jamma-plusser wrote:
I have a board with a large QFP surface mount IC - something had been
smashed into a few pins of this IC, so bending them and causing them
to short against each other. Managed to straighten them all, except
for one which broke right against the main body of the chip.

Argh!

I can get just about get a connection to the infinitessimally small
pin stub using some very fine wire, but the connection is erratic to
say the least.

Have tried gently carving back some of the plastic around where the
pin stub enters the body of the chip to expose more to solder onto,
but no luck there really.

The pin spacing is pretty tight, so making things even more awkward.

Any tips please on how to salvage this?


I would suspect that most folks working with SMT have experienced this
problem. My solution was to use a tiny sewing needle pressed against the
remaining pin metal on the device and secured (under pressure) with
non-conductive epoxy. You can even see a magnified example of this
approach in photos of my mods to the Zipit Wireless Messenger (takes
a little site drilling to get to the appropriate photo, but it is
there) at: http://www.cybertheque.org/homebrew/zipit

Michael