Star Tech Journal

February 1993
m
STAR*TECH Journal
technology is commonplace
and this makes changing IC's
of this type impossible with
conventional
soldering/
desoldering equipment. Some
distributors do have the
luxury of owning this type of
equipment and if so are able to
fix most problems in house.
Even the best still have to de-
pend on the manufacturer
from time to time when the
going gets real rough.
Older video game boards are
easier to work on than the
boards of the late 80's and 90's.
They too can be damaged from
someone rough necking them
but are much easier to patch
back together if damage does
The PLCC's are the square
IC'sthathaveleadsall theway
around them that are tucked
underneath the body of the IC.
Often they are socketed in spe-
cial sockets.
JCCUr.
SURFACE MOUNT AND PLCC
IC's
Many boards manufactured
today use PLCC and surface
mount technology (SMT). In
alot of cases a PLCC or SMT
can take the place of an entire
circuit board of discrete com-
ponents and I C's. This helps in
many areas such as physical
space, cost and power con-
sumption.
If you have a board that has
PLCC's and/or SMT's on it you
should leave it to your dis-
tributor or the manufacturer.
The reasons being that most
boards designed with these
.1 igh density IC's are also
multi-layered and require
high end equipment to solder
and unsolder.
Never try to remove them
with out the proper extraction
tool designed for that particu-
lar size PLCC. If you try to
wedge them out of their socket
you will crack the socket more
often than not which will wind
up costing even more money to
fix.
taneously using a hot air ma-
chine of some sort. These IC's
very often break a couple of
pins loose from the board and
become intermittent. This is
especially true on games that
get vibrated around alot or are
moved often. Don't attempt to
fix these yourself, they are ex-
tremely fragile and the traces
they solder to are even more
fragile. If your distributor
can't handle the job insist that
they send the board back to its
manufacturer for repair.
OVERVIEW
Like I said before, many
boards use these IC's, a couple
of examples are Capcom
Bowler and the Williams WPC
Cpu. If you suspect a PLCC is
bad, send it out for repair.
SMT IC's are similar except
their leads extend down and
outward away from the IC.
They are not socketed and are
soldered in. The only proper
way to remove them is to heat
the entire board and IC simul-
All in all you will find that with
some knowledge and t alent
most of the pinball boards can
be fixed in house unless the
problems get too deep. Video
game boards on the other hand
are alot more fragile and for
the most part should be fixed
by or through your distributor.
When you see it going over
your head you should stop and
think about what you are
about to undertake. It will
save you $$$ in the long run.