If your carefull about it and use the right equiptment, I dont see how it is possible to "burn up" or "rip out" traces.

 

Chipping an ECU isnt rocket science. I did my ECU right the first time. Never soldered electronic boards before, EVER. I did it with a soldering iron that wasn't working correctly either. There are a few tricks to soldering an ECU to make it work on the first time. Desolder well. Don't use the suckers, as they suck. Spend the extra money and use braid. Braid works really well and the joint is VERY clean afterwards. Stick the parts in and make sure you don't have the solder just barely touching. Make sure most of the leg is sticking out, heat the board and the leg then push your solder into the iron tip. Last but not least, look over every joint and make sure the solder covers 360*. Also make sure none of the contacts are touching eachother at all. If they are, break out the desoldering braid and fix it. Having them touch will automatically cause a solid CEL.

One last thing is, make sure you have a good chip. I'd say more often than not, the chip itself is bad meaning the binary file or the burning process.

 

The best thing you can do is get a temp controlled soldering station. Circuit specialists has one for $35. That makes a huge difference.

 

i did everything you said and mine didnt work. and ive done it before. I'd like to consider myself somewhat experienced at these kinds of things (---- i can weld pretty good)... Maybe the iorn was too hot?

 

If you think the iron was too hot, you can easily over heat the HC373 IC.

Generally...I solder every other leg on one side...then go to something else on the board. Then every other leg on the other side, then to something else...

That way you arent heating the fragile IC for a long period of time which could overheat it...my $.02 FWIW.

 

thanks! I'll remember that if i ever go for round 3. The iorn was super hot so i guess its possible.

 

If you try again, just do what i do and socket the helper chip too. the socket is very easy to find locally. and only cost like $.30 that way you dont risk damaging the IC. Also take bunch of Q-tips and alcohol and clean the spots that you're going to de-solder before you actually desolder. Then after you de-solder, clean it again. that will give you a much cleaner solder joint.

also after you desolder one hole, clip the chunk off and use a fresh piece for the next hole. also if the solder doesnt come off the boad easily. Dont hold the soldering iron on there for a long *** time hoping it would come off. cause that will jus melt the board and ruin the board. instead solder some new solder on the spot. go to a diff spot then come back to that one.

try those things. I've chippped quite a few ECU. and they've all turned out really good. and if you clean up the joints before you desolder and before you solder. then after you solder. it'll look nice and clean like the ecu hasnt been touched!

 

poop.

 

lol i cant believe someone actually recomended desoldering braid in this thread. Desoldering station is where its at

 

The spring loaded vacumm solder sucker works just fine for me but I wouldn't mind a Hakko 808.