Vectrex Recap - How Hard?

[manic23]

I have a lovely Vectrex that is in need of a Recap, the vector lines do not join up and some of the text is all squished up and unreadable.

I have ordered the Caps and Have found someone who will do the job for me, but it involves me sending it to him and I am obviously worried about damage in transit. I live in South London and the person lives in Wales.

My question is this, how hard is it to do the job myself? is it a real challenge? I have minor soldering skills and feel I may be able to do it, but I am scared about damaging my pride and joy!

Are there are any on-line tutorials that spoon feed you though the process? I have look but can't seem to find much on the net.

Thanks for your advice in advance...

[sj]

If you had a go and buggered it up you could always buy another. I reckon the cost of shipping to Wales would be uneconomic.
I tried to solder something recently. It's harder than it looks isn't it. The something I soldered I buggered.

[Luitoine]

It may not be exactly what you are looking for, but there are some advice about soldering (and a lot of other informations) on slagcoin : www.slagcoin.com/joystick/pcb_wiring.html#SOLDERING
(This site was useful to me when I was making a emulator-arcade stick with a Raspberry Pi inside )

[voyager]

The pcb's are double layer and the tracks come of easy. Solder flux and a desoldering gun are a must.

Don't do it yourself. After the recap you need to realign your vectrex

[VECTREXER]

I found it pretty easy. Just watch the heat on the traces.

Inevitably you will lift an eyelet or trace. The Vectrex PCBs were not all that well made compared to some other boards I have worked with.

Repairs are not hard to perform. But be careful as you work with the component otherwise you might rip the eyelet from the board as you pull out/insert the capacitor lead.

Some decent videos below. I have found that I can use similar techniques. But instead using the original eyelet/trace/pad with some appropriate epoxy to reattach the lifted eyelet. The tape shown in the video DOES help out a bit when performing the repairs.

[manic23]

Thanks for the help and replies guys. I still think I'm going to send it off to have it done, I'l just have to make sure I Pack it very well.

[kokovec]

I would have it done professionally if I were you.
I have years of soldering experience and a very good SMD rework station and I still lifted a couple of traces.
The boards are very old and it's normal for that to happen.
The other thing is you'll need a high wattage soldering gun to remove and resolder the ground strap.

[jasonbar]

I've done a good amount of soldering/repairing/troubleshooting/etc. I've installed several cap kits & LV2000 kits on arcade vector monitors. I'm almost always successful.

I installed a Zanen Get Well kit on a Vectrex once. Once. I broke it & ended up selling it. So, I found it to be a bit over my head.

-Jason

[xefned]

I will echo what Chris R and Kokovec said. But summarize thusly: experience is required.

I have years of rework experience, and have recapped everything from guitar amps to dvd players, and wow - the vectrex board requires a delicate touch. Even with the temperature set below 300˚, and only a few seconds of contact time, I was lifting pads. If you're used to working on modern boards, this will be a surprise.

Some of the caps are not through-plated with vias. They literally have a pad on each side, but no connection other than the component lead, and those are the easiest to lift.

I became so frustrated, I stopped the job and ordered a vacuum desoldering tool. 
Never needed anything but a soldapullt before this...