From: Brian Parker (bunnyboy_at_sealiecomputing.com)
Date: Thu Sep 04 2003 - 23:32:54 PDT
I don't think the pin of the slot that DOES NOT work is actually
touching that via (pad with hole for connecting layers in the board).
The via is connected to both the broken pin and the one right next to
it. They both look like they are part of a ground plane. Info on the
pc card spec would confirm this. If it were making good contact with
that via then the slot should work.
The broken pin on the slot that DOES work looks like it is touching a
test point (labelled TP on the board). When the Newton is turned on
the test point may be ground, close enough to ground, or ground often
enough for the card to work. Amazing that it hit that pad, since there
is a corner it has to go around.
To make the soldering easier, you could just connect the two pins
together instead of trying to solder to the original pad. Make sure
the pin is still straight tho. They are longer so the card gets
grounded while inserting before the rest of the pins touch so there
aren't any bad shocks sent to the unsuspecting Newt.
Those are very nice pictures of tiny stuff. Expensive digital camera?
:)
Brian Parker
Sealie Computing
bunnyboy_at_sealiecomputing.com
NewtGlider - www.sealiecomputing.com/NewtGlider
MathFaster - www.sealiecomputing.com/MathFaster
Napalm - www.sealiecomputing.com/Napalm
>
> Take a look at what I see when I examine the connector
> part of the PC cards.
> http://newton.tek-ed.com/newt-slot/index.html.htm
>
> In these images, the right slot is the working bottom
> slot.
> What bothered me is that both slots exhibitted the
> pushed in PC card pin...the exact same pin! Yet the
> bottom slot worked and the upper slot didn't!
> Troubling.
> But I think that these two pictures are quite telling.
> Note this picture:
> http://newton.tek-ed.com/newt-slot/img0002.htm
> of the bottom slot pushed in pin? Note the pad this
> pin is touching? I *think* that this pad leads to the
> same place (?ground?) as the pin went originally.
> Now, note this picture:
> http://newton.tek-ed.com/newt-slot/img0003.htm
> See where this pushed in pin is touching? I think that
> this pad somehow shorts out the entire circuit to the
> Newton. I theorize that ground it probably contacted
> on multiple pins so as long as the pin isn't touching
> anything, or touching ground, the loss of a single pin
> doesn't cause any problems. But since the card has a
> ground from some other pin, this ground travels to
> this pushed in pin an this pushed in pin is in contact
> with something that shorts out (shunting to ground) a
> critical circuit for the upper slot.
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