Amiga 1200 bevel issue, TF1260 damaged, bugger!!!

General hardware issues and troubleshooting etc

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Danoo
Posts: 249
Joined: Wed Jan 29, 2020 1:25 pm
Location: Queensland, Australia

Amiga 1200 bevel issue, TF1260 damaged, bugger!!!

Post by Danoo »

Hi all,
Thought I would share this little TF1260 insertion incident, in the hope that it prevents it happening to anyone else. :)

Finally found my 060's a few days ago, and thought beauty will give my new TF1260 that I had received from @alenppc a whirl.

Inserted the card onto the A1200 (1D4 board) expansion port, powered it up and nothing :(

Took the board off and examined the TF1260, can you believe it 7 pins inside the connector had bent over :o

Bent Pins
Bent Pins
1260pins_bent_back.jpg (50.62 KiB) Viewed 4813 times

Now I have been sliding different expansions onto a variety of different A1200 boards for many years and never had issue.

Just my luck that the bevel on this board was basically non-existent, and it must of caught the pins as it slid on. I didn't even have to use much pressure to slide it on, about the same amount of pressure to slide an Apollo 1260 onto the same board.

Maybe I had a little too much of angle of attack when I pushed it in who knows!!!

Had a chat with @alenppc about it, and he had the same issue on a TF330, sanding a better bevel onto the card was the solution that worked for him. So I will be sanding a nice round bevel onto all my A1200 motherboards.


Removing a 150 pin connector from and expansion board without causing any damage is definitely a challenge.

I basically cut each pin with cutters, heated the solder with low heat (310 C) and pulled each individual pin out with tweezers.

Repairing 2
Repairing 2
Repair002.jpg (89 KiB) Viewed 4813 times
Repairing 1
Repairing 1
repair001.jpg (81.76 KiB) Viewed 4813 times

Managed to cut 3 of the rows with cutters but the last row, (the one that is closest to the edge of the board)
I had to use a cutting disc on a Demel very carefully 8-) to sever these pins.

With the connector now off, used wick and flux to clean up the mess, but this would not suck all the solder out of the pin holes.
So I use a de-soldering station, once again on low heat and flux to suck the holes clean. If you are using a de-soldering iron with flux it is a very good idea to continually clean the air passage every dozen or so connections or it is going to clog up on you :)

End result connector off, no damage

Connector off
Connector off
connector_off_01.jpg (91.81 KiB) Viewed 4813 times

It took just over 3 hours to remove the connector, and clean the board.
It may have been quicker to just use the de-soldering station to do all the pins, but I wanted to avoid putting too much pressure and heat onto the board hence the long winded approach.

I have a couple of new connectors on the way from the UK. I will be certainly sliding them on and off the board a few times before soldering a connector back onto the TF1260 :)

In summary, it would probably be a very good idea to CHECK the BEVEL !!!! on your boards :lol:
Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated - Confucius
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supaduper
Posts: 561
Joined: Thu Nov 08, 2018 12:05 pm

Re: Amiga 1200 bevel issue, TF1260 damaged, bugger!!!

Post by supaduper »

Yep known issue with the A1200 edge connector, found this out luckily with practically the first TF1260 I sold , and thankfully I have a powered solder sucker to remove one fairly easily.

Anyone who now shows interest in TF1260 is made accutely aware of this potential elephant trap and I emphasise and hightlight it in any correspondence, so yes I tell them 1st check that the Edge connector has a bevel and if not then use a needle file or similar to introduce one.
Maximilian
Posts: 290
Joined: Thu Feb 28, 2019 5:02 pm

Re: Amiga 1200 bevel issue, TF1260 damaged, bugger!!!

Post by Maximilian »

Thanks for the tip :dualthumbup:
Danoo
Posts: 249
Joined: Wed Jan 29, 2020 1:25 pm
Location: Queensland, Australia

Re: Amiga 1200 bevel issue, TF1260 damaged, bugger!!!

Post by Danoo »

Righty-O then,
the new connectors turned up a couple of days ago, and I found some time today to bevel the edge connector.

Thought I would just explain how I beveled the edge as the method I used seems to have worked quite well :)

Firstly, tested the edge by running my finger along the edge, was quite sharp.

I used a flat needle file at approx 30-45 degree angle, not applying any great pressure at first as it was gripping the edge occasionally, and I certainly did not want to lift any of the copper fingers on the A1200.

After a while you can apply a little more pressure as the sharp edge of the board starts to become blunt and the file doesn't catch anymore. Slowly working along the whole edge connector length checking the edge with my finger to make sure the edge had become very blunt.

Repeating the process on the bottom edge.

Then I used some 800 grit sand paper to clean up the roughness of the file cut, and finally some 1200 grit to give it a really smooth finish

Items Used
Items Used
Bevel002.jpg (83.84 KiB) Viewed 4623 times

The end result

Finished bevel
Finished bevel
bevel003.jpg (44.25 KiB) Viewed 4623 times

The edge connector now pushes on with very little pressure, and when I run my finger along the edge of the A1200 expansion breakout fingers they are very blunt.

Edge connector just slipped on with minimal fuss after beveling

Edge connector on very easily
Edge connector on very easily
bevel004.jpg (99.3 KiB) Viewed 4623 times
Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated - Confucius
Higgy
Posts: 400
Joined: Tue Apr 23, 2019 8:05 pm
Location: Somerset

Re: Amiga 1200 bevel issue, TF1260 damaged, bugger!!!

Post by Higgy »

Nice work there!
I recently picked up a faulty 1200 with 1B motherboard, and this one also did not have a bevelled edge! - it does now!
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