Cyclone
Williams, 1988So I've got this Cyclone Board MPU that the corrosion monster got. The good news is the backside looks great, but the front got it pretty good. Worth fixing up or is she a goner? And for that matter, anyone want to give it a shot?
honest opinions would be appreciated. New MPU's for these things aint cheap as we all know!
Doesn't look terrible, honestly. The only way to know for sure is to clip all those leads off and very carefully remove the pins and when you can get down to the pads, and get them cleaned up, well, then you'll be able to tell.
At least it doesn't appear to be through the solder mask, but the issue is going to be how well the removal of those affected ICs go. Even if you lost several pads you could probably patch the board up reasonably well for home use.
I've definitely repaired boards in considerably worse shape before.
(Unfortunately, I can't help you with this one -- I don't take in work because my day job involves too much travel to turn things around in a reasonable timeframe.)
Ugh. That just seems so widespread. I really want to say no, but home hobbyists are crazy and tend to try and repair anything. My Comet has corrosion and I was really trying to walk away from it but the seller gave me a good deal.
Seems Repairable. I would give it a try if you were in Europe.
You can do it yourself step-by-step every day.
I'd start by firing it up and see what kind of problems I have in my machine.
Then I'd make a list of tools & supplies I will need (readable schematics, dmm, clamps/aligator clips, soldering/desoldering station, metal contact brush, IC tester, IC sockets, fiberglass pen, sandpapers, green epoxy pcb paste, etc etc etc)
You must also determine what caused this corrosion. Seems like alkaline vapours from battery leaking got different areas of your board. If so, I would neutralize with white vinegar first (you'll see bubbles forming from the reaction if it's alkaline)
Lastly, be careful with the temperatures you use on your PCB, as these old MPUs can flake and lift traces if you leave your soldering iron touching for too long.
Good advice above, I am just trying to fix a Cyclone MPU with a U25 error I suspect because of corrosion from leaking batteries but not quite as bad as yours. Someone had already replaced U25 and done a damn awful job with no pads on many of the pins and big solder blobs to get it to connect. Oh yes and didn't socket it. Found one bad track for the r/w and fitted a socket and jumpered the track, will test tomorrow.
Some of the board will need a bit of work for the corrosion but I feel it needs to be in a basically working state before starting otherwise you don't know if you have induced problems or not. I would also only take baby steps, that is, small portion of the board then test, otherwise you could end up with a massive job on your hands.
Good luck 
Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.
Great to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!
This page was printed from https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/worth-repairing-cyclone-mpu?hl=provato and we tried optimising it for printing. Some page elements may have been deliberately hidden.
Scan the QR code on the left to jump to the URL this document was printed from.
Grand Rapids, MI
Τρίκαλα
Westlake
Also, I suppose it could depend on what's wrong with it as well, as to it being worth repairing...