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Does this make both wick and regular solder-suckers obsolete?

Hakko is 316EUR + VAT in EU

With so much space left on that board there's really no excuse to use such tiny components - this isn't an apple phone after all! *smh*

I had an Acorn Atom that I built. Maxed out to a "massive" 8kRAM and 12K ROM! Or was it the other way round?. With FP ROM! I always wanted a Beeb, but my mate had one and I was always round his house playing Elite 😀 Obviously, I transitioned to the Amiga after. 500 then 1500 and 1200. When they went silly, I moved over to PCs.

you said willy

Those small parts... if only you'd have a reversible shrink ray. Enlarge it, build it easily, make it small again. Loved our Elektron. Had just a few games but Tynesoft's Kastle was one of the hardest and most impressive I ever played.

you have the partience of a zen master, to tend to ancient machine spirits with loving dedication. not even dreading to risk your organic soul, though the heresy of innovatiion. (that would make some sick, cringy 40k nerd dad rap lyrics :"D ) may the omnissiah light your path. for the machine is immortal!

The pillage of Rome by the Vandals was a walk in the park compared to the horrendous hands that ripped these boards apart. But, it is great to see and have documented the restoration of the remains.

Thanks for the review on these two items. I've thought about getting the Hakko but it seemed a bit pricey ($300 Cdn from Amazon). Now I'm thinking it isn't too bad. They are really charging you a premium in the UK. BTW, I never thought much of the manual "solder sucker" types like you showed. I've always used a Sold-A-Pult. I've had mine for decades so I don't remember how/when I obtained it or how much I paid for it. It has seen a lot of use over the years.

16:20 SMT components should be reflowed and 0805 -or 0603- resistors would be more sensible.

that white 'fur' on the keyboard connector is very common for anything made of that type of plastic, whatever it is, i've seen it loads of times, mostly on piher plastic cased preset resistors and some switches i got from maplin in the mid 2000s, they've gone 'furry' already , it can cause corrosion to copper parts, usually a squirt of contact cleaner and a brushing gets rid of it and hopefully reduces it coming back , its stuff that leaches out of the plastic as it ages, and i think is worse if the plastic is in 'damp' conditions

i sold a working electron plus psu and a few tapes for £60 a few months back, i have another one that has video glitching issues, but its not a bad ula, as i tried swapping them over before i sold the other machine, no different

replace the bbc video ula with modern parts?? oo how!! didnt know it had been done!

30 yrs soldering SMT... For the love of god 3.2 mm spade bit for everything.. get your head around size...it makes no difference 402 or 805. That tip is totally wrong hence your problem.... Spade has two flat sides never use round tips will not help... Flux is you friend and if you tip is bigger then part you can solder both sides same time.

lack of flux !

ULAs, old PLDs, some GALs and old type FPGAs use fuse link technology to wire the logic inside the chip. Imagine a whole bunch of wire links which need to be disconnected, or "blown" like a fuse. During programming, the fuses are individually selected, then blown. The concept works well, but not always in practice. The fuse residue occasionally partially grows back, causing failures. A bit like Nicad battery dendrite growth. It was all replaced using UVPROM cell connections, then later with EEPROM (FLASH) memory.

I used to repair Electrons a while back... To fix a dead Elk, simply increase the value of the two current limiting resistors next to the ULA. Never fails to work.

Lovely stuff, it's great to see replacement ULAs happening.

You need a Kester flux pen #2331-ZX and get rid of that jelly stuff for tiny parts. Solder wet the pads and use no more solder. Have you checked how much voltage your meter is using for continuity?

Forget about soldering iron and use paste and hot air!

Now we’re getting into a true “Electron of Theseus” moment 😂

This is going to come across as blunt and rude, but , you need to learn how to solder.

Finally got to watch the last 10mins (my kids kept interrupting me), fantastic video Lee. Thanks for the shout out towards the end. It's great we finally have a ULA replacement for the Electron. It makes me want to rush out and buy a broken electron just so I can save it. Although I will admit, you are far far more patient with surface mount soldering than me, so I may loose my mind long before I would end up getting the ULA board soldered up. I love that he has implemented a version of the turbo mod in the ULA replacement, I am wondering is there sufficient space left on the FPGA to implement RobC's NULA extension, which lets software re-map the colour pallet. I love that this not only will save a whole bunch of un-fixable electrons, but also opens up a whole world of enhancements for the ELK that are currently BBC only.

Those broken caps are from being tossed a few times into a pile, either getting lots of other boards slammed against it, or it hitting on the tall parts which are the caps.

Very nice, great to know a solution is now possible

320x256 with 16 colours like nula for beeb is that 40kb video ram on a 16k computer?

It looks like you're using crappy solder, lead free solder, or really poor flux, or some combination of all of those. That soldering looks PAINFUL!

Get a hotplate. And a stencil for that board. Would have saved you hours by looks of that soldering mess.

It would be nice if solutions like this were not totally dependent on yet another technology which is kind of a black box and will likely evaporate some day...

Mr More-Fun -- I admire your persistence in the soldering department, but... let me add my 2p to the advice given by others. A soldering hot plate can make your life easier when soldering tiny parts to pads connected to large area of ground or power copper, especially if thermal reliefs are missing. (They are available for about $40 for a 100mm x 100 mm unt.) One way to use the hot plate is as a poor man's reflow oven: apply paste to the pads, and place the components on, the stick the board on the hot place etc. However, an alternative is as an assist to hand soldering with an iron: There you sit the board on the hot plate and heat it up something below soldering temperature, say 150 to 180C. Then when you go to solder with the iron, the tip has a much easier job heating the pads to soldering temp, even when they're attached to a larger area of copper. In this role the hotplate stands in for a proper (and more expensive) rework station.

Thy needesth a pre-heater/board heater, it's merely a heated metal plate (like those USB tea cup heaters) with a temperature sensor and control board, so should be an easy project if commercial ones are unavailable or too expensive.

So, what happened to it in the end ?

Now you can buy BBCs & masters cheap I can't see the point reviving a third-rate machine that was basically crippled at birth.

Wonderful to see the Elk getting some FPGA love! This was my very first computer, and the one that I learned to code on as a _very_ young kid. My poor mum marched to Dixons not once, but FIVE times to get mine replaced. Little did anyone know I’d discovered the edge connector could make fascinating patterns on the screen. I was only 7 by that point.

2years of work to play galaga!!!!

That looks a lot like the Color Computer

"Oh come on, America" 😂

I can feel my blood pressure rising in sympathy watching the SMD soldering.....

Yay!!

Unfortunately, GrandOldIan's Github page that you linked doesn't seem to make any mention of the Electron-PS/2 keyboard adapter, only one for the Amstrad CPC. It piqued my interest, in case there was also a version for the BBC Master 128, because I've got one of those with no keyboard.

Great video. I'm currently pondering the FR-301, being on my fifth (!) Duratool handset. I think I've still spent just over half the price of the Hakko in three or four years, however (I bought the Duratool when it was on special offer). :)

The lack of 5V parts these days is such a PITA - it makes interfacing with these retro systems *so* much harder :(. I really hope the next iteration of the RP2040 comes with 5V tolerant GPIOs!

I had an Electron. Someone borrowed it and never gave it back, then disappeared.

the Micro Men + LOTR nod definitely earned a sub 😂

Stupid google autotranslate the title to Bellota electrones and i was thinking "what the hell?" 😅

Not sure I understand the "mostly free" remark on Linux. I've been using Linux as my main OS for many years doing software development and I have yet to pay any money. Well, except for IntelliJ but that's not a fault of Linux.. 🙂

Great video, very inspiring! I have been afraid of hand SMD work. Through-hole soldering has been my friend, so perhaps I'm finally ready at 49. Should I still make a mess of it, I promise not to blame your sexy macro footage paired with slow groove jazz. By the way, your through-hole tricks with putty as an angle prop and as a ballast are awesome. I was going to ask why you don't run the Topnic just on the corners you're going to pin down, then apply to the rest later. It dawned on me while I was typing this that you couldn't be sure it'd clean the other surfaces when the chip can no longer move around. I'm still posting the question with my answer, so other folks won't also wonder. Cheers!

Mogwai? Mogwai is a transliteration of a Cantonese word meaning "monster", "evil spirit" or "demon".

Your videos are getting better and better each time. Great edit, fun jokes, brilliant timing. Thanks so much for continued content!