jpr1957
Active Member
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2017
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- 43
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- 26
- Location
- Washington State
- First Name
- Jeff
- Vehicle(s)
- 2017 V6 Auto
Here are some pictures showing removal of the Volume and Tune knobs from the circuit board. I'll start with the soldering equipment.
One of the tools I used to remove the solder is an over 40 year old Radio Shack iron that is either 25 watt or 40 watts. It worked on the smaller lugs. The Weller 100/140 watt gun is what I used to melt the solder on the larger lugs. The smaller iron would not melt the solder in these larger holes. I dipped the solder wick in the soldering flux paste in the square container to help the solder flow into the wick. At the top of the picture is the vacuum pump that came with the Secaine unit. I didn't use it on the first knob. I had never used one before. I used it on the second knob and it really sped things up, especially in the large and medium sized lugs.
The first thing is to remove the back cover from the panel. I can't find the Torx driver that I used to remove the 15 screws but when I do I will add the size to this message. There are 7 more screws to remove the board from the panel.
I didn't take a close-up picture of the knob terminals on the back side of the board so a fuzzy cropped picture of the whole board will have to do. A following picture shows the empty holes in the board where the lugs were attached. Both knobs have the same hole pattern.
There are two large lugs at the 3 and 9 o'clock positions. They hold a lot of solder. I didn't used the supplied vacuum tool on the first knob. It took a long time with the solder wick. Only so much solder seems flow into the wick. I cut off the filled end and sucked up some more. The wick gets hot to the touch. I have since learned that short pieces of wick held with tweezers or pliers can get hotter and remove more solder. Again, the vacuum pump really sped things up on the second knob.
The two medium sized round lugs don't hold near as much solder. I think a couple of sucks with the vacuum pump cleared them on the second knob. I think I was able to use the small soldering iron on these.
The three tiny lugs at the top are a real pain. The vacuum pump didn't seem to remove much of the solder. It was hard to get the solder out of the tight fitting holes with the wick. I worked both sides of the board to try and get the little bit of solder removed.
It took almost 2 hours to get the first knob off. I got the second one off is less than an hour. Since I had never done this before there were some tricks to learn. I'm sure it could be done faster with better equipment and more experience.
I really wanted to be able to put the knobs back on if the Secaine unit didn't work out. It is working great and I really like having the factory HVAC controls. Now that the Metra and Scosche units are out I would probably get one of them instead of going back to the factory 4-inch screen. They were just becoming available when I installed the Secaine unit. My recommendation is to cut the knobs off. It is a lot faster.
The next picture is the front of the board with the knobs removed. I think the whole knob unit is a some kind of pulse generator.
The next picture is the factory buttons installed in the Secaine panel. I had to trim the black plastic over to clear the wall above the left side HVAC knob hole. Removing the 12 volt power socket from the factory panel is kind of tricky. I used small jeweler's flat blade screwdrivers to push two little lugs inside the bore of the socket back and allow the metal socket to slide out of the plastic ring. The ring can then be removed from the panel. There is a You Tube video of the OEM Radio guy hitting the socket on the backside with a rubber mallet to remove it. He is a professional and does this all the time so it probably works ok. I just didn't want to take a chance of breaking something.
The next picture is the membranes installed over the buttons. Another picture shows the whole back of the Secaine panel. I had the screen laying on towels and the lower panel supported on machinist's blocks. I don't know what they used to bond to the plastic lower panel to the aluminum screen panel but it seems to be very strong. I supported and handled the whole panel carefully because I didn't want to take a chance of the plastic lower panel breaking off of the aluminum upper panel. Once the circuit board is attached to the Secaine panel it stiffens it up. The dash panel is flexible by itself.
The next picture shows the circuit board and black plastic cover installed on the Secaine panel. Sheet metal screws supplied with the Secaine unit are used to attach the circuit board to the lugs on the lower plastic panel. They only give three 2.5mm machine screws to attach the circuit board to the four brass spacers on the back of the aluminum panel. They only show three in the picture on their web site. I kind of think that maybe this is because the upper left hole in the circuit board does not line up with the brass spacer. I slotted it out with a small round file and installed a fourth screw that I happened to have. A final picture shows that hole. I guess it is easier to not supply a screw than to fix a mislocated hole.
One of the tools I used to remove the solder is an over 40 year old Radio Shack iron that is either 25 watt or 40 watts. It worked on the smaller lugs. The Weller 100/140 watt gun is what I used to melt the solder on the larger lugs. The smaller iron would not melt the solder in these larger holes. I dipped the solder wick in the soldering flux paste in the square container to help the solder flow into the wick. At the top of the picture is the vacuum pump that came with the Secaine unit. I didn't use it on the first knob. I had never used one before. I used it on the second knob and it really sped things up, especially in the large and medium sized lugs.
The first thing is to remove the back cover from the panel. I can't find the Torx driver that I used to remove the 15 screws but when I do I will add the size to this message. There are 7 more screws to remove the board from the panel.
I didn't take a close-up picture of the knob terminals on the back side of the board so a fuzzy cropped picture of the whole board will have to do. A following picture shows the empty holes in the board where the lugs were attached. Both knobs have the same hole pattern.
There are two large lugs at the 3 and 9 o'clock positions. They hold a lot of solder. I didn't used the supplied vacuum tool on the first knob. It took a long time with the solder wick. Only so much solder seems flow into the wick. I cut off the filled end and sucked up some more. The wick gets hot to the touch. I have since learned that short pieces of wick held with tweezers or pliers can get hotter and remove more solder. Again, the vacuum pump really sped things up on the second knob.
The two medium sized round lugs don't hold near as much solder. I think a couple of sucks with the vacuum pump cleared them on the second knob. I think I was able to use the small soldering iron on these.
The three tiny lugs at the top are a real pain. The vacuum pump didn't seem to remove much of the solder. It was hard to get the solder out of the tight fitting holes with the wick. I worked both sides of the board to try and get the little bit of solder removed.
It took almost 2 hours to get the first knob off. I got the second one off is less than an hour. Since I had never done this before there were some tricks to learn. I'm sure it could be done faster with better equipment and more experience.
I really wanted to be able to put the knobs back on if the Secaine unit didn't work out. It is working great and I really like having the factory HVAC controls. Now that the Metra and Scosche units are out I would probably get one of them instead of going back to the factory 4-inch screen. They were just becoming available when I installed the Secaine unit. My recommendation is to cut the knobs off. It is a lot faster.
The next picture is the front of the board with the knobs removed. I think the whole knob unit is a some kind of pulse generator.
The next picture is the factory buttons installed in the Secaine panel. I had to trim the black plastic over to clear the wall above the left side HVAC knob hole. Removing the 12 volt power socket from the factory panel is kind of tricky. I used small jeweler's flat blade screwdrivers to push two little lugs inside the bore of the socket back and allow the metal socket to slide out of the plastic ring. The ring can then be removed from the panel. There is a You Tube video of the OEM Radio guy hitting the socket on the backside with a rubber mallet to remove it. He is a professional and does this all the time so it probably works ok. I just didn't want to take a chance of breaking something.
The next picture is the membranes installed over the buttons. Another picture shows the whole back of the Secaine panel. I had the screen laying on towels and the lower panel supported on machinist's blocks. I don't know what they used to bond to the plastic lower panel to the aluminum screen panel but it seems to be very strong. I supported and handled the whole panel carefully because I didn't want to take a chance of the plastic lower panel breaking off of the aluminum upper panel. Once the circuit board is attached to the Secaine panel it stiffens it up. The dash panel is flexible by itself.
The next picture shows the circuit board and black plastic cover installed on the Secaine panel. Sheet metal screws supplied with the Secaine unit are used to attach the circuit board to the lugs on the lower plastic panel. They only give three 2.5mm machine screws to attach the circuit board to the four brass spacers on the back of the aluminum panel. They only show three in the picture on their web site. I kind of think that maybe this is because the upper left hole in the circuit board does not line up with the brass spacer. I slotted it out with a small round file and installed a fourth screw that I happened to have. A final picture shows that hole. I guess it is easier to not supply a screw than to fix a mislocated hole.
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