exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

This is a long post so I'll link to my blog: http://www.atariancomputing.com/blog/at ... onpictures

Atarian Computing wrote: 04 Jul 2018 11:04 This is a long post so I'll link to my blog: http://www.atariancomputing.com/blog/at ... onpictures

Great job! Well executed!

dhedberg wrote: 04 Jul 2018 13:36 Great job! Well executed!

Thank you! Appreciate it.

:bravo: :coolpics:

Amazing work!

Nice restoration, but IMHO cables for RAM mod should be of equal length and best point to connect them is in the middle of RAM chips (between U30 and U32). I also find recapping working units pointless. All caps I ever removed from working STs were in perfect shape (in terms of capacitance, ESR, and leakage).

tzok wrote: 13 Jul 2018 12:27 Nice restoration, but IMHO cables for RAM mod should be of equal length and best point to connect them is in the middle of RAM chips (between U30 and U32). I also find recapping working units pointless. All caps I ever removed from working STs were in perfect shape (in terms of capacitance, ESR, and leakage).

Thanks. Your points are noted. I followed Atari's own upgrade procedure and lengths are not critical in this application.

Re-capping seems to be the most contested subject in retro-computing. Restoration is just that, to try to bring back the unit to its original, new condition. This means repealing and replacing lytics whether or not they are fully functional. I just cannot, as a registered business, leave 30+ year-old caps on a unit and call it restored. Also, if the outcome is brand new, best quality capacitors, what's the harm? I like soldering. Finally, this was a "restored to order" project and the client requested a re-cap.

Atarian Computing wrote: 13 Jul 2018 18:49 I just cannot, as a registered business, leave 30+ year-old caps on a unit and call it restored.

:bravo:

Its like driving a car for 30 years without ever changing the engine oil. Sure it may still go, blowing out smoke like mad, reducing the life of the engine, but who cares as long as its still moving right ?
:sarcasm:

exxos wrote: 13 Jul 2018 21:52

Atarian Computing wrote: 13 Jul 2018 18:49 I just cannot, as a registered business, leave 30+ year-old caps on a unit and call it restored.

:bravo:

Its like driving a car for 30 years without ever changing the engine oil. Sure it may still go, blowing out smoke like mad, reducing the life of the engine, but who cares as long as its still moving right ?
:sarcasm:

Yeah, well put. And I love car analogies.

I'd rather compare it to replacing old but still working bulbs with a modern ones. My opinion is to not replace anything that still works good. Caps in ST are not known to cause problems or being excessively faulty. There were a series of faulty caps in other home computers from '80s and '90s, but not in ST. I've recently noticed, that everyone is recapping a vintage computers. They seem to see a remedy for all faults in it.