This article describes how to repair your printed circuit boards if they were damaged by a battery leakage. All of the photos are taken during the repair of a Korg Poly-61, but the prodecures described can also be used on all other PCBs with this kind of damage.
One of the most common problems on a Poly-61 is the rechargable battery on the CPU board starting to leak battery acid (to be exact, it's somewhat different, but to simplify it, i call it battery acid :). One problem of this is, that you don't need to see this problem from the outside, as the battery could still work okay. The other problem is the extreme damage caused by this problem. Not only the copper on the PCB is corroding, but also the components are, and the acid even knows how to travel through the wires to at least ruin the connectors on both sides of the cables. The longer the battery is leaking, more of its environment gets damaged. So if you still have an Poly-61 with the original battery, back up your sounds and immediately replace the battery. In general - if your sounds are still intact and you want to keep them, back them up to tape and verify them before starting this repair.
This is one of the harder cases of battery leakage in the Poly-61
Time to clean the PCB and remove as much acid as we can. Tools needed: dish liquid, get it from your kitchen, and a toothbrush, you don't need a brand new one, a used one is okay. I always put the used aged ones into the tool box, you need them for so much cleaning purposes. It might be a good idea to remove all removable components before washing the board, but remember where you pulled them off, as you have to insert them into the correct places later.
Continue reading on the next page.
page: 1/4
One of the most common problems on a Poly-61 is the rechargable battery on the CPU board starting to leak battery acid (to be exact, it's somewhat different, but to simplify it, i call it battery acid :). One problem of this is, that you don't need to see this problem from the outside, as the battery could still work okay. The other problem is the extreme damage caused by this problem. Not only the copper on the PCB is corroding, but also the components are, and the acid even knows how to travel through the wires to at least ruin the connectors on both sides of the cables. The longer the battery is leaking, more of its environment gets damaged. So if you still have an Poly-61 with the original battery, back up your sounds and immediately replace the battery. In general - if your sounds are still intact and you want to keep them, back them up to tape and verify them before starting this repair.
This is one of the harder cases of battery leakage in the Poly-61
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| The battery, very corroded. Carefully look at the traces on the PCB, the resistor array left of the battery and the connector in front of the battery. This really is a hard damage. | The battery is removed now, also the resistor array has been removed, as it is no longer usable. Some pads on the PCB are also gone. The rest of the components around looks okay, they will stay on the board. |
Time to clean the PCB and remove as much acid as we can. Tools needed: dish liquid, get it from your kitchen, and a toothbrush, you don't need a brand new one, a used one is okay. I always put the used aged ones into the tool box, you need them for so much cleaning purposes. It might be a good idea to remove all removable components before washing the board, but remember where you pulled them off, as you have to insert them into the correct places later.
Continue reading on the next page.
page: 1/4
Page last modified on Saturday 02 of January, 2010 19:09:31 CET
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