How to remove solder mask on a PS4 controller?

[aSpoink]

 am working on a broken ps4 controller and seem to have found a problem with a ground trace. What is the best way to remove solder mask? I've tried Acetone and nail polish remove on a broken ps3 controller I have and it's eaten away the solder mask and the trace underneath. Here is a picture for reference

 

 

 

 

[W-L]

3 minutes ago, aSpoink said:

 am working on a broken ps4 controller and seem to have found a problem with a ground trace. What is the best way to remove solder mask? I've tried Acetone and nail polish remove on a broken ps3 controller I have and it's eaten away the solder mask and the trace underneath. Here is a picture for reference

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If all you need to do is repair a broken trace or add a bond wire physically scraping it is probably the easiest. 

[kb5zue]

Agree.  Bonding a small wire across a broken trace may be the safest but won't be the easiest because the stuff is so small.  Fingernail polish remover and Acetone do not discriminate, that stuff will eat anything related to electronics.

[aSpoink]

24 minutes ago, W-L said:

If all you need to do is repair a broken trace or add a bond wire physically scraping it is probably the easiest. 

 

17 minutes ago, kb5zue said:

Agree.  Bonding a small wire across a broken trace may be the safest but won't be the easiest because the stuff is so small.  Fingernail polish remover and Acetone do not discriminate, that stuff will eat anything related to electronics.

Thanks, is their a certain temperature I should set my iron to? My concern is having it too high and damaging the board.

[W-L]

Just now, aSpoink said:

 

Thanks, is their a certain temperature I should set my iron to? My concern is having it too high and damaging the board.

It really varies on the iron, solder, and PCB your soldering on so you will need to adjust it based on feel. If your not sure 290C is pretty safe for regular work. 

[mariushm]

Scrape the solder mask

 

The temperature is up to you and the thermal mass of your tip - if you have a conical tip or some tip with low heat reservoir then you need higher default temperature.

Otherwise, with leaded solder you could go with as little as ~200 C

note that some cheap soldering stations can be off by 10-20c by default.

In the end desired temperature is something you "feel" once you get a lot of soldering time with a particular station and a type of iron tip. There's really no fixed value.

 

 

Liquid flux (in addition to the flux already in the solder wire) makes a world of difference, it really helps. Wet the trace with liquid flux.

THIN ( think 0.35-0.6mm solder wire, i have 0.56mm and love it) also really helps.

 

Watch this and ignore the fact that the soldering irons seem outdated, all the information is still valid today:

 

 

[kb5zue]

Since you are trying to solder a jump across a broken trace on a circuit board, I would find some old type of PCB to practice on a little before taking on the main task at hand.  Make sure the PCB to be fixed is nice and clean and since it is a trace that you are fixing, try to find a pointed tip for your iron.  A pointed tip will concentrate the heat in a smaller area.  A broad iron tip will spread the heat over a larger area and you may end up damaging more than you are fixing.

 

Just about all solder that you buy on a small roll has some sort of flux included in the mix but since you are doing a delicate fix, may want to find a small bit of flux that you could apply to the area with something like a toothpick.  Put the flux on the area to be fixed before applying the heat.

 

If you can practice first a little on some board that was in the discard pile, the extra practice will surely pay off in the long run.

 

Good Luck.