How I soldered the IDE connector in place:
Note: Remember, just like me you run the risk of damaging something important. I wasn't too concerned since it is pretty straight forward, but of course YMMV. I've been fiddling with this stuff (soldering iron in hand) for the last 20 years or so at a hobby level so what seems simple to me may look harder to somebody else. Anybody else here add the chips for lower case to their TRS-80 Model I?
Tools:
I used a standard pencil-type soldering iron. It's a Xytronics 258 with adjustable temperature if anybody's interested. Nothing fancy but probably a little better than the cheap ones from Radio Shack (which I used to use all the time). I think it's a 30W iron and I have it adjusted to a little above half, I think. It is grounded (3-prong plug). Radio Shack used to sell a low power grounded soldering iron for CMOS stuff (light blue handle). I don't know if they still carry it but it's what I used to use.
You want to have the finest chisel tip you can find. There's plenty of room to work on the board if you do. 2mm isn't much closer than the "normal" 0.1" (2.54mm) that most people are used to working with.
Whatever you do, don't use something like a 40W gun.
Attaching the IDE connector:
I left the motherboard attached to the display with both sitting in the front half of the GCT. Just remove the RF shield. I also removed the modem while I worked - and never put it back.
I used the S2208-22-ND which has the locating pins. The pins made it much easier to hold in place.
You can use the solder that's already on the contacts on the board. Hold the connector down (in the middle) and touch the soldering iron to the connector pin and the solder on the board. It should melt quickly and form a joint. I did the two pins on either end first - that way I didn't need to keep holding it. After that, you just need to work your way from one end to the other. You should not need to hold the iron in place on any one pin for very long. If you do you run the risk of damaging the motherboard or the traces.
After I finished, I checked everything with a 10x magnifier. The connections looked good electrically but didn't look all that strong mechanically. I went back over them and applied a little additional solder to each one. Now there's probably too much but it looks stronger. I used 0.032" solder for this.
Remember if you're using lead-based solder to work in a well-ventilated room.
I'd post some pictures somewhere showing some of the details, but my primary pc is down (awaiting a new motherboard) and I don't have the camera software installed anywhere else.
If there are any more questions, feel free to ask. I'm sure there are plenty of people here with a lot more experience than I have.
