Should I avoid a Konami X-Men PCB like the plague?

[iggins]

A few of my traces are exposed would it be OK to seal it up with hot glue?

That would be fine. I didn't check if the exposed traces were covered with soldermask. If they are, then you don't need the hot glue. (Soldermask/hot glue/conformal coating is used to protect the traces from oxidation.)

On a side note, I just tested my board and the sounds are back and work great!

Rob

 

[PrairieDillo]

I stopped by the electronics surplus warehouse and found the exact style of surface mount caps originally used and here's my attempt at a fix.
I'm thinking that these would be good to use for fully working existing boards w/ no damage to them. Long leads may be easier to solder to create fixes to broken traces.

After taking off the old caps using two soldering irons.

re-populated with new caps.

Success!!!!

 

[SuperGunGuru]

I stopped by the electronics surplus warehouse and found the exact style of surface mount caps originally used and here's my attempt at a fix.
I'm thinking that these would be good to use for fully working existing boards w/ no damage to them. Long leads may be easier to solder to create fixes to broken traces.

After taking off the old caps using two soldering irons.

re-populated with new caps.

Success!!!!

Damn! Nice job! I bought surface mount caps initially, but gave up trying to work with them. Did you use any special equipment for soldering the new caps on? I couldn't get them to stay in place let alone get solder to take on those tiny ass leads.

 

[PrairieDillo]

Nothing special my friend. I think a wiser man than us said "flux is your friend."
With just a little flux the lingering solder on the hybrid flowed right to the bottom of the cap and it seated.When needed I touched the side of the cap again w/ just a little solder to be sure.

Checked the leads and the solders after w/ my meter before firing up.

If anyone wants a cap kit for the hybrid let me know. I will probably go back today and pull enough kits for 4 more Xmen hybrids.

 

[nesjess]

Man, that's awesome. If you had a way to coat those caps, they'd look factory! Save one of those kits for me, my friend.

 

[PrairieDillo]

Save one of those kits for me, my friend.

No worries, you know how I roll... I take cash! LOL

 

[SuperGunGuru]

Nothing special my friend. I think a wiser man than us said "flux is your friend."
With just a little flux the lingering solder on the hybrid flowed right to the bottom of the cap and it seated.When needed I touched the side of the cap again w/ just a little solder to be sure.

Checked the leads and the solders after w/ my meter before firing up.

If anyone wants a cap kit for the hybrid let me know. I will probably go back today and pull enough kits for 4 more Xmen hybrids.

Now that I think of it, I did get 3 of the surface mount style caps to go on before I gave up and switched to radial lol. I wasn't using flux at the time. Since I still have a bunch of the surface mount style still left, I may have to take another shot at working with them. I still need to do my original 4 player board and the other 6 player board I have. I've been fortunate enough that the other two 6 player boards were successfully revived so I have a back up in place all ready to go. I think that's why I haven't touched the other 2 since then....that or just laziness.

You mentioned using 2 irons to remove the caps. Can you elaborate a bit more? Do you mean you used 2 separate style irons or you literally used 2 at the same time?

*edit* Nevermind I read your earlier post where you did mention using 2 irons at the same time to remove the caps. Did the caps pretty much come right off without any extra force? I tried to remove them but couldn't really get very far with them using 1 iron and some solder wick. I may have spend a bit more time trying to de-solder them instead of forcefully removing them.

 

[PrairieDillo]

Yes I hit both sides of the cap with the two irons at the same time.
I put flux around the solder joints and it basically started a boil with the solder and leaking stuff from the caps.

Even if it looks like it's not leaking, it probably is for these xmen boards.

I did try just pulling one cap off and ended ripping the solder pad. I was very fortunate that I didn't break the trace to the point I needed to run a jumper wire.

I RECOMMEND DE-SOLDERING ALL OF THE OLD CAPS.