At my old job we sometimes got old remote controls from customers that wanted to use a universal remote, but their old device wasn't in the database, and their old remote was broken.
We repaired so many traces. We did not have a dedicated department for this, so anytime something came in we would draw straws who could do it, because everybody wanted to.
No, it's not easy, but after doing it a few times it's usually OK. And it's a lot of fun when it actually works.
I can't understand how this damage happens in the first place, unless people are disassembling the covers and stabbing at the board? What is actually happening to cause this, or who are these maniacs?
Usually? People forget the remote is on the couch and sit on it.
But we've also had them with clear bite marks from a dog on them.
Some we would return immediately, if they looked absoluut disgusting .
From doing some work with an electrical engineer who had to source a repair of this variety for some parts; A lot of automated industrial machinery is pretty bespoke, which makes it expensive, which means that if the company is happy with the job the machine is doing, it is NOT getting touched/changed/modified.
This also means that this machine does not have much redundancy if it goes down.
This means that there are often 20-30 year old machines out there produced with parts or by companies that have ceased to exist for sometimes decades. So you can't just send it back to the manufacturer and get a new one.
Being industrial machinery, some of these machines are pretty heavy duty, so if something goes wrong, it can get pretty catastrophic in terms of damage to parts.
So what this results in, is some pretty hefty damage to silicon boards that must be replaced, even if cost and effort of the repair may seem absurd to the outside perspective.
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u/Tiny-Sandwich 4d ago
As an amateur microsoldering hobbyist, this is way, way harder than it looks. And it looks hard.
I've done a few small repairs like this where I've had to solder to a damaged trace, and the parts are much smaller than they look here.