Bought a Multimeter and got my 5V readings

[flounder43]

Just bought a multimeter and took the readings off of my center mosfet on my Epox 8KHA. It has a Deer 300 Watt PSU that has been giving me trouble.

At Full Load:
MBM says 4.76-4.78
Multimeter says 4.86

At Idle:
MBM says 4.81
Multimeter says 4.90

(Interestingly, MBM had been giving me 4.68, but I unplugged and plugged in the ATX connector tightly. Proof positive those things can suck...)

Anyway, the multimeter says 4.97 at the molex. Should I do the mosfet mod? This Deer claims to have 160 watts of combined power. It isn't bad for a generic.

I am running an Epox 8KHA with an Athlon 1.33@1.485.
thanks,
flounder43

[eobard]

With those number I would. I tried on mine but the middle pin "stump" on mine is very difficult to work on. Good luck.

[flounder43]

Originally posted by eobard
With those number I would. I tried on mine but the middle pin "stump" on mine is very difficult to work on. Good luck.

Do you know much about soldering? My stump looks big enough, but I've never worked with small stuff like this. What kind of solder is best, and what kind of iron? I see they have a full range at radio shack.

[eobard]

I'm the last person you should ask about soldering when it comes to technique. I'm the most ham-fisted solderer in the universe. As for equipment I just use 60/40 tin/lead (which I don't think they make anymore because of the toxic nature of lead, I've got some really old solder laying around) Don't use plumber's solder with the flux in it. and go with an iron instead of a gun, gun's pack a lot more power and are supposed to be much more likely to cook a component.

[flounder43]

bump

Anyone else have some soldering advice: Iron wattage, type of solder, etc. ?

[Tithulta]

bump so I can learn too...

[flounder43]

I thought that I would share a couple of useful links that I found that may perhaps be of value to those of you, like me, that are new to electronics soldering.

http://www.epemag.wimborne.co.uk/solderfaq.htm

http://www.circuittechctr.com/guides/7-1-1.htm

http://www.elexp.com/t_solder.htm

http://www.me.umn.edu/~kerenm/design_projects/basicrobot5.html

I still would like some advice that is specific to the solding that is required to do the "Hoot mosfet mod". Thanks.

flounder43

[Maximus Nickus]

Use the SMD grabbers, see Doc's Volt Mod's thread.

Then theres no soldering required.

[flounder43]

Originally posted by nick_cw
Use the SMD grabbers, see Doc's Volt Mod's thread.

Then theres no soldering required.

I don't know, this is a stump, not a pin. I would be worried about it coming off, and if it touches the pin next to it, zap!

Anyone try this on a mosfet?

[eobard]

Originally posted by flounder43


I don't know, this is a stump, not a pin. I would be worried about it coming off, and if it touches the pin next to it, zap!

Anyone try this on a mosfet?

Not me, I ain't stupid (in spite of what you've heard). What I did was this. A while ago I bought a strip of jumper pins. I took one pin out of the plastic "strip" and soldered that pin to the mosfet stump. I actually didn't completely remove the pin from the strip. I left the end in it to let me use the body of the strip to hold the thing in place while I soldered. (see my crude drawing below) Then I took another pin from the strip and soldered that into the end of the wire coming from my powersupply. Then I simply used a standard little, blackjumper to connect the two pins together. It did up my 5v a bit but if I want more I know I'll have to solder the whole thing, no jumpering. I did manage to get my 5v high enough to redo my core volt mod and bump my cpu to 1102mhz though.

[Hoot]

Originally posted by flounder43
bump

Anyone else have some soldering advice: Iron wattage, type of solder, etc. ?

Radio Shack has a dual wattage pen that looks like it would cover a wide range of uses. The model is: 64-2184. If it does not come with a set of different size tips, then get 64-2084 also. Just like any tool, you use different sizes for different jobs. Radio Shack still has Lead/Tin solder listed in their 2000 catalog which I have here at work. I like .032 diameter rosin core for most work. Radio Shack # 64-005 (2.5 oz) or 64-009 (8 oz) will suffice. Spend wisely on a soldering iron and it'll last you a lifetime. In the case of the Vcore regulating MosFets, you would use the higher wattage setting to tin and solder those center pins. Those devices are almost impossible to damage from too much soldering heat or time. I say almost...

Hoot

[Hoot]

Originally posted by nick_cw
Use the SMD grabbers, see Doc's Volt Mod's thread.

Then theres no soldering required.

Not a good idea. Mini and Micro clips "Grabbers" are not intended for high current paths. I don't like even using them for the extended core voltage mods that are so popular. I've used them for 20 years and they do fall off, get crooked, short out adjacent pins and in some cases, they can rip a surface mount IC leg off of the pad it is soldered to, if you accidentally bump them the wrong way. They are a test device, not a permanent connection.

Hoot