[Coco] Disk controller summary?

[jdaggett at gate.net]

One reason for RS going away from gold plating was back in the 
80's many board houses were using electro-plating. To plate gold 
onto the board required the board to be handled three more times. T 
hat meant three more processes. Two of which are labor intensive 
as all the exposed copper not covered by solder mask had to be 
covered with a silicon rubber. Then the board is plated and then 
cleaned and the silicon removed. Gold plating added a lot of cost. 

Today the process is an catalytic process and is far easier and only 
plates where you want. Beside the gold cyanide used in 
eletrroplating is no longer needed. The byproduct fumes of 
hydrochloric acid don't eat away at the building in which you work 
at. Catalytic is a cheaper and cleaner process of plating Gold. The 
only problem with it is that it leaves only about 10 micrometers of 
gold. Good for PCBs but that is all. 

james
 

On 9 Mar 2005 at 17:16, Rogelio Perea wrote:

From:           	"Rogelio Perea" <os9dude at hotmail.com>
To:             	<coco at maltedmedia.com>
Subject:        	Re: [Coco] Disk controller summary?
Date sent:      	Wed, 9 Mar 2005 17:16:41 -0500
Send reply to:  	CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts 
<coco at maltedmedia.com>
	<mailto:coco-
request at maltedmedia.com?subject=unsubscribe>
	<mailto:coco-
request at maltedmedia.com?subject=subscribe>

> The FD-501 is packaged in a nice short pak
> and has the disctinct privilege of being the only controller from
> Tandy/Radio Shack that features gold plated connector pads; it also
> has a 24 pin ROM socket and the WD1773 controller chip.