Trying to fix an amp - what do you think?

Trying to fix an amp - what do you think?

I would've posted in the 'proper' forum, except that this isn't related to the interior of the car..it's trying to get the amp working.

A friend of mine gave me a non-functional 2ch Alpine - he hadn't messed with it much..so I thought I'd give it a shot. The capacitors all look okay..I pulled the circuit board off the case/heatsink, and found this:




Sorry for the lack of clarity - my camera doesn't seem to like close-up shots.

Think I can solder it back together - just drip a little on the traces? I pulled them up a bit for the pictures..they almost touch if I lay them down.

Well you could solder the traces back on - but it may just burn up again after you power it up.

They look like pretty heavy traces - might be a power rectifier or discrete transitor (MOSFET) on the other side that is cooked. Might want to buzz out the traces with multimeter and, if you have one of the better voltmeters and a couple of jumper leads, test some of those components on the other side in circuit.

Or just try and solder then together and give it hell. The only hard part is the tendancy of the solder to bridge between those traces - but you should be able to get to work. Might want to try a dab of crazy glue on the bottom of the trace to keep it from shifting on you - solder might want to wick under it and lift it up.

You are probably better off doing jumper cables and bypass the burnt traces.

X

What should I test? I have no idea what I'm doing with this..except I can test voltage with a multimeter.

More pictures/explanations:
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=38&threadid=1697463&enterthread=y

Hm - I have alligator clipped wires -- I didn't think about that. Thanks

If the traces just burn up again, is it something an inexperienced person like myself should even bother with, or should I just go out and buy an amp?

Good thing you bought that multi-meter, huh?

Yep

I really hope I can fix this..it'll save me $100 that I don't have (well, I would just run four Infinity speakers off a JVC head unit instead..but I'd definitely prefer to amp them. )

Well - looking at the other pics on Anadtech - looks like many of the pads and traces have the flux cooked out of them (that brown goo). Usually not a good sign - someone probably bridged the amp to get more juice out of it and smoked it. Normally you can test many resistor, capacitors, diodes and transistors in circuit with a multimeter and a continuity buzzer (of course it depends on location and where they are wired in circuit). But I would try and solder the traced down or laz suggested, alligator clips. Amp is probably fried - but you never know. If it is toasted - at least you have a nice bookend or paperweight .

It looks like it was bridged - some screws were missing, but the two speaker screws that were still there were set as bridged.

I'll give it a shot..see what happens. If it doesn't work, maybe I'll think of something to do wtih it.



We'll see if it works..

I'd just solder a 12-14gauge wire to bridge the two ends together.. but then again I dont know anything abiout AMP repair.

I bridged it with solder - it looks alright...my mother was supposed to be back with my car now, but she'll be gone late..bah..I wanted to test it out, and my MR2 doesn't have the wiring all in place.