Project: PrometheusCu

ya i am interested in a solution, so plz post when you get a result plz!

i had a similar problem with a friends XPS laptop, the power connector was faulty, so i wanted to desolder it.... i couldnt get ANY of the soder off period. would be nice to know how for future references.....

I know they make soldering irons for surface mount components that just use concentrated hot air. That might be what you're lookin' for.

maybe something like this ...
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/pro...products_id=76

Originally Posted by Langer

I seem to recall a buddy of mine having a full blown turbine desoldering station.

I tried..

2 kinds of flux:
-acid flux
-acid free flux

6 different kinds of solder:
-lead
-silver
-tin
-rosnin core
-flux core
-chip quick.

5 soldering irons:
40Watt Weller pencil iron (SP40LK)
50Watt Weller temp controlled station (WES51)
260Watt Weller gun (D550)
40Watt Weller SMT station (WD2000M)
20Watt radioshack cheapo

1 clothes iron

----

My 260Watt soldering gun got up to ~910deg F and that didn't cut it.
Solder normally melts between 400deg F and 800deg F.
The butane soldering torch iron got red hot... 2200deg F

Failing all else the Dremel spins diamonds at 30,000RPM <--- I try this tomorrow

Then if all else fails - new mobo, leave the plugs in place, just solder the wires to the bottom of the board.

The problem is 3 fold.

1. The board has 7+ layers, the solder has stuck to each of them - and it's very hard to reheat all the layers evenly to get the pins out
2. Because of the size of the board and ASUS's "Stack Cool" technology (an extra layer in the board made from a sheet of copper to help dissipate heat) the board just dissipates the heat across it's surface.
3. Due to new RoHS compliance the board is made from Lead-Free solder which melts at ~1000deg F when applied with the wave soldering method (normal solder melts between 400deg F and 800deg F)



My solution:
I'm just going to get a new board and leave the plugs in place. If I had of left the plugs in place from the get-to I wouldn't have had any problems at all. Serves me right... but to be honest I never would have foreseen such problems.

I went to Lee Valley Tools today.
Among other things I got this.

A 10LB BOX OF SAND PAPER FOR $15.00CAD!



Everything from 20gritt to 2000gritt.
Quite the amazing deal.

The soldering torch set I got today is much like this one.

Ahh Lee Valley, awesome store with awesome prices. I get my 1 1/2" belts from there. They seem to be one of the very few places that carry 1200 grit, leather and blue zirconia belts.

Damn, 20grit?
That's like gravel and glue on some paper, I have 60 grit on a Delta belt/disc sander and it'll grind 2x4" when I get bored.

That's a damn good deal though.

Amazing mod, sucks about your mobo though.

I am curious -- what do you plan to do with the 'failed' board? Is it still functional?

Originally Posted by Langer

... Perhaps something with 50 spinning blades that cuts all the grooves at once?

It's probably a few jewelers saw blades in a horizontal mill...

You can see the 20grit stuff bottom-right (its a redish colour)

The board still works the only reason I'm going to replace it is because the ATX connector is all chewed up and I can't remove it.

I attacked the plug with a pair of needle nose pliers in an attempt to pull the pins while heating from the back... no dice.

Lookey what came in the mail today:




The rest of my 64GB G.Skill SSDs

What is the usb port for?

They can be used as external USB drives as well as beastly SATA2 monsters.

beastly indeed...wish I could afford 6 of those for my system. It's ridiculous that we have had this technology for so long and yet it is just becoming "affordable" for desktop pcs. Maybe in a year it'll be a different story. I certainly hope my next build will feature SSDs.

Were I buying a SSD I'd get a Samsung... just cause all the others are... well, ugly. Call me shallow, but when I spend $600+ on something I expect it to look slick.

Considering I got all for drives for about $800... I'll stick with G.Skill thanks.... I'm going to mod them anyway.



Another delivery.

Switches:

Those things are pretty smooth. Looking forward to it.

cant wait to see what you have in plan for those G.Skill drives :P

wow those are nice looking switch
but what are they for?
i just wish i have one of those SSD

i love bulgin vandal switches..... so cool. the best 25$ ive ever spent on a case mod IMO
over priced as hell, but worth it! did you get them for cheap somewhere? id buy a few more for later mods.

what color is the big one?