[sdiy] Heat Paste/Compound

[Dana.Scott]

> ARP used to put their VCO's and other circuits in blocks of epoxy
> supposedly for better heat transfer, but that was way overkill.  I'm sure
> they did it only to prevent people like us from reverse engineering their
> circuitry.
>

Only the early modules were 'hard potted'. On the vast majority of modules,
we 'soft potted' them. The module is in an epoxy cup which was then filled
with soft RTV rubber. A thin layer of hard epoxy then went over the top. It
looks like an unrepairable brick, but they were routinely cracked open and
repaired. Usual failures are shorted tant caps across power supply or
mounting pins that detach from the PC board.
-Dana
ARP inmate 1974 -> 1980