accidentally spilled solder on Amiga 600 expansion (goldfinger) connector

[turrican9]

So I was doing some soldering and some solder spilled onto the goldfinger connector where you plug in Chip RAM expansion. As far as I understand it's impossible to remove the solder from gold connectors without removing the gold.

So I used a solder braid to smooth out the solder on the affected connectors. Would having 5 or 6 of these goldfingers tinned with solder affect the use of the connector long term? I'm only using it for an extra MB of chip RAM + Indivison ECS.

[cugar124]

Im no expert but i would think no as solder is conductive and as long as no shorts are made it will be ok

Sent from my LM-G710 using Tapatalk

[aeberbach]

No big deal, cosmetic only. Do give them a clean with alcohol though, rosin-core solder will leave a sticky rosin residue sometimes. Even if it wasn’t rosin-core solder the braid is sometimes rosin-impregnated to aid in solder removal. Anyway you don’t want that getting into the female part of the connector and possibly helping dust to stick in there over time, so make it very clean with some isopropyl alcohol and cotton or paper towel.

[Hewitson]

Not an issue at all. BUT, make sure the solder is completely removed from the pins before inserting any cards. Any residual solder could bend the pins.

[Damion]

I have read that there's a risk of corrosion in these cases (tin reacting with gold). In practice, I'm sure I've done this myself at some point and don't recall any issues. The gold fingers can be re-plated of course in the event you suffer contact problems in the future.

[ Show youtube player ]

[turrican9]

Thanks for the answer. I think I will just leave it as is then. I've been looking at some 'replating the goldfingers videos' but it looks like too much hassle and investment in even more equipment.

Lesson learned. Next time I will cover goldfinger ports before doing any major soldering.

[Daedalus]

Remove as much as you can so that the contacts are flat and smooth. You'll never remove the solder completely as solder bonds with gold - using abrasives will likely remove the gold surface too so don't do that. The contact can tarnish over time (the reason gold is used to coat them is to prevent that as far as possible), so be sure to clean it before adding any expansions, and if you have any hassle with an expansion, remove it and clean those contacts.