ACA1221LC repair

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Don't Panic. Please wash hands.

    Hi, I have, the remnants of a ACA1221LC that requires a replacement edge connector (at least).

    Story behind it is I initially damaged multiple pins fitting/forcing it to my non chamfered 1200.

    A mild fix so I thought and promptly sent it to a long established Amiga repair company to replace the connector.

    However, 3 months on they were unable to remove the connector. Deemed to be requiring excessive heat to extract and beyond what was deemed to be within safe limits.

    So, I now have 2 problems. Broken edge connector and possible heat damaged circuits.

    I accept it's not looking too good for it, but, could I send the card to you for an evaluation/repair ?

    Happy to pay whatever if any way economical to do so.


    thank you

    Quote from melonhead

    Deemed to be requiring excessive heat to extract and beyond what was deemed to be within safe limits.

    Sounds like that this "established company" never fixed anything before that was truly RoHS-compliant. No lead in the solder means that the melting point is considerably higher, and it's worse on multi-layer boards, as the inner layers draw away heat from the solder spots. With the right equipment, it's still tedious, but possible without damage.


    The pin that your photos show to have lost it's solder pad is #118, which is not used, so that's not a red flag. Further, today's ICs can take quite some abuse before they fail due to heat, so I also have hope for proper operation. What we can do prior to exchanging the connector is to scan the JTAG chain to see if the CPLDs respond and if the microcontroller is still alive. This will limit the time we're investing. In any case, you're not paying for an unsuccessful repair, so the biggest risk for you is that you're paying for shipping and we find out that we can't get it back to work.


    One thing that might have happened when the attempt wit hot air was made is that the circuit board de-laminated. Is doesn't look like it on the photos, but if you see any spot where it's bulging out, I wouldn't attempt a repair. The only bulging I can see is on the connector itself, which will be discarded anyway.


    The ACA1221lc is the latest incarnation of the ACA1221, and it's not only the fastest (0-waitstate memory access at 40MHz CPU clock!), but it also includes the IDE-speeder. It's definitely worth repairing, not only because I'm very vocal about my attempt to live and act sustainably.


    Please read this article about how to send back things for service.


    Jens

    The "not sure what this is" blob is most likely a drop of flux. You should be able to chip it off with your fingernails. It's obvious that the repair was interrupted, as such things are usually cleaned up afterwards.

  • The last reply was more than 365 days ago, this thread is most likely obsolete. It is recommended to create a new thread instead.

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