Cleaning edge connectors

[pentium]

I'm in ownership os a Lisa 2 now and of course it had the battery spooge all over the board and backplane.
I have neutralized it and cleaned it as best I can but the edge connectors are still giving me trouble.
The gold fingers on the cards were easy enough to clean with an eraser but the actual sockets themselves are being a pain. how would I clean those?

The should eb nice and gold but they are instead blue, white, and grungy. It's causing all sorts of diagnostics faults and possibly causing my video not to work.

[kc8adu]

Re: Cleaning edge connectors

EWWWW!
those are beyond saving even with deoxit.
once the plating is gone like that its game over.

[ratdude747]

Re: Cleaning edge connectors

makes me grateful for my mac se with a loose hd cable.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Cleaning edge connectors

Looks like major corrosion! (Or algae or mold O_O)

[pentium]

Re: Cleaning edge connectors

from what I see, it's only the tops of the connectors that are realy bad. Further in the fact that somethign was plugged into them saved the contacts a bit.
I am optimistic I'll ever find replacements.

[Krankshaft]

Re: Cleaning edge connectors

Weird double post.

[Krankshaft]

Re: Cleaning edge connectors

Hopefully you can find replacements.

It's real fun replacing those connectors I had to replace the cartridge connector on a S-NES once and the board was double sided which meant through hole vias. A nice deep tunnel for solder to stay trapped.

The best you can do in the mean time is lightly scrape each contact with a tiny flathead screwdriver to hopefully get down to some type of clean metal.

Whether the plating is gone or not you don't want it to keep eating at the metal.

The only tool I've ever seen for cleaning connectors like this are the ones that used to be sold for cartridge type video game consoles. It was a piece of plastic that was inserted and removed from the slot to clean it. But those weren't designed for major cleaning like this.

[Toasty]

Re: Cleaning edge connectors

Need pin count and spacing. Seems DigiKey has a large selection.

Use crocus cloth to clean and polish those contacts. Flush them out afterward with alcohol.

Get the rest of that green/blue corrosion off all those other components too.

It'd be nice to see it resurrected.

Good Luck!

[Krankshaft]

Re: Cleaning edge connectors

A little Deoxit gold wouldn't hurt either for a bit of protection since the plating will probably be gone and they will be more prone to oxidation.

[stj]

Re: Cleaning edge connectors

i see this every week - fucking ni-cads!

firstl;y, i dont think you neutralised it fully.
if you did then there wouldnt be any green left.

put it on a tray and throw vinegar all over it - dont water down.
then rub it in with a paintbrush.
all the green should desolve and release hydrogen bubbles.

the edge connectors and any chipsockets will be done.
i always replace any damaged sockets, switches etc.

remove the wrecked parts before you vinegar - that way it gets to the area's of the pcb that are normally covered.

[pentium]

Re: Cleaning edge connectors

the battery acid has already been neutralized so relax.
Cleaning was finished today and it looks a lot better. I'll hopefully be able to test it tomorrow.

[stj]

Re: Cleaning edge connectors

i am relaxed, but normally the green & white residue disolves.

[kc8adu]

Re: Cleaning edge connectors

its not acid.hence the tip to use vineagar.

the battery acid has already been neutralized so relax.
Cleaning was finished today and it looks a lot better. I'll hopefully be able to test it tomorrow.

[Wizard]

Re: Cleaning edge connectors

People who said vinegar is correct procedure to neutralize the alkaline-based NiCd battery residue.

Look into wiki to learn more about NiCd and NiMh make up.

These connectors are still available from big electronic supplier and it is standard spacing. I'll look up and get info. Have to replace them.

Cheers, Wizard

[stj]

Re: Cleaning edge connectors

vinegar for ni-cad and alkaline,
isopropanol for lithium,
not had to deal with a leaked ni-mh yet, but i'd probably use isopropanol to be safe.
i'v seen a ni-mh eat through a fiberglass pcb once - so i'm not sure about the chemistry!

[NxB]

Re: Cleaning edge connectors

I had a whole voice mail system done like this. A leak dripped on it for 6 months. I was able to save the whole thing with just alcohol and some soldering.

[pentium]

Re: Cleaning edge connectors

yea, reflowing joints is really annoying. a lot of the solder has oxidized to a point where it is really hard to head up and reflow.

[digge]

Re: Cleaning edge connectors

Not sure this will help you any, but what i use to reach inside those connectors is regular printing paper, folded over to a snug fit and then add your cleaning solution suitable for the job and stick it in and out. (hope you meant those ISA looking connectors cause that's what I'm talking about)

Saved a whole bunch of Nintendo (8bit) connectors that way which are known to be some oddball alloy that always corrode like hell, at least the European version.

You might end up taking of the plating like the others said, but if no new connectors is to be found there isn't much choice i guess. Just clean regularly.

[pentium]

Re: Cleaning edge connectors

I managed to clean up the card cage connectors so now that whoke kit works but I'm unsure about the interconnect lines. I'll double check their cleanliness again after I double check if my analog board is faulty as I know everything works but something between the card cage gold fingers and the tube is bad (either the cable or the analog board).