Extreme Arcade PCB Repair

[erek]

GiGaBiTe

 

[erek]

repairs:

 

[GiGaBiTe]

Amazed he got that board working again, but those jumper wires are atrocious.

 

[Mega6]

You kidding me? That's some damn good solder / jumper work. It's not supposed to be a fashion statement. Nice Work!

 

[auntjemima]

That's good soldering? Maybe it's the lighting, but the right side looks miserable.

 

[GiGaBiTe]

You kidding me? That's some damn good solder / jumper work. It's not supposed to be a fashion statement. Nice Work!

They're AWFUL joints.

The board around the solder joints is covered in burned flux, some of the joints look poorly formed (could be from trying to use ROHS solder on top of lead solder joints which is a big no-no.) And the jumper wires are a rats nest.

Just because a board needs bodge wires doesn't mean it has to look like garbage. Take pride in your work.

 

[Spartacus]

I used to do that type of work many years ago..... that repair is fine, especially if it's not paid commercial work.
Some of the jumpers are a little long, but as long as the solder connections are solid, it really makes no difference.

That said, there are times when you do want it to look much cleaner like the pics above.
If it's for a customer, very expensive equipment, etc.

Coincidentally, I used to do repairs on arcade machines too. I didn't always spend a lot of time making the repairs
look like factory changes. But it didn't matter as much if they were pretty, the repair just had to be reliable.

Totally different when I was doing revision changes on VERY expensive mainframe computer boards years later.
That work had to look good.

.

 

[N4CR]

I used to do that type of work many years ago..... that repair is fine, especially if it's not paid commercial work.
Some of the jumpers are a little long, but as long as the solder connections are solid, it really makes no difference.

That said, there are times when you do want it to look much cleaner like the pics above.
If it's for a customer, very expensive equipment, etc.

Coincidentally, I used to do repairs on arcade machines too. I didn't always spend a lot of time making the repairs
look like factory changes. But it didn't matter as much if they were pretty, the repair just had to be reliable.

Totally different when I was doing revision changes on VERY expensive mainframe computer boards years later.
That work had to look good.

.

I've seen production old mainframe gear from the 80s with bodge wires that wasn't too much better. Solder joins were but the wiring was similarly zero-fucks.