How to remove rust on the NES motherboard connector
nes
As the title implies there is rust on my NES motherboard 72-pin connector.
Here's a pic:
Is this an issue? if so how do I treat it? I've already applied oil to it to prevent further rusting.
Best Answer
The connector itself is what it looks like; a flat piece of metal. Nowadays, connections like this are usually mostly copper or gold, as these aren't nearly so susceptible to oxidization as iron alloys. Unfortunately, old 1980's stuff was big on the use of nickel- or aluminum-plated steel to keep costs down. These materials just form a hardened shell when they oxidize. If they are scratched or old fissures in the plating begin to show, however, the underlying metal is exposed and oxidizes. This is usually what kills "that old computer that just won't break", when it's not bad caps.
Some of the rust won't come off because it's actually inside such small fissures. This component will never enjoy the conductivity it once did, though with careful application of sandpaper or a file you might get it to function. This piece, however, is just a contact; I'd recommend attempting to replace the contact with a thin piece of copper instead if you can. Ideally, you would locate a better looking set of contacts and just replace the part.
Looking at the etching, this might just be the ground connection for your NES mobo. If so, there's a very good chance that whatever you're trying to fix has little to do with the rust on this contact and you may want to look for signs of a power surge or a popped capacitor. Humidity tends to get to caps over time.
Basically, the battery is soldered to clips that are soldered to the board. You'll need to open the cartridge, remove the clips from both battery and board, replace those clips with a modern clip that can hold a CR2032 battery, clip the new battery in, and close up the cartridge. (Note that these instructions tell you how to solder clips in place; the availability of battery clips is newer, so you will have to modify the process accordingly, starting with step 6, where you would otherwise solder new clips onto the battery.)
Since this is a fairly difficult procedure, you will probably want to try it out on a cheap cartridge you don't care about before attempting to replace the battery on your pristine copy of Final Fantasy.
EveryNES and NESdev Wiki may help you sort out some of the details. The two joypads connect to the NES through a form of serial communication. The controller sends a synchronized 8-Bits across the #7 pin connector.
The value of the button that is pressed is encoded within 8 bits that are communicated and synchronized with a clock signal sent across the #2 pin.
When the NES Four Score or NES Satellite adapter is connected, the adapter sends a 24-bit stream across both controllers' #7 pin channels. The first bytes on each line correspond with controllers 1 & 2's buttons. The second byte across both lines corresponds to controllers 3 & 4 and the last byte is an "ID" byte used to detect the adapter's presence and verify that none of the preceding bits were deleted by a known glitch that occurs during sample playback.
Best Answer
The connector itself is what it looks like; a flat piece of metal. Nowadays, connections like this are usually mostly copper or gold, as these aren't nearly so susceptible to oxidization as iron alloys. Unfortunately, old 1980's stuff was big on the use of nickel- or aluminum-plated steel to keep costs down. These materials just form a hardened shell when they oxidize. If they are scratched or old fissures in the plating begin to show, however, the underlying metal is exposed and oxidizes. This is usually what kills "that old computer that just won't break", when it's not bad caps.
Some of the rust won't come off because it's actually inside such small fissures. This component will never enjoy the conductivity it once did, though with careful application of sandpaper or a file you might get it to function. This piece, however, is just a contact; I'd recommend attempting to replace the contact with a thin piece of copper instead if you can. Ideally, you would locate a better looking set of contacts and just replace the part.
Looking at the etching, this might just be the ground connection for your NES mobo. If so, there's a very good chance that whatever you're trying to fix has little to do with the rust on this contact and you may want to look for signs of a power surge or a popped capacitor. Humidity tends to get to caps over time.