Advice for tape drive repair / maintenance

[Tony Duell]

> Oh so cynical for such a young man!  I work with lead free solder every =
> day.
> And WD builds tens of millions of drives with it every quarter.  All =
> without
> "dry joints within a few months". =20
> 
> So why do you assume that good engineers wouldn't change the temperature =
> of
> the soldering machines?  Processes change constantly.  And every major

I can't comment on whether it's possible to make reliable, long-lasting, 
devices with lead-free solder (although there seem to be exemptions for 
what I'd call 'critical' applications (military, aerospace, medical, etc) 
in the UK regulations which allow the use of leaded solder for such 
devices, so draw you own conclusions). But I can assure you I've had 
enough dry joints in modern stuff assembled with lead free solder to last 
me a lifetime. I've even had brand-new stuff that's had to be resoldered 
before it will work.

And I've met plenty of other repairers (entusiasts and professionals) who 
have had the same problems.


> producer of PCBs has had more than 5 years to move to lead free =
> environment.
> That was not a difficult change for competent manufacturing engineers to
> make.
> 
> Yet, I think this is the third or fourth time you've brought this up.  =
> You
> must have had a bad experience someplace and are judging the technology =

Not 'a' bad expeience, but many of them.

> by
> that experience. I know a lot of hobbyists, as well as lab technicians, =
> were
> annoyed at having to buy new soldering equipment for higher temperature
> boards.

I can't see what a hobbyist would have to bother -- at least in the UK, 
these directives only apply to equipment that's offered for sale. You cna 
do what yuou like in stuff you build for yourself.

> 
> But the world has moved on.  Lead free soldering is as good and in many
> cases better than lead based soldering.  On the data from more than 100
> million lead free PCBs, I can attest dry solder joints are not a =
> problem.
> 
> As for the cheapest plastic imaginable, I just don't see that in the
> marketplace.  My current assignment is working with DVRs, STBs and TVs =

Perhaps your consumer electronic devices are built a lot better than 
ours. 

THis all started with a mention of a $89 VCR. Over here that's a '50 quid 
VCR' and yes, we get them at that sort of price. Now, when I last bought 
a VCR, some 15 years ago, it cost nearly \pounds 1000 (or 20 times as 
much). Are you seriously telling me that, even though there's been 
inflation in that time, a modern 50 quid machine is going to be as well 
made anf as long lasting. Becasue I simply don't see that.

> using
> disk drives.  So I always have a couple of dozen units torn down on my
> bench.  What I see are vendors that have had 20+ years to refine their
> design, their processes and their materials.  I see components and =
> systems
> that have an order (or orders) of magnitude better reliability than the
> products of 20 years ago.

I think the big change is that 20 years ago there was good stuff and bad 
stuff out there. I mentioned I'd paid \pounds 1000 or so for a VCR. There 
were much cheaper machines around at the time, sure, and they probably 
have not lasted 15 years. But if you wanted to spend the money you could 
get one that lasted, that was maintainable (the manufacturers not only 
produced an excellent servive manual, but they sent it to me free of 
charge when I asked about it), etc. Now I see \pounds 50 VCRs and \pounds 
20 DVD players and nothing else. I'd love to be able to spend more money 
and get a better machine, but I can't. 

> 
> This "everything old is good, everything new is crap" is not verified by =
> the
> data from the industry world wide.  Some things do improve with time.
> Especially in a cut throat competitive industry where warranty costs =
> from
> poor products will put you out of business in weeks.  Customers (and in =
> the
> US, laws) demand reliable products.  Companies don't survive if they =

Not over here they don't. People upgrade because a new model is available 
with more features (they they probably will never use). Provided the 
machine lasts for the warranty period the manufacturer is happy. If it 
fails after that time he gets to sell another one.


> Tony, you have your preferences and choices and more power to you.  But =
> if
> you did a study of current state of the art electronics, you would find =
> it
> to be far superior to that of 20 years ago.  Even if it won't provide a
> maintenance manual.

Sorry, I have looked at modern stuff and found that in many cases the 
performance and quality of construction is markedly inferior to that 
which I already own. 

Perhaps you could explain to me in what ways I am going to find it 
'superior'.

-tony