To socket or not to socket?

[Magnus Danielson]

From: "Batz Goodfortune" <batzman at all-electric.com>
Subject: Re: To socket or not to socket?
Date: Sun, 06 Feb 2000 16:28:47 +1000

> Y-ellow Y'all.

Hi Batz and all of you others!

[Stuff deleted]

> The solution of course is often simple. Press down on the ICs and/or
> re-seat them. Especially expansion cards etc. But I've seen ICs just kinda
> sitting on top of their production sockets for apparently no reason. As if
> someone had extracted them and just left them there. Or they were
> manufactured in the Bermuda triangle. And all due to a few years of this
> expansion and contraction. One of the reasons we have air conditioned
> equipment rooms is not so much because of the accumulated heat, but simply
> to provide a reasonably stable environment. Temperature and humidity all
> take a toll. 

For telecommunication centers the top ambient temperature is either 35C or 40C
depending on which standard you follow (ETSI or Bellcore). They have further
requirements on the humidity/temperature (defined as limits in a graph).
You will also find requirements on how equipment shall withstand shock and
vibration, mainly for transport but it also covers installed gear. You will
also find requirements on air bourne polutions etc. The Bellcore environment
standard GR-63 will even include a map of USA showing the earth-quake areas and
which Bell-baby company covers which area. All this has been set up in order
to provide the means for controling the environment for optimizing the lifetime
of the gear.

[More lovely stuff deleted]

> So if you really want to prevent problems with your PAs and stuff, Just get
> a shit-load of silly putty and completely fill your boxes with it. 9 out of
> 10 rocket scientists recommend silly putty. :)

No can do. While the I am sure it is The Right Thing (TM) in rocket science
and many other high-G and high-vibration environments it is rarely the way to
go for things on the road. The repairment and modification of these boxes is
great enougth to prohibit filling them up. Also, as you add weigth the whole
transport issue becomes a headace again... for such gear it is much much
simpler just to avoid the sockets and be able to handle with the situation ;)

Cheers,
Magnus