Due to a defective DC Power Jack I am thinking of replacing the affected PCB.
Has anyone here in the past orderd a replacement PCB (the bottom one) for an Elektron Digitakt from Elektron?
Are they all the same or have there been different versions over the past years?
Replacing the defective component is a better option imho.
Have you opened a ticket at Elektron Support? If yes, what was the recommendation?
Yes, non so far. I have not had a reply yet.
That was my first thought too. But the far more easy way is to just buy a replacement PCB.
A few weeks ago I had a broken Digitone. Similar situation.
Replacement board was my plan B. It took me a few hours to find the bad guy. I don’t have professional tools for that kind of repair job but fortunately I found a technician who did the job well.
I was told by another person replacement lower pcb is like $120-130usd plus shipping so like 110-120 euro? Even if you only purchase the dc jack from elektron the part will be less than $10 and shipping in my experience is around $12 unless you live somewhere like hong kong, but europe, uk and north america probably about the same rate depending on where it’s shipping from. If you can do it yourself much less expensive, if you pay someone and it costs an hour of labor (it should not take more than 30 minutes but most bench tech charge by the hour, I think $80 is the going rate here. If it cost you $20 to get the part (super high end outside figure) and even 80 to get it replaced professionally (amateur is less expensive but usually the work isn’t guaranteed), I think you’ll still save money. If you can do it yourself you’ll save a LOT of money.
If you buy the whole board, it will be fixed in 5 minutes, that’s the only real advantage, but the cost as of recently was around 120 for the pcb so I think that’s about as accurate as you can get without a quote direct from customer support. Also, there may be at least one revision to the PCB that I’ve seen (looked the same but I think the revision number on the silkscreen was slightly different) but it won’t impact the interaction between the top (UI borard) pcb and the bottom pcb so I think that’s a non issue.
Great, thank you, that is a great help.
Unfortunately doing it myself hasn’t turned out to well so far, so I would have to find a capable technician. And so far it has not been possible to find the right spare part, so I will just go the easy way and order a replacement PCB.
I’d update your request (send an additional message) to customer support immediately, stating that you’ve decided you wish to purchase a replacement lower PCB (if you just want to order soon as possible and don’t want to message back and forth).
You should make sure your address on file and account information are correct, because every time I buy something from them, they want to confirm that information. If you tell them you’ve already confirmed and updated your information on file, maybe it will go faster for you. The way they’ve done it for me is to prepare a sales draft order which goes into the “your pending orders” section of the account, I don’t remember if that’s the exact title but this is basically what it’s called. After you confirm it’s correct, you accept the order and can pay for it.
*edit: I just checked to verify and you have to arrow over to “orders” which is next to sound packs, and under that heading there is “in progress” and “order history”, below that it shows “order draft” so usually that’s where you’ll go when they’ve set up an order for you to approve, I assume the process will be the same for you.
One thing to keep in mind is it will probably cost less to have Elektron repair your board, but again, more waiting because you have to mail it in. If you’re resolved to replacing it with a new board, I might also suggest that you could consider purchasing any replacement dc barrel jack or use the broken one and (for the time being) solder wires to it in order to connect it to the empty pcb spot. As long as you observe the orientation and use the same connections (positive to positive / negative to negative polarity) when connecting the wires to the board, you should still be able to use the digitakt with the remote barrel jack while you wait for the replacement pcb.
It won’t look too great, to have wires sticking out of the hole, but it would allow you to still use the DT until the parts arrive. You certainly don’t have to, but since you’re choosing to replace the board there’s not really anything to lose by doing that. If you intend to fix the board, or have someone fix it, I probably wouldn’t make that kind of repair. Just me though.
Thank you for your feedback. I don’t realy think it is that much cheaper to get the PCB repaired, with sending it forth and back and having a technician in sweden doing the repair, that is if a repair can be done.
This in deed is a very good idea I had not even thougt about. Thank you!
Sometimes another perspective can help you think things through, but considering the photo you posted in the other thread, I think it can be repaired unless something else has happened since that time. The solder pads need to be cleaned up so that the holes are accessible, but a replacement dc jack is a relatively simple repair. I’d confirm the PCB parts + shipping cost is accurate and go from there in making your decision, if you can get a repair quote that would be good as well.
Replacing a power connector while technically not hugely difficult may or may not be the best option.
If you have tools and a little experience, it’s pretty easy. But, if you don’t have a desolder tool (preferably electric suction type ala Hakko) doing it cleanly and reliably can be trickier than it sounds.
Without the above, swapping in a board is a few screws, ribbon cables, and done.
The extra $ COULD be worth it for the board. Then later, you could repair the original, and have it on hand.
Answer id probably different for everyone though.
Still, a power plug that isn’t perfectly installed can become a liability.
After several attemps this is the recent status…
Sorry for the poor quality of the posted pictures.
Any more action from my side would cause more damage than do any good.
The problem ist not alone the desoldering, but to acquire a dc barrel jack with the right footprint.
Did you maybe lose a solder pad on this one I circled?
If you don’t have a desoldering pump I’d be careful here, but try to see if you can verify that the ring/pad didn’t lift out of that spot. The one below it you can see it’s still there, the one I circled looks a little too open, the other is hard to tell because of the solder glob.
J3rk is right though, without the right tools it will be difficult, if you don’t have your projects backed up I’d be more careful with experiments.
No, all solderpads are intact. What you see is the reflection of solder. The solderpad on the left is the one with the stil inserted leg from the dc barrel jack.
A lot of times (not always) a spade type of leg has a twist at the bottom to keep it locked in place, if you wick off some of the solder and it looks like that may be the case, you need to gauge whether or not the top of the broken leg is slim enough to be pushed down through the hole without further damage. If it isn’t possible to pass it through the bottom, you’d have to get enough solder off to twist from both sides and straighten it so it will release upwards.
I feel like if the solder pads are all there, the chance for repair is high, so it will come down to whether you’d rather have the security of knowing you replaced the whole pcb and won’t have to worry about issues from a mechanical standpoint or if you’re willing to wait and get the right info/right part as for the replacement jack.
Again though, if your projects are still on here, I’d be looking to at least temporarily hardwire a substitute jack so you can get them off this board. If you got the correct jack though, it still looks repairable, the board isn’t burnt and no other damage appears present, but if you don’t have an electric desoldering pump or any gear other than an iron, you’d need at minimum a braided copper wick and some flux. I’d be using a lot of flux to get the solder there to liquify as easily as possible right now.
The broken leg slipped through from top to bottom while the solder was fluid. Unfortunately I cannot create that state anymore. With all legs out and an appropriate dc barrel jack I would have just finished things off.
I just feel, fiddeling around with the last solder pad lack of knowledge, I will cause more damage than good.
Very disapointing.
Usually without adding flux, old solder won’t flow correctly. So if you have none, that would be a minimum purchase you’d likely need to make, luckily a flux pen or flux paste is inexpensive.
Why Flux Pens Make PCB Repair Easier | Chemtronics
If you already have this component just ignore.
Thank you. That is a really interessting video and even more interessting technik that guy is using.
Watching that video I might have been a little sparce using the flux to desolder the pads. I might have another go at it tomorrow.
Has anyone ever tryed to to use a drill to open solderd pads?
You could, of course, try a drill but probably not necessary. A basic solder sucker for like 5-10 cost is worth the price, much less risk of accidental damage. I bought one that heats itself for around 50 but if you’re spending that much on tools, time to reconsider the project. I think more flux and making sure your tip is properly tinned will help greatly, removing the solder either by wick or with a pump like this will also help.
I have got two of them and used them on the pads. On two of the pads it worked, with the third one unfortunately I was not lucky.
I will keep this in mind.
The third is the one where the leg was stuck?
Are you using a chisel tip to heat the solder or is it more like a fine pointed tip? If the latter, along with the flux you may need a tip with greater surface area to help quickly melt that area. If you’re already using a chisel tip and sufficient flux, I can’t think of any reason the old solder wouldn’t liquify unless your tip is totally burnt out or something else is acting as a sink and the full temp isn’t hitting the solder.
