In reply to:

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A thought: if Brian was willing to do a series of these, might it be more efficient to do in a big batch -- like in the back of a stolen fiber-splicing van at an owners' meet? Would it help if part of the cost went to a plane ticket?

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I was actually thinking about an offer like that. Of course it would have to be after the meet so only a select few would have it done;) I'll think about it more, but I do know that people would have to prepay for it.

I would happily ship my Empeg to the west coast meet and pre-pay if you could do this. Count me in.

count me in on this as well. I cant solder for s*it, but I would gladly pay an expert to tackle it for me.

It occurs to me that I may have been doing brian a disservice by describing the difficulty level of the soldering job. I wouldn't want Brian to lose out on any sales just because someone who's perfectly capable of doing it is scared to do it.

On the other hand, that resistor pack really is a bear to get right...

Anyone else have any advice to offer in this area?

if you have tweezers and a good iron.. it shouldnt be that hard for anyone with stedy hands

I'm just not so sure I'd trust my empeg to anyone else's hands but mine... If I screw it up, oh well, I screwed it up, if YOU screw it up, well that's different entirely.

Regarding Rob's post about solder paste, in the UK the stuff here is what you need (ok, there's probably enough in the 25g syringe to upgrade every Empeg ever shipped).

It's known as solder cream and (arguably) will work well with indirect heat from a soldering iron, essentially you probably won't make direct physical contact with the Resistor Pak or PCB tracks (which is a good thing ) - you just hold the tip of the iron as close as you need until the solder flows
around the joints. None of this is anything you should practice with a near priceless EOL display PCB though. If you're not sure if you're up to it then resolder the VCR a few times until you're good at it .

Regarding the heat guns mentioned, for general workshop low pin-count repairs a hot air gun is perfectly adequate (and preferable to a soldering iron for this type of work) but I'm talking about something with a nozzle diameter of 2mm rather than something resembling a paint stripping tool - not the kind of thing many of us keep at home.

Rue

I would like to locate a web page that gives clear instructions and tips on how to hand-solder SMT components. Then we could link people to it.

I'm looking for something that is complete, well organized, and clearly illustrated. I did a web search and found a whole lot of crappy "soldering tips" web pages. There were also a few nice ones but they were concerned with a more generic kind of hobbyist soldering.

Anyone have any good links?

So.. Brian:

Any idea why the simple version (dunno about the other) of the kernel buttonhack code causes the "long press of Source" to "double click".. ?

I've observed the button consistently sends press/release/press/release when the buttonhack is enabled, and works normally otherwise..

???

Maybe Hugo knows?

http://library.solarbotics.net/techniques/smt_assy.html

Post deleted by mlord

This link is excellent -- the definitive guide to hand-soldering SMT parts.

http://www.geocities.com/vk3em/smtguide/smtguide.htm

Any idea why the simple version (dunno about the other) of the kernel buttonhack code causes the "long press of Source" to "double click".. ?

Having you say this, Mark, is akin to my auto mechanic staring at my engine and saying, "gee, Tony, any idea how to fix this?"

I mean, if there's anyone besides the Empeg team who knows all about the kernel, it's you.


Those were great links to SMT pages, Mark! That's exactly what I was looking for but could not find. Thanks!

Brian: You ought to link those from your instruction pages.

why did tfabris delete one message?

Those links made very interesting reading, excellent.

Regarding the oven (toaster) technique, I think it's important to remember those guys were working with bare PCBs without plastic switches or glass displays. Switch bodies are usually made from thermo-plastic and will melt, I imagine a VFD would probably crack.

Rue

why did tfabris delete one message?

Actually, Mark deleted the message first. It was an outdated version of one of the links. In a subsequent message, he posted a newer, better link.

When Mark deleted the message, it left a placeholder behind which said "message deleted by mlord".

I thought that, since I was an admin, I could clean up the thread by deleting the message completely and that would leave no debrid behind. Well, it still left debris behind, only now the debris makes it look like I was censoring Mark. Actually, I was just trying to clean up a bit of a mess.

Yeah, agreed. Not only would the switches melt and the VFD crack, but all the other components would fall off of the board. Not desirable.

People, if you do this mod, you must use a fine tip soldering iron, do not use hot air or ovens.

thanks for replying here so others wouldn't also think Mark was being censored...he's loved here and it might tarnish his image...
Maybe you and him could be in the new Fox show...
from my brother that works at ABC:

In reply to:

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Fox announced a gem of a new program entitled ... CELEBRITY BOXING.
Hold off the applause.
Two of the 3 matches have been set for Thursday 3/13 8PM:

Tonya Harding (Ice Queen) v. Amy Fisher (Long Island Lolita)
Danny Bonaduce (Partridge Family) v. Barry Williams (Brady Bunch)

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it could be battle of the FAQ Master vs. the Kernel Lord
sounds exciting...

Heavens, no!! We'd just sneak off to the pub while Nancy and Tonya slugged it out!

Yes, after a meet would be a great time I would think for someone who's got a reputation enough that we'd trust to void the waranty on our empegs to earn a few bucks and a lot of goodwill. I'm a college student in berkeley and would be happy to volunteer my appartment as a support group for people who are about to start soldering the perfectly good display board of one of their most treasued posessions.

I'd love to have butons that light up at night, but I've only attempted two soldering projects, one of which being a compleet failure, and the other being dribbling solder onto the wires of the wiring harness durring my empeg install, so even if i was the last person on earth I wouldn't try this one myself.

Another Idea: I know there are places in San Francisco that do cell phone mods for a fee. From the discription it seems like these are fairly similar? Anyone know of any good places that might be willing to do this? What's gonna happen if they screw it up? Will the whole thing not work, or will you just loose the hope of ever having the Glorious Backlet Buttons?

http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?category=480&item=PS-131&type=store

Worst case scenario (and not that unlikely, either!): the irreplaceable display board is damaged, so no more display -- and possibly even the amplifiers won't power up because the empeg's display module controls the amplifier power-sense relay.

tanstaafl.

Didn't know whether to post here or technical but since this is devoted to the backlit buttons thought I'd try here. OK I'm an idiot! Doh! I ordered all my components.... got them... began soldering... actually successfuly got the chip soldered to the board then realized Oooops the LEDs I ordered were too big... So ordered 3mm LEDs and figured in the meantime I'd simply put my Empeg back together until the new parts arrived. I pluged in after testing to make sure I had no shorts on the resistor and to my glee the display indeed worked..... until shortly after boot then blam... shutdown, unplug, plug back in, the same thing. So I thought oops I forgot to install the latest and greatest hijack so loaded that up (which was odd, no LED blinking just darkess on the screen but can still load hijack via logo editor?) anyway, still no dice. Have I fried something or do I need to cease all empeg related activity until I can get LED's that fit??

ruh roh....

Well, so I went back in and simply removed the chip to my utter sadness... still the same thing....

Wheew.... took it back to the original software version and now it seems to work... they may be cool but don't think I'll try that again!

Maybe it was just a corrupted download of the hacked kernel file?

maybe, however it was doing it before I loaded the new kernel, right after reassembly

Wow.... this really sucks... whenever I try to load 2.00 beta 11, it does the same thing as above. So far only 1.03 works! Bummer

hrm.. who knows what you did.. do you have a back up.. check the board to make sure u have no soilder over lay on another pin that could make something weird..

I think I'm just going to leave it alone and try sending it in for repair... I put 2.00 beta 11, and the same thing happened, I opened hyperterm and got no errors or anything then after the screen blanked I hit enter and the display appeared? Then I took it out to my car this morning and realized the display was extremely dim (even with dimmer settings turned all the way up)