Thread: Advice needed.....electric seat controls

Well, I emailed Classic LSE in the UK.

Got a nice lengthy reply from a very helpful bloke called Graeme. He detailed the recommended checks before installing another seat ECU, and also said that they can basically supply pretty much any part I need if I'm brave enough to have a go at repairing mine. I sent him a couple of photos and he said it's probably "doable" but that it's definitely at the extreme end of what they would normally consider repairing. There are a couple of bits that have been fried that he's never seen fried before!!! So yeah, the seat ECU will take a good bit of work to repair. The biggest challenge that he sees is repairing damaged circuit traces under/around the chips. I have a wet bead blasting machine which I normally just use for cleaning up alloy parts, but if I wind the intensity right down, I can actually very delicately remove the protective varnish from the PCB in the area that I need to repair. That might make things alot easier than they would otherwise be. I've seen what they call a "conductive pen" that is specifically made for this sort of work, so if I can get hold of one of those then I might be in with a chance. They're only about $35 on fleabay. Man....is there anything ya CAN'T get on fleabay??
So yeah, I think I'll have a crack at this when time permits. It's not like I have anything to lose. And gees it'd be a thrill if I managed to actually FIX it!!!

Hey Carnut first use iso alcohol on the board flood it and then with a toothbrush clean as much as you can. Secondly if you can get you hands on one use an ultrasonic cleaner and clean the board with that. Immerse it completely in water and detergent. The ultra sonic cleaners you get at hobby shops will be to small so you need to beg borrow or steal one big enough. I don't think the conductive pen will work, best you use small tinned wire or what I have done in the past is to cut the leads of small components and bend them to shape same as the circuit board track. You will need to remove as much black(carbon) as you can as this will conduct if not removed. Scrape it away as much as you can. Then if you are successful in it working coat the board with araldite to strengthen and stop short circuits.
I used to repair this type of electronic boards for a living, some worked some did not.
A schematic diagram would be helpful when doing the repairs as well.
Good luck
Brad

Might have to send you mine to repair

For what it might be worth, I've got a handful of PCB pics from when I did the ECU- battery changeover in Sarah. You're welcome to them, - PM me with an email addy and I'll send the high(er) res versions over.

Memory is returning... battery WAS bought on UK evilbay, price must have been OK.

Cheers

James

Hi fellas,
Thanks for you're advice and thanks James, too, for the offer of those photos. I am going to try and get a chance to put the PCB in my wet glass bead blaster tomorrow, and clean the blackened mess off with that. It should also remove the protective coating from the circuit. I'll mask the areas so that I only remove the coating from where I need to remove components. The araldite idea sounds like a great one for re-coating afterwards. With so much else to do, I think this may take me a little while, but I'll post updates as I go
Cheers
Steve

I'd suggest you take lots and lots of pics of the board BEFORE you blast it... I'd be worried about damaging the finer tracks.
I'd use either a dissolving agent for the coating... or something like a #23 scalpel blade (rounded sharp edge for broader scrapes) to scrape it off where you need to re-solder bridging wires etc.

Once again, you only need (?) to remove the protective lacquer WHERE you need to solder, unless you plan on using a paint-on track repair/replace.

Hmmmmm.....I put the PCB in the wet bead blaster and it cleaned the black mess off quite nicely. The problem is that the board has gotten SO HOT that it's burnt a hole clean through it.
Might be time to get another board that's not as badly damaged. I'll get myself a better soldering iron from Jaycar tomorrow, and have a go at pulling a few of the fried components out of this board, and maybe give the other side a bit of a clean with the blaster just to see what's left of it afterwards, lol....... I've got nothing to lose
Here are some before and after cleaning shots........

I have a ECU that isn't being used as I've decided to convert mine to toggle switches. The circuit board is corroded but I don't think as badly as yours and one of the switches was completely destroyed by a portly PO . I'll have look.

Justin