[TenTec] reballing a Dragon

Sat Apr 2 03:48:58 EDT 2016

I'm sure there would have been a lesson on this at Hogwarts :)

Just to keep it on track I did wonder if perhaps in time there might be 
a better option.
I know the Orion is just another old radio and not likely ever to 
attract Collins type prices or reverence but perhaps there would be 
enough of a market to warrant some 're-jigging'.

The board with the dragon also has the DSP's and ADC/DAC's plus some 
other extraneous bit n pieces but from a hardware side is not much more 
than a specialised computer with some peripherals. The software is of 
course another story, it's been through various iterations and some 
might say it's still not quite there, or will ever be now.

All that said I get to wondering if an open source replacement board 
might be something to consider. Having seen what can be done with a lot 
of the easily accessible and indeed free in some cases CAD/CAM tools 
together with some community software development it would seem the 
Orion might be an excellent candidate for a whole re-imagining of its 
control, display and operation structure. I imagine a drop in 
replacement cpu board with all the same connections and fittings but 
with updated hardware and software. There's a lot of radio in an Orion 
and 21st century processing scheme could probably make a lot more of it.

Martin
HS0ZED

On 02/04/2016 02:09, Reed Krenn wrote:
> If you MUST reball the dragon, at least make sure it is a MALE dragon. The
> consequences of attempting to "reball" a female dragon are too terrible to
> contemplate.....
>
> Reed / WW3A
>
> On Fri, Apr 1, 2016 at 5:15 PM, Clayton Brantley via TenTec <
> tentec at contesting.com> wrote:
>
>> Dragons are bad enough to deal with, much less re-balling them!  My advice
>> is to let them
>> alone and you'll not be missing things that are important to your survival.
>>
>> Clayton N4EV
>> --------------------------------------------
>> On Fri, 4/1/16, Wade Staggs <tvman1954 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>   Subject: Re: [TenTec] reballing a Dragon
>>   To: "Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment" <tentec at contesting.com>
>>   Date: Friday, April 1, 2016, 4:57 PM
>>
>>   *Really simplified version.... O.K.?
>>   Back in the good old days, electronic
>>   components had wire leads. Now we have SMT or Surface Mount
>>   Technology. So
>>   now on Microprocessors and other LSI or Large Scale
>>   Integration components.
>>   There are tiny Pads or Lands on the bottom of the device. At
>>   the factory
>>   these components have tiny Balls of solder on each lead,
>>   sometimes over 200
>>   leads or pin connections could be on the device. In the new
>>   technology, the
>>   Chip is placed on the board by a very fast and precise
>>   machine. The board
>>   will then go through a multi-stage Oven which has a minimum
>>   of Heat-up,
>>   Solder or Bond and then the cool down stage. Going through
>>   this oven on a
>>   conveyor belt, the oven can be over 50 feet long. The
>>   circuit board has no
>>   holes for component leads to pass through. I have repaired
>>   many video games
>>   and other devices with a simple Paint Stripping Gun. It
>>   takes a light hand
>>   and a handheld infrared thermometer is a must so that you
>>   don't cook the
>>   board. It is very easy to do lots more harm to the device.
>>   Repairs of the
>>   Xbox 360 have financed several of my Boat Anchor Restoration
>>   Projects. Try
>>   goggling " The Red Ring of Death "*
>>   *
>>   73 from Wade/KJ4WS*
>>
>>   On Fri, Apr 1, 2016 at 1:04 PM, Tony <va3dwi at gmail.com>
>>   wrote:
>>
>>   > Showing my age here hi... hi. What's reballing?
>>   Thanks.
>>   > 73, Tony VE3DWI.
>>   >
>>   > Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone on the Bell
>>   network.
>>   >   Original Message
>>   > From: John Henry
>>   > Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2016 13:03
>>   > To: tentec at contesting.com
>>   > Reply To: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment
>>   > Subject: [TenTec] reballing a Dragon
>>   >
>>   > The problem wasn't always in reballing.
>>   > There were problems in that the part sat on a shelf for
>>   15 years, not in a
>>   > clean room, and somewhere along the line got hit with
>>   ESD, or too hot one
>>   > day, random circuits inside the chip failed, etc.
>>   >
>>   > I do however doubt that if 20 people tried to scavenge
>>   some dragonballs and
>>   > had to replace it, well, maybe 4 in 20 would be happy
>>   at the end of the
>>   > day, the other 16 would probably be buying a new rig.
>>   just my two cents.
>>   > So many pitfalls along the way, the chips are at least
>>   15 years old,
>>   > storage, excessive heat, etc.
>>   > Yield of TEN-TEC trying to do this using a couple of
>>   excellent BGA board
>>   > houses to replace them was very low.
>>   >
>>   > 73, KI4JPL
>>   > John Henry
>>   > _______________________________________________
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>>   >
>>
>>
>>
>>   --
>>   *Living one day at a time with Jesus as my Savior. But,
>>   still having Fun.*
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