Old Library

At 01:45 PM 1/19/98 -0400, Ron Magers wrote:
>I'm working on getting a Garrett chip for my '95 VR6. Since most of the 95
>chips are soldered, my car would be down for 3 days(shipping the ecu back
>and forth). Autotech has an ecu exchange program. They ship you an ecu with
>the new chip socketed in, and you send them back your old ecu. They charge
>you for a core then refund it when they receive yours. This may be cheaper
>than renting a car for 3 days plus you get to play with the q-chip until
>the g-chip arrives. :-)
>
>Anyone done this? Anything to look out for?
>
>Ron
>'95 GLX VR6

Why bother going through all that hassle? I went down to the local
electronics store that repairs TVs and VCRs, and the guy did it for me for
$20, in about half an hour. Very nice-looking, clean job as well. I'm
waiting for my G-chip to arrive anytime now.

Eugene Oh

Ron Magers wrote:
>
> This may be cheaper
> than renting a car for 3 days plus you get to play with the q-chip until
> the g-chip arrives. :-)

Any competent TV/electronics repair shop can de-solder the
factory chip and install a socket while you wait.  They
might charge you $50 to do it, but it will be cheaper than
paying Autotech the $35 that they used to get, plus shipping
and sneaker wear.  You can buy the correct EPROM socket at
any Radio Shack for the ungodly price of like $1.29. (P/N:
276-1997, 28-pin low profile IC socket.)  Make sure that you
tell them that you want to be able to put the stock chip
back in, so they don't maul it.  Since the pins are brittle after
desoldering, I just stuck mine into a loose IC socket, and then
plug that socket (with the chip piggybacked) into the one on
the ECM board.  I'm sure that some EE guy is about to give me
good reasons for not doing this, but it runs every day like this.

I did my own 1995 computer, and even took pictures to put
on the web page showing everyone (and VW) how I voided my
warranty.  One of these days, I'll have to scan them and
write the article.....

-Arthur

> ubject: [gti-vr6] More Shine
&gt;      From: Turbospot &lt;&#84;urbospot&#64;aol<img src=/i/dc.gif border=0 width=35 height=15>&gt;
>      Date: Sat, 28 Mar 1998 05:09:36 EST
&gt;      Sender: &#111;wner-gti-vr6&#64;dev.tivoli<img src=/i/dc.gif border=0 width=35 height=15>
>
> Couldn't stand it any longer.  Ordered my kit Friday.  Now, if I can only find
> someone to solder my chip socket in for me.

Any TV or electronics repair shop should be able to do this, and those
are *everywhere*.  Ask for a *high quality* socket, tell 'em you want a
"machine screw" socket, not a cheapo one. (A good one cost $1-2; cheapo
ones are $0.25.

-Uwe-

My problem with getting the chip out of my previous 95 was that I couldn't
get all the pins on the chip hot at once-  thus preventing the chip from
comming out .... big pain in the butt....     however,

Garrett told me he could do a chip removal in 5min, I said HOW??? and he
said to use a heat gun with a concentrator tip just big enough to heat up
ALL the pins at once, cha-chinG! now you can slide the chip right out AND
save the old chip. (I saved my old chip but it took an hour for my nervous
hand to finally get all those pins loose.


jim

[...]

Yep, if you have the heat-gun with the correctly shaped nozzle, it's a
piece of cake.  My method works (quickly) with just a soldering iron and
manual solder-sucker ($10 at Radio Shack).  If you do a lot of chip
removing, a heat gun with an appropriate selection of nozzles is a great
investment.   However, I'd still recommend praticing on some junk boards
first....

- -Uwe-

>What a hacker!  How does he heat both rows of pins at once?  I
>wonder if he just does one side at a time?

I began using the heat gun technique on SMT parts in 1983.  It's really
not that difficult.  You just go round and round the part
at sort of medium speed (whatever that is) and the pads, legs, and solder
retain enough heat so that once all the solder has reached it's melting
point, you just "flick" the part right off the board.

Hell, from the number of people here that have unsocketed chips,
I should start a socketing service for list members.  Of course, my
soldering skills are probably a little rusty, but like Uwe said, I'd just
grab one of the (too many) junk or obsolete PCB's laying around the
house, and practice.
Hey, I could supplement my mod fund.  I socket your ECU, and you send a
check for $20 to ND, in my name.

Ha, ha.  Saturday morning ramblings.  Burp, groan....


Holland

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