Can anyone tell me how to remove a vb connector from a cart? Well the best way. Took me an hour desoldering one tonight.

Wynd

You should probably ask Minestorm. He has removed connectors from hundreds of carts.

segagamer99 wrote:
You should probably ask Minestorm. He has removed connectors from hundreds of carts.

This. But I almost have a feeling that the “best way” is going to end up being “desoldering it by hand”…

I’m sure someone’s looked into it before, but is there any way we could pay to have a replacement remanufactured? Surely some company out there specializes in connectors built to spec for a minimum order or something…

if you’ve read around, people have found connectors, however they have to slightly be modified. So that might be helpful.

Wynd

I’m afraid there’s no easy way to do it. If you use hot air it tends to damage the plastic.

I got my technique from Kriss (when he was helping me). I use a chisel tip on my soldering iron and just push it underneath each pin. I had to sharpen the tip to make it easier.

MineStorm wrote:
I got my technique from Kriss (when he was helping me). I use a chisel tip on my soldering iron and just push it underneath each pin. I had to sharpen the tip to make it easier.

I developed a faster but also more “dirty” technique during the later FlashBoy runs. Dirty as in it destroys the desoldered board and… it stinks horribly. 😀

I heated up the little solder “plates” on the boards and pulled them out from under the connector. With a wide enough tip, you can pull out two plates at once.

[e5frog]

I have only removed one (to send to Minestorm before I got the FlashBoy+), used a hot air gun with adjustable heat. No damage to the plastic and it took less than 5 min before the connector could easily be pulled off the PCB. You need just enough heat and be sure to move it all the time. It’s no different than to desolder other stuff.

Connector plastic is of a different kind than the rest of the cart, don’t know how much heat it can take. It’s obviously possible to solder the connector with no damage. Maybe some foil on the plastic to protect it helps if there are any worries.

But listen to Minestorm, he’s the expert, maybe better safe than sorry. Don’t understand how he has the time and patience to desolder with a solder iron. With the amount of carts passing he should have some “all pins double sided heater thing-a-majigg” that warms all pins up at once and just slides that connector off.

I guess adding some flux would speed things up and decrease the risk of damaging the plastic.

EDIT: I was thinking a double pair of something like this, but wider:

So, heat all pins at once, slide the connector and board apart.

• This reply was modified 11 years, 11 months ago by e5frog.

… or (for Minestorm) two of these types of nozzles and a heat gun (and additional pipes) or two separate heat guns…

Press the button, heat, pull apart.

Thanks for the ideas. It just seems I can’t get under the metal pins with an xacto knife and it’s REALLY irritating. I don’t quite know how the heat gun would work, because you could only do one side at a time unless you do it on it’s side.

I’ll keep working at it. Mindstorm what material are your PCB’s made out of? It’s unusual 🙂

thanks

Wynd

It’s 0.6mm FR4, which is glass-reinforced epoxy laminate.

It looks a bit unusual because the solder mask is dark blue.

My way – approx 20-40 minutes

Desolder all pins (sucking up all the solder)on both sides

Then use a 45 watt iron to heat up each pin, while you slowly slide an xacto knife under each pin, allowing the pin to cool before letting go.

This worked quite well.

Wynd