STE V1.5 32MHz BOOSTER - STATUS

[PhilC]

Maybe its the lead free solder and modern flux? Mine used to never wear out either. I've even got some old Antex yellow irons from years ago, still useable if ever needed.

[exxos]

Maybe its the lead free solder and modern flux? Mine used to never wear out either. I've even got some old Antex yellow irons from years ago, still useable if ever needed.

I don't use lead free..

[sandord]

Maybe its the lead free solder and modern flux? Mine used to never wear out either. I've even got some old Antex yellow irons from years ago, still useable if ever needed.

I don't use lead free..

There's a thin layer of silver on the tip (perhaps really cheap ones use something else) and if it burns off, you're done.

[exxos]

There's a thin layer of silver on the tip (perhaps really cheap ones use something else) and if it burns off, you're done.

I think I read Weller tips have something "stronger" than most...

Changed the tip..

Look at the old one! its gone right deformed!!

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[exxos]

So another pass and another fail on the red boards.. Out of red boards now! Considering there was 14 originally I have only four at the moment which can go into stock.. Basically no more boards after these for a while..

Trying to quickly build up one of these tweaked boards tonight...

Of course I need to build up all 10 of these to see if they are more reliable for assembly than the red PCBs.

Part of the assembly problem is the copper flood fill on the header pins, its taking a lot of heat to solder and the solder is not sticking to the pads to some reason. I think the assembly place must have cleaned these boards with something which has caused some slight corrosion preventing the solder from re-flowing properly..

Annoyingly this means I will have to assemble all these things myself, which I really do not want to do... But if these new boards assemble better, then I may do a small batch of probably 10 and that will be it for a while. The only other option is to supply these as kits, but knowing how to the nightmare these are two get working, I really don't think that is a good idea, but considering the disaster the previous boosters were with people trying to assemble them themselves. This one is even harder!

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EDIT:

Out of the oven...

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[PhilC]

Looking good. Hope you're luckier with these boards

[exxos]

[exxos]

So built it up.. didn't work.. was about to throw it out of the window, then saw a tiny short between the CPU pins, gnats knacker sized.. removed it, and now its running away!

One thing I have noticed (oddly) is these boosters seem to be running fine with 10K on my motherboard alone.. so possible I may not fit the SIL's on later boards... Need to do more testing first though..

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EDIT:

Trying 40MHz on this board.. I forgot to mention I got a new batch of CPU's. This one "so far" is running at 40MHz with waitstates on ROM. I have heated it up to "ow ya'feker hot" and its still going... CPU's crashed easily with a little heat on previous tests.. so MIGHT be possible some of these CPU's will run at 40MHz... time will tell...

EDIT2:

Spoke to soon it seems

[PhilC]

How far did this one get? any more reliable than the red ones?

[exxos]

How far did this one get? any more reliable than the red ones?

Been out all day.. only just got home. I had to turn it off last night but seems fine at 36MHz. 40MHz was still a no go with these CPUs.