Tips for socketing your 2G EPROM ECU

[VanIsleDSM]

I tried to add this to the tech article written by canucatchdis here:

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/articles-tuning-ecu/266472-socketing-eprom-ecu.html

But I'm not able to, so I thought I'd post it up here, maybe it can be put there if it's deemed useful enough.

Before you start desoldering your job will be much easier and cleaner if you remove the conformal coating on the circuit board around the pins with some isopropyl alcohol, you should also get yourself some more coating to spray on the board when you're done to protect it from static and corrosion.

Now cutting the legs of the stock EPROM chip as the tech article suggests is easier, but if you wish to keep your stock chip it's fairly simple to remove the solder by placing your cheap solder sucker on the bottom of the board around the pin, and heat the pin from the top, push the sucker into the board, so the only place the vacuum can go is right through the pinhole along with the molten solder.

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After:

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Brown crud here is some conformal coating cleaned off the top of the pins.

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This method worked quite well, I didn't have to redo any of the pins or use any solder braid at all. The chip came out easily by using wooden toothpicks to carefully pry it out. When I say pry I don't mean hard whatsoever, there was no solder left holding it it in place at all, a bit of conformal coating was stuck between the chip and the board, but it was no problem.

All soldered up with new conformal coating applied:

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I used a ZIF (very good one) before thinking about the lever possibly not clearing the DSMlink daughter board, I've never seen what it looks like. hopefully it works out and I don't have to do it again with a different socket, V3 should be here by the end of the week.

P.S. My proprietary high tech patent pending pajama circuit board holder may not be duplicated in any fashion. Failure to heed this warning will result in civil action.

 

[twdorris]

Looks like a nice job to me. Another solvent you can consider using would be lacquer thinner. We use the Klean Strip brand lacquer thinner on 2G ECUs and M.E.K. on 1Gs. That 1G conformal coating is really nasty stuff. The 2Gs are not so bad at all.

As for the ZIF socket, you'll have no clearance issues. We sized the V3 flash module to be as similar to an EPROM footprint as we could. I've used the arm-style ZIF sockets with a V3 module myself a number of times.

Thomas Dorris
ECMTuning, Inc.

 

[crimsondragon]

Just be careful with the methyl ethyl ketone. Shit is hazardous.

 

[marcmsj]

Just be careful with the methyl ethyl ketone. Shit is hazardous.

Probably known to the state of California to cause cancer, along with just about any other household item.

 

[twdorris]

Just be careful with the methyl ethyl ketone. Shit is hazardous.

I'll second that. I should have mentioned that in my earlier post.

Thomas Dorris
ECMTuning, Inc.

 

[DougR]

Along with being Extremly flammable! I have seen just the vapors catch fire!
Becareful with MEK!!

 

[VanIsleDSM]

Looks like a nice job to me. Another solvent you can consider using would be lacquer thinner. We use the Klean Strip brand lacquer thinner on 2G ECUs and M.E.K. on 1Gs. That 1G conformal coating is really nasty stuff. The 2Gs are not so bad at all.

As for the ZIF socket, you'll have no clearance issues. We sized the V3 flash module to be as similar to an EPROM footprint as we could. I've used the arm-style ZIF sockets with a V3 module myself a number of times.

Thomas Dorris
ECMTuning, Inc.

Thanks. Glad to hear that coming from you. I'm also relieved that I won't have any fitment issues with the socket.

Now I can't wait to start getting my feet wet with the tuning. Is it possible to get on the Link forums while I'm waiting for it to arrive so I can start learning now? I've already gone through all the information I could find publicly.

 

[snowborder714]

What conformal coating did you use? I've never heard of the stuff before.

 

[VanIsleDSM]

The stuff I used was called Loctite 3900 Conformal Coating. I just picked it up at the local electronics shop. It's just an acrylic aerosol and air cures for small production and prototype or rework stuff. For large operations they use 2 part coating or UV cure.

I also replaced all of the electrolytic caps on the board with new panasonic 105C caps rated for higher voltage so they will last even longer (100uF 16V is now 25V, 22uF 50V now 63V, 47uF 50V now 63V) One of the oem ones I removed was starting to leak slightly, but none of the leakage had made it's way onto the board yet. I used a Q-tip to apply the conformal coating on top and bottom of the board where I replaced the caps instead of spraying it.

Edit: Another thing I forgot to mention that I think helps, is using a larger tip on your soldering iron. I like the fine tip as the tech article suggests using for very small work, but a DIP sized through hole package (the form factor of the EPROM chip) is hardly small. A larger tip carries more heat, and allows you to get on and off of your work much faster than a small tip, which I find helps quite a lot especially when working with lead free solder, which is what it appears is used on the 2G board.

 

[GST2012GSX]

This really help me a lot, I did used lacquer thinner and it was much easier to remove the conformal coating. Also it is way better using a larger fine tip on your soldering iron at the time to finish all the soldering. This is my second socket and this came up much better plus I saved the oem chip, Thank you!