I've come by 2 spare Naomi motherboards which were sold as faulty. One of them works fine, it only needed a bios. However, the other.... Are the broken pins fixable like this? If so how would one go about it?
No - you don't have enough to solder to. Even if you did, it would be VERY hard and not very reliable. You need to replace the chip, which ideally should be done with proper SMD removal tools (not cheap!).
Thanks for the replies guys. I had thought about grinding a bit off like that KuKzz, just didn't know if it was possible, I'll give it a go, at this point I've nothing to lose! I have a nib like that for my rotary tool, I'll stick it in my bench drill, then I won't have to worry about the steady hand part
I'm 99% sure you *CAN* replace the chip; I don't think I've ever seen an Altera FPGA with internal configuration memory. This can be verified by checking for an Altera SEEPROM labeled EPC####. You will have to replace the chip with the EXACT part down to the speed grade.
I just threw out a damaged Naomi MBD that had a spare chip on it - damn! However, someone on OA was flogging the MBD for £18 the other day. Have a shoofty in the sales thread over there and it'll turn up.
Thanks guys, it's not that critical either way, the board is now 1 of 3 I have, so at worst I can butcher it for spares, or sell the working parts on!
I'm always looking for scrap boards for parts or to repair. I have a spare Naomi board that I can yank that chip off of. On ANY Naomi I system you need to check that memory backup capacitor! They WILL leak and eat traces. When it eats the traces on the board under that 8 pin serial EEPROM chip next to it then the system will be dead. I've posted about that on the sega-naomi forums. That 8 pin EEPROM holds the run time code for that Altera chip. There's no special programming on the chip itself, it's all on the EEPROM. Those chips can be found in different makes/models of telecom or networking equipment if you need to try to scrounge one up. RJ
Channelmaniac, out of interest your name isn't Ken is it? Just curious as I know there is a particularly well known Sega repair dude in Texas.
Nope.... Ken from irepairsega.com is out of California. My site is arcadecomponents.com and I'm out of the Dallas Metromess area. Raymond
I manged to get the traces exposed easily enough, but it is friggin' difficult soldering in there. Not had any luck so far. Anyone got any tips for this job? Can't say I've ever repaired pins on an IC like this
I would have enough playroom in that situation... you'll need some very thin wires and a soldering iron with good tip aswell as some flux for things to work out withuot trouble.
If you are unsure, then I have a friend who just might have a steady enough soldering hand for that. I don't, seriously I'd goof that up for sure lol :drool:
Well if your friend wouldn't mind, and you don't mind dude, I'll bring it over with your MBD on Saturday. I think it's probably beyond me and the tools I've got. I'm not to bad for an amateur and the picture makes it look huge but those pins must be less than half a millimetre wide
No problem at all, he'll possibly even manage a look on Saturday, but he works throughout the weekend. You may have to leave it with me, if that's ok? There's also ChiefPFF who is a member here, perhaps he could take a look. Not sure whether he is 'in his electronic booth' on Saturday's though? I can tell just giving a cursory glance at the board I have here that it's not an easy task.
