Really, how hard is it?

[bcjjones]

Really how hard is it to socket an eprom ecu? I understand that the concept is easy, but really how easy is it to mess the ecu up?

I've read the how to, so I understand how to do it.

 

[bryanwheat]

It is REAL easy to rip a contact pad from the board if you don't have a good solder sucker. It is the easiest to cut the pins from the chip than de solder them one by one.

 

[KevinRR]

It is pretty easy when I did mine, I used a conformal coating/flux remover spray and used a desoldering iron at work. I desolder out the stock chip and solder the socket in, spray some conformal coating on it and that was it.

 

[rts91tsi]

Unless you have experience/soldering skills then I would not recommend doing this on your ECU. Sure you'll save a few bucks, IF you are successful, but you can easily damage your ECU. You can burn up, or cause the pads to lift by getting them too hot with the soldering iron, and damage traces by applying too much upward pressure on the chip before all of the solder is removed.

Here are some good examples of the type of damage, and the cost to repair it, vs. paying someone who is qualified to do such electronics work.

While cutting the pins on the chip will make the process a little easier, doing so also leaves you without a stock EPROM chip, unless you have a chip burner.

Just my $0.02.

 

[2GbTalonGuy]

If you don't have exprerience with it I would not do it. It is really easy to burn the pads off. I used to work for a company that manufactured circuit boards, so I have seen how easy it is to burn the bads off, even with the proper tools.

 

[92AWDHX40]

Not bad take your time.

 

[bcjjones]

Sweeeeeeet. Started messing around with it, and it must already have been socketed. I didnt notice at first glance because. It still has the stock chip in it. I was able to just pop off the stock chip and plug in the ostrich 2.0

I guess on a non socketed eprom ecu the stock chip is actually soldered on the board? I guess the stock chip can be overwrited? Or maybe the person who sold it to the guy I got it from(who got it off a parts car) just put the stock chip back in. The guy i got it from didnt even realize it was socketed.