I had been corresponding with Rob regarding shipping a new but non-functional empeg to him for repair but it appears the email addy I have for him is no longer working. I do wonder if maybe I shoudl have a highly skilled electricla engineer/technician kind of guy look at it for cold solder joints which need repairing before shipping it off to him anyway.

So who's doing repairs? Anybody? Rob had concluded from the logs I sent him that the board would need to be swapped due to a faulty 4231A chip. I still wonder if checking the solder joints and swapping the drive cable might not be a good idea anyway.

Thanks!

RobS who does support is still around, he's just been busy recently. RobV posted about it here.
I suppose you could try swapping the cable and checking the header but if it really is the CS4231 then I doubt it would help much. Just be careful when plugging the cable in, you don't want to blow anything by doing it wrong!

What email address are you using? Its [email protected]

It was the case that Rob was so snowed under that a reply took weeks - I'd give him more time as he's the guy with all the spares / knowledge / tools etc. If that chip is indeed dead, then Rob Schofield would be the best bet.

I sent one to that address on 9/5/03 and didn't hear back. I assumed it had not reached him.

Thats not very long at all! I'd wait another 2 weeks at least.

I still wonder if checking the solder joints and swapping the drive cable might not be a good idea anyway.

If Rob says a 4231A chip is needed, then playing with the cable and header isn't going to improve anything. Unless they are also faulty. Of course when you're in there repairing the 4231A chip, that other stuff will get checked anyway, it's not really a question.

it appears the email addy I have for him is no longer working

The last correct email address I knew about is here, which changed recently. However as I understand it there's a bit of a pause in support for the moment. That's kind of up in the air.

You could see if Stu can help you or something...

In reply to:

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You could see if Stu can help you or something...

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We can take a look at it. If it's the 4231A, we can't help b/c we don't have any here and getting a hold of them at this point would be quite a challenge. PM me if interested.

Stu

If it's the 4231A, we can't help

Sorry to hear that! Perhaps it might be better not to offer to help, then. Because if his boot log clearly says that the chip is bad, nothing short of replacing that chip is going to make his player work properly again.

Sorry missed that point in his post. Provide us with a functional chip and we can swap it out. Not sure it's worth the effort involved, but it is an option.

Stu

Actually I did find a source for the CS4231A-KQs. There may be minimum orders involved, but they don't have that many anyway. We may become the only source for Empeg replacements! If you would like us to replace the chip, PM me. We can do all the other repairs as well. 100 pins of fine SMD work is not easy, but we've worked with similar pitches before.

Stu

The CS4231A-KQs are $17.50 a piece with a 10 piece min. order. If anyone else is interested, I can try to get some ordered to fill the minimum.

Stu

As I said in another thread, we have 4231s. I don't mind them going out free if the people doing the repair do it for a reasonable amount of money.

Easiest way to remove the package is to very carefully cut the legs off two sides with a very sharp knife then flood both the other sides one at a time with solder (a hube solder blob over all 25 pins) and gently lift that side of the chip up. When the chip is removed, use the flood technique to lift the cut-off legs (loads and loads of solder helps prevent board damage) then tidy up with braid and fit the new chip.

This can be done in about 15 minutes, you really need a microscope to ensure you don't damage anything. You may end up losing some pads from the board, but there are quite a few n/c's around the chip and it's usually these that go.

Hugo

Missed that thread. We just ordered them. Now I feel stupid. Thanks for the advice. We were actually planning to use Chip Quik. Anything wrong with that? We've had great success with it in the past.

Stu

Chip quik sounds like a much safer solution that mine, yes. Cutting the pins is dangerous, whereas lowering the melting point of the solder so you can heat all pins effectively to the point of being able to remove the chip in one is an ideal situation.

Hugo

What is Chip Quick?

http://www.chipquikinc.com/

Sounds great! Have to try it. Looks like Farnells would have it in Europe...

Easiest way to remove the package is to very carefully cut the legs off two sides with a very sharp knife then flood both the other sides one at a time with solder (a hube solder blob over all 25 pins) and gently lift that side of the chip up. When the chip is removed, use the flood technique to lift the cut-off legs (loads and loads of solder helps prevent board damage) then tidy up with braid and fit the new chip.

I think I am having a flare-up of MMS (Mere Mortals Syndrome). When I read this paragraph, I get a reproducible visual hallucination that looks *exactly* like the opening scenes to Goldeneye.

I *think* it's a hallucination, anyway.

Actually, what is scary is that I have done enough soldering this year that I think I know what Hugo is talking about.

(Oh, and the fact that y'all might conspire to fix this gent's player is quite cool.)