[Coco] Now running with 2M boomerang Memory.

John E. Malmberg wb8tyw at qsl.net
Sat Jun 6 19:36:55 EDT 2020


Just got done installing a 2M boomerang memory kit on a COCO-3.

The patient seems to have survived, but I have not really tried to 
stress it.  Just have had time to power it up and Super Extended Color 
Disk Basic + SDC all appear to work.

If I were to do it over again, I would probably send the system in for 
the install.

Lessons learned:

* I need a better soldering iron.  The 30+ year old 15W one from Radio 
Shack is on it's last tip that I have for it.  It is barely good enough 
to do this type of work.

Need to figure out what to get and where to get it, and how much it is 
going to cost.

So looking for recommendations.  This is for hobby use.

* My two solder sucking systems did not have enough suction to save 
destroying the 68b09E chip.  One is just a suction bulb on on a hollow 
tip version of the 15 watt version, that probably came from Radio Shack 
way back when.  The other is the spring loaded suction from Radio Shack.

Still have the chip if I can manage to solder pins back on it.  :-)

I seem to remember that the spring loaded one used to have enough 
suction to clear the pins of things I was desoldering.

I was only able to clear the solder on about 50% of the pins with the 
two soldering suckers.

Not sure where I got the one with the suction bulb.  I do not remember 
buying it, and this may have been the first time I used it.

Not sure if I could afford anything better, but it would be interesting 
to know the options.

* Third problem is the the variable transition bi-focals.  It is hard to 
find a position that I can really see what I am doing.  I may need to 
get a pair of glasses just for doing this type of work, or some type of 
magnifying glass.

Regards,
-John




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