Damaged pad. Help finding another ground connection

C

Chico

New member
Hello!

While desoldering I damaged the highlighted pad. I've been told online it connects to ground. I'm afraid that I may have damaged it on both sides, so I have 2 things I need help with:

1. Can I try powering on and testing the pedal, or is it risky/dangerous if that component isn't properly connected to ground?

2. If I have to resort to using a wire to connect that component to another ground point, can someone help me identify a ground pad?

It's the Mofeta Preamp pedal - https://www.pedalpcb.com/product/pcb107/ (PCB and diagram images in attachment)

Thanks in advance!
 

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There's a ground pad right next to it, the upper pad of R2. See how there are crosshairs around those two solder pads? That means those solder pads connect to ground.

Fixing it is easy - pull C6 carefully so you don't damage its other pad, then put in a new component and leave the ground leg a bit long such that when you install it you can bend it over and contact R2's grounding point on the underside of the board. Use a flathead screwdriver to get a sharp bend, then solder the cap's leg to R2's upper pad.

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Hey,

Thank you so much for the help! I'm a bit worried about desoldering now that all the other components are tightly packed and soldered around it. Do you think I could just tack a wire from C6 to R2 and be done with it?

The C6 component is not damaged. The pad was damaged because I accidentally let some solder into it when soldering a neighbouring component, so I needed to unblock the pad before I could get the C6 component through and in the process I damaged the pad (I was impatient and got what I deserved).

Thanks again
 
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Or you can heat the pad with solder block for 5 seconds or so and quickly rap the board on something more or less solid. The solder will splat out

BTW in my point to point excursions, I've discovered that grounds are not very picky about who they go with or how they get there, as long as they all go where they want to go, which is ground.
 
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comradehoser said:
Or you can heat the pad with solder block for 5 seconds or so and quickly rap the board on something more or less solid. The solder will splat out

BTW in my point to point excursions, I've discovered that grounds are not very picky about who they go with or how they get there, as long as they all go where they want to go, which is ground.
Click to expand...
Good to know, that makes everything easier! Cheers and thank you
 
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Oh, just one more question, sorry...

As I'm unsure wether the connection is in fact damaged as it stands, could I eventually -- still need to buy a couple of resistors to finish -- power up the pedal and test it or is that dangerous and could potentially fry the pedal?

Or should I pre-empt the issue? It's a 100p ceramic capacitor, btw.

Thanks
 
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If it is in fact a ground, what I was trying to say is that it doesn't matter. You can obliterate the pad, as long as you tie the ground of the component to something connected to ground, then the circuit is happy.

You may have fried the component, but in my experience capacitors and resistors are pretty tough .

As to whether the circuit will work without all the components, it depend on the component and where it is in the circuit.
 
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