RetroHacker
Well-known member
OK, so, I'm torn on this one. I've got a board set (Star Wars) with some really bad edge connectors. Not burnt, but corroded and badly abused. It looks like someone took sandpaper to them at some point. Over half of them are down to the bare copper and corroded.
Now, there's the ugly, expensive, but functional/reliable repair to simply solder a female connector onto the edge pads, and then use a fingerboard as the new edge. I've done this on really burned up boards, but this one is still structurally sound, and the substrate is all still there.
Or, there's the copper tape method, but that's going to be even more time consuming, and I would have to do pretty much every pin.
I usually would never try to tin the connectors with solder, but it looks like that might be my best bet here. The problem is how to get an even plating with a soldering iron. Usually, people tin the fingers on Pac boards and that just wrecks the hell out of the edge connector on the wiring harness.
I'm thinking that I might be able to tin them with solder, then wipe off the excess with a wet sponge, then try sanding it smooth... but I'm not so sure I want to go down that route. If it's not perfect, then it'll damage any new connectors I install in the wiring harness.
Any suggestions?
-Ian
Now, there's the ugly, expensive, but functional/reliable repair to simply solder a female connector onto the edge pads, and then use a fingerboard as the new edge. I've done this on really burned up boards, but this one is still structurally sound, and the substrate is all still there.
Or, there's the copper tape method, but that's going to be even more time consuming, and I would have to do pretty much every pin.
I usually would never try to tin the connectors with solder, but it looks like that might be my best bet here. The problem is how to get an even plating with a soldering iron. Usually, people tin the fingers on Pac boards and that just wrecks the hell out of the edge connector on the wiring harness.
I'm thinking that I might be able to tin them with solder, then wipe off the excess with a wet sponge, then try sanding it smooth... but I'm not so sure I want to go down that route. If it's not perfect, then it'll damage any new connectors I install in the wiring harness.
Any suggestions?
-Ian

