VOGONS


Reply 20 of 29, by mcobit

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Pabloz wrote:
that is an incredible and usefull great copper wire where do you guys take that wire from? i have Kynar 30 awg which is used fo […]
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that is an incredible and usefull great copper wire
where do you guys take that wire from? i have Kynar 30 awg which is used for modchips but i think the wire is very thick
that copper wire looks way thin and more usefull for motherboard repairs.

where do you guys find that wire?

20180629_113422.jpg

This is enamelled copper wire. Bought a spool of it at the Conrad store.

Reply 22 of 29, by Pabloz

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mcobit wrote:

This is enamelled copper wire. Bought a spool of it at the Conrad store.

do you happen to know the diameter of it?

i know modchips wires are AWG 30, that is about 0.25mm thick

and to go lower maybe i should go to 0.20mm (awg32) , or 0.15mm (awg35) I think, as 0.10mm i think is too low (awg38).

Reply 24 of 29, by treeman

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feipoa wrote:

Killed the cache 'eh? Did you try the 'bad' cache in another board? Perhaps you inserted a module backwards during your panic? I've done that before, but I've adopted a habit then when working on boards, I leave my finger on the power button. If I don't hear a beep or see something on the screen within about 3 seconds, I shut it off without thinking twice.

The other thought about the cache is that I remember reading on some boards that they require cache that runs at 5 V, but is 3.3 V for I/O. I assume that 486 cache runs at 5 V and is 5 V I/O. Could the cache you are using be 5 V power and 3.3 V I/O?

I never took the cache chips or tag off since I bought the board sometime in mid 90s at a computer market so I definitely didn't break them by installing wrong

the only thing I can think of is this line from my original post

The new rtc did get warm/hot when trying to boot with no post, not sure if this is good at all, also got no post with rtc removed.

so something was shorted don't know how it would affect the cache which is on the other end of the board but yeah my only clue.

the cache I took off is from another lonestar 3v/5v 486 board 15ns as well so very good fit.

I have been running a few time demos quake, doom and some benchmarks so far so good so in that sense so so lucky only damaged cache in the process not some serious part like the chipset for example

On another note good discussion on the copper cable, I am also going to order some, the smaller the better, thanks guys

ps I also developed this habit, since im using a atx->at converter that is wired to autoboot on power my hand never leaves the power cable at the power point, as soon as something feels wrong I pull the plug

Reply 25 of 29, by Ozzuneoj

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Nice job getting it working, but this is a great time for you to buy a multimeter or anything with a continuity\diode test mode. Being able to actually test the traces to determine which ones were broken could have saved you a ton of headache... especially when you had a scratch across several of them. I'll be honest, I can't imagine even attempting a soldering job of this nature without the ability to test for continuity.

I could totally feel your pain in your first few posts though... when replacing a bad DRAM chip on my IBM 5150 a couple years back, I ripped some traces clean off of the motherboard. It was a really dumb mistake and was caused by inexperience and crappy tools. It was also the first 30+ year old board I'd ever worked on AFAIK. I had to run a couple of wires to fix those traces. Now, the system gets used frequently and has been rock solid since replacing that RAM chip two years ago. 😀

Now for some blitting from the back buffer.

Reply 26 of 29, by treeman

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thank you! yes this is a good idea, im going to now invest in 2 more items.
1. thin copper wire that was mentioned here
2. a good multimeter

Reply 27 of 29, by mcobit

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I cannot state enough how important it is to practice such repairs on some scrap board before attempting them on the real thing. You can easily mess up stuff with thin wires and a ton of solder.

Reply 28 of 29, by feipoa

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Unfortunately, Conrad doesn't ship to Canada/US anymore.

Is this the same stuff, 0.16 mm? https://www.amazon.ca/Remington-Industries-34 … awg+copper+wire

Another manufacturer makes 32 AWG (0.2 mm), which I think is the best size overall. Unfortunately, the red colour won't look very nice on your motherboards. https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B075VD69L5/r … B3D95X7K1&psc=1

Also, 30 AWG in red. https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0082CUQEI/r … B3D95X7K1&psc=1

I'd have bought the 32 AWG if it was copper coloured. Oh well. Wait for the next digikey order.

Plan your life wisely, you'll be dead before you know it.

Reply 29 of 29, by feipoa

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Ok, forget about digikey. They only want to sell you 3.5 KM worth of the 32 AWG stuff for $130. The colour is agreeable though.
https://www.digikey.ca/product-detail/en/cnc- … 1715-ND/4924061

Anyone have an online source for this stuff in smaller rolls? I was thinking like $10 worth.

Sparkfun has some 30 AWG. https://www.digikey.ca/product-detail/en/spar … 1088-ND/5230957

EDIT: OK, here's the stuff in 30 m lengths for cheap, $4/roll.

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/0-25-mm-30-AWG-Gauge- … il/183340477877
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/0-2-mm-32-AWG-Gauge-3 … il/183340439169
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/0-17-mm-34-AWG-Gauge- … il/183340470686

Plan your life wisely, you'll be dead before you know it.