I recently was doing some work on an arcade game and managed to break a
leg completely off of a sound-rom. It's a pretty obscure animal and
will be difficult to replace. There is only the tiniest hint of a
metal dot on the side of the chip where the pin was attached. I tried
soldering a wire to it but had no luck...any ideas for you experienced
folks on this? Thanks!

"Tiny" is subjective. With some high power magnification, teeny iron
tip, proper prep, and surgeons touch, it can be done.
JR

jhuie wrote:
I recently was doing some work on an arcade game and managed to break a
leg completely off of a sound-rom. It's a pretty obscure animal and
will be difficult to replace. There is only the tiniest hint of a
metal dot on the side of the chip where the pin was attached. I tried
soldering a wire to it but had no luck...any ideas for you experienced
folks on this? Thanks!



--
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Home Page: http://www.seanet.com/~jasonrnorth

jhuie wrote in message
oups.com...
I recently was doing some work on an arcade game and managed to break a
leg completely off of a sound-rom. It's a pretty obscure animal and
will be difficult to replace. There is only the tiniest hint of a
metal dot on the side of the chip where the pin was attached. I tried
soldering a wire to it but had no luck...any ideas for you experienced
folks on this? Thanks!



Dremmel and small "ball mill" and diamond edged disc to cut between pins

--
Diverse Devices, Southampton, England
electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on
http://home.graffiti.net/diverse:graffiti.net/

Even if all you can get is a temporary pin connection, you could then
read the rom contents with an eprom reader and then burn it into an
equivalent eprom for use as a permanent fix.

jhuie wrote:

I recently was doing some work on an arcade game and managed to break a
leg completely off of a sound-rom. It's a pretty obscure animal and
will be difficult to replace. There is only the tiniest hint of a
metal dot on the side of the chip where the pin was attached. I tried
soldering a wire to it but had no luck...any ideas for you experienced
folks on this? Thanks!

take a scribe or a small sharp tool and scrap back the plastic
around the leg. there is a good chance it has a long run in there.
scrap the exposed leg so that the surface will grab the solder.


--
Real Programmers Do things like this.
http://webpages.charter.net/jamie_5

jhuie wrote:
I recently was doing some work on an arcade game and managed to break a
leg completely off of a sound-rom. It's a pretty obscure animal and
will be difficult to replace. There is only the tiniest hint of a
metal dot on the side of the chip where the pin was attached. I tried
soldering a wire to it but had no luck...any ideas for you experienced
folks on this? Thanks!



What game is it? I'd be shocked if the ROM images aren't among the tens
of thousands that are archived.

It's actually the sound rom from a conversion kit for the Star Wars
game that lets you switch back and forth between Star Wars and Empire
Strikes Back. I think it's a specially made rom that has sounds for
both games on it. I'm not sure of the details here but it is labeled
"SND 1 J/K". I can easily find the rom image for either Star Wars or
Empire but since I think this is some combo of both I'm not sure. And
the guy who makes the kits apparently isn't selling individual roms.
I've written to him about making an exception but haven't had a reply
yet.

"jhuie" schreef in bericht
ups.com...
It's actually the sound rom from a conversion kit for the Star Wars
game that lets you switch back and forth between Star Wars and Empire
Strikes Back. I think it's a specially made rom that has sounds for
both games on it. I'm not sure of the details here but it is labeled
"SND 1 J/K". I can easily find the rom image for either Star Wars or
Empire but since I think this is some combo of both I'm not sure. And
the guy who makes the kits apparently isn't selling individual roms.
I've written to him about making an exception but haven't had a reply
yet.


Hmm... Assuming the images of both games have the same size, you only need a
double size EPROM. One address line to do switching between the games.
Almost sure the guy that made the ROM did something similar. But if it is a
custom made ROM you may need to do quite some reverse engineering to find
out the pin assignment of the beast. Don't you have a schematic? That may
help a lot.

Even if you succeed in repairing, I advise to find out the pin assignment
and make a dump of the content. Repairs like this may last for years, but
also may fail tomorrow.

petrus bitbyter

On 15 Apr 2006 10:03:47 -0700, "jhuie" wrote:

I recently was doing some work on an arcade game and managed to break a
leg completely off of a sound-rom. It's a pretty obscure animal and
will be difficult to replace. There is only the tiniest hint of a
metal dot on the side of the chip where the pin was attached. I tried
soldering a wire to it but had no luck...any ideas for you experienced
folks on this? Thanks!

As others have said, you should be able to scrape back enough plastic
to solder a thin wire to it. Solder the wire to it after the chip is
in its socket if you can. That way the connection won't be stressed
by it being inserted in the socket. A ceramic case will be more
difficult, but not impossible.

If all else fails, you should be able to access the pin using some
conductive paint. Then copy its contents to a new ROM.

There's always a chance the pin that broke off is unused, or not
needed in that application.
Andy Cuffe

I did the same thing many years ago when i try to hotswap a asus bios
chip. I broke one of the leg off the chip. Fortuanely, There's still
tiniest metal on it and i was able to resolder the leg back.
Here is what i do to resolder

First put the broken leg back to the socket( use tape if needed),
Then put some tape to cover other legs( in case they get the solder.)
and put the chip back
Heat the iron , put some solder on the iron. The iron should have a bit
solder on it. finally touch the leg with an iron to make the
connection. And it's done

I don't know the size of your chip, but it works on computer PLCC chip.

Once you've fixed it stick it in a turned pin IC socket and use it like
that.

--
Neil J. Harris

jhuie wrote:
It's actually the sound rom from a conversion kit for the Star Wars
game that lets you switch back and forth between Star Wars and Empire
Strikes Back. I think it's a specially made rom that has sounds for
both games on it. I'm not sure of the details here but it is labeled
"SND 1 J/K". I can easily find the rom image for either Star Wars or
Empire but since I think this is some combo of both I'm not sure. And
the guy who makes the kits apparently isn't selling individual roms.
I've written to him about making an exception but haven't had a reply
yet.



Is it Clay Cowgill's kit? I'd be surprised if he won't sell you a
replacement ROM but then I've heard of people having problems with him
not being very responsive.

Yeah, it's his. I wrote to him a few days ago but haven't heard back.
Possibly because of the holiday. But I've heard from several people
that he's not answering e-mails much these days. Not sure why though.

jhuie wrote:
Yeah, it's his. I wrote to him a few days ago but haven't heard back.
Possibly because of the holiday. But I've heard from several people
that he's not answering e-mails much these days. Not sure why though.



Well if you can tack a pin on there for long enough to read the chip you
should be able to burn a new one. Alternatively if you can find someone
else who has that kit they could read the chip.

I found a couple people on one of the arcade groups who had the image
file for this rom. So I'll be able to have my buddy burn a new one for
me. Thank you all for your help!

On 15 Apr 2006 10:03:47 -0700, "jhuie" opined:

I recently was doing some work on an arcade game and managed to break a
leg completely off of a sound-rom. It's a pretty obscure animal and
will be difficult to replace. There is only the tiniest hint of a
metal dot on the side of the chip where the pin was attached. I tried
soldering a wire to it but had no luck...any ideas for you experienced
folks on this? Thanks!

Ouch.
I've fixed such problems by using a really fine soldering iron tip &
soldering a piece of wire-wrap wire to the stub of the missing leg. If
absolutely neccessary, scrape away some of the body of the package
with a very sharp blade.

--
W
. | ,. w , "Some people are alive only because
\|/ \|/ it is illegal to kill them." Perna condita delenda est
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