Eprom Socketing, cake...

the1cancer · 10-12-2005, 08:13 PM

Ok, so I needed to get my ECU socketed to make way for my Ostrich Tuning hardware. I researched on prices people wanted for socketing my ECU and personally I dont feel that its reasonable to have to pay 65 bucks and have to wait about 2 weeks without a car just to get it socketed.

So I took matters into my own hands, I read the vfaq on removing capacitors which gave me some good tips on removing the soder from the pins of the eprom, Used that tip and desodered the pins from the eprom making sure not to over-heat the eprom. used a pair of tweezers to remove any slag and free any tiny strands of soder remaining between the board and eprom. I used a small pair of tweezers to get under the eprom and gently pried off the eprom from the board.

I bought a socket from the local Electronics supply house and slid it into place (making sure that the indicator of direction was in the same place as the eprom was facing) and sodered it into place. Then I simply pressed on my eprom into place to test it and make sure everything worked fine.

Cake!!

huafist · 10-13-2005, 12:21 AM

There are a few reasons I don't encourage people to do it themselves. Unless you've soldered/desoldered electronics before, it's not worth the risk of damaging your ECU. EPROMS are too valuable.
The process itself isn't too difficult, but unless you're experienced, it's entirely too easy to overheat the pins and lift the copper pads from the PCB, which of course makes repair more difficult.
While you're installing the socket - again, if you're not experienced - you run the risk of having "cold" solder joints on the EPROM. It may not show up right off the bat, but cold solder joints will give problems down the road and they introduce headache-inducing gremlins into the mix.
The sockets you buy from the local electronics stores are the cheap-assed sockets. They're notorious for letting the chip walk out of the socket, and if you have a DSMLink, the machined pins on the link will gap the hell out of the socket and make it pretty much useless. The best way is a solder-tail DIP socket, they have machined holes for the pins and can't be stretched or sprung.
$65 seems a bit high unless they're using a ZIF (Zero Insertion Force) socket. Those cost a bit more so it's reflected in the cost. When you factor in the time it takes to do it right, it's absolutely worth $50 for a socketing job.

the1cancer · 10-13-2005, 11:13 PM

I agree about the experiance thing, if you have never had experiance in sodering/desodering then dont even try it. But if you do, its not really too hard.

I get all my electronic components from Frys Electronics, they carry all the top end stuff unlike radio shack or some cheap corner market. Thats where I got mine and they are just how you described.

the1cancer · 10-17-2005, 07:03 AM

Just got my new turbo in and installed my freshly socketed ECU...no problems, works fine

Defiant · 10-18-2005, 01:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by the1cancer

I researched on prices people wanted for socketing my ECU and personally I dont feel that its reasonable to have to pay 65 bucks and have to wait about 2 weeks without a car just to get it socketed.

A lot of people can hardly pick their nose without stabbing themselves in the brain. For them, the cost and assurance of having the job done correctly is worth the time and money.
Glad you could do it.
Spell Check would tell you about "solder".