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制造商零件编号 1181-7.7"X10"
RF EMI SHIELDING SHEET 10"X7.7"
3M
How to Repair Corroded Vintage Game Cartridge Card Edge Pads
2022-09-12 | By Jerry Sturre
Repairing a corroded/torn edgeboard connector pad can be quite a process: cutting new copper, cleaning the old pad out, epoxy, and more. However, I had some old NES cartridges to fix and wanted to experiment with something different.
As you can see in the pictures of my Tetris cartridge below, there was some pretty bad corrosion beyond surface-level contamination. I was able to confirm with a microscope that in most of the dark areas, the copper was entirely gone. The game didn’t load correctly because of the inconsistent pin contact, and pad replacement was the only option.
Corrosion
The first step was to get the existing copper as clean as possible. I used multiple cleaning cycles with Deoxit D-Series contact cleaner (apply, scrub with a soft cloth, reapply, etc.) until no more grime was coming up. The game cartridge is about 35 years old, so it took quite a few passes to get it really clean. I also tried using 99% rubbing alcohol and a generic “contact cleaner”; both worked, but the Deoxit was far better at removing the build-up than those alternatives.
Once I was confident the contacts were as clean as I could get them, I carefully cut a strip of the copper foil roughly the same size as the contact row.
Copper foil ready for application.
Since the contacts were now free of loose particles and thirty-year-old dust, I was reasonably confident the adhesive on the copper would bond strongly to the board. I removed the backing, applied the copper foil across all the contacts at once, and then carefully cut away the extra using a small utility knife. I ran a smooth, hard edge back and forth across the foil with a fair amount of pressure to ensure the adhesive was bonding and to define the spaces between the contacts (I used the handle of a scissor, but anything smooth and hard should work.) Also, if your board has pads on each side, keeping the edge of the foil back away from the board edge will reduce the chance of it peeling up when inserting the card into a mating connector. If the board is single-sided, you should be able to wrap the foil around to the other side to help with potential lifting. The key here is to make sure you’re using a foil with conductive adhesive so it can fill in the gaps in the pads and bring the remaining pad back into complete conductivity with the new foil.
Copper foil adhered and rubbed, showing the divisions of the pads. Notice the foil is not all the way to the board edge.
Now the tedious part; with a utility knife and a straight edge, I cut and peeled the copper foil from between the pads. As the gap is so small, it is extremely hard to make it neat. The important part is to be sure the pads are electrically isolated from each other and to keep as much of them covered in foil as possible. As you can see below, I was only moderately successful in making it presentable.
Began separating pads
All pads separated
I used a multimeter to verify that none of the pads were electrically connected and that the copper foil had continuity to the corresponding points on the board. Once that was complete, I ran the scissors handle across all the contacts again to reseat any copper foil that may have lifted during cutting.
I then did a couple more scrubs with Deoxit to remove any stray adhesive and oils/dust from my hands and reassembled the cartridge. I seated the cart in the NES, and it worked! No more garbled graphics or gray screen.
The original Nintendo Entertainment System had a Zero Insertion Force (ZIF) connector, and with that, I’d expect this fix to last for the life of the cart. Mine, however, has been modified with an extremely tight connector (it takes two hands to seat) and I was worried it would scrape up the foil. After 30+ insertions, this is what it looks like:
Foil after 30+ insertions
You can see some deformation (expected as the copper foil is softer than the pins) but little to no pulling up so it seems that the adhesive is holding very well. My biggest concern is that eventually one of the foil pieces will pull up and get lodged in the mating connector, but I don’t cycle this cartridge very much and I’ll keep an eye out for signs of peeling. As a note, I wouldn’t do this in a situation requiring soldering as the adhesive won’t hold up to that type of heat. In those instances, you’ll want to default to clean copper and a good high temp epoxy like CW2500-ND.
This fix definitely falls more into the “hack” category than an actual proper fix, but for something that’s not super important and wasn’t working anyway, it’s a great, inexpensive alternative to removing and epoxying. All in all, I’m happy with how this worked out and I’m calling it a success!
Products used:
- 3M158395-ND – Copper shielding sheet with conductive adhesive
- 2220-D100L-16BX-ND – Deoxit contact cleaner
- 243-1282-ND – Utility knife
- Soft cloth
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