Tajmaster's A1000 work

Hi guys :)

Here goes another thread with me working on a machine belonging to the Tajmaster, but this time it's an Amiga I've never encountered before - an Amiga 1000! :)

I'll be replacing all the ports on the motherboard as they've rusted, replacing the capacitors on the motherboard, replacing the capacitors in the A1000's power supply, and hopefully get the floppy drive working, as it currently won't read anything.

Taj's parcel arrived today, but despite being packed very well, the brittle plastic of the A1000's case had shattered! :( Also a couple of the ports had been bent in the impact:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-e...0/IMAG0033.jpghttps://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-O...0/IMAG0034.jpghttps://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-S...0/IMAG0035.jpg
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-j...0/IMAG0036.jpghttps://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-3...0/IMAG0037.jpg

Bloody Yodel! I saw a bunch of parcels literally fall out of the dude's van when he arrived, he was throwing things out of the way to try and find the box with the Amiga inside.

Poor A1000... :(

Despite being hit with bad news, Taj has asked me to continue working on it. We reckon the machine may have had minor damage before being sent and being couriered was enough to shatter its rear panel, though that doesn't explain the port bending. I couldn't see any damage to the outside of the box it came in, so it's very strange.

Ah well - let's continue :)
My gawd, look at the bloody rust! :(
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-t...0/IMAG0041.jpghttps://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-a...0/IMAG0042.jpg

This poor machine must've been abandoned in someone's damp garden shed for 25 years. There's evidence of even more rust on the motherboard shield liner:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-v...0/IMAG0040.jpg

Ready for action! It just so happens that I have a new toy. Can you spot it?
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-_...0/IMAG0045.jpg

Yes, it's the Aoyue 474 vacuum desoldering station! :lol:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-6...0/IMAG0046.jpg

Having learned the hard way from the time I replaced Taj's A4000 SIMM sockets, I decided to get the right tool for the job. Instead of wicking each pin and slowly clearing the PCB holes by hand, this tool has a vacuum pump which sucks the solder away from the joint you're heating. As you'll see, it's very effective.

Here we have some new sockets for the A1000 that I've taken from a dead A600 motherboard. They've only had very light use and they look quite new with no corrosion :)
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-I...0/IMAG0044.jpg

Let's remove the first socket. Once flux is applied to the pins, I take the vacuum desoldering tool and start warming a pin with the tip touching it at about a 45 degree angle so I can see the joint. When it melts, I move the gun perpendicular to the board so it covers the pin, pull the trigger to turn on the vacuum, and move the gun in a circular motion to suck out the solder from all around the pin. About 15 minutes later, we have this:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-T...0/IMAG0047.jpg

I then touched each pin to ensure they were all free and not still welded, before gently pulling the socket away from the board:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-N...0/IMAG0048.jpg

The result - a clean board with no damage, ready to take a new socket :)
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-z...0/IMAG0049.jpg

Some time later, we have this:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-q...0/IMAG0053.jpg

But wait, what's this? The mouse and joystick ports are held tightly down with screws, which themselves are soldered to the board(!)
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-5...0/IMAG0050.jpg

Those are some meaty screws, and with that much heatsinking effect, my iron was struggling to melt the solder. So, I flipped on the SMD rework station and wound the heat up:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-s...0/IMAG0051.jpg

As you can see this melted the solder and allowed me to get a screwdriver on there whilst keeping the solder molten :) Then the vacuum took care of the pins, and once again, top result:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-B...0/IMAG0052.jpg

Now we just have a pile of scrap! :lol:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-2...0/IMAG0054.jpg

Next job is to solder in the new sockets from the A600 board, find a new RJ11 keyboard socket - possibly from an old router or modem I have lying around, and then do a cap-count around the motherboard and power supply so I can order up replacements :)

Stay tuned! :thumbsup:

Nice clean job there, I've been considering a vacuum pump myself for a while after seeing zetr0's. Unfortunately, his died not long after buying it which put me off slightly.
Have you had any trouble with yours? I only ask as it's my birthday in a couple of months and it's good to get the hints in early. :thumbsup:

I wonder if this motherboard is going in the NTSC unit I am sending him?:lol:
I envy and respect or work though, I don't have the skills yet required to to this level of work with my soldering iron.:thumbsup:

Thanks for the kind words guys :)

@r0jaws:
To be honest with you I actually just received the vacuum station today, haha :) So it's a bit early to tell of any problems. My SMD station has been great so far, had it almost a year, although it's a much simpler device.

I heard good things about the Aoyue stuff and their kit seems fairly popular, readily available spares, affordable, and pretty well made :) I'm loving the vacuum pump so far, it made short work of these sockets! :thumbsup:

@quarkx:
I wouldn't know :) But apart from the rusty sockets, this board is surprisingly clean overall with no damage to the electronics and seems to be fully working :D Perhaps it could be worthy of your nice case once I've finished tidying her up! :)

Hey Dale, how about using the correct Parallel & Serial connectors instead the wrong gender the original A1000 have, then?

Hah, wow, I never realised that :) Good shout! :thumbsup:

Any pinout differences or is it literally just the gender being opposite?

@d0pefish

Nice work buddy :thumbsup:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by r0jaws

Nice clean job there, I've been considering a vacuum pump myself for a while after seeing zetr0's. Unfortunately, his died not long after buying it which put me off slightly.
Have you had any trouble with yours? I only ask as it's my birthday in a couple of months and it's good to get the hints in early. :thumbsup:

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Its not dead..... just the fine nozzle is blocked... I need to get it fitted and the hot-air on it at the same time to free it up...

I have been using the medium and large nozzles for some time =)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by d0pefish

Hah, wow, I never realised that :) Good shout! :thumbsup:

Any pinout differences or is it literally just the gender being opposite?

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Just the gender on the parallel & serial ports, as far as I know.

No, parallel is different pinouts...
I have a link..

Found it:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=56445

I was going to use a gender bender and just flip the wires there. It's all open and ready for me to do that, but I haven't yet..

Serial is just a gender flip tho..

desiv
p.s. Is there any specific part to order for the RCA jacks or are they standard? My A1000 needs them replaced, and I've been to nervous to get to it yet.. ;-)

wouldnt the pins in the port still be in the same places and the pinouts being diferent only really relate to the cable used or what that pin is connected to on the board?