What to soldier on the HUD

[VwAndNissan]

I have my HUD taken apart. I was wondering what needed to be soldierd in order for it work work alright. Because i've read up and saw that it was probably a cold solder joint. My question is What joint?? thanks for the help

[sr240mike]

Do you know whats broken? I dont see how you could solder one general connection and it will fix all problems associated with HUD's.

[Lurkable]

mag·ic (n.) : The practice of using charms, spells, or rituals to attempt to produce supernatural effects or control events in nature.

[VwAndNissan]

Well my HUD wouldn't come on until the car heated up. but i got pulled over yesterday and got off because it hadn't heated up yet. so i was trying to fix it yesterday then i rembered i had a 93 with a good hud sitting infront of my house not being used. So i took it out of that, and fixed the problem.

[Romeyo07]

I once knew a guy who had HUD....10 years later, BAM! Herpes.

[EchoOfSilence]

Damn, I was hoping this question would get answered. :wtc: My HUD doesn't come up until the car warms up either

[Yoshi]

Damn, I was hoping this question would get answered. :wtc: My HUD doesn't come up until the car warms up either

sorry man, WAY to vague of a prob description for anyone to help.
"Cold solder joint"? that implies something was altered at somepoint and poorly soldered ( a cold joint has nothing to do with operating temp, a cold solder joint means that one of hte objects being soldered, or both, were not hot enough when the joint was attempted, leading to a joint that will break. How easily depends on the temp).

I fail to see how a cold joint could be the prob. If it were, something on the HUD wouldn't work at all (or the whole thing if it was say, the main power joint that was bad), regardless of the car's operating temp.

[idlafie]

sorry man, WAY to vague of a prob description for anyone to help.
"Cold solder joint"? that implies something was altered at somepoint and poorly soldered ( a cold joint has nothing to do with operating temp, a cold solder joint means that one of hte objects being soldered, or both, were not hot enough when the joint was attempted, leading to a joint that will break. How easily depends on the temp).

I fail to see how a cold joint could be the prob. If it were, something on the HUD wouldn't work at all (or the whole thing if it was say, the main power joint that was bad), regardless of the car's operating temp.

Not necessarily true. A cold solder joint could be the problem. A cold solder joints is a joint where an air bubble or some other impurity has entered the joint while the solder is cooling AFTER the item has been soldered. A malfunctioning HUD could also be due to a poorly designed or poorly made PCB board where electrically connected points becoming separated, or as an area on the PCB which interrupts the intended design on the circuit.
Using the technical terms, causes for this type of defect are commonly attributed to the solder paste printing stage of a surface mount process. However, other non-printer related factors can also cause electrical opens. Solder paste can clog in the apertures of the stencil, never being released to the PCB pad. This will create an insufficient solder joint due to insufficient solder being placed prior to reflow. Component lead coplanarity (the distance between the PCB pad and the component lead) can also contribute to opens. The solder volume may be adequate, but if it is not in contact with both the lead and the pad during reflow, an open will occur. Finally, opens may also be a function of the PCB fabrication process itself.

Solutions for electrical opens include 1) correcting the aspect ratio. If solder paste is clogging the apertures it may be due to the aspect ratio being to small. The aspect ratio is defined as the ratio of aperture width to stencil thickness - use a ratio of 2.0 as a guideline for fine pitch applications. 2) Avoid solder paste contamination by avoiding extreme environmental effects in the manufacturing process, 3) investigate lead coplanarity issues and monitor operator material handling procedures, and 4) investigate fabrication issues with PCB supplier.

Remember, Nissan had a SUB-contractor mass produced these circuit boards years ago with the knowledge that sooner or later the HUD equipment would fail. The subcontractor guestimated, as did Nissan, that the HUD would last on average about 7 years and/or 150k miles. What electronic equipment is designed to handle weather extremes & shock movement on a daily basis??

Fixing the HUD is probably a piece of cake. But without any electronics knowledge & a circuit diagram, the fix becomes more of a pain in the ass, because you have to test EACH circuit to make sure each component is working AND that the circuit is complete...the circuit is not falling off the PCB board.

Anyhow, I hope this clarifies some confusion....
ID

[amolao]

idlafie,
good info on the soldering carachteristics, you know by chance who is making the HUD modules for nissan?? they are still available brand new thru Nissan and I have done repairs and work on some on them. A few times I gooten brand new ones for ones that were beyond repair. I doubt they still carry "old" new ones on their part system. The main cause of failure on the module is temperature, too hot for too long makes components get weak until they fail..... :cry:

[Yoshi]

Not necessarily true. A cold solder joint could be the problem. A cold solder joints is a joint where an air bubble or some other impurity has entered the joint while the solder is cooling AFTER the item has been soldered. A malfunctioning HUD could also be due to a poorly designed or poorly made PCB board where electrically connected points becoming separated, or as an area on the PCB which interrupts the intended design on the circuit.
Using the technical terms, causes for this type of defect are commonly attributed to the solder paste printing stage of a surface mount process. However, other non-printer related factors can also cause electrical opens. Solder paste can clog in the apertures of the stencil, never being released to the PCB pad. This will create an insufficient solder joint due to insufficient solder being placed prior to reflow. Component lead coplanarity (the distance between the PCB pad and the component lead) can also contribute to opens. The solder volume may be adequate, but if it is not in contact with both the lead and the pad during reflow, an open will occur. Finally, opens may also be a function of the PCB fabrication process itself.

Solutions for electrical opens include 1) correcting the aspect ratio. If solder paste is clogging the apertures it may be due to the aspect ratio being to small. The aspect ratio is defined as the ratio of aperture width to stencil thickness - use a ratio of 2.0 as a guideline for fine pitch applications. 2) Avoid solder paste contamination by avoiding extreme environmental effects in the manufacturing process, 3) investigate lead coplanarity issues and monitor operator material handling procedures, and 4) investigate fabrication issues with PCB supplier.

Remember, Nissan had a SUB-contractor mass produced these circuit boards years ago with the knowledge that sooner or later the HUD equipment would fail. The subcontractor guestimated, as did Nissan, that the HUD would last on average about 7 years and/or 150k miles. What electronic equipment is designed to handle weather extremes & shock movement on a daily basis??

Fixing the HUD is probably a piece of cake. But without any electronics knowledge & a circuit diagram, the fix becomes more of a pain in the ass, because you have to test EACH circuit to make sure each component is working AND that the circuit is complete...the circuit is not falling off the PCB board.

Anyhow, I hope this clarifies some confusion....
ID

okay, all true things, but you're talking about hte design/manufacturing process, which if that were the case, this would be the most common issue in relation to HUDs.... which it's clearly not, as there's all of 2 people so far in the thread who have the issue. Arguing the techical possiblities of the cause isn't going to help at this point, he could have a mouse in his dash (I've actually had that happen to my GTO), any number of things, but the bottom line being, you're talking about architecture vs. reality. It's sematics true, but it's still apples and oranges, and it doesn't help solve this guys problem. He has neither the background, schematic (tho u can DL a wiring schematic from www.zeroyon.com), nor expertise to fix pinpoint solder points. Hell i've been soldering all my life and I don't trust myself to hand-fix machine constructed PCBs and their nano joints.

Same conclusion tho, of course it's fixable, but far more trouble than it's worth to track down the issue, a new HUD would be so much easier and faster.

[mjjstang]

I hate when people dont even take the time to read what they are typing, soldier is a person in the U.S. Military, not soft metal used for making connections.