Justin, It looks like you have some solder that has made its way up the gold. The picture of the prior board looked as if there was less solder used to attach the connector, as there is still evidence of gold on the leads (where solder has not covered the leads as it has done in the 'new batch' image). Maybe they installed connectors that had been tinned, so there was additional solder in the process. Ben -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Justin Braime Sent: Wednesday, October 07, 2009 10:12 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [TN] gold connector discoloration Hi Technetters, We've just received a new batch of boards from one of our subcontractors, and the Hirose DF12 header sockets have discoloration on the mating terminals. On previous batches, we have seen a little discoloration adjacent to the solder joints, but never up in the connector mating area itself. The process hasn't (allegedly) changed. I've posted some pics at: http://gallery.me.com/jbraime/100005 Any ideas as to the cause? Any detriment to functionality? Thanks in advance, Justin ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email ______________________________________________________________________ --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 15.0 To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 ----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 15.0 To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 -----------------------------------------------------