[islandlabs] Oops: forgot the picture — Re: Greetings and Questions

[gabe at bigapplehobbies.com]

Sent from my iPhone

> On Apr 17, 2022, at 12:40 PM, gabe at bigapplehobbies.com wrote:
> 
> First of all, Happy Easter for those of you who are celebrating today.
> 
> I looked up the day and there are a few other things going on also:
> INTERNATIONAL BAT APPRECIATION DAY
> NATIONAL CRAWFISH DAY
> NATIONAL HAIKU POETRY DAY
> NATIONAL CHEESEBALL DAY
> and I wish those of you celebrating these other festive days to have the best version of these days possible.
> 
> Second, I have a Weller EC2002 soldering iron. I don’t remember how I came by it. It appears to be in good shape with no obvious damage.
> 
> However, it does not produce heat and the temp setting display fluctuates randomly with no obvious pattern (it is not drifting, it just spews out random numbers).
> 
> I do not (yet) have a manual or schematic.
> 
> I suspect that if the heater element or the thermocouple were bad that the reading would be more constant, so I am left looking at the PCBs.
> 
> A guy on a forum said he cured the identical symptom on multiple units by cutting off the ribbon cable and resoldering. I did that but no good.
> 
> The Question:
> Both PCBs are ceramic. The unit is made in 1993. The traces on the boards are silver-color, not copper. There is significant tarnishing in many spots.
> 
> I suspect that the traces are a silver alloy, and over the decades, the surface has become tarnished. I considered cleaning them and re-applying solder over the traces, but I think that this probably do more harm than good.
> 
> I am happy to replace the caps, but I would like an opinion about the health of the boards themselves before doing anything more.
> 
> Also, what are the little black lines on the boards? They are not components, they look like semi-gloss paint, but I have never seen anything like that before.
> 
> Cheers,
> Gabe
> Sent from my iPhone
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