Eproms with the window...yields

[Rodthrower18]

Hey everyone I recently got ahold of a good few of these buggers and was wondering if anyone had any yield data on them ? I've read a ton of posts and searched for quite a long time with no conclusive answer(or even semi conclusive). I was also wondering the best route to process these bad girls as well. One of lazersteves posts said AP could be used to get the foils to come off the chips which is great since GSP pretty much put an end to the need to crush them since the gold is in the package and not all over the place between the glass layer etc. Does one pop the first layer off with end cutters to do this or do you just throw them into ap and let it work its magic? Or is it better to use the blow torch/cold water method to get the glass window to shatter? I only have a little less than a lb of em but feel this is a good size for a test batch to get some methodology down and perfected, so i'd like some results to compare against to get a general idea of my performance.

Here's two of the said chips that I have run across. Sorry for the pic its the best quality I could get right now with that blasted easyshare.

 

[Geo]

not sure about the yield but dont forget about the smaller ones,even if you cant see inside almost all have gold.

 

[Rodthrower18]

I've got a ton of the smaller ones that are plastic vs ceramic, did you mean those Geo? I've got a bunch of the plastic chips that look like they're smaller than the 28 pins that Ive got that have the window. I remember reading that the platic ones did have some PMs but wasnt sure since I didn't see any pics of the specific type. If the small plastic ones count then i've got probably several lbs of the lil buggers.

 

[Geo]

yea,they all have gold.some more than others but if your going to process a little its alot less trouble to do bigger lots than alot of smaller ones.the small plastic IC's that you pop open and the chip is white the wires that connect the chip to the legs is pure gold.a large percentage of the plastic IC's will have gold plating on the connection under the plastic as well.ill pop a few of each kind and post some pics.

 

[Rodthrower18]

Please and THANK YOU!!! That wil help me out a LOT to get a better idea on some of them. How do you open the plastic ones ? A couple of the boards ive got laying areounf have 25-30+ of the small plastic ones soldered on the boards but I know they'll be easy to harvest em from the board with a good cold chisel. Do you put them in ap, plastic and all once popped to expose the wire? Thanks again Geo!!

 

[kurt]

Incinerate them (the plastic ones) then crush them to at least 200 fine - Use a magnate to remove magnetic base metals from the ash – wash as much ash out as possible with water - process remainder in nitric to remove copper/brass & silver – remove nitric from ash & drop out the silver (& possible Pd) – then re-process the ash with AR to get the gold.

Kurt

 

[Geo]

if you tried to open each one by hand be prepared to invest a huge amount of time.remove them from the board which ever way is easier for you.the legs are for the most part either steel or Kovar and cutting with a chisel is my tool of choice.instead of a cold chisel i use a Warner 8-in-1 PROgrip painters tool.its just a fancy scraper thats made to be hit with a hammer.the blade is 3 inches wide and is thick enough that it wont bend and will hold a sharp for a good while.after removing from the board separate plastic from ceramic as the process is different for each.run a batch through AP as is to remove the legs.then pull that batch and while working with that one you can have another going in AP.plastic vs ceramic.do the plastic ones first as they need more attention.the only real way to proceed from here is to incinerate them.this can be done in a metal pan without a handle in your bbq grill using charcoal if you live in the city.place briquettes two deep with the pan on top of that and then pile charcoal around and on top of the pan and IC's.dont worry the charcoal dust and ash wont matter and if you dont put them on top it will smoke and you will get a visit from the fire department.let it burn undisturbed untill it burns out then the plastic IC's should be white.wear rubber gloves and wash this material in soapy water.use an empty bucket to pour wash water into,wash,swirl,and count to three and pour as much dirty water as possible into the catch bucket.break up any IC's that are whole as they will be soft.gold is 18 times heavier than water so after you swirl the material wait a couple of seconds and pour the light stuff off the top.after you get down to about a third of the mass you started with then you can let it settle,decant the water and dry the material so you can run it through AP one more time to remove as much base metal as possible.after this AP you can rinse and process the gold.the ceramics is more straight forward.crush as finely as possible,run through AP once,rinse and process the gold.

 

[resabed01]

If you have the patience you could try selling them. There is still a market for these old chips. They can be erased with UV light and reprogrammed (only the ones with the quartz window). They are popular with the vintage video game crowd as well as many older cars had replaceable chips in the engine control unit. It's well known you could boost power on an engine by re-writing the code on the chip. Realistically, they could sell for anywheres between $1.00 and $5.00 each.

If you just want to recover the PMs in them, I suggest removing the ceramic lid before you crush. This would reduce the end waste by almost 50%.
I find a easy way to remove the ceramic lids is with a propane or butane torch. heat it up and the lid will become unglued. Wear safety glasses!

 

[Geo]

If you have the patience you could try selling them. There is still a market for these old chips. They can be erased with UV light and reprogrammed (only the ones with the quartz window). They are popular with the vintage video game crowd as well as many older cars had replaceable chips in the engine control unit. It's well known you could boost power on an engine by re-writing the code on the chip. Realistically, they could sell for anywheres between $1.00 and $5.00 each.

If you just want to recover the PMs in them, I suggest removing the ceramic lid before you crush. This would reduce the end waste by almost 50%.
I find a easy way to remove the ceramic lids is with a propane or butane torch. heat it up and the lid will become unglued. Wear safety glasses!

but to get that price you would have to harvest the chips that plug into a socket,if you cut them from the board you ruin them for reuse and trying to sweat each one off would be like skinning bees for the wax.

 

[jimdoc]

Most eproms are inserted into sockets, so they can be removed and replaced easily or reprogrammed. If they are soldered in it is probably a proprietary reason for them not wanting you to mess with them, or maybe just a cost cutting move on cheaper items.

Jim