Collector's Corner..On Repairing The Oldies

Post by **Steve B** » Mon Apr 19, 2010 7:46 am

Reed Infestation and Inoculation Status Report:

Conchess Ambassador-3 reeds repaired
Fidelity Elite Private Line-1 reed repaired
Fidelity EAG V6-Patient in for professional surgery
Fidelity EAG V9-Patient in for professional surgery
TSBIV La Regence-4 dead reeds..patient in emergency room holding area

If the guys over at the computer repair shop do a good job on the V6-V9 ill give them the La Regence to repair

the approach i am taking with this repair stuff is to open the computers and if i feel its too difficult for me to get to the actual reeds i dont try it
if the reeds are easily accessible ...i solder away

Conservative Regards
Steve

ricard60 · Post by **ricard60** » Mon Apr 19, 2010 2:24 pm

Are there any photos of this awful and deadly scenario.

facing death regards
Ricardo

Post by **Steve B** » Mon Apr 19, 2010 3:44 pm

ricard60 wrote:Are there any photos of this awful and deadly scenario.

facing death regards
Ricardo

Well the EAG's Reeds were very hard to get to
two mother boards are in the way of the reeds
the computers are in the repair shop so i cant take photos of the Mother board
i checked the EAG pages on the .INFO Wiki site but there are no photos of an EAG motherboard i could find

Camera Shy Regards
Steve

Bryan Whitby · Post by **Bryan Whitby** » Thu May 06, 2010 12:13 pm

Steve
Have the two Fidelitys come back yet?
Oliver Reed Regards
Bryan

Post by **Steve B** » Thu May 06, 2010 12:23 pm

Chessmaster Ireland wrote:Steve
Have the two Fidelitys come back yet?
Oliver Reed Regards
Bryan

Actually your timing is perfect Sir Bryan
YES ..in fact i picked them up just yesterday
they are working perfectly
these two were sent to a local electronics store and they were able to repair them
however.. the cost of the repair for both was very expensive (even taking into account that i had to pay no shipping costs as i brought them to the repair shop myself)
had they not been expensive computers to begin with it.. it would have made no economic sense for me to pay the price of the repair

The V6&V9 Send Their Regards
Steve

Post by **Steve B** » Sun May 16, 2010 7:19 am

Another Oldie that has suddenly acted up is the Scisys Chess Champion Mark IV
a rather strange computer in that it only saw the light of day in the market place for a short period of time before being replaced/upgraded by the hugely popular Mark V ..making it a relatively hard to find computer today
Estimated elo about 1400

setting it up for a game i noticed the ENTER key failed to elicit any response from the computer making it basically unplayable
opening the computer up was easy (only 3 screws)
i used contact spray on the lead where the ENTER key makes contact with the mother board and that pretty much did the trick
the key is still a bit sluggish in responding but games can now be played again

to give the MIV a thorough test i let the Mephisto Excalibur have a wack at it in a 3 min per move game
the Excalibur needed the confidence building after its humiliating loss to the PC engine with bishops odds no less

[White "Scisys CC Mark IV"]
[Black "Mephisto Excalibur"]
[TimeControl "3 Min/Avg."]
[Result "0-1"]

1.d4 d5 2.e4 dxe4 3.f3 Nf6 4.Nc3 Bf5 5.fxe4 Nxe4 6.Nxe4 Bxe4 7.Bf4 e6
8.Nf3 Bxf3 9.gxf3 Bd6 10.Bxd6 Qxd6 11.Qd2 Nc6 12.O-O-O Qd5 13.Qf4 Qxa2 14.Qxc7 Qa1+
15.Kd2 Qxb2 16.Ke3 Qxc2 17.Bd3 Qb2 18.Be4 O-O 19.Bxc6 Qc3+ 20.Rd3 Qxc6
21.Qxc6 bxc6 22.Rc1 a5 23.Rxc6 a4 24.d5 a3 25.dxe6 a2 26.exf7+ Rxf7
27.Rd1 Ra3+ 28.Ke4 Re7+ 29.Kf4 Ra4+ 30.Kf5 a1=Q 31.Rxa1 Rxa1 0-1

Good Contacts Are A Must In Life Regards
Steve

chesspcmac · Post by **chesspcmac** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 12:37 pm

I know I know I know....back from the dead

I have two computers that are broken (duplicate computers) After the most exhausting research I have come to the conclusion that they have faulty reed switches. My plan is to bring them to the Operating Room to try to save them or they will become organ donors on ebay. I told their families that they have a 50-50 chance of surviving the operation but the families have put their hopes on my "two left hands". The patients Munchen board and a Novag expert are nervous of course but they have run out of options and they understand that this is it....their last chance. The healthy computers are a little nervous because they know that they could be next.
So my fellow surgeons, what reed switches do you use? where do you get them? I was doing research and they are so different. Any in particular that I should use? Thanks for any advice.
If all goes well I will start studying electronics on-line on my free time to help our fellow computers.

Frankenstein regards

Mike

b4xter · Post by **b4xter** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 6:26 pm

chesspcmac wrote:So my fellow surgeons, what reed switches do you use? where do you get them? I was doing research and they are so different. Any in particular that I should use? Thanks for any advice.

Hi Mike,

I have bought and successfully used these particular reed switches. The patient was a Conchess Ambassador, I have replaced ten reed switches in it during the operation. I can recommend the seller too.

Best regards,

Tibor

chesspcmac · Post by **chesspcmac** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 7:52 pm

Thanks for the info Tibor I have ordered them from that supplier and also from amazon.com, I have already started the operation on the mephisto Munchen, so far the patient is holding awaiting for the organs to be transplanted. The bad reed is out. Its life depends on my crappy memory in how to put it back together. All the other computers looked worried about the outcome.

Learning nugget: a soldering gun with electrical cord is a must (battery operated soldering pen is sh!t!!?

Humpty Dumpty Regards

Mike aka dedicated silicon trauma surgeon fellow

b4xter · Post by **b4xter** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 8:13 pm

chesspcmac wrote:a soldering gun with electrical cord is a must (battery operated soldering pen is sh!t!!?

Both of them are shit. Do not use soldering gun or a battery (or propane gas) operated soldering iron - they are the elephant in the porcelain store. They will ruin your boards with their uncontrolled heat. Buy a Weller (or something similar in quality) soldering station in a 30-50 W range. It is worth the money. The difference is earth and sky, as we say here.

b4xter · Post by **b4xter** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 8:31 pm

Ah, and one more important thing: use a desoldering pump when you remove the faulty parts. It is a cheap gadget, but it makes life easier. You liquefies the tin with the soldering iron and the pump *whooosh* sniffs the liquid tin and then you can remove the part effortlessly.

Dave C · Post by **Dave C** » Thu Aug 27, 2015 12:23 am

b4xter wrote:Ah, and one more important thing: use a desoldering pump when you remove the faulty parts. It is a cheap gadget, but it makes life easier. You liquefies the tin with the soldering iron and the pump *whooosh* sniffs the liquid tin and then you can remove the part effortlessly.

Very good suggestion. I tried removing solders with braided copper. It does not work nearly as well and the solder sucker designs.
I recently began an operation on my old EAS. The solders for a couple of LEDs had become loose and needed to be re-soldered. Also, one square was not responding. I assumed it had reed switches and ordered some on ebay. When I opened the chess computer I found it did not use reed switches (small glass tubes) it had a small black cube with three wires attached. These are readily available from electronics stores for a few bucks. I've now replaced it and the patient is in the ICU (intensive care unit) awaiting resuscitation.

Fingers crossed regards,
rookie surgeon Dave

Brian B · Post by **Brian B** » Thu Aug 27, 2015 1:15 am

Here is another reed switch alternative: http://www.mouser.com/Search/ProductDet ... EX-1415-20

I try not to buy any electrical components from China. Too many counterfeit items, so hard to know what you are getting. Especially from Ebay or Amazon using third party suppliers. This is not to say that Littelfuse doesn't have their reed switches made in China, though I believe these are made in the Philippines last I checked. I have replaced well over 100 reed switches spread over three different EAGs, an Elegance, and an ARB board using the above reed switches with zero failures to date. I replaced ALL of the reed switches on my EAG v6, that was fun, ha!

I agree with others about using a soldering station. My other hobby is collecting pinball machines and I am sure that I have soldered thousands of connections. A soldering station is a must when you are trying to regulate the heat, I have two of them. I have used a desoldering iron, soldapult, and desoldering braid to remove solder depending on the application or whatever was closest at the time.

Soldering regards,
Brian B

Post by **Fernando** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 5:15 pm

I have known guys that fell in alcohol excessive drinking for lot less than your sufferings, Steven.
One simple method to repair electronic stuff is just to bang the full thing a little bit. If it does not work, at least you will feel taking revenge trough punishment of the devilish contrivance.

Fern

Post by **Steve B** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 8:04 pm

Fernando wrote:I have known guys that fell in alcohol excessive drinking for lot less than your sufferings, Steven.
One simple method to repair electronic stuff is just to bang the full thing a little bit. If it does not work, at least you will feel taking revenge trough punishment of the devilish contrivance.

Fern

is should be noted that i first wrote this thread 5 Years ago and it has been revived..out of the blue ..only a just a few days ago
so i can assure you i survived these particular defect incidents.. relatively alcohol free
of course there have been several other defects in the intervening years
repairing these things as they grow older and older is a never ending process and the

Bane Of The Hobby Regards
Steve