Vintage Computers

gregmcc said:
Another soul destroying thing is seeing the after effects of someone who has no idea how to de-solder, remove a chip from a PCB and making things 10x worse. Gouges and broken tracks, flux all over the place.
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They should have practiced first on a piece of junk before attempting the repair.
 
gregmcc said:
Another soul destroying thing is seeing the after effects of someone who has no idea how to de-solder, remove a chip from a PCB and making things 10x worse. Gouges and broken tracks, flux all over the place.
Click to expand...
Don't get me started on this.

The worst is this urban myth that developed that all caps automatically must be replaced, so you see all these horrible pictures of people who butcherer perfectly working machines because a "re-cap" is somehow necessary and their skills stop at using a soldering iron like a tire lever.
 
FWIW....on any multi layer board it's far easier just to cut the pins off of the offending cap/IC or whatever. Cut the pins off with a sharp sidecutter. Than use a decent soldiering iron to remove the pieces with a normal solder sucker. No tracks ruined and no train smash and messed up boards. Only thing is y
 
you can't use the parts you cut out again. So make sure you know they are faulty before cutting. PRO tip.
 
If you know the part is faulty that the best method for removing chips.

Otherwise a decent de-soldering station does a good job. I've removed many 40 pin chips without damaging them. With lots of the retro computers you don't want to cut the leads if you don't know for 100% it's faulty. A lot of the older chips are getting more and more difficult to find.
 
Double sided and multilayer boards are are a nightmare with through hole components. Tracks always get stuffed up no matter how hard you try to not mess them up. Unless you snip the offender's and than the through hole legs disssapear into your solder sucker.

Not hard at all.
 
Anyway that's what I do. But you must be spot on with your analysis of in circuit faulty parts. Otherwise it's a neat "nightmare".
 
Fred07 said:
FWIW....on any multi layer board it's far easier just to cut the pins off of the offending cap/IC or whatever. Cut the pins off with a sharp sidecutter. Than use a decent soldiering iron to remove the pieces with a normal solder sucker. No tracks ruined and no train smash and messed up boards. Only thing is y
Click to expand...
100%, I do this even for double sided through-hole boards, like you find in most vintage systems. Especially if the chip you suspect is easily available. I'll rather replace a chip than risk a 40-year old board that's impossible to replace.

What I do is to cut the IC pins against the body of the IC and then remove them, one by one, from the top (not the bottom) of the board with a tweezer while applying heat. Typically the bottom has already seen heat and have been soldered (by definition) but the top of the pads are still untouched so are more resistant to heat.

This way I never see a lift track or damaged through-hole.

If it's a newer board or the tracks and pads are more robust or bigger, I'll use my desoldering gun which works really well. It can unsolder a 40-pin chip from a multi-layer board, no problem. I use this model:

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GJ S-998P 220V 100W Electric Vacuum Double-Pump Solder Sucker Desoldering Gun Soldering Iron

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The_Hobbit said:
Snap! See the vid I posted.
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I saw, good timing! :)

The desoldering gun I use is the double-barrel version of his, so - I assume - it can create more suction.

One day, when I'm big, I'll definitely get a really top-notch desoldering station. for the number of chip I take out repairing these old computes, it's definitely worth it.
 
Found most of the TRS-80 stuff @jannievanzyl
Still looking for the 'Logo' cartridge that plugs into the side for a 'new' operating system

Also found my original Toshiba Libretto 50 with unopened Windows 95 stiffies as well as the docking stations and power supply. Still looking for the external PCMCIA Stiffy drive that came with it, also included is about 10 old laptop IDE harddrives from 20 years ago, all working.

Will keep looking.
 
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