Finished building 1627 controller card

RESOLDERED ONE CONTACT THAT CAME LOOSE

One of the contacts on the board came loose - clearly not enough solder had flowed to hold it down. I removed the plastic connector cover in order to fix it. I used the low temperature solder paste to minimize the risk of detaching the contacts below and to the side, but was also very careful with the application of the hot air. 

With the contact repaired and the cover back on, I popped it into my SLT board testing bench so that I could verify its fit into a socket. Everything looked good at this point, so it was time to finish up the board. 

MOVING OTHER COMPONENTS FROM BOARD TO BOARD

I brought it to the workshop to transfer some parts over from the prior version. There were two 14 pin surface mount chips, a surface mount voltage regulator, four 0805 capacitors, eleven 0805 resistors and a 2 pin header. I hand soldered all of these to the PCB. 

Careful examination under the microscope was followed by some short circuit testing to ensure that card matches the schematic and thus the design should work properly. 

My last construction step was to insert the CMOD S7, hand solder the pins and clip the leads short. The board was now complete and ready for testing. 

TESTED FIT INSIDE 1130 AND IN MY SLT BENCH TOOL

The card snapped into the 1130 compartment very satisfactorily. It held well and felt just like the IBM manufactured cards.

I inserted the card into my SLT bench testing jig which gives me access to all the pins on the card via banana jacks. The card inserted but I noticed that one of the contacts had broken off its pad and was not making contact. Since this was the contact that delivers +12V to power the card, it was game over for testing until I repair the contact on my next visit to the shop.