Re: [N8VEM-S100:5707] OTish, S-100 SSM I/O Board.

Josh —

Interesting question. I have several IO4 boards and they’re great boards to use and very simple. I personally like the idea of sockets to enable replacing chips but honestly, the number of dead chips I’ve had to replace in 10 years I can count on one hand. I use machine sockets for new builds and standard low-profile dual-wipe but ones from tier-one vendors like AMP for repairs.

Rich

Rich Cini

Collector of Classic Computers

Build Master and lead engineer, Altair32 Emulator

http://www.classiccmp.org/cini

http://www.classiccmp.org/altair32

From: Crusty OMO <crus...@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: S100-Post <n8vem...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Wednesday, November 26, 2014 at 7:00 PM
To: S100-Post <n8vem...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: RE: [N8VEM-S100:5707] OTish, S-100 SSM I/O Board.

Hi Guys... making good progress with my loading of Micro-Soft 4K Basic into the ALTAIR 8800. Since it's for a vintage computer show, I'm using what ever vintage boards I have. I'm using the original ALTAIR 8080 CPU board with 8K of RAM and Solid State Music IO4 board. I'll be bringing my 8080 replacement board along as "back up". Anyway, I was having a tough time with the SSM IO4 board. After reseating the chips, the problem has went away. I'm tempted to replace the sockets on the board. I'm also tempted to solder some of the TTL chips directly in the board to avoid future issues with bad socket connections. It feels wrong to not use sockets, but I have no issues removing soldered IC's (I have a professional desoldering station).

After this computer show, the ALTAIR will sit on the shelf for a long time before it's called back to action, But, do I want to be trouble shooting the board again in 6-12 months?

This is all based on the belief I have that a soldered in chip makes a more reliable connection than a socketed chip. I would love to hear your opinions...

How would replacing sockets and/or soldering in the chips affect the "vintage" value of the board?

Cheers,
Josh Bensadon

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