| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 Boom!.JPG | 1.94 MB |
So I turn on my Apple IIe today...Ultima III (Exodus) boots up...then, out of nowhere...
*KABOOM*
...and a smell that can only be described as, "Oh, I hope this isn't going to be too expensive."
There's smoke coming from floppy drive #2. I shut down quickly, unplug, and get that ribbon off the controller card.
Take it apart, and see this:
I only post this because I'm sure it has happened to everyone at least once, right?
I feel like an initiated member of the club now.
Geez! I've had capacitors blow on me before, but THAT is impressive :mac:
WOW!!!
Steven
Ugh.. I thought I was fine by replacing those line filter caps.
Now it turns out I have dozens of little time bombs waiting to go off inside my //e and peripherals.
At least it doesn't look like an expensive fix!
That is no biggy, usually they run in sections of going bad. So replace all in that group. I've head burn outs. But that one is impressive.
I've lost 2 power supplies to those stupid electrolytics. It was the same one both times. The first one merely burst, while the second well and truly exploded. I've also ruined a Disk ][ Analogue Board somehow, and none of my drives work. Old things tend to die.
My recommendation is...
always replace Elektrolyt Condensators in machines and parts which are older then 20-30 years, because in most cases they are dehydrated and will cause problems as shown above. This will help you keeping old electronics working.
I'm doing this with all my old computers and other electronical equipment...
Yep, "time bomb" is right - nothing happened on Friday when I was playing Ultima III. Very little is worse than hearing *boom* and smoke coming out of the drive. Right out of the cartoons.
Once I got the drive off the controller card, I plugged the IIe back in and it powered up, and my Floppy Emu still worked just fine, and the controller itself doesn't seem to be damaged, thank goodness.
So now I get to work on my soldering skills, of which I have basically none. At least this one looks easy enough to do, once I find a replacement cap.
SAMM328 - do you mean I should take this opportunity to replace ALL of the caps in that series? I can see in the photo that there are two other caps...you think I should replace all of them at the same time? I am not so confident in my abilities as an electrician that I want to mess with parts that are still working.
As mentioned above...
I recomment to exchange ALL old Electrolyt Condensators. If you're not able to handle yourself you might know who can... or there is an Electronics Dealer in your town you can ask.
It's not only the Diskdrives... quite often old Powersupplies also diying the same way.
Statsman,
It seems to me a couple of questions
should be asked and answered first:
-Do you have any soldering experience at all?
-Do you have the proper equipment for the job(Solder, Flux, Soldering Iron, Solder-Sucker, etc.)?
-Do you have an old PCB card or board that you can practice on?
-The proper Capacitors for the job (or know where to get them)?
-What do you feel comfortable doing?
Answer those first, then make your decision.
Steven
Hello Statsman1,
i have posted several times about soldering and desoldering procedures here.....
i'd recommend to review that postings....
and at my site i made a page about soldering mainboards.....:
http://www.appleii-box.de/A31_solderingpage.htm
aome parts of the text are related to the general topic of soldering....
speedyG
Steven...
An excellent questionnaire! Thank you (well, everyone!) for taking an interest in my problem.
1. Yes, a bit, nothing anyone would brag about, but I know the basics.
2. Yes, I have the gear required.
3. No but...
4. ...there is an electronics store that will have the capacitor(s) I need, and I can get practice material there, no question.
5. I can do this, I'm sure of it, but I'm never a big fan of the pressure that comes with "If I screw this up, I'm so much further behind where I am right now."
SpeedyG - I will read the info via your link, absolutely. Thank you for the help!
I like to be able to fix things myself, so this is just something I'm going to have to try. What's the worst that can happen?
Patrick
Patrick,
I have to ask myself those very same questions
every time I start on a project I'm not sure about.
And don't be afraid to fail the first time you do it.
Everybody fails at one point or another.
When I get into something and I start to have doubts
about what I'm doing, I get up and walk away from the project
until I'm ready to tackle it again.
Most of the time it works out.
If not the first time, Oh Well, there's always the next.
Steven
Hello Statsman1,
the first most commen mistake that i often see - is the fact
that cheap tools are used.....
-the minimum should be a teperature regulated soldering iron....
....cheap ones can be purchased between 15 up to 25 bucks....
....better profesional ones are available beginning at 50 to 60 bucks
....and upper limit of 75 to 80 bucks is O.K.
- Make sure that you get at least besides a small soldering tip one pen like tip.
- Avarage strength is between 35 to 60 Watt.
- It's better if you get a tool with ceramic tip.....
first exercise some desoldering with a sucking pump at another useless scrap-board to get
some experience.....
- avoid to stay to much time at one joint.... it might cause the trace to loose contact to the PCB
and tear off
- Work in area with good light.... you must see really good when lead gets fluid to initiate the process to suck off the lead....
It's a repeating topic..... so within next 2 months i will make a "basic" "all about" page in my site
with a bunch of pictures and explenations and samples....
i then will publish the link here, when it's completed....
sincerely
speedyG
Thank you, good fellows. I will give it a whirl, and ensure I have practised and have the right environment. I will visit the electronics store in the next couple of days and make sure I've got the correct goods.
I admire anyone who says, "Yep, I just replaced some chips and soldered 'em up, testing the voltage, and then drove it home." I have built computers from nothing but parts, but never parts from components.
I will always remember - Patience and care are key - if I can't exercise both, I'll put it down and walk away before I burn my house down.
Patrick
I love it when things go kablooey!
Hello to all AF-members,
like announced in previous posting from me i started to create a kind
of "Basics about soldering" page at :
http://www.appleii-box.de/D05_basicsoldering.htm
The soldering part is now rather complete and
within next few days i will also complete the part related to the topic of de-soldering.
have fun....
sincerely
speedyG
EDIT / UPDATE:
The mentioned page is now completed.
That's right. What good is a laboratory that doesn't have smoke and explosions going on? Adds depth and excitement!
Sure, but it's tragic when it happens to antique Apple hardware....
Well, it is fixed. Sort of.
I managed to get the offending cap off without issue, cleaned up the area, and then attached the new cap.
Everything went smoothly, and I plugged in the drive and turned it on - nothing exploded, which I took as a good sign.
But when I access the drive, it makes that rattling noise, and I get an I/O error. The drive was working properly BEFORE the *boom* and now it isn't.
Any suggestions by those that know? I would have thought that simply replacing the cap would have just returned the drive to its previous state, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
Additional question - is it possible that the controller card itself is responsible for killing the cap in the drive? The reason I ask is that, while the above drive was on the shelf, I plugged in another drive that was working perfectly well, and then, all of a sudden, a smoke-show and the drive doesn't work at all - it is just dead now.
Bad luck, or would the controller card be murdering my floppy drives before my very eyes?