GMA 240 died

[dougweil]

Good advice Ray. DigiKey has the small fuses and with a steady hand on the soldering iron, I think I can replace it. At least I am flying for the moment and I'll take your advice and see if I can fix this in a better manner.

Thanks!!

[dougweil]

BTW, I've had just great response from Steve at Garmin regarding this issue. The newer GMA240s have a 4A internal fuse and a 1A recommended external fuse. So I have some 4A fuses coming from DigiKey and I'm going to carefully attempt to replace my inline fuse holder with the correct fuse on the board. But after some further testing this whole issue seems to be related to pluging in my iPhone to an external music jack. I'll have to do some further experimenting to find out just what is going on here.

[rapid_ascent]

Doug,

It's not that hard just take your time. Use some tweezers to hold the part. Tack down one side, then solder the other side. Make sure the solder reflows well but don't keep the heat on too long or it will heat up the whole part and then the tacked on side will reflow. Once the one side is soldered then go back over to the tacked down side and complete that side. Not much solder is required and a little tiny bit of flux can help. Digi-Key and Mouser sell flux pens that are helpful for this type of work. Most solder has flux in the core. The smaller the solder size usually the less flux and more of a need for additional flux. Also the flux burns off of the soldering iron tip so you need to wipe off the old solder a apply a little new and the quickly do your work. You can use a damp sponge to wipe off the soldering iron tip. Otherwise you need to apply the solder and the soldering iron to the part at the same time so that you get a good solder joint.

Once you have completed the soldering clean off any remaking flux with some alcohol and a qtip. If you are using leaded solder the joints should be shiny when you are done. If you are using lead-free solder good joints sometimes have a more matte finish but the solder should still still create a fillet between the part body and the surface mount pad.

[dougweil]

Thanks Ray for the great tips. I'll let you know how it comes out.

[dougweil]

Installed the 4A fuse today following your instructions Ray. Mission accomplished and everything works fine. Thanks Ray and Steve at Garmin! Saved me $225!