[Premium-Rx] Desoldering [WAS: Tantalums...]

[Robert Nickels]

I'll show off my favorite "bad tant" picture from a recent RA6790 repair:

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/4559/badtant.jpg

This one failed during the repair process, as all of a sudden one supply 
rail was dead, although it had been working minutes before.   I just 
happened to look in the right spot and did a double-take when I saw a 
little ball of solder dangling from one blue tantalum...and more to the 
point, the direct short caused by the one before it.

Most tantalum failures are not this visible.  One of the modern 
inexpensive IR thermometers is a useful addition to the workbench - I 
well remember the painful finger burns from my previous method.

73, Bob W9RAN