I very nearly lost my Hercules Trio 64 VLB card today. It was only with a steady hand and loads of patience I was able to fix it. I want to know what sort of caulk/gel would be safe to coat and cover those damn pins so this doesn't happen any more.
You have to explain that better. What pins need calk/gluing...
Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun
Something like this. I would like to encase the pins in epoxy or something. Vintage computer parts are fucking retarded in price now and I simply don't have the money to replace this thing. Picture is an example of the form factor that I grabbed from Wikipedia.
Hot glue would come with the advantage of being able to be removed if for some reason you'd need to work on the pins.
It's also cheap and easy to work with but it probably won't offer the same level of protection that some epoxy would.
I suspect you mean a mechanical protection so that it is not possible to bend the PINs or otherwise mechanically damage them?
There are certainly an extremely large number of adhesives or epoxy resins with which you can do this. But you have to be aware that all of these materials have different coefficients of expansion. In the case of high thermal loads, this can also have negative effects.
If you still want to do it, then I would recommend something like this to you. This is not so much for mechanical protection, but against corrosion or moisture:
https://www.eve.de/crc-kontakt-chemie-plastik … 3-74313-aa.html
(sorry, Website is in german, it's a kind of liquid "plastic", it can be applied in multiple layers over the whole PCB)
We used this to insulate normal circuit boards against condensation and it worked quite well, no returns.
This is just my personal opinion:
Please don't do that. You are blocking everything that could ever be done to save the hardware from other issues.
jm2c 😉
Put some kapton tape over the pins and the edge of the chip if you want it to be removable - obviously it will look ugly :p
Repair/electronic stuff videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/adalbertfix
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What is the problem you are looking to solve? Is it accidental damage whilst fitting or stop the cards from contacting each other during the time they are actually installed in the machine?
My collection database and technical wiki:
https://www.target-earth.net
Store in bubble bags and or boxes if you are talking damage in storage, if you are talking damage whilst being installed and/or removed then just be more careful!
Beyond that I can't see a reason to encase/underfill a chip, it just makes things harder to fix should it need it, and only really solves a problem in applications that undergo flex.
Put a nice heatsink on it with thermal tape. It will keep the chip cool and protect the pins as well.
Liquid Nails, you can get it from Home Depot. Cover the entire board. You'll then be able to run it over with a car and it won't get damaged.
You can try something like Dowsil 744 or similar. It's more or less permanet and might not look too pretty...
