Share your knowledge on these two classic MPCs
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By richie Thu Feb 16, 2023 1:34 am
You're going to break it.

Buy a new card reader for cheaper than it will be to have to pay someone capable to enough to replace the missing pin
By Sir Snaxalot Fri Feb 17, 2023 4:23 pm
You could totally fix this, you'd need to find a replacement header, desolder the broken one and solder the new one. Don't know why the person above is so discouraging, "just get a new one" is just unhelpful. It's a cheap replacement and at the very least you'd learn from this ordeal.

naflada wrote:https://reverb.com/item/32617829-stratos-technology-raizinmonster-cf-to-scsi-converter-hot-swap-ok

this is the cf card reader that is installed in my mpc 3000, unfortunately, the cf card header pin broke and i want to solder just the header because its too expensive to swap the whole thing out. does anyone know which cf card header i need to get ?
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By Telefunky Fri Feb 17, 2023 9:05 pm
I looked at a couple of such headers, all SMD... you have to consider they were soldered lead-free by precisely controlled automated gear.
That solder is high temperature stuff and it‘s even difficult to get it off the circuit board with a standard iron. If you don’t apply the same kind of solder the new connection will not be reliable, etc, etc.

But the main point to advise against diy (in this case) is the question itself.
If you‘re experienced with that kind of job, you don‘t have to ask in a forum... you open the catalog of your favorite supplier, look up the proper part and order it ;)
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By richie Sun Feb 19, 2023 1:58 am
Sir Snaxalot wrote:You could totally fix this, you'd need to find a replacement header, desolder the broken one and solder the new one. Don't know why the person above is so discouraging, "just get a new one" is just unhelpful. It's a cheap replacement and at the very least you'd learn from this ordeal.


I'm glad that the sensitivity police have chimed in.

My job in responding to these posts is to try to help people to get to the easiest and cost effective result.

It isn't a simple replacement header. If you actually had a look at what he was talking about, you'd see that the actual surface mount, 50 pin 0.6mm pitch connector. This isn't a simple remove and replace with big pins that you'd have been doing when swapping out a tact switch. Then you need to have previous micro soldering experience to replace the part.

The average cost for the replacement part is $20 USD + shipping. Google the words "50 Way Right Angle Compact Flash Memory Card Connector" So you're looking about $35 or more depending on where you're located to get it.

Or you could just buy a new age card reader from $40-60 which have better options, more support and not have to deal with the likely result of screwing up the soldering in the first place.

Do you have the skillset to solder this in? Maybe you would like to volunteer to do it for for him?

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