IC socket repair or replacement for MiniPro EPROM programmer

[Mp3]

Hi everyone,

i have a Minipro TL866CS that is about 2 years old and gets tons of use day in and day out..... for a while now it has been getting worse about not detecting chips properly, or failing to write to chips until i seat the chip just right.

100's of chips have been thru it over the years so i know it's dirty in there.....

Do these open up and have anything that i can clean and put back together or should i get a new one and toss this? I have a feeling i should be able to clean or replace the IC socket itself, so im hoping for good news!

Thanks all

[Gyro]

Yes, those sockets do open up (just the two screws on the top). The middle plastic layer slides lengthways by cam action of the lever. With the top and slider removed (there is a small metal plate that the lever bar pivots against, don't lose it), the contact spring pairs are fully exposed.

Drawing IPA or suitable solvent soaked paper between the contact tips should hopefully clean them. I don't think the contacts are plated, they're more like phosphor bronze on the original Textool ones from memory (Chinese ones might be steel though!).

You might also want to check the solder joints on the PCB - bending stresses tend to extend down to the pins, which are just extensions of the contact springs.

[CZroe]

Get some dielectric grease (bulb grease) in there. Not joking. The stuff works wonders. They sell it at the checkout from any auto parts store.

[Gyro]

That depends on whether you intend to solder the ICs in afterwards without solvent cleaning. 

[edavid]

Get some dielectric grease (bulb grease) in there. Not joking. The stuff works wonders. They sell it at the checkout from any auto parts store.

Strongly disagree!  You don't want grease on your chip pins.

[CZroe]

Get some dielectric grease (bulb grease) in there. Not joking. The stuff works wonders. They sell it at the checkout from any auto parts store.

Strongly disagree!  You don't want grease on your chip pins.

Why not? It isn’t hurting anything. It will improve the connection with any socket you put it in. All these old Atari and Commodore computers that just need the chips reseated would have been running perfectly fine without that if they had this all along.

[CZroe]

That depends on whether you intend to solder the ICs in afterwards without solvent cleaning. 

It’s really no worse than what DeoxIT or other contact cleaners or your fingers leave behind. Better, actually, if you do it right.

You don’t just leave it there in globs. You get it on with a brush or something and then you wipe the excess so there is an almost impreceptible coating. There would only be trace amounts transferred to the chip legs, which flux will take care of... or some Kimwipes with isopropyl if you want to clean it first for some reason.

I was turned onto the stuff almost 20 years ago when a car guy I know fixed his own PC by getting the stuff into his VGA port after I had wrongly concluded that his integrated video needed to be replaced with a discrete graphics card (would not sync with any VGA monitor).

[Mp3]

Such big thanks to everyone who responded! I am very grateful for all your inputs.

I will probably try to clean it with isoproyl since i have some 91% here, although i will look more into the bulb grease suggestion! Sounds interesting!

I actually also found out the ic socket may be replacable as an entire unit which would allow me to use this same programmer for 1000's more chips if i could stock up on those...!

[richnormand]

After the cleaning just buy another ZIF socket of the same type but with long pins at the bottom. Put it on top of the original, lock in place and use the new one all the time.  When it is worn out, just swap another new one..
This is what I did with my programmer.

[Benta]

Just for reference if you're looking for a replacement: it's a 3M TexTool ZIF socket.

[Mp3]

Thanks for the replies, everybody! Just wanted to circle back around to update that everyone's suggestions worked very well. I got 3 sockets from China on ebay, since with expedited shipping it was just a couple more dollars than getting a single of the 3M style from Amazon.

The socket worked when I put it on which was great! After a few test roms, i used an old toothbrush to apply some dielectric grease, but it globbed on a bit so i used the clean back half of the toothbrush to pick up the residue and then use a few q-tips to clean up leftover mess, well i was scared for a minute because it wouldn't recognize any roms anymore! I took off and put back the socket a few times, after a couple tries it worked perfectly again and has continued to work perfectly since then, so i might have needed to let it settle a bit.