Originally Posted by
nemiro
It should be noted that the latest clone version of the Micropod2 has a defect in it that will render it only partially useful on the Crossfire and all 2005 down Chrysler vehicles. Fortunately, the solution to the problem is fairly simple, if you have access to a precision soldering iron and someone with skills. I did not come up with the fix, but I am sharing it here, because we have an obvious interest in having the tools to maintain these older vehicles.
Quote:
Well due to popular demand I decided to just post the info needed to fix these clones. It is a little tricky, def need a very fine point solder iron. I also used a solder station with varying temp so I didn't overheat the trace. Also very important to use a ground strap, this is part of the reason I fried my first one. But mostly using T-pins to probe the board while it was powered on :P Like I mentioned before, the issue is the IC with marking 65 TI MAP doesnt have it's ground. The trace between the via and the pin is bad. What I did was use an Exacto knife to scrape the coating off the top of the via, and very carefully make a solder bridge from the pin to the via. I considered using a very fine piece of wire as a trace but if you have ever tried it, you would prob know why I decided not to. I made sure the IC pin had ground but wasn't accidently shorted to the pin next to it. Also make sure it's not shorted to R32 which is very close by. I figured this out partly because there is another IC with marking 65 TI MAP on the inside of the board and it had ground at the same pin. To be clear, the IC with ground issue is on same board side as the ARM chip as seen in photos. You DO NOT need to separate the boards to fix it. And that's it, when this IC has it's ground the output won't be floating high and the comm signal can be read by ARM chip.
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Original forum thread: https://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f310...73/index2.html
I can confirm that the fix above repairs the Micropod2 clone, and makes it operate properly.
nemiro, I was wondering if a small drop of solder paste between the trace and a fine piece of copper wire could be used successfully with a stationary fine soldering iron tip would work.
Joining the other end of the wire would be easy by comparison.
What is your opinion please?