22 Jul
2016
22 Jul
'16
2:03 p.m.
On Fri, 22 Jul 2016, Corey Cohen wrote:
There were no blank boards. That's the key. The
sockets were wave
soldered by the PCB manufacturer according to Woz. There were 2 runs of
100 boards each.
This is also an early layout board (Non NTI) but with different wave
soldered sockets than the two known production runs which both used TI
sockets even though they were from a different PCB house. This board is
from the 1st PCB house that made the "byte shop" boards but has the more
expensive and reliable RN sockets. Which implies it predates the Byte
Shop boards because of all the evidence.
TBH, I'm not sure why people get hung up on wave soldering vs hand
soldering. My own hand soldering is practically indistinguishable from a
properly wave soldered board and it wouldn't be unreasonable for someone
working at Apple to be able to hand solder boards similarly, or even for a
prior owner of the board to have retrofitted those sockets.
When I stuff boards, I use an assembly jig and form/pre-cut component
leads before soldering. This is how I was (re)taught to solder when I
began working with high reliability gear (cutting leads after soldering
can cause microfractures in the joint) and I continue to use those
techniques. I also use supplemental flux because the flux in cored solder
is really only sufficient for bright/clean pads and leads. I consistently
get better results with the extra flux.