Arcade & Retro Repairs & Mods, all new recipe, with no added MSG...

Doge

Steve SI wrote: »

Is the Antex XS25 Soldering Iron any good? I need to do some soldering and am ordering some Raspberry Pi bits and they also sell these for £20 sterling.

Worth getting?

Have you not got one already?

This is a 60w soldering station and its cheaper than the antex one you linked to....

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=32515

CathalDublin

I find the antex irons great, I've the 15,18 and 25w versions, the tips are excellent and really easy to work with too, although the xs25 tends to burn the tips pretty quickly if they are left on for more than about 5minutes.

Myrddin

CathalDublin wrote: »

I find the antex irons great, I've the 15,18 and 25w versions, the tips are excellent and really easy to work with too, although the xs25 tends to burn the tips pretty quickly if they are left on for more than about 5minutes.

Same here, have used small watt Antex irons for years & they've served me extremely well. From building superguns to console modding, they're perfect for the job

CathalDublin

When I worked in Peats(components) back in the day almost every time I seen someone make a balls of soldering something they'd used a cheap soldering iron from the pound shop with this great big ass chrome tip on it.
We'd have people come in, be recommended the Antex cs18 Iron for £25-£30 at the time, the buyer would return shortly after the sale saying they found this one in the pound shop across the road and want to return the our "expensive" one, the next day they'd come back with their tail between their legs and a destroyed circuit board looking for advice on how to fix it

Steve X2

I've gone for the XS25 from that site with a bunch of accessories. It'll be fine for what I need to do next week. My old one is a heap of crap so this has to be better:)
If I need a lower power one I can get it later.
I just need to do a bit of soldering on the raspberry pi and some extra boards for it but its not super fine soldering. I might need the lower power version for the Sega Nomad and Game Gear mods I've planned.

Jack burton

Need a new one myself, need it for general use aswell as pinball machine. Antex cs18 the way to go?

Myrddin

Jack burton wrote: »

Need a new one myself, need it for general use aswell as pinball machine. Antex cs18 the way to go?

Have you paid your dues Jack?

Jack burton

Yes sir, the check is in the mail! *takes a bit out of an savage looking roll*

The Last Bandit

Jack burton wrote: »

Need a new one myself, need it for general use aswell as pinball machine. Antex cs18 the way to go?

Probably not, I'd imagine a lot of the pinball stuff would be electromechanical stuff like solenoids & relays so you'd be better off with a hotter iron like the XS25 for that.

Jack burton

The Last Bandit wrote: »

Probably not, I'd imagine a lot of the pinball stuff would be electromechanical stuff like solenoids & relays so you'd be better off with a hotter iron like the XS25 for that.

Yeah? I thought id be grand since I'd just have to solder any new parts through the connectors already on them

eg


Sure I'll go for the hotter one, thanks

MrVestek

CathalDublin wrote: »

When I worked in Peats(components) back in the day almost every time I seen someone make a balls of soldering something they'd used a cheap soldering iron from the pound shop with this great big ass chrome tip on it.
We'd have people come in, be recommended the Antex cs18 Iron for £25-£30 at the time, the buyer would return shortly after the sale saying they found this one in the pound shop across the road and want to return the our "expensive" one, the next day they'd come back with their tail between their legs and a destroyed circuit board looking for advice on how to fix it

When did you work in Peats just out of curiosity? Former Peats veteran here too.

CathalDublin

2000/1ish-2002 upstairs in the old building next store to Bennys

Optimus Prime

Hey Couple more questions on the GQ-4X, ive been looking at a couple of vids on youtube on how to use it.

Seems to have an erase button on it for erasing the stuff on the chips, does the UV drawer do a better job or erasing them or something?

Also it mentions on the vid that some chips require you plug in an external psu for extra power, I dont think that comes with it, any ideas whats needed there, is this thing running off US power or will an adapter from here work?

Thanks

The Last Bandit

You've different types of programmable ROMs'.

EEPROM - electrically erasable: These ones can be wiped using the programmer
EPROM - UV erasable: These ones can only be erased with UV light and have the little glass windows on them.

EPROM are much cheaper so that's what you are most likely to find on PCB's.

It takes a 9V DC supply, can't remember the jack size or polarity off hand but I've used an console power supply on mine before. Possibly Megadrive or Jaguar one ?

Optimus Prime

The Last Bandit wrote: »

You've different types of programmable ROMs'.

EEPROM - electrically erasable: These ones can be wiped using the programmer
EPROM - UV erasable: These ones can only be erased with UV light and have the little glass windows on them.

EPROM are much cheaper so that's what you are most likely to find on PCB's.

It takes a 9V DC supply, can't remember the jack size or polarity off hand but I've used an console power supply on mine before. Possibly Megadrive or Jaguar one ?

aha thanks, always wondered what those windows where for! Makes sense.

Thats grand, sure ill have a read of the instructions when it arrives might say what supply it needs in there.

o1s1n

I used to call them EEPROMs, but then noticed everyone else was saying EPROMS - so dropped an 'E'.

Didn't know there were two different types

MrVestek

CathalDublin wrote: »

2000/1ish-2002 upstairs in the old building next store to Bennys

Ahh, I was circa 2004 / 2006. Just missed ya by a year or two!

If you ever turn up at a beers I'm sure we could have some very... interesting conversations about the place. :P

Star Lord

o1s1n wrote: »

...so dropped an 'E'.

CathalDublin

is eeprom not eprom no matter how many e's you're on?

Steve X2

o1s1n wrote: »

- so dropped an 'E'.

CiDeRmAn

Steve SI wrote: »

Some see that and think "Scooooteeeerrr!"
I'm that bit older so it's "Aceeeiiiddd!"

Star Lord

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Some see that and think "Scooooteeeerrr!"
I'm that bit older so it's "Aceeeiiiddd!"

o1s1n

I've had a new 72 pin connector for my nes for 4 years now, but never got around to installing it due to not having any screwdrivers long enough to open the NES up.

That changed this evening.

Was in Aldi buying some cheapo beers and they were selling extra long screwdrivers. Finally! Time to get my NES going again.

Opened her up, popped the new 72 pin in. Really easy to do.



Reassembled it, noticed two extra screws. WTF?

Then looked over on the sofa and saw the shielding. God damn it!



Back out come the screws...

Optimus Prime

haha ive done that before with a NES Myself!!

I just bought a bootleg bubble bobble off ebay to go with wwf wrestlefest to try out on the eprom writer. it has no sound, im going to try put those Bubble Bobble redux roms on it to make it play like the original, the price of bootleg BBs has gone up since the Redux was released.

o1s1n

Hah! Yeah there's that moment where you just think about flinging the shielding in the bin :pac:

The sound gone on that board is probably just bad caps around the sound amp, seems to be a common fault on a lot of bootleg boards.

CathalDublin

keithgeo wrote: »

haha ive done that before with a NES Myself!!

I just bought a bootleg bubble bobble off ebay to go with wwf wrestlefest to try out on the eprom writer. it has no sound, im going to try put those Bubble Bobble redux roms on it to make it play like the original, the price of bootleg BBs has gone up since the Redux was released.

I picked up a BB Bootleg for €50 on ebay last month, still having trouble with it, not sure if its the redux roms or the other roms but I'm getting reboots, thought I eventually had it fixed but just reached level 30 a few mins ago and another reboot. Think I'm going to have to reprogram every rom on the dam thing. Let us know how you get on.

Optimus Prime

well i havent a clue what im at so this will be a starting point for me.. didnt realise i might have to fix caps though.. doh.. im not good at soldering.

CathalDublin

keithgeo wrote: »

well i havent a clue what im at so this will be a starting point for me.. didnt realise i might have to fix caps though.. doh.. im not good at soldering.

The BB Bootlegs are pretty bulletproof, my last one was missing a tonne of traces around the sound area and still worked.
I used the Aladar roms

Optimus Prime

is it possible its eprom\eeprom thats causing the sound issues, or would it always be a cap?

Ive gone a bit mad over the weekend, ive bought 3 pcbs i always wanted.

1. Bubble Bobble Bootleg, with no sound. Ill put those roms on it.
2. WWE Wrestlefest, Graphics problem, looks minor.
3. Sunset Riders, Listed as for repair, but the auction was updated to say its working.

CathalDublin

keithgeo wrote: »

is it possible its eprom\eeprom thats causing the sound issues, or would it always be a cap?

Ive gone a bit mad over the weekend, ive bought 3 pcbs i always wanted.

1. Bubble Bobble Bootleg, with no sound. Ill put those roms on it.
2. WWE Wrestlefest, Graphics problem, looks minor.
3. Sunset Riders, Listed as for repair, but the auction was updated to say its working.

Totally possible, could also be seller hasn't got the -5v connected or the amp itself could be dead.