DEFENDER... I added a socket for the NVRAM and I have a question. *PHOTO ADDED*

CyberDude

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DEFENDER... I added a socket for the NVRAM and I have a question. *PHOTO ADDED*

Hey guys... I desoldered the 5101 Ram chip on my DEFENDER PCB and added a socket for the NVRAM daughter board. Im still pretty new at this stuff. My question is... when I went to solder in the socket , the feet are so close together some solder may have inadvertently touched together on a few of the feet. I tried my best to not let any solder dots touch and keep them seperate but I could see a few of the solder dots are really close to or are touching. When I plugged the game in and turned it on everything seems fine. The high score saves without the batteries and the game seems to play fine. Are the feet suppose to be isolated completely when soldering them??

Its a little hard to photograph but here is what Im trying to explain... some of my solder for the individual socket legs the solder dots are accidently touching since they are so darn close. Is that a problem? Should they all be isolated? When I powered up the game everything seemed fine. Im just not sure as Im still learning this stuff. Thanks



I tried looking at the schematic and found the 5101 chip. can you tell from the schematic and compare it to my soldering job and see if I accidentally let solder touch where I shouldn't have.

 
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Hey guys... I desoldered the 5101 Ram chip on my DEFENDER PCB and added a socket for the NVRAM daughter board. Im still pretty new at this stuff. My question is... when I went to solder in the socket , the feet are so close together some solder may have inadvertently touched together on a few of the feet. I tried my best to not let any solder dots touch and keep them seperate but I could see a few of the solder dots are really close to or are touching. When I plugged the game in and turned it on everything seems fine. The high score saves without the batteries and the game seems to play fine. Are the feet suppose to be isolated completely when soldering them??

Whenever I question my eyes I use my multimeter to check to see if any solder pads have continuity when they shouldn't. If so, I desolder and be more careful on the next try.
 
For a 5101 -- the data-in and data-out pins are often intentionally tied together (pins 9-10, 11-12, 13-14 and 15-16). Looks like your board falls into that category but best to look at the schematics.
To get a better idea as to what is in those connections - clean them. Use Alcohol and a soft brush (e.g. toothbrush type brush) and clean the flux off. Should then be able to see better.

FYI -- I use a boar's hair brush for cleaning. Nice and stiff yet flexible enough to not scratch board.
 
Just a quick update... I played the game for about an hour and everything seems fine. I turned it off and on a couple times in that hour and it powered up with no ROM errors. I am just going to assume my solder job is not an issue. Knock on wood. LOL Thanks for the replies guys. If anything goes wrong I will update at that time.
 
Looks fine to me. You could clean up the flux, but its not really going to hurt anything.

nice work. have fun
 
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