Info-Atari8@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU (Info-Atari8 Digest) (12/06/86)
Info-Atari8 Digest Friday, December 5, 1986 Volume 86 : Issue 11
This weeks Editor: Bill Westfield
Today's Topics:
Testing...
Re: Testing...
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 3 Dec 86 19:36:39 GMT
From: imagen!atari!neil@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Neil Harris)
Subject: Testing...
To: info-atari8@score.stanford.edu
Just testing to see if anyone is alive in this topic. I have not seen any
postings since it was begun.
--
--->Neil @ Atari
...{hoptoad, lll-lcc, pyramid, imagen, sun}!atari!neil
BIX: neilharris CIS: 70007,1135 Delphi: NEILHARRIS
GENIE: nharris WELL: neil Atari Corp. BBS 408-745-5308
US Mail: Atari Corp.
1196 Borregas Ave.
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
"Loose chips sink ships."
------------------------------
Date: 5 Dec 86 04:56:44 GMT
From: appelbau@topaz.rutgers.edu (Marc L. Appelbaum)
Subject: Re: Testing...
To: info-atari8@score.stanford.edu
In article <475@atari.UUcp>, neil@atari.UUcp (Neil Harris) writes:
> Just testing to see if anyone is alive in this topic. I have not seen any
> postings since it was begun.
> --
> --->Neil @ Atari
Oh Neil, where out here! What's going on with the new 1200 buad
modem? Also I heard a rumor that you could upgrade the 1030 modem to
1200 baud. Any comments.
Marc--
|============================================================================|
|Marc L. Appelbaum "Insanity is just a state of mind"|
|Arpa: marc@aim.rutgers.edu Uucp:rutgers!ru-blue!appelbaum|
------------------------------
End of Info-Atari8 Digest
**************************
-------ADELEON@HMCVAX.BITNET ("Arnold de Leon") (12/06/86)
Yeah, there are users out here. Neil, what's happening with the XEP-80?
Same with 1200 baud modem.
Also anyone out there using 256K 800XLs? Like with extram mem is great.
We are currently attempting to modify a unsocketed machine. So far it's
been a big pain. Anyone who has experience with it, comment please.
Arnold
ADELEON@HMCVAXjhs@MITRE-BEDFORD.ARPA (12/12/86)
The following question was included in a recent Atari8 Digest: >"Also anyone out there using 256K 800XLs? Like with extram mem is great. >We are currently attempting to modify a unsocketed machine. So far it's >been a big pain. Anyone who has experience with it, comment please." > "Arnold > ADELEON@HMCVAX" I thought that the following reply might be of general interest to the Net, especially the fairly detailed instructions on removing IC chips. -John S. ============ I have been using a Newell 256KXL board with CDY's OMNIVIEW256 for many months now and it is hard to imagine how people get along without big buffers and RAMdisks. It is especially nice to have the convenience of a RAMdisk that is resident in the machine itself (in OMNIVIEW256) because it works with absolutely any DOS just as though you really had another disk drive. (But of course a zillion times faster than a real disk drive.) The built-in 80-column capabilities you get with OMNIVIEW and CDY's nice application software like OmniCom and OmniWriter (80-column Terminal Emulator and Word Processor, respectively) don't hurt a bit, either. Also it's a pleasure to never need the "Translator Disk" again! As for unsocketed machines, yes, it is a pain to have to remove the memory chips, but it can be done safely and easily IF YOU TAKE THE TIME TO LEARN HOW AND GET THE RIGHT EQUIPMENT FIRST. I recommend that you get the following things before attempting the job: 1. A good low-wattage soldering iron like an Ungar with about a 30 to 40-watt, small sized tip. 2. A "Solder Sucker" or "Soldapullt" vacuum-generating device to remove excess solder. 3. A roll of "Solder-Wick" to soak up the last little bit of solder. 4. A roll of Ersin Multicore 60/40 solder or other high-quality solder (but if it's not Ersin or maybe Kester, you are on your own, Buster). The thing to remember is that the BIGGEST DANGER is that you will overheat the etched wiring and cause its adhesive to fail so that it comes loose from the board. If that happens you will either have a badly botched-up board or else you will have a brand-new board, at YOUR EXPENSE. So above all, KEEP IT COOL!!! Use the least amount of heat you can get away with. This means using every other trick in the book to make the job go smoothly with little applied heat. If you don't need the chips (e.g. 64K RAM chips) then they are a throwaway item and the SAFEST thing you can do is to snip off all their pins at the top with a pair of "dikes" (diagonal side-cutting pliers). Then take a pair of needle-nosed pliers and gently pull out the snipped-off pins from the top while heating the individual pads from the foil side (the etched wiring side) of the board. With this method you need very little heat at all, because as soon as the solder on the individual pad you are working on melts, the pin pulls out easily and you can (and should) immediately remove the heat. You will still need the solder sucker or AT LEAST the Solder Wick to remove the residual solder so you can put in the new chips or sockets for them, so read REMOVING SOLDER below. When you have gotten better at unsoldering ICs (and if you are a cheapskate like me who can't bear to throw away 64K RAM chips), then it is perfectly possible to remove the whole chip at a time. But first, you need to remove as much of the solder holding it in place as you can. REMOVING SOLDER. First, go around the chip with your solder-sucker and soldering iron. For each pad: heat the pad carefully and (I recommend this) ADD some small amount of solder to make sure the solder is well supplied with flux and able to flow freely. AS SOON AS you have done this, ZAP the hole in the pad with your solder-sucker. (To the novices, the SoldaPullt type of gadget is a spring-loaded piston device that pops out when released and draws in a stream of air -- and solder -- at high velocity. It is VERY effective at removing solder if you have the solder heated and supplied with flux from the new solder and you release the spring at this critical moment with its intake tip right on top of the pad you are heating. It's a little tricky but not too hard to learn how to do.) IMMEDIATELY remove the heat and inspect the hole. If you did everything right, the IC pin will be nearly free of solder and at most sticking to the hole at one point. Now you can usually free it by wiggling it or at worst do one more heating step with the Solder Wick to absorb the last vestiges of solder, then wiggle the pin loose. Go around each chip like this until all pins on the chip are as free of solder as you can easily get them and all or most of them are also unstuck. If there are one or two holdouts, you can either repeat the process with the Solder Wick or else heat the troublesome pins once more as you pry the IC out of the board with a small screwdriver placed under one end of it and then the other. You should have the IC out of the board and both board and IC undamaged, in a minute or so per IC when you get good at this procedure. All it takes is having the right equipment and being careful to do ALMOST ANYTHING other than using excessive heat. Once you have removed the chips, I would recommend installing sockets before putting in the new chips. Then you'll never again have to run the risk of damaging the board by unsoldering a chip in the future. Again, be careful of heat when installing either chips or sockets. Use ENOUGH but NOT TOO MUCH solder. NOTE: A good way to remove excess solder when installing chips is to heat the pads from underneath and let the excess roll down the tip of the soldering iron. Surface tension takes care of retaining just about the right amount. If you are unusually thumb-fingered or have maniacal self-destructive tendencies, you had best let someone else remove your IC chips, but otherwise, if you follow the above instructions you will probably do just fine. Just "KEEP IT COOL!" -John Sangster jhs@MITRE_bedford.arpa