This guide illustrates the solution to battery connector trouble with Ion boards. This mainly includes wires coming off the board, but can also be used for cases where the wire rips in half. In either case, it's generally best to remove the old battery connector (the 9v battery snap and its wires) and replace it with a brand new one. You can purchase a replacement battery connector pigtail from the ZDS store or from a local shop if they happen to have a reliable brand (Radio Shack might, depending on the branch).
This guide involves soldering directly to the circuit board, which can be difficult since space is lacking. Accordingly, this is recommended for those only with moderate/advanced soldering experience. You will be soldering directly onto the circuit board itself, so one false move can damage surrounding circuit components, and possibly cause you to trash the whole board. Naturally, I am not responsible for any damages done to your marker or yourself during this process.
This is a service that I provide for $5 plus shipping. If you feel you are unable to do it, please don't risk your board. Send it in for a professional repair and rest easy.
Please note: This is not a how-to guide to learn how to solder yourself. If you don't know how to solder then you shouldn't start with this; I'd suggest sending the board in for the repair. I can't teach you how to solder, so if you really wish to learn then you'll have to do that on your own. This is the entire reason why I provide the repair service for a fee, remember.
And again, if you don't know how to solder, don't learn by practicing on your paintball circuit boards, learn with something else (like wires).
Repair Prep:
The most common problem covered under this symptom is the battery wire yanking off from the circut board, leaving behind a few small pieces of metal wire attached to the board's terminal. The can look something like the following pictures...
The other main problem is for the wire itself to come out of the 9v battery snap. If this happens then you can presumably just splice in a new battery snap to the existing wires. If that's the case then it's just a matter of soldering the wires up, and insulating them. The rest of this guide is for soldering a new wire directly to the circuit board, which is much more difficult.
Before you start, you'll have to disassemble the solenoid to make the repair easier. Remove the brass bracket from the rear of the solenoid, and allow the head section to come off. Tip it upside down and allow the solenoid armature to fall out. At this point the solenoid's output hose (1/8", to the middle air fitting or QEV) will still be attached. You an remove this if you wish but you must excersize extreme care to avoid damaging the solenoid barb. For this reason I left the hose attached to the solenoid in the sample repair I used for the pictures. If you break the output barb then you'll have to replace the entire solenoid (the board along with it, if you don't want to bother swapping them).
Once the solenoid is stripped down, you'll have to remove the current battery wires from the board. This can be done by heating up the solder terminals while pulling the wire away; it will come free as soon as the solder turns molten.
Even with the wires removed as shown above, the solder terminals (aka. solder pads) will still have a clump of solder on them. Use a desoldering iron or desoldering braid to remove the excess solder until the pads are reasonably clean. Be sure to remove any wire metal strands from the board, since these can short it out. The following picture shows the right terminal cleaned off using desoldering braid, and the left terminal still has some solder left to clean.
Clean off both terminals before proceeding.
Installing a New Pigtail:
The next step is to size up the new battery wires to their proper length. When you buy the 9v connector pigtail chances are it'll be longer than you need, so shortening it is recommended. In the picture below I show a good default length for the new wires.
After shorting the wires, strip them to slightly more than 1/8" from the ends.
The easiest way to repair the board is to install the wires one at a time. Start by inserting one of the wires in through the appropriate hole on the board. When looking at the circuit board's capacitor and microswitch side, the black wire goes on the left whereas the red is on the right. Choose one of the wires and push it through the correct hole, from back to front.
Once the wire is threaded through the hole, use pliers (or something) to bend the metal wires upward. This is how it will attach to the board's solder terminal.
You will now solder the wire up to the board's terminal. For this you will have to hold the wire down flush on top of the terminal, and solder it down with the other hand. It may be useful to have a friend/colleague/whomever help out if you can't hold things steady on your own.
After soldering it onto the terminal...
Follow the same proceedure with the other wire. Insert it through the remaining hole, bend the wire upward, and solder it into position. When finished you end up with something like this...
Reassemble the solenoid and test it out.
Aftermarket Circuit Boards:
The proceedure is identical for other boards. The only difference is wire placement, which varies from board to board.