John-Del wrote:
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Phil Allison wrote:


** The modules are a mass of SMD - so essentially non repairable by audio techs with regular bench equipment only.


I can promise you that if you saw several of these a month,
you would have by now acquired both the equipment (cheap enough)
and the skill to do this in your sleep.


** The bigger issue with SMD boards is that makers do not expect them to be repaired so discourage service techs from even attempting.

To this end, they make NO service info available, provide NO schematics and sell NO spare parts that go on such boards.

Invariably, the PCBs are double sided with vias, making visual circuit tracing a nightmare and hence fault diagnosis too.

By sheer dint of effort I have fixed a number of items that used SMD, sometimes using regular parts to relace SMD versions.

One ( famous Italian make ) powered speaker PCB was possessed with heat sensitive intermittents that another good tech could not fix. I found a faulty via and fixed that - then found about 20 others after applying heat to them individually using a soldering iron tip. Some of the vias were solder filled, so not so easy to run a wire through.

BTW:

My eyesight is Ok and I have a magnifying glass - I still fix broken, hair fine wires on Accutronics reverb unit coils ( ones with plugs and sockets) rather then replace the whole tank.

Investing in SMS gear and a stock of parts would NOT be sensible or economic.


...... Phil