Today at Atelier Kaz - ex-Honda R&D, F1, Indy/CART engineer

The flex circuit shorted to the metal case and since the audio head unit uses the case GND, not great as it would have most likely taken out other components inside the unit.

That was the case for some of the head unit that I dealt with in the past.



Can't do anything without first recovering the power circuit so agreed with the owner that I will first recover the power without testing the audio signal, inspect and then decide whether to go any further or not.










Looks terrible but nothing new.






As expected, some of the components at the middle board were also dead.











And just about when I was ready to remove the flex circuit connector, disaster happened.

My trusted de-soldering gun failed after years of usage…..

Not sure why as it suddenly failed while in use.

No pump operation or not even the heater circuit works so completely dead.

Thought the SMD fuse or something failed but couldn't find the cause…..


Can't go any further and quick decision required so decided to get the same model from Japan.

I used to use Hakko one in the office and recently, they released new version so tempted but since I already had several different parts for my existing one,
decided to stay with the same model.










So, after a few weeks waiting time, replacement arrived and back to the service.

The area under the connector was also heavily contaminated and some repair works required.