My New Toy

cjcliffe

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Joined
Nov 12, 2011
Posts
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Country
Canada
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Kingston, Ontario
Stopped by to see a friend who needed some computer help and got to talking about some of the recent repair work I'd been doing; he graciously offered some old kit collecting dust that he'd purchased not long before his shop closed in the 90's which I couldn't turn down; a PACE PRC 2000 :LOL:

Overview and tools:
IMG_1582.jpg

Close-up:
IMG_1592.jpg

We're going to go through some boxes in storage to see if we can find any remaining tools and tips sometime soon as well.

From what I've gathered briefly online it's a very nice station, so I've got many many hours of research and inspection before I switch it on (y)
 
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Nice! Nice NICE NICE!

You have my envy sir! however not for the influx of requests for retro-repair help your about to get =)


I think you will enjoy this linkie ;)



Now... get fix'in!
 
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Wow, that's a real beauty. I love Pace solder/de-soldering equipment and have a few older set-ups myself but not anything as lovely this :)
I hope you enjoy using this and remember to look on Ebay for tips and tweezers etc to go with it.
 
Nice! Nice NICE NICE!

You have my envy sir! however not for the influx of requests for retro-repair help your about to get =)

I think you will enjoy this linkie ;)

Now... get fix'in!

Thanks -- I've just been watching through the videos at lunchtime here; looks like I have a lot of interesting attachments and tips to hunt down :LOL: Hopefully we'll dig up at least a few more parts once we check storage as I only picked up the parts that were sitting out in the open so far.

Can't do much about requests for now; so much to learn and practice before I'd confidently use it to repair someone else's gear (y)
 
Wow, that's a real beauty. I love Pace solder/de-soldering equipment and have a few older set-ups myself but not anything as lovely this :)
I hope you enjoy using this and remember to look on Ebay for tips and tweezers etc to go with it.

Been looking around online and everything I can find agrees this is top notch kit; I'm really excited to have a proper setup. Also really hoping the Hot Air tool and Tweezers are still somewhere in storage -- he called me today to see how I made out and he seems confident there's more parts around there for it.

I've taken a look at what's on eBay but it all seems a bit pricey ($200-300 CAD starting price for each tool) so I'm definitely going to do some serious digging through boxes before I throw down any bids :LOL:
 
An Update..

An Update..

I visited my friend today to drop of the laptop I recovered for him and we rummaged about in storage for about an hour before finally finding a box of parts under some things ~2 feet from the PRC's original spot :LOL:

Here's the result, an overview:
01_IMG_1596.jpg

The SensaTemp tools (ThermoJet, ThermoPik, ThermoTweez):
02_IMG_1617.jpg

The LapFlo! :D and tips:
03_IMG_1609.jpg

The Pik-Vac and tips:
04_IMG_1610.jpg

Unfortunately didn't manage to find any other tips yet; it's possible they're still there but will have to wait for another day to take a look. I was already extremely happy with the kit before; so you can imagine I'm a bit overwhelmed now :LOL:

- - - Updated - - -

Some bonus pictures, the Paste Dispenser:
05_IMG_1611.jpg

The spray tool:
06_IMG_1620.jpg

And apparently, the ThermoTweez and ThermoPik still need to be burned in :)

07_IMG_1622.jpg08_IMG_1625.jpg

And I think on that note; I might splurge on a decent fume extractor before I go much further (y)
 
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That's getting better by the day, all you need is a Thermopik and you have the full package by the look of things. Do you also have the cable for the LapFlo etc as I can't see it in the pictures?
 
That's getting better by the day, all you need is a Thermopik and you have the full package by the look of things.

Updated the photo captions; ThermoPik is there just no tip on it :)

Do you also have the cable for the LapFlo etc as I can't see it in the pictures?

Yup; it's coiled and propping up the PikVac & vacuum; you can see the terminal blades underneath.
 
A new addition

A new addition

Went back to visit today and we rummaged about for the tips and brushes but didn't find much. He's going to look in some other places when he has some time.

He's very happy that I'm going to be able to make proper use out of his old gear and he'd also prepared some more hardware that he thought I could use; an EMP-10 Device Programmer -- with bonus 512k EEPROM in the ZIF socket! (spec says ~1M write cycles):

IMG_1635.jpg

Pulled an old P3 Laptop out of the drawer and installed the latest FreeDOS and the EMP-10 program disk and had it up and running right away:

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Looks like I'm missing a few of the modules but I think we just overlooked them; will likely pick it up next time I visit but luckily the one installed appears to be what I'd need for Amiga ROM programming.
 
No luck finding a setting that appears compatible with my original Amiga ROMs but the generic settings work perfectly with the C128 and C64C ROMs at least:

IMG_1637.jpg

Update: He found the other modules so I can do the full range of chips now; but still unsure if any it can write are compatible with Amiga.
 
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Trying out the SX-70 Sodr-X-Tractor

Trying out the SX-70 Sodr-X-Tractor

Got started on my first repair project to use the PRC and SX-70 with excellent results;

My Mother's old Panasonic Stereo lost a channel sometime last year and the other channel is now crackling and fades away after a minute or two; it's been a favourite that keeps the cats company while she's out so I thought it might be nice to re-cap it to try and bring it back to life.

Picture of most of the caps of the main board:
IMG_1689.jpg

All removed within an hour; probably only about 10 - 15 seconds per capacitor; most of the time was actually writing down and double checking the silkscreen identity and capacitor values.
IMG_1695.jpg

Close-up of the results; none have vented but many of the low value caps are bulging slightly in their mid-sections or between the leads:
IMG_1697.jpg

The Sodr-X-Tractor made quick work of the joints (even un-clinching as I went was a breeze) and left everything nice and clean:
IMG_1702.jpg

Now all that's left to do is verify all the values, order a set of replacements and install (y)



Update:

Cataloged everything and looked up the replacements, final results:

2 x 0.22uF, 50V
3 x 0.33uF, 50V
4 x 0.47uF, 50V
15 x 1uF, 50V
5 x 4.7uF, 25V
7 x 10uF, 16V
1 x 22uF, 10V
5 x 47uF, 16V
1 x 100uF, 6.3V
2 x 100uF, 10V
2 x 100uF, 16V
1 x 100uF, 25V
1 x 220uF, 10V
2 x 220uF, 16V
4 x 470uF, 10V
1 x 2200uF, 25V


56 Caps Total, ~$26
 
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Amazing soldering station! im looking for a Jbc AR6800 too :)

Thanks! Loving all the old 1980's PACE training videos available on YouTube for this kit; watched most of them at least three times now :LOL:

I've tried googling the JBC AR6800 but couldn't get any decent results; got a picture or link?
 
That's good practice starting on a single sided board to learn how to remove parts (a lot better than using a soldering iron and suction pump). You will find that areas that have a large amount covered in copper like ground planes take a lot longer to heat up as the heat gets transferred into the ground plane quite quickly so it takes longer to melt the solder on the leg of the component you are trying to remove, I sometimes increase the temperature of the desoldering iron to compensate for areas like that but leaving the tip in place for too long can cause the track to lift off the circuit board especially when you start on double sided PCB's where ground planes are real heat dissipaters.

If you can, try removing radial capacitors from scrap computer motherboards to see what I mean. You have the right equipment and from the above post you seem to be more than willing and capable of using it well, chances are the two tools that you will mainly use will be the soldering iron and the desoldering iron but the rest is fantastic and well worth experimenting with :)

P.S. sometimes you may also need to use the soldering iron as well as the desoldering iron on large ground planes to compensate for the heat getting drawn away before the solder gets a chance to melt, it doesn't happen too often but when it does you have the option to use the iron as well if necessary.
 
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That's good practice starting on a single sided board to learn how to remove parts (a lot better than using a soldering iron and suction pump).

Agreed about starting on single-sided; don't have to worry about getting solder melt through to the other side of the board or worry about damaging VIAs.

You will find that areas that have a large amount covered in copper like ground planes take a lot longer to heat up as the heat gets transferred into the ground plane quite quickly so it takes longer to melt the solder on the leg of the component you are trying to remove, I sometimes increase the temperature of the desoldering iron to compensate for areas like that but leaving the tip in place for too long can cause the track to lift off the circuit board especially when you start on double sided PCB's where ground planes are real heat dissipaters.

Aye, I've been watching the 1980's PACE training videos (YouTube) on how to provide secondary heating on multi-layer boards with the iron, or with the resistive tweezers (for things like I/O connector port pins). They've provided several excellent video tutorials on this subject using various combinations of the tools in many scenarios.

I did hit a few joints that were in the middle of a large ground plane; though I noticed on the display the tip temperature dropped and then the PRC immediately over-drove the temperature then stabilized around the time melt started -- took an extra 3-4 seconds for those on average for this board but I'd imagine double-sided will be more of a challenge.

If you can, try removing radial capacitors from scrap computer motherboards to see what I mean. You have the right equipment and from the above post you seem to be more than willing and capable of using it well, chances are the two tools that you will mainly use will be the soldering iron and the desoldering iron but the rest is fantastic and well worth experimenting with :)

Thanks, will do! I have a pile of scrap and minor-repair needed PC boards here from 1980-2010 which I'll evaluate; might be able to get a nice stock supply of sockets and other components by just practicing removal.
 
Trying out the ThermoJet

Trying out the ThermoJet

Got itching to try the ThermoJet, so I found a nice dead drive controller to do some experiments on -- I thought I'd try removing the SMD components from it:

IMG_1813.jpg

Was a bit of a challenge at first until I got the air pressure and temperature balanced -- then I practiced several different angles and patterns of moving the air until I found I could get in the groove of preheating, hitting it with just enough air, then tweezing at the right time.

Using the Snap-Vac pressure /w the ThermoJet is great; I can keep the tool in place and it only delivers the air when I press the button on the hand-piece (or optionally the pedal).

Next I'll have to pick up some solder paste for the dispenser and after some practice I'm going to re-do the capacitors on my A4000's '040 and '030 CPU cards, since the replacements for the temporary TH caps currently on the SMT pads have arrived :roll:
 
Re-Re-Capping the A4000 '030 card

Re-Re-Capping the A4000 '030 card

A while back I'd whacked some through-hole caps on the SMT pads of my A3640 and original '030 card for testing -- last week the SMD replacements arrived so it was time to swap them out.

The '030 card isn't in use at the moment so I decided to start there and get those precarious caps off the board before they lift a trace..

12-030_Card_XCU1.jpg

Bit of pre-heating with the ThermoJet and then I was easily able to remove the TH caps with a few seconds of hot air pointed underneath at the exposed leads -- Flo-D-Sodr extractor tips haven't arrived yet that are safe for cleaning the SMT pads, but a bit of flux and wick took care of it:

IMG_1816.jpg

I was also able to use the PRC's paste dispenser kit, which was a perfect match for my favourite brand of flux -- and with the pedal hooked up I can just grab the flux at any time, tap the pedal and get it right where I want it -- no more flux plunger cramps! :p

IMG_1823.jpg

I'd also considered using solder paste but my local shop was out of stock, and it isn't really necessary for these capacitors. So instead I tinned and fluxed the pads, placed the caps with the Pik-Vac directly from packaging (so that my hands never touch the leads) and tapped either side with the high-capacity iron (max 2-3 seconds) and they dropped into place.

Some close-ups of the results:

IMG_1832.jpg IMG_1830.jpg IMG_1825.jpg IMG_1839.jpg

Next up will be to do the same for the A3640 (y)
 
Nice find at the thrift shop today

Nice find at the thrift shop today

I've been looking to pick up a better probe for my USB oscilloscope, and happened upon one today in a bag of parts they'd bundled at the local thrift shop for a few dollars:

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Repair gods must be looking out for me lately; I rarely find any components and tools like these at that shop -- and I stop there nearly every day on the way home :LOL:

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The rest will come in handy as well -- those stackable grabber plugs will work great for my multi-meter and the Microchine probe brake -- since it can halt drilling at trace continuity for multi-layer board or chip lead repairs.
 
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