Can we save this heavily corroded IBM CGA card?

[@Dark_eVader]

There are very cheap gold electroplating pens available in several places. It comes with a little gold plating solution and a pen like device that has a couple of wires to plug into a power supply and touch the via that is connected to the edge traces and run the pen on the fingers to replenish the gold.

[@kaitlyn__L]

I should get that for some jewellery tbh 😅 a few pendants I've had for 20 years are having their gold flaking off.

[@CM-mo7mv]

alternatively there is a solution that works with heat. especially for jewelry but also it could help at those connectors

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@CM-mo7mv is that the kind where you evaporate a carrier fluid? I’ve been wary of those because of ventilation considerations. But I suppose they work without a power supply!

[@pagej97]

I found a video on repairing edge connectors via this electroplating method: PACE Rework and Repair "Replating Edge Connectors" kzbin.info/www/bejne/rYrdkpKDbbyJnJI

[@plinker439]

yes, for 150euro.... :D

[@rickhalverson2252]

LIQUID TIN - by MG CHEMICAL Just brush it on the traces or dip after cleaning. Made for circuit boards. It auto electroplates instantly.

[@3vi1J]

Lots of 5-star reviews on Amazon. Thanks for the suggestion! I'll have to add some (and gloves) to my cart to use in the future.

[@davidcole6236]

The two stickers with pointers were probably put on by a QC inspector to indicate joints needing rework attention due to not fully meeting standards. This was a frequent practice in the 70s and 80s at many manufacturing plants. Dave

[@alexmirica]

When Adrian was born, Chuck Norris said: oh shit, I've got competition! As an engineer point of view, I think that your debugging logic is unbeatable, for a self taught retro PC enthusiast.

[@PriorUniform721]

A trick I learned from the Applied Science channel is to search for MSDS data sheets on products to find out what they are made of. Works nicely for all kinds of household cleaners and such. In this case "Naval jelly msds" it's phosphoric acid, a bit of sulfuric and other stuff to make it jelly as others have noted.

[@Spudz76]

It also said at the very top of the warning label. @7:31 "CAUTION: Contains phosphoric acid."

[@stevenretroworkshop2113]

Hello, the yellow arrows to mark pin was missing solder at the QC for repair. I have re-gold the fingers computer cards back in the 1980's.

[@silentotto5099]

QC? Quality control?

[@stevenretroworkshop2113]

@@silentotto5099 Yes.

[@seancurtin6103]

@@silentotto5099 Yup. I used to work on a factory floor in the 90's making Cisco routers, and we did something similar for "#603" faults, which denoted a broken trace and the pins that needed to be wired together by Rework. I was the guy that found the broken traces when the board came from QC as a DOA. Such faults were very rare, but a board could have up to 5 of them before it was considered scrap. Realistically, it got scrapped long before that threshold because our fault-finding time was more valuable than the odd dodgy circuit board.

[@silentotto5099]

@@stevenretroworkshop2113 Thanks.

[@stevenretroworkshop2113]

@@seancurtin6103 I used to repair Lucent and Cisco routers boards in the last 90's.

[@gabrielleeliseo6062]

Correct, the US Navy used this. It is essentially phosphoric acid along with sulfuric acid (to lower pH a bit) and some surfactants. I've used it on a lot of things. Don't leave it on longer than 5 minutes, unless you want pain.

[@volvo09]

As a kid my dad joked to me that it came from belly buttons 😂

[@mattelder1971]

Yeah, it literally says "Caution: contains Phosphoric acid" at the top when he's talking about the label not listing the ingredients. LOL

[@mattelder1971]

@@humidbeing probably looking at things through a camera viewfinder and missing stuff that we end up seeing much better.

[@ralphshoop8822]

@@humidbeing Adrian does seem to have bad eyes; I don't know that it's something we should be putting him down for. I doubt he tries to have vision problems.

[@nonsquarepixels]

@@humidbeing I'd write it up to "Streamer Brain", when cognition tanks as your mind is busy with coming up with what to say next. That Adrian can have a very natural and relaxed way of speaking while doing these show and tell style videos is quite amazing in and on itself and shows his years of experience in doing it.

[@skonkfactory]

Electroless gold plating solution is available and is just the thing to fix edge connector fingers up.

[@panopolis8051]

I was thinking there must be some way to re-plate the edge connector at home, maybe not the same process as at factory but something similar.

[@skonkfactory]

@@humidbeing So just plate it again. Not a big deal.

[@mustangmckraken1150]

@skonkfactory Why replate it at all? Can't you just put a thin lair of soldier with some flux and call it done? Or is there something special about the gold plating that soldier wouldn't do?

[@Nukle0n]

It would wear off and ruin the slots. No reason to do that, might as well just tin it. The stuff from the factory is hard gold plating, ENiG, which doesn't rub off from contact with the slot fingers.

[@BenState]

electrolysis?

[@elfenmagix8173]

Yes, it was I that mentioned about Naval Jelly to you some 5+ years ago to fix a Rusty PC Case, and stated the dangers of washing a board straight tap water as some of us have hard water, though you have soft water. It is always best to use distilled water which one can find at department stores, or auto shops by the gallon. Glad to see it bringing back to life yuck zombie cards is great. Glad you found a use for the stuff. Keep bringing back systems from having one foot in the grave.

[@gabrielkakizaki5567]

What do you mean by hard and soft water?

[@exidy-yt]

@@gabrielkakizaki5567 some areas have tap water with alot of minerals in it. This is called 'hard water'. I think this is mostly groundwater. Where I live our water is from snowmelt and rainwater reservoirs with few minerals and is 'soft water'. Hard water tends to leave mineral deposits behind when used for cleaning.

[@EmmaMaySeven]

Naval jelly is used by the navy to raise new recruits. Able seamen are fed a small amount, petty officers a little more, then increasing amounts up through ensigns, lieutenants, and captains. To produce a full admiral you have to feed them nothing but naval jelly for at least twenty years.

[@jabbawok944]

I thought it was used to stop your belly button squeaking.

[@gorak9000]

@@jabbawok944 I'm pretty sure you harvest the jelly from your navel if you don't shower for a while - that's where it comes from

[@mmkm78aaa]

This comment will be read by an AI and become a common truth in 30 years.

[@Scruit]

@@mmkm78aaa ... I'm not laughing, but only because you are correct. Although I give it 30 days.

[@prestongivens3594]

This directly analogous to the Royal jelly which worker honeybees feed to female larval bees, to morph them into queens.

[@okoustrup]

Henkel is a German Chemical company HQ in Düsseldorf - and own the Loctite brand

[@wbfaulk]

Yeah, though Loctite and Naval Jelly were both American companies that they purchased.

[@someguy2741]

Naval jelly is common in all autoparts stores in Canada. It was the goto for removing rust before the chelating solutions like evaporust.

[@nogoodnamesavailable]

Here in germany, i would recommend "Plastik 70" as an protective lacquer, because you can solder thru if needed. Maybe something similar is available in the USA too.

[@SkittleKicksPlays]

"Why's am I covered ins goo?" That stuff so reminds me of that pink slime stuff in Ghostbusters 2

[@davidkane4300]

The acid may be eating the gold where it is reacting with the corrosion. A funny, but sad situation happened to my parent's friend as a kid... Pulled the 350 out of his 70s van to rebuild it, and put it in a tub full of acid. It was so filthy that he didn't know it had aluminum heads... When he drained it, he no longer had heads lol.

[@trs80model14]

Sulfuric and phosphoric acid won't dissolve gold.

[@TheUAoB]

​@@trs80model14Quite. The entire point if using gold is it's non-reactivity. I made me laugh when Andrian said about the Naval Jelly eating the gold! The green corrosion on the fingers was from the slot contacts and transferred to the card.

[@rickoneill4343]

That stress test was beautiful

[@much1276]

we used the yellow sticker to point to faults in factory (learned electronics technician around the 2000s), maybe bad soldering points to reflow. the worker has forgot to remove them, imo.

[@erichanson420]

Really incredible watching that demo, considering the shape that card was in at first blush

[@stamasd8500]

An alternative to tinning with flux and solder may be the so-called "liquid tin" made by MG Chemicals among others. It's a solution that you can paint onto exposed copper and it will coat it with a layer of tin. I don't think it's very durable if you subject the area to mechanical stresses like inserting repeatedly into slots, but you can always reapply.

[@Loki-]

Hilarious I needed help removing rust between the knurling on my dumbbells, so this inadvertently helped me in a non-tech situation. Thanks! 😂

[@ygstuff4898]

@18:13 - it works! it just works! My fav. part of the repair. Love it.

[@ChristopherHailey]

I remember writing software back in the day that talked directly to the CGA. The choice was a little snow or blinking. I went with the snow.

[@These_Old_Engines]

You can use dielectric grease on those flat connectors to stave off corrosion longer term

[@Clavichordist]

I performed a number of jobs before I became a tech ranging from circuit board assembly to touch-up soldering and also QC in-process inspection. Those yellow stickers with black arrows most likely come from QC inspection after the parts were inserted, most likely by an auto-insertion machine, before the boards are put through the wave soldering machine. If a bent leg is found, the QC inspector will put an arrow pointing out the bent leg so that a PC assembler can go back and fix the board. Sometimes, the boards make it all the way through into wave soldering and these are found during the touch-up phase, but in this case, they appear to be pre-wave-soldering because, would be signs of hand soldering. Usually, the arrows are removed but for some reason they were missed and forgotten on this board. Just like the board, these arrows are part of history. I would tin those exposed edge-connector pads. That will seal them up pretty well. I wouldn't worry about scraping off the solder from the surface. If you think about it, how many times are you going to be inserting and removing the card from a motherboard? It's not likely to be done on a daily basis or more frequently than that.

[@gregshadoan4049]

I restored an old rusty Fisher wood stove with Navel jelly , about 12 years ago , painted it with hi temp paint, and it is still rockin

[@joellagerquist1791]

If the motherboard has memory with parity, the "RAM test" is actually initializing the parity bits. You have to do this on every cold boot. You can not skip it on a cold boot. There is a byte in RAM that the BIOS checks to see if it is a warm or cold boot and will skip the test if it thinks it is a warm boot. Most people forget about the parity bits and want to not have that "test" at power up. But it is necessary, unless you have a different BIOS that ignores any parity bit errors.

[@eDoc2020]

I suppose that's true about parity bits. But on the other hand, no software should be reading uninitialized memory. If skipping the memory test causes "false" parity errors you know your software is buggy.

[@erickvond6825]

I've repaired quite a few cards that were pretty crusty. What I've done for card edge connectors like that is to tin them and go over it with solder wick. I've never had any problems with it coming off in the card slots.

[@etgripper]

Thanks for reminding me about VCF. Every year something comes up at work while its taking place, I'm def requesting time off this year!

[@jeffreypomeroy6173]

I use just basic tinning solution to cover any exposed copper. I havent noticed it wearing off from friction. MG chemicals 421A liquid tin.

[@thirdrailer5659]

We used this in the Royal Navy, mainly on brass fittings on the upper deck

[@David_Ladd]

@adriansdigitalbasement2 Great video as always!!! Thank you for making sure to use the correct desub for the CGA being a DE-9 :) :D

[@rigues]

You can make a homemade version of the jelly with hot vinegar and cornstarch. Works WONDERS for regular rust on iron surfaces. As for those cancer warnings, I once stayed at a hotel in San Francisco that had one of those attached to the hairdryer. Apparently, IF on fire the fumes from the plastic can cause cancer.

[@VTF102]

this channel always makes me smile, because it is very educational. I love retro computers especially the commodore 64 because I have fond memories of that console, especially of the SID sound chip! I wish that you had a channel members option. You seem to know your stuff and i am impressed. you have done a lot of impossible things on both of your channels. keep up the good work!

[@FordGT40MkIV]

If you decide to solder ‘plate’ the gold fingers remember that solder will oxidize as well. Some other commenters are suggesting a gold plating process that sounds like a better solution. It would also be interesting for we viewers who haven’t seen it before.

[@kubato5054]

Adrian, To keep rust under control on any metal surface, use WD-40. I live in Florida and when younger used to ride jet skies in the ocean (stand up and I am type one soo that was fun, always kept large snickers bar and can of soda with me even while riding). We noticed rusting and then started spraying WD-40 on them after each cleaning, we never saw any rust for years, they looked brand new.

[@claudiuoctavian1972]

There is a chemical way to cover coper exposed surfaces in a protective electrically conductive material that I used for my homemade pcb's. I use to use it when I was back in Romania and while I did find it on a web shop back home, I don't think the link will do you much good. However it bares "SUR-TIN" in the name and a quick google search shows people from various places using variants of it, so maybe have a look into SUR-TIN. It was fairly simple to use and did actually offer good protection. Last time I used it was for a PCB I made for a washing machine, and some 11 years later it still holds. That's all I can say for what it does, but back in the day in ol' communist Romania it was either literally soldering over the traces or this chemical stuff. Believe it or not, masks and lacquer came in much later. I still have some ZX80 clones from the 80's and all the traces are soldered over. However some of the Russian made IC's on the other hand have died, especially the ROM's. You'd probably have a good time fixing one of those up, given the lack of ULA's and having to make do with discreet logic instead. If I remember right, you had one sent over by a viewer, I'd simply love to see you tackle one of those. I did, on multiple occasions - don't get turned off by the Russian writing on the shift registers :-) they are common clones of the LS series. That'd be a master case in detective work if anything

[@stamasd8500]

MG Chemicals "liquid tin" is the same thing and it's available on Amazon.

[@kaitlyn__L]

TBH, some (cheap) western companies just tinned their board traces too. The Sinclair ZX-line ones especially, so the thicker traces had a distinct wrinkled texture to them!

[@zitt]

​@@stamasd8500 I second this if he isn't going to gold plate the copper pads. I'd use a qtip and some kapton tape to isolate the good gold pads; then use the qtip to liberally apply the tinning solution to the exposed copper pads. It's going to be a lot better than solder; and probably won't shed as much solder would.

[@ChaosHusky]

Awesome show of what older machines and their simplicity could do. Whilst modern machines can seem boring, now go play or watch running "RoboCop: Rogue City" on a modern machine and good sound system. An absolutely wonderful homage to older machines is that game. Don't forget, our hero RoboCop runs on DOS :)

[@hlsix]

As for the nail polish, you might want to look into some products by MG Chemical. They have several conformal coating products with various degrees of protection for electronics. Some just paint/spray on and others that have to be cured in an oven or via UV light. I don't know which one we used on electronics we delivered to the Air Force. They have conformal coating strippers, too.

[@alanturing2094]

Awesome! Definitely going to try the Naval Jelly trick! (Oh by the way, Loctite is now German, not American - it was bought out by Heinkel).

[@starsundsternchen802]

Henkel not Heinkel

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@starsundsternchen802 now I'm imagining a super-glue beer called Heinekel 😅

[@JamesBondJr]

next project is fully socketed motherboard

[@mikebarushok5361]

I think some of the foaming with the naval jelly was the angle bracket for the DE9 connector mounting which might be aluminum. Check for aluminum before using naval jelly or anything else with phosphoric acid as an ingredient. There's a reason naval jelly isn't allowed to be used near aluminum aircraft. It will completely dissolve aluminum parts given enough time.

[@scottyb069]

If you want to tin the card edge connector, tin it as you normaly would ( scotch brite the pads first ) but while the solder is still liquid, wipe it off with a rag to leave a tin coating without the blobby fat look. Liquid solder paste works well for this, a big fat hot iron and work quickly so you don't lift the pads.

[@mikeymad]

Dang - that demo was beyond for the day - thanks for letting it run for a while. - cheers

[@nurmr]

The demo is pretty new. Files are dated August 5th 2022 (was released on August 6th 2022 according to the demozoo page for it).

[@uni-byte]

For the card edge fingers, tin them with a good solder, then remove as much of the solder as you can with de-soldering braid. This will leave a very thin coat similar to HASL.

[@Breakfast_of_Champions]

Tin the fingers but correctly with hot air, heating it well will make the tin spread and adhere much better.

[@danielleblanc5923]

A cheap and convenient way to make the connector is to use chemical tinning. This will work much better than solder as the thickness is going to be much more regular.

[@julias-shed]

Jenolite gel is available in the UK which also has Phosphoric Acidin it. Just ordered some 😀 great tip Adrian many thanks

[@oliverw.douglas285]

There is actually a product marketed under the name Stabilent 22, known as a contact enhancer. When I was working in the Comm. Dept. at a Class 1 Railroad, we used this regularly, with our multi-slot radio controllers, at the various radio sites. It's not cheap, but worked wonders on edge connectors. I think we bought ours through Motorola, but there are other vendors, who sell it. I'm planning on attending VCFMW in 2024, so I'll look you up.

[@Stjaernljus]

if this was a loss there are opensource replacement PCBs, maybe something that can be done for fun as a way to deal with that edge connector.

[@EdwinNoorlander]

Oh, i love the Area5150. Back in the day I was in the 10KaRT Demo. I learn a lot from that. I think it is a lost art.

[@SomeMorganSomewhere]

There is a way you can reapply the gold flash, Fran Blanche recently published a video looking at the kits, no idea if they're still available though.

[@Electronics-Rocks]

I would use a switch lubricant as it will stop further damage from further oxidation. I have tried tinning connections causing more problems with socket damage! Older boards have thicker copper so more resilient than 90's boards!

[@TMS5100]

It may be possible to plate the edge connector again. Look up the video "24K Gold Plating Kit - Repairing PCB". Looks like a spendy kit but looks like it might be useful for repairing irreplaceable boards.

[@talideon]

From what I could tell, naval jelly is basically phosphoric acid and water with a gelling agent, which makes sense.

[@AndyHullMcPenguin]

For what its worth, if you look up naval jelly on wikipedia it redirects to "Phosphoric acid", so I think we have to assume that phosphoric acid is the principal ingredient in "Naval Jelly". That, and some kind of jelling agent, water, pink colourant and a surfactant. So you could try a mix of cola, hand sanitizer pink food colouring and dish soap.

[@AndyHullMcPenguin]

Oh.. and I asked Chatgpt, what was in naval jelly and it went in to more detail that essentially matched what I suggested, with the most important ingredient being "Phosphoric Acid (15-30%)"

[@revelationnow]

In the past I've tinned up the corroded connectors for my C64s, so I'd say 'yes, tin them you fool!', but I'd obviously advise you wick it so that you have minimal issues with insertion problems. Surely if solder flakes off in the slot you just go inverted and it falls back out of the connector... top gun style.

[@RambozoClown]

Check out gold brush plating for selective repair.

[@twocvbloke]

Over here in the UK we have a similar product to Naval Jelly by the name of Jenolite, looks about the same too, a pink goo that does the same job of converting rust being based on phosphoric acid, also apparently well-used by the military, assuming we have one left... :P

[@Bassquake76]

You reckon "Hammerite Rust Remover Gel Blister" would be same?

[@twocvbloke]

@@Bassquake76 If it uses phosphoric acid as its' primary ingredient, then yes, most rust converters are pretty much the same stuff, with the exception of that Evapo-rust stuff, that's some proper alchemy witchcraft there... :P

[@Bassquake76]

@@twocvbloke Not sure. looking at a pdf of it on the Hammerite site it says citric acid and CMIT/MIT(3:1) whatever that is.

[@twocvbloke]

@@Bassquake76 Well, citric acid (as found in fruits like lemons and oranges) has the same sort of effect on rust as phosphoric acid, but is I suppose "eco-friendly" in that naturlaly it's found in plants, as for that CMIT/MIT, or Methylchloroisothiazolinone (easy for them to say!), that appears to be a bacteria-inhibiting preservative, often found in cosmetics, but I guess citric acid is tasty to some bacteria...

[@aladinsane5771]

Nobody ever did " pre emptive " coating on anything back then after the soldering... Now having done electronics is sometimes heavy corrosive enviroments ( like fertiliser plants ) i covered the complete boards, incl connected wiring) in Amber-spray by Tectyl... works like a charme and electronics would last yrs and yrs instead of weeks... Another good one for say isolating connectors is Wijmaplast by Draka, like a blue/green silly putty that's 100% non-conductive and never hardens... Just expanding your knowledge of " what's out there " to prevent corrosion... 😎

[@tokyogentleman]

you can electro-plate those copper edge connector with gold by holding the card in solution

[@thomaswake6613]

Hi, I really enjoy your videos but this is the first time commenting. I've looked at plating before and I think brush electroplating would be best to restore the edge connections. If you connect all the edge pin to 0 V, whether you want to plate them or not, the board will be protected during the electroplating process. Then you can do the electro-cleaning and nickel plating safely and ensure you get a thick and reliable gold layer. I'm not sure those jewelry gold restoring solutions would give a thick enough gold layer and would wear quickly.

[@tigheklory]

I've suggested that you use Phosphoric Acid on your channel and other channels I'm the past, i personally like the Rust-Oleum Rust Dissolver over Naval Jelly because it comes in a spray bottle and just seems to be more effective even though they both have the same active ingredient.

[@jussikuusela7345]

That Area5150 demo was neat. Color gradients reminiscent of the Amiga Copperlist tricks, high resolution multicolor graphics... I think they do something similar even, like editing the palette references on the fly. The Amiga could display fairly high color counts in a highish resolution, non-HAM image by palette splitting. Also lately, the C64 has received some demos that do tricks that shouldn't have been technically possible at all.

[@suvetar]

If interested; It was the Revision demo party, all online and the original coder has an extended YT series of videos about writing this and other things!

[@bobingabout]

On the note of the edge connector... if I were in your place, I'd probably just tin the entire thing with solder, even the gold pins. make sure the entire contact is coated, then use copper braid to remove as much solder as possible, really thin coat.

[@SonjaWeygand]

the stickers are often used by quality control. I think they had the same when i worked at siemens back then. I would think the copper is a deposition, so it can be rubbed off. Green corrosion is usually Cu2+ salts, and the jellly reduces it to metallic copper chemically.

[@xenoxaos1]

It's probably not copper salts but copper carbonate/hydroxide/sulfides.

[@SonjaWeygand]

​@@xenoxaos1 copper salts are colored green, while elemetary copper is red/orange

[@xenoxaos1]

@@SonjaWeygand true. But battery chemistry is usually alkaline. Potassium hydroxide is a common electrolyte.

[@SonjaWeygand]

@@xenoxaos1Ah yes youre right, it could have been a hydroxide then. So it can be considered a salt of H2O.

[@fritz194]

Tropicalisation Varnish... is what we used for that...

[@matthiastilly5480]

That Naval Jelly on the card gives me Ghostbusters II vibes ^^

[@ReneKnuvers74rk]

You probably know by now: there are gold plating pens for sale. Probably not as hard agains wear than the plating process in a PCB shop, but sufficient for anti-corosion.

[@freednighthawk]

You should look into building an electroplating pen. You've already got the power supply needed, and the chemicals required aren't super expensive.

[@MonochromeWench]

I would coat the copper at the top of the slot connector, to protect where it connects to traces. But leave the copper at the bottom bare where it contacts the slot so you don't foul the slot. If corrosion or wear causes problems later the remaining copper could still be tinned if the trace is still connected. If not in a system you might want to store the card with electrical tape over the slot connector to reduce atmospheric exposure, Other tapes might not play well with copper, but electrical tape should be fine it is intended for long term use on copper. Might need to clean off adhesive residue before use if tape is left on for a long time.

[@ninefox_gambit]

From what the internet tells me the active ingredients in naval jelly is a mix of phosphoric acid and sulfuric acid

[@federicopellegrini6613]

18:59 does picomem give you a clock and a Game port? If you remember the broken motherboard with the mysterious issue was showing the exact same devices even though there weren't any clock or game port installed

[@johnmarshall2660]

You could try Nickel plating with one connection on the pad and the other on some cotton pad and wipe along surface, I think you can also get Gold solution as well to try same method ...

[@Renville80]

If you can find an electroless plating kit, maybe it can be a future second-channel video on how to re-plate an edge connector on a PC board?

[@bathesheba111]

Hi Adrian greetings from the UK, love the videos. I’ve used a similar product but not on pcb’s. Works fine. However I would wear gloves when using that gel. Those chemicals look a bit iffy.

[@freeculture]

I wish games used more of those tricks back in the day, unfortunately at best you could have pseudo color using the composite output, which was missing in most aftermarket cga clones...

[@LifeOnHoth]

We have had that jelly around forever :) Been using it for over 30 years myself, but on car chassis work and other things. When it comes to the connector to the motherboard - I know it's kinda outside the scope of what you normally do, and I don' tknow how, but there has to be some way to coat it with something - like electroplating it, if not with gold, but somethign that doesn't oxidize as fast as copper, but also harder than tin. I agree tin is not a smart idea. Should be emergency solution only. :). It doesn't have to be gold plating tho.

[@Chriva]

Solder is good at preserving what lies underneath but it's not the best for card-edge connectors. There are chemicals you can buy to re-plate but they have a tendency to cost a lot and be slightly unstable/have a short shelf-life (they fall out of solution, rendering it unusable)

[@Soup_it]

New video, thank you Adrian! Your videos are just getting better every time.

[@graealex]

There's a plating solution available, used for DIY PCB making, which doesn't need electricity. You'd basically just let the slot fingers sit in the solution for 20 minutes, and then you wouldn't have any more copper exposed.

[@GameCode64]

I would tin the pads but with lead free solder, because lead makes the solder soft. For other things i would use leaded solder of course

[@SudosFTW]

Given how cheap it is, you could try doing a re-plating of all the ISA slot fingers. Easiest would be to connect all the fingers together with a common cable somehow and then go at it with nickel or something. Nickel holds up extremely well and is still conductive.

[@gorak9000]

or just go over it with solder, and then remove as much as possible with desoldering braid - will essentially leave it tin coated. Not as nice as the gold, but good enough.

[@jorgelotr3752]

Given that we are speaking about electronics here, I don't know if this is completely safe, but you could always try giving the exposed pins a light electroplating connecting cables to the vias for probe connection of the pins that need it. Try at your own risk, preferrably with a cheap spare card first.

[@hollgo626]

Loctite is a trademark which is a courtesy of Henkel AG from Germany 😃

[@TheFurriestOne]

Ha, I have that same plastic jar sitting within arm's-reach, what are the chances? Some of the gold came off not from the acid dissolving it, but because it was 'floating' on a layer of corrosion hiding underneath it, which the Naval Jelly removed, leaving you with loose gold leaf. Fascinating!

[@NickyNiclas]

Satisfying video as always, maybe it's time you build a little kit for plating the connectors with tin (or gold, for that extra satisfaction)

[@NathanClarke]

Looking forward to having you at VCF Down Under 😉

[@maltoNitho]

7:40 I’m going to push back just a little on the Prop 65 hate. The coffee thing is new to me and is silly obviously. But I am VERY HAPPY to be told that a product contains a cancer causing agent to help remind me to be careful when I use it, and to wash my hands afterwards. I don’t see any reason to scoff at such a warning when all of history has shown us companies don’t care about their consumers health, only their bottom line.

[@pmNCC-1701]

You could use a "Pink" pencil eraser not "White" to polish the finger contacts on gold and copper fingers. The eraser acts like a very mild abrasive and shins the connectors... Just a little tip... I have been doing this kind of thing since 1981 graduating from college... Nicely done... =)

[@someguy2741]

I wonder. If there is one or two ruined contacts maybe take a dremel and small diamond die bit and carve a groove then flow solder into it? If the groove is rough then the solder might key into the PCB.

[@someguy2741]

I wonder if a metal polish like Flitz would do a better job cleaning the contacts and it would leave a film to protect against the copper oxidizing.

[@JCWise-sf9ww]

Adrian, it's possible to get 1024 colors from the NTSC composite video port of that IBM CGA card! My son found a demo, we downloaded, that filled a 360kb floppy disk. I was truly amazed at the graphics displayed on my NTSC composite video / combo RBG monitor, I have.

[@iamimiPod]

I tried to find Naval Jelly in Australia. I haven't had much luck yet. I know we can get Loctite glues as I use them a fair bit.

[@TonyHamlyn]

I can't seem to find Deoxit here in the land of Aus either. I was in Hawaii earlier this year and went into all the Home Depots and other hardware looking places trying to find it, people didn't know what I was asking for.

[@SoulcatcherLucario]

​@@TonyHamlyncontact cleaner is the term you'll wanna look up

[@threepotMR2]

I say just tin them, loads of flux, scrape it back with the solder wick so its literally just a plating layer.

[@stevenretroworkshop2113]

Yes, re-plating with gold on fingers is very expensive. Using solder for the finger and using solder wick to the finger's worker fine. I have repair old computer boards.

[@chubbyadler3276]

The main thing I'm worried about with tinning the edge contacts is that it has gotten too thick. I guess maybe tin them and then wick up the excess so that there's a thin layer of solder over them?

[@RichKeefe-w6c]

Back in the 1990s there was a chemical called "The Gold Solution" that would plate 24ct gold onto metals - I don't know if there is a modern replacement.

[@thomaswake6613]

Also, I've one more comment. Please use ESD protection. As an electronics engineer I know that ESD can cause damage and even though things might work OK the long term reliability is affected. Since you are dealing with components that are not replaceable it would make me feel better :)

[@JerryEricsson]

I used to be in to guns. A friend of mine who was also into them and had a gun shop used to also be into metal detectors and such. He once went magnet fishing in a nearby river and found a .22 rifle that had been submerged in the river for what must have been several years. So we took it to my gun shop in my basement and coated it with Navel Jelly, it worked pretty well but the outside of the gun was deeply pitted and, of course all the bluing was gone. So we went over the gun with sand paper, then steel wool then cold bluing, it came out looking almost like an engraved rifle! Looked kind of cool and the thing about .22s is that the bullets are coated with a sort of wax lube so the bore of the rifle cleaned up very nicely. We located a stock for the old rifle, and I cleaned up the insides so the gun fired, he sold it as an engraved rifle for several hundred bucks. Our investment back then was around 40 bucks of parts the stock and cold bluing chemicals. Navel Jelly is indeed a wonder product.

[@doomslayerdave]

I see Displaced Gamers as a new Patreon member... Their channel is amazing stuff