldering iron!). The RCA jacks will take quite a
> bit of heat, and heating up all three spots at the same time is
> tricky, but the circuit board is very high-quality. It can take a lot
> of mechanical stress before it really breaks - this would be the lazy route.
>
> If you have a so-called "solder sucker", it's getting easier. Solder
> wick also might help, but isn't really fit for the high quantity of
> solder in the three holes.

My favourite trick in the absense of a solder sucker, is instead of
removing the solder, you add LOTS of fresh solder to "bridge" the three
points together. The heat should then flow to all the holes and you can
lever the socket out of it's position.

I haven't done this on my C-1 board (yet), but even if the solder runs all
the way through the holes, it should still help you get it far enough up
off the board that you can get something under the socket to help "walk"
it out of the board, heating one hole at a time.

Eventually the socket will come out of the holes and you can just melt the
excess solder again to form neat "blobs" in the original holes, with your
new wires in them.

... Making sure that none of them stay bridged by solder, of course!

> It may be easier to cut the two pins in the back and then easily
> unsolder the front pin, since you don't want to use the RCA jacks anyway.

If you really don't care about the RCA connector, this is probably still
your easiest option. :)

> If you're about to buy a new soldering station anyway, go for an 80W
> instead of the usual 50W station. The temperature and energy will be
> the same in "everyday use" (remember it's regulated!), but if you're
> starting to solder lead-free, you'll need a bit more energy than the
> 50W stations cannot provide.

Can't support this recommendation enough.
Even many of the cheaper handheld "temperature controlled" irons are not
powerful enough to stay at the right temperature when applied to large
blobs of solder.

Get a high powered iron that allows you to set the temperature yourself,
so you can adjust it to melt the solder quickly without burning away the tip
of the iron or the components.


Have fun with the new case, Payton!


-- Jess
(Everything with a grin :)