edge connector question

cleverlyj

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so when i pulled out my tempest boardset today to replace the lin pots, i noticed that the copper is showing through on a couple of the edge connector pads (one on each end looking at the top of the tempest board) on the fingers on the pcb. there is no burnt anything though, looks fine otherwise.

so, is this anything that should be addressed or should i be fine? checking with a DMM i get no resistance between the wire on the connector to the board itself, so should i just leave it then?
 
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I always replace the pins when I see the conductive coating has worn away. I have seen many Tempest, Pole Position, and Centipede machines that experienced all sorts of problems become rock solid after a harness rebuild...
 
not much you can do about this other than try and replace the pad. that's more than i would attempt with my knowledge about pc boards. arcade repair tips says you can do it with super glue (i trust them just not myself lol).

or you can just live with it and not remove the edge connector to often.
 
so when i pulled out my tempest boardset today to replace the lin pots, i noticed that the copper is showing through on a couple of the edge connector pads (one on each end looking at the top of the tempest board) on the fingers on the pcb. there is no burnt anything though, looks fine otherwise.

so, is this anything that should be addressed or should i be fine? checking with a DMM i get no resistance between the wire on the connector to the board itself, so should i just leave it then?

The great majority of the trace/connector is copper. It only has a thin coating of silver color material (tin? silver? not really sure) on top. The issue with the copper showing thru is corrosion of it (bare copper will form a green oxide over time).

I've "re-tinned" a few bare copper edge traces by putting a small blob of solder on it, and then quickly wiping it off (while it is still molten) with a rag... leaving a thin coating of solder. Not sure if this is a "recommended" procedure or not; but it worked for me.
 
should i just re-tin it as the above poster stated? just hit with solder and wipe it off?

If it's working well, I would leave well enough alone. If you retin an edge connector, you have to be *very* careful not to leave any bumps of solder, or make it raised any more than the surrounding board, lest you bend and damage the pin in the harness connector. In general, if you're careful, you should be OK, but you should see what kind of a mess the ops used to make out of Pac boards trying to "fix" them.

-Ian
 
Some people repair them using copper tape,so what would the difference be? Personaly,I would just make sure it is polished and use it as is.

The copper tape method is for when the trace is burned badly. In this case the trace is mostly or totally missing (burned/melted away).

The re-tinning method is for when the copper trace is intact, but the silver colored coating has worn thru exposing the bare copper
 
I re-tin the edge connectors of most of the boards that come across the bench. It takes a little bit of practice, but once you get the hang of it you can re-tin a couple of connectors in under 10 minutes. Customers love it too. :)

Don't skimp on the female crimps and housings. If there's any doubt if they're still good, go ahead and replace them.
 
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