Steve,

Serious case of "thin" gold. It looks like oxidized nickel and copper
has reached the surface.
Are you preheating (IR or hot air gun) prior to soldering? What kind of
Flux? (RA, OA, or
no-clean) What temp is the iron set to? Looks like a PTH so how long is
the iron tip toughing the board? But most important what is the shipping
and storage history of these boards?

I don't believe this is the classic "Black Pad". I believe you are
dealing with oxidation/corrosion situations under that thin leaky gold.

David A. Douthit
Manager
LoCan LLC

"Stephen R. Gregory" wrote:

> Hi all ya'll!
>
> Well, I think I have finally seen the "Black Pad" defect. Go to:
>
> http://stevezeva.homestead.com/index.html
>
> I just want to confirm what I'm seeing here. This is happening on some
> boards
> that are being hand soldered. The lady that's doing the work asked me
> to look
> at board she was working on. She said that the gold plating on the
> pads look
> great prior to soldering them (just like the pad to the left in my
> picture),
> but then as she's adding the solder into the joint, the pad turns
> black and
> won't wet...so is this the dreaded "Black Pad"? It's not happening all
> over
> the entire board, but randomly at multiple places...
>
> As always, thanks!!
>
> -Steve Gregory-