Bent CF socket pin, ideas needed

I discovered a bent pin in the CF slot of my Casio E200. The pin is folded flat into the housing. It explains why nothing works properly in said slot.

Has anyone here any experience in straightening these pins? I think popping the back off the E200 to gain access is the place to start, but after removing the 4 obvious chassis screws the back is reluctant to come off.

Anyone know of a site with E200 disassembly photos? After butchering myself opening the 4gb usb memory key by trial and error I'd prefer a better approach to opening my E200.

edit. FWIW, I've determined a young person, known to me, with a lengthy criminal history , was the cause of the malady. He tried jamming some nintendo type game cartridge into the slot.

Edited by wallythacker 2005-12-31 6:05 PM

Difficult one,you really have to open it up to do it, as tweesers down the length of the slot is far too risky - damage to other pins, static and scratching PCBs

http://rvanetta.tripod.com/casio/

I tried a variety of medical hemostats without doing any good, or further damage for that matter.

Chirs, many thanks. While I'm reparing the pin I'll repaint the houaing. The cheap plastic chrome is peeling off the sides.

I was thinking textured red (Ferarri) or Blue/yellow (Renault ). I'm afraid Williams/MacLaren schemes aren't colorful enough.

I have many Ferrari decals from my model building days (yea, I hord a lot of stuf) but no Renault decals. Anyone built a model Renault recently and have some decals left over?

This teardown will also alow me to attempt a screen cleanup. It's mildy scratched in all the solatiare areas.

One further modm I'll consider I've read the CFonboard controler is good for 2 slots. It shouldn't be too hard to determine the alternate lines for the 2nd slot. I'll know better when I get the DATA sheet for the CF chip.

It's my first real ppc. Technically, a J565 and many broken e740s procede it but it' s where I *first* really learned abot apps, hacking, mods. All the rumours aside, it's reliable and robust and really stable when tweaked properly. It deserves a better fate than the dust drawer.

So many other projects I'd like to tackle first but my faithful old Casio needs my help.
It's been my best war-walker /mp3 player so far. I'm done dithering about keeping/mothballing it. It has a value in my organisation.

No, but the good thing is that you might be able to create one yourself, it depends if you need a printer that prints white ink (having said that, there are 2 versions of these things).
I saw SuperCal in a model railway magazine, supprisingly enough, "Model Rail" October 2002 edition, it went though step by step of how to produce the vynal for 57601, which is the big purple monster of a locomotive, with 57601 written down the side. If you want, I can scan out the relevent pages and it'll give you a demostration of how it is done.
In the meantime, here is the website to SuperCal, actully, I was after this for my repaint mod, which ironically needs repainting again! (Note to self, don't forget the varnish this time!)
http://www.supercaldecals.com/

One Purple: http://web.ukonline.co.uk/london300801/57601.jpg

One Red: http://www.53a-pix.co.uk/picture/57601-CA-141003.jpg

How goes the Pin unbending?

Ugh, teatotallers like me should avoid alcohol at all costs.
It'll take me most of today to unbend myself.

I had a bent pin on a cf reader, and put it back with a pen. Unfortunately, it kept bending again, and eventually broke.

Strangely enough, it didn't affect anything. I think it was pin 1, even. But I threw it out and got a multireader instead.

oh i agree so much...

Well, I don't have a bent pin anymore

It broke off

Now what? Try to drill out the stub and use piano wire or a small titanium rod as a substitute?

This is a nasty problem I'm sure many others have tackled. I have a hunch most broken pin devices get deep-sixed.

Oh dear.

Which one has gone?
http://www.interfacebus.com/CompactFlash_Memory_Module_pinout.html

It's pin 32, which appears to have different purposes with different devices.

The link you provided reveals CF has a true IDE mode. I must wonder why the harvested 4gb MDs don't work, considering they're locked in IDE mode.

I really don't know either the answer to that question, or what to suggest. Drilling it could make it worse, and given the frailty of the wiring at the back there, you could easily dislodge other connectors with the pressure of the dril bit. There's also what happens if your bodge job comes out along with a CF card and gets stuck in the card (worse if you don't notice and try and put it into another device)

It has to be my CF slot and not a pin on the card sled, which would be easier to deal with. I'd just use the sled for power and USB and be done with it.

I think any bodging would make things worse. It's pretty frail territory around the connector. I could put a pin in a CF wifi card and hope it seats with the connector, but then I don't think I'd ever want to remove said card.

That's about the only viable option I can think of that leaves me flexibilty. I still have the SD slot for flash and the sled for GPS/CF flash. That's not too bad unless I wanted to leave the sled behind, then no gps. Oh well, nobody said this was going to be easy.

On reflection, whatever I find the cheapest, gps or prism cf wifi will live permanently in the mangled slot.

Hmm, didn't someone post recently about their 720 with a defunct pcmcia slot? I'll bet a buck it's a bent pin.

The only good I can see is I didn't sell my Casio not knowing the CF slot was defective. That would have *really* bothered me.

Edited by wallythacker 2006-01-10 7:26 PM

if only every seller would have this attitude

I have a bent pin for my Intermec 6651 for the PC slot. It can that way.I start putting things in there to straighten it out but was afraid that it may break.


S/F,
CEYA!