Herb, You can usually request boards in varying thicknesses of gold plating. Most will "flash" gold to a pin for cheap I have found. It does kind of look like gold, but as you said it's thin and won't withstand any real abuse. I always request 2u" (.002 mils) of plating on edge connectors. This isn't as good as hard gold, however I have tested a board with 100 inserts and removals with no issues. And it may even make 200 times, but I never tested that far. So that seemed a good compromise on price and longevity. Of course this doesn't help if you have boards already made. In the future I can recommend MakerFabs.com for low runs and even assembly. Jonathan's recommendation of PCBCart.com is also a good outfit but at a higher price. Quality was slightly better I believe, but not amazingly so. However they do offer hard gold as an option and at a good price too. $.02 Henry S. Courbis Office Toll Free: (800) REACTIVE (732-2848) Office/Mobile Direct: (856) 779-1900 www.ReActiveMicro.com <http://www.ReactiveMicro.com> - Sales, Support, and News, Our Headquarters on the Internet ReActiveMicro.com/wiki - Support, Software, Manuals, and History. Create your own page today! Facebook.com/reactivemicrousa - Our Social Media Outlet and Support On Fri, Apr 20, 2018 at 9:39 AM, Herb Johnson via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
Thanks, Corey for the info on that pen technology. Prices seem to be higher than you suggest. I'll email you with some questions, I'll share some results - don't want to clutter this list with details.
Also thanks, Jonathan, same deal. The boards I'm getting are not expensive, I think making one or two of my own would not be cheap. We can discuss wear and tear on edge connectors. I deal with some of those issues on my Web site, some pages discuss use of cleaner/lubricants like DeOxit on corroded IC sockets and (solder/tin coated) IC pins.
Metal plating is interesting technology. And it's a means to repair some vintage equipment, so it's relevant here.
herb
-- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net