How do I remove the RF unit from the Coleco main PCB?

[Dennis Stith]

Ok I want to replace the RF Output connector on my Colecovision because it is bad and I already located the part.

 

How do I take this out so I can solder in a new one? I see there are 4 tabs soldered from the main PCB to its own small RFI shield housing the RF unit, but I just want to be sure that those are what to desolder or if there is more needed to be done in order to get inside there to replace this piece.

 

Any help is appreciated.

[Dennis Stith]

Alright a guy selling the part let me know what to look at. It looks like I'll need to desolder all 8 points from the RFU shield and remove that and then there should be one row of pinout to desolder from the circuit board.

 

This PCB looks antique and I'm not sure what the traces are made out of. Hopefully the traces don't melt while desoldering. I'm uncertain what wattage of iron to use but I'm assuming a 35W should do the job. I only have 15 and 25W irons currently and I'm uncertain if either will give proper flow.

 

I'll try it out after I receive the part and see if I can get this done. I just might need to find another iron is all.

[cOLeCoHiTMan]

schematic drawings:

http://atarihq.com/danb/files/colecovision.pdf

 

tech manuals and repair guides

http://www.colecovisionzone.com/page/coleco%20industries/internal.html

[Dennis Stith]

Thanks it's in tech manual part 2 the piece above the C73 capacitor needs to be desoldered from the logic board so the RFU circuit can be removed. I don't see the hole for the green plastic part on the opposite side in this diagram though but hopefully nothing on the other side needs to be removed. From this it doesn't look like it.

 

schematic drawings:

http://atarihq.com/d...olecovision.pdf

 

tech manuals and repair guides

http://www.colecovis...s/internal.html

[Dennis Stith]

I actually did finish this and there's a couple things that I can clarify from my previous post.

 

I didn't have to desolder the pins from the RF shield but I did have to desolder the RF shield from the RFU completely in order to access the other side of it. I desoldered the RF out part and soldered the new one in.

 

The traces on this board are susceptible to heat. They appear to try to separate when using a 25W Weller iron. This iron is overkill for this PCB and I am going to either switch to a 15W generic iron or purchase a 12W weller for future use on these. I would not recommend using a quality iron that is more than 15 watts. I thought a 25W iron would work out well but apparantly Weller makes a very very good 25W iron which creates quite a lot of heat

 

So in short guys, don't go down to home depot buying a soldering iron and use it on your Coleco set. I was very careful and didn't mess anything up on mine but next time I'm going to be better prepared. The 25W iron seems to be better suited for more modern consoles that use lead free solder and require more heat to desolder things. Soldering onto modern consoles, on the other hand, is an entirely different story which would take us back to a lower heat iron anyway.