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Is it better to replace a whole PCB or try to trace a broken trace?
Had a Nikon F3 light meter go dead last week. I spent 3 hours chasing a corroded trace on the flex circuit before giving up and swapping in a donor board. Do you guys usually fix the trace or just replace the whole thing?
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walker.julia17d ago
Ugh, flex circuits are the absolute worst for trace repair. I'd rather swap the whole board 9 times out of 10, especially on older gear where the traces are so thin and brittle. That corrosion probably traveled under the coating anyway, so even if you fix one spot, another will fail next week. Just cut your losses and buy a donor board, it's way less headache.
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emma_baker6116d ago
Did you try using a fine tip iron and some thin wire to bridge the broken trace? I had the same issue on a Canon A-1 once and found a single jumper wire fixed it for good, saved me from hunting down another board. It's a bit fiddly but worth a shot before you bin the whole thing lol.
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Replace the whole board and don't look back. Flex circuits on old Nikons are like trying to fix a rotten wall in an old house, you patch one spot and find three more cracks a foot away. I've spent hours on single traces only to have the camera act up again a month later. Buying a donor board is like getting a fresh sheet of drywall instead of mudding over crumbling plaster. Sometimes the smarter fix is just swapping the part and moving on with your life.
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