Homebrew PCBs

--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, David Griffith <dgriffi@...> wrote:
>
> 
> I'm pondering making a homebrew S100 card or two.  Does anyone here have
> experience in making cards with connection fingers?  Is tinplating as
> applied by, say, solder paste, okay?  I know there are gold-plating kits
> for this purpose out there, but it's prohibitively expensive.

If you use lead solder, that isn't technically tinning, is it?

I know from experience (I was manager of an arcade for a few years and
repaired a lot of games) that solder is a terrible thing on edge
connectors. The lead surface oxidizes very fast and causes terrible
connection problems.

We had one game that in the past had been "repaired" first by an
eraser on -gold- contacts, then solder on the edge connector, then
more and more solder in an attempt to make harder contact with the
spring contacts. The game would work for a little bit, then a bump
would reset it.

I removed -all- the solder right down to the bare copper, then used
that electroless tin plate. Cleaned the lead oxide off of the spring
contacts in the connector, and the game was golden after that.

Steve Greenfield

Q: What's the most annoying thing on a newsgroup?
A: Self-righteous self-appointed list-cops.