ChipMusic.org - WTB: Smartboy

Re: WTB: Smartboy

2012-09-24T19:39:57Z

Telerophon wrote:

I hate lead free with a passion because it's so much harder to get a wet joint with the stuff, and so much easier to cook your circuits. I also ruin my tips really fast when I'm doing lead-free (I have a cheaper iron, so it doesn't really have the best tips).
That said, I still try to use lead free as a standard operating procedure when I build something entirely with new parts. Even if you do clean solder work, is the functional life of your product in the long term still compromised by having used lead free solder?

Yeah, regardless of the quality of work, the quality is always affected when using lead free solder. The Xbox 360 is a good example of how using lead free solder can go very wrong.

You may be using a tip that's meant for lead solder. They're supposed to be dedicated for one or the other, but that's probably not the case with cheaper irons.

Re: WTB: Smartboy

2012-09-24T19:32:41Z

Yeah, I use flux-cored stuff, but sometimes nothing beats dedicated flux.

Re: WTB: Smartboy

2012-09-24T12:47:33Z

It matters how much humidity it is exposed to. also flux helps greatly with getting a nice wet joint

Re: WTB: Smartboy

2012-09-24T12:46:39Z

:doubled please delete:

Re: WTB: Smartboy

2012-09-24T05:24:01Z

I hate lead free with a passion because it's so much harder to get a wet joint with the stuff, and so much easier to cook your circuits. I also ruin my tips really fast when I'm doing lead-free (I have a cheaper iron, so it doesn't really have the best tips).

That said, I still try to use lead free as a standard operating procedure when I build something entirely with new parts. Even if you do clean solder work, is the functional life of your product in the long term still compromised by having used lead free solder?

Re: WTB: Smartboy

2012-09-23T18:25:52Z

Theta_Frost wrote:

Lead free in my experience has sucked. But Kester's new K100LD is working really well for me, feels just like the leaded Kester I was using and it isn't super expensive. +1

thanks for the tip been pretty disappointed with most lead-free i've tried

Re: WTB: Smartboy

2012-09-23T18:24:05Z

yep, the older parts weren't relevant to the lead-free concern, the only new thing was the assembly. at least as far as what the manufacturer has control over

there was an exemption for parts in market prior to the implementation of the RoHS leg. in the EU. (which wiki tells me was july 1st, 2006)

Re: WTB: Smartboy

2012-09-23T18:17:28Z

Lead free in my experience has sucked. But Kester's new K100LD is working really well for me, feels just like the leaded Kester I was using and it isn't super expensive. +1

Re: WTB: Smartboy

2012-09-23T18:03:49Z

That's a bit of a grey area though because this isn't really _new_ equipment, where I think the distinction is made. The ICs already contain lead, and there will be trace amounts of leaded solder from using old chips anyway.

Re: WTB: Smartboy

2012-09-23T17:51:05Z

i *think* the lead-free bit was also in response to exportation concerns to the EU (possibly elsewhere). its been so long ago now, that aspect came up in conversation but i don't know if it was the reasoning.

Re: WTB: Smartboy

2012-09-23T17:36:46Z

My point being, regardless of if they're actually gold plated, it's counterproductive. There is a lot of other variables with building a solid product. The bleepbloop carts were soldered with lead free solder. The parts aren't RoHS anyway, so there's no real point to this. Lead free solder oxidizes fast, and it's very likely that the solder will cause the carts to stop functioning before the edge connector oxidizes until it is non-functioning. This was the case with my USB cart, and probably the reason Kitsch was stuck with so many non-functioning carts. A combination of that and 20 year old parts can cause a lot of bad solder joints.

I could elaborate more on the physical advantages of using a smartboy or an ASM cart. I could also go into the moral concerns with plugging bleepbloop products in every single thread that mentions my carts or smartboy carts, but I'd just be beating a dead horse.

Re: WTB: Smartboy

2012-09-23T07:20:49Z

Xuriik wrote:

I've always known that gold plating isn't necessarily better but now i have an argument to throw at douchebags who gloat about their gold plated headphone jacks. Thanks, nitro!

Well, not so fast. The gold plating does after all protect plated surface from getting tarnished. When it comes to headphone jacks, the connector naturally rotates, which helps prevent corrosion simply by mechanically scraping it off. A GB cart will sit in the same spot when the cartridge is not removed, and even when it's removed and reinserted, the position is predictable. Sure, you can mechanically remove some of the corrosion by doing the in/out ten times routine with the cartridge, but it's more vulnerable than a headphone connector. On the other hand, chances are any number of other thing will fail before the jack gets corroded, so in the end I do agree it's probably a waste of a perfectly good microgram or something of gold.

Re: WTB: Smartboy

2012-09-23T07:00:25Z

I've always known that gold plating isn't necessarily better but now i have an argument to throw at douchebags who gloat about their gold plated headphone jacks. Thanks, nitro!

Re: WTB: Smartboy

2012-09-23T04:38:47Z

Acronyms, my only weakness! Nooooooo!

Isn't "Gold Plating = Better" the entire business model of RadioShack and Monster Cables these days?

It's cool that EMS still makes their transferrers, but I'm still under the impression that those aren't compatible with the Ziegler/Smartboy based designs, right?

Also, HK EMS's website is an abomination, and I can never tell what they are currently producing and selling or how. For instance, in catching up on this thread, I went through their site. I couldn't find the pages for their flash cartridges, even though all of their transferrer pages reference the cartridges they are compatible with.

Re: WTB: Smartboy

2012-09-23T04:05:20Z

Telerophon: MBC5. MMC is NES lingo.

Ian: EMS's unit is called GB Smart Card with a D. And I believe most people just call them EMS cartridges.

And about gold plated contacts. Gold plated contacts are not always a good idea. There's something called galvanic corrosion. If you have contact of two metals with different anodic index (basically how noble the metals are) the metals will form a battery cell in the presence of some degree of humidity.(*) This effect gets worse the more different the metals are. This will cause corrosion to attack the least noble of the metals.

So this is a problem which would affect a Gameboy where a cartridge is plugged in in the presence of humidity. It's arguably more difficult to remove corrosion from the cartridge slot than from the cartridge edge connector. For this reason, gold may actually be a bad choice, and a nickel plating or even just bare copper a better choice. This may be a theoretical problem with little impact in real life. But my point is that it's easy to assume that something that is GOLD PLATED must be better than something that isn't, when in fact it may not be the best engineering decision for a particular situation.

(*) Compare this to the experiment where you put two different coins on top of each other in your mouth and feel a tickle on your tongue from the voltage produced. I would generally not recommend this experiment for obvious hygienic reasons, though.