[HighGain510]

A buddy of mine gave me a fully-functional original Line 6 POD for free because it had a bunch of broken potentiometers thus rendering it useless until it gets new ones. He didn't know how to fix it and since they're cheap anyways he just gave it to me. I want to fix everything and bring it back to working specs but I don't know how to desolder stuff on a PCB, especially since there are so many components close to the pots. Any help here? I'm afraid of burning the board with my iron, so before I kill the POD someone please hook me up here! Thanks!

[BigM555]

Well, the good news is it sounds like it's already dead.

I haven't seen the inside of a POD but I've done my fair share of soldering. I'm sure the contacts are pretty small. Be sure to use a low watt iron and take the extra time. It's better than trying to repair a board that you've lifted the tracers off of.

A good desoldering tool (aka: solder sucker) is almost mandatory as well. You can try with a wick but for small stuff it can be tough to get the wick in there (for that matter, real delicate stuff is tough with a sucker).

Are you sure it is just standard pots you're replacing? I'd think most of the "pots" on a POD are actually digital pots.

Good luck.

[djpharoah]

I agree with BigM555. Most of the pots in the Line6 series are digital pots. Also if your removing stuff thats connected to the PCB you need a micro soldering iron.

Here is a link to one. http://www.action-electronics.com/weller.htm#Irons. Just search for the word "micro' on the page and you will find it. Honestly without acid etching this is the smallest soldering iron you can use on pcbs. Actually its the tip that matters, but you definitely need a very very small wattage cuz the radiant heat from the tip can start melting other components.

[HighGain510]

LOL nah it definitely works still, the pots were the only thing broken. I plugged it in before I opened it up and it still produced sound fine, just couldn't adjust stuff like bass, gain etc. which is pretty important! Thanks for the help guys, I'll have to look at that micro tip iron!

[noodles]

Unless you are extremely comfortable with this sort of thing, I would leave this one up to a professional. It shouldn't cost that much to have it repaired.

Remember, you can always hook a POD up to your computer with a MIDI cable, and edit patches with the free patch editor. Why risk ruining it?

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

OR, YOU CAN JUST EDIT IT VIA YOUR COMPUTER, & USE THE HARDWARE AS-IS.

TRY IT AT LEAST.

[Town Drunk]

I haven't seen the insides of one, but if its just a pot soldered to the board. Id hit it with the lowest watt Iron I had (assuming pc board has lots of surface mount close by) use a "solder sucker" from radio shack. It will get out the bulk if the solder. You can use Chem-wick to clean it up if needed, but the pots should come out without much trouble.