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

Steve X2

I managed to get a bit of Retrobrighting done today on a very manky PS1 case. Only started at 2pm(and finished at 9pm) and there was basically no direct sun due to all the cloud cover. Temp outside was about 20-21c for most of the day.

Started with warm water as it apparently helps start the process when not using an activator(oxy etc). 1ltr of 9% peroxide liquid added to the water, nothing else.

Before:

During:

After:

Not a bad result, but not done yet. Hopefully we get more direct sunlight tomorrow and I'll stick it out earlier in the day this time to give it a better chance.

The simple peroxide in water and Sun/UV seems to work a treat. No need for all the chemical mixing I've done in the past with the various retrobrite formulas out there. If this case wasn't in such a bad state I'd say I'd be finished with it after today!

Steve X2

Still not perfect, but I'm calling it done on this one. Stuck it outside yesterday for 8 hours and it definitely brought it back to something I wouldn't be ashamed to have in my games room 🙂

Optimus Prime

That some difference to be fair

Inviere

Indeed, a great result Steve. I wonder if the uv floodlight method could match sunlight....

How are you keeping the shell submerged, without putting anything on top of it?

Steve X2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119321371#Comment_119321371

It's just an empty shell and the PlayStation base is attached, so it fills with the water/peroxide mixture and sinks(or more accurately stays submerged once I push it down with a stick 🙂). I didn't want to use metal screws as I wasn't sure how they would react with the mixture, so just 3D printed a couple plastic ones.

I'll test out the UV lights at some stage and see how it works. In theory they should work better than the sun we get 90% of the time in Ireland.

KeRbDoG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119298022#Comment_119298022

Just completed this mod - very straight forward and boots into Swiss in about 3seconds. Hardest part was to mount the Pico in the case :D

Now with added bad photos.

This brought me back to modding many JAP Gamecubes with the switch to allow US/JAP switching for that game store what was on Talbot Street, funding my last rag week in college :)

Steve X2

A good few years ago I got a couple of those 3DO USB Host adapters from mnemo. I got 2 at first, but one was damaged when it arrived(USB port broken off), so he eventually sent another after months of back and forth over email(he is and was terrible to deal with).

Anyway, I found the faulty one this morning when going through some other bits. My question is, can it be repaired/saved at all? The USB port came off and did quite a bit of damage to the PCB at the same time. It looks to be bad soldering in the first place, but I'm no expert.

Here's a few close up shots to show the damage.

Main side of PCB:

Back Side:

As you can see the USB port area is in bad shape, but the rest seems fine. Any thoughts?

dav09

Looks salvageable with a few jumper wires/solder, with a bit of clean up can't see why it wouldn't work (unless something else is gone), and definite looks corroded before the damage for sure. I wonder was it repaired before as it does look a bad soldering job for sure. Might not have been repaired to well hence why it happened.

The Last Bandit

Repairable alright in terms of replacing the USB socket, needs a good clean and a few patch wires.

Steve X2

Thanks guys, i was thinking it could be brought back to life. I'll stick on my repair/mod list. Although this one might go to someone with better soldering skills than myself 🙂

Inviere

That's awful looking initial soldering, as has been said, a thorough cleaning and some jumper cabling should do the job.

Steve X2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119333198#Comment_119333198

I think I'll stick it under the microscope again and have a look around the board for any other soldering travesties.

Steve X2

Raspberry Pi Pico W in stock for those looking for one(or 10). I grabbed a few for myself for a few upcoming non retro projects.

https://www.kiwi-electronics.com/en/raspberry-pi-pico-w-10938

Inviere

Question for those more knowledgeable than me, would lead-free solder paste be ok to use in general retro console/machine repair/maintenance work? I have something in my mind from reading stuff about not mixing unleaded solder with leaded solder...but maybe that's advice for not physically mixing them on the board? I'd obviously be desoldering, braiding, and cleaning with IPA before applying lead-free paste...

Colonel Panic

Mixing them is supposed to be bad due to slightly different melting points causing poor joints. On a completely connection, there's nothing wrong with using lead free solder if you want.

Colonel Panic

Did a PicoBoot install on a DOL-101 just now. Very simple although some of the connections a bit awkward if left handed.

Works perfectly!

MrVestek

Speaking of... guess what I'll be at tonight?

MrVestek

Boom. That was easy enough even for a relative novice such as myself.

Steve X2

I've got that mod lined up myself.

The Pico boards are very versatile little things. I've only really started testing them out for a few projects recently and so far it sort of clicks with me more than Arduino ever did. Testing a simple webserver/mini wifi access point to control some LEDs at the moment to see what kind of battery life I can expect.

Steve X2

A question to the soldering experts(I know you're one @Inviere 🙂). Do we need to tin the tip of smaller soldering heads/tips? Or is that just something for the larger ones?

As in this video, he tins the tip, but its a fairly beefy one and not something I'd use on small electronics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41szGGf5G9s

I no expert on soldering and have never tinned them, just kept them clean with the brass cleaning ball base(the pot scrubber looking thing) as well as using a small brass wire brush to scrub any extra carbon off them.

Thoughts?

Inviere

Far from a soldering expert me, because the above is something I've never heard of before! I've heard of tip rejuvenation paste etc, and good practice like cleaning with solder brush then flowing some fresh solder onto the tip when you're finished with it to prevent oxidation during non use....but tinning new tips isn't something I personally do (though it does seem like good practice!)

Steve X2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119400746#Comment_119400746

I'm trying to do a bit more soldering these days as it's just not a skill I'm very proficient in. So I want to get it right, even if its just soldering on some headers to a raspberry pi or something basic like that.

The Last Bandit

Kinda depends on the type of tip your using, if its a conical tip then I'd just wrap the top 3-4 mm of it as you want the whole tip to be a working surface. But for a bevel or chisel tip I'd only ever tin the sloppy working surface side as thats where you want the solder to stick to rather than flowing around the back of the tip.

Steve X2

I think I should probably invest in at least an entry level "decent" soldering station as what I have at the moment is an Antex soldering iron(its ok) and a cheap Tabiger kit from Amazon(again, ok when used with upgraded tips).

I'm currently looking at the Hakko FX-888D(€103), Hakko FX-951(€280) and the Weller WE1010(€128). The Hakko FX-888D seems decent for the money and reviews well. But I'm open to advice from people more knowledgably than myself in this.

The Last Bandit

I've a Hakko FX-888D for a few years (was a lot more expensive when I got it) and its been flawless so far and has gotten a lot of use. Only use genuine replacement tips though as the cheapo ebay ones are pure crap.

Colonel Panic

I use a Hakko FX-888D and a KSGER T12 (AliExpress special) as my two main soldering stations.

The Hakko is definitely what I use most of the time and I certainly recommend it. It's user interface reminds me of the kind of nonsense you used to have to do to program VCRs but once dialled in, it's a great piece of kit.

The KSGER is a decent iron, but I only kept mine over the Hakko as it arrived with bad solder joints on the power supply connection (the irony) and I got a refund and fixed it with my Hakko!

It's unfortunate that they use different tips by default. I tend to keep chunkier tips on the KSGER.

Steve X2

I’m leaning towards the Hakko FX-888D. Looks to be a neat setup as well and the price is definitely right.

Edit:

Went ahead and ordered the FX-888D, 8 Hakko tips and bunch of other bits. Came in about €200 which is pretty good. Ordered from the same place I got my rarely used oscilloscope, so I don't expect any problems or fake equipment(which it seems is common with the Hakko stuff).

MrVestek

Anybody got any experience with Xell Reloaded on a Trinity board?

I'm in the process of trying to RHG my Trinity Xbox360s with pico flasher and I'm having a bit of trouble.

I've backed up the nand using jrunner, created and flashed ecc but the console won't boot!

It'll start up but no video is output and it won't join the network.

I've tried reflashing numerous times but nothing.

I've checked all solder points for continuity and they all appear to have it.

Any idea what I might be doing wrong?

I'm going to redo the solder points just incase.

Thing is, pico flasher can definitely communicate with the nand read / write to it so I don't understand what's going wrong.

Inviere

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119419565#Comment_119419565

Been many years since I messed about with 360 modding (the jtag days), but might there be something wrong with the image you're flashing? Or thr nand dump itself?

I remember you had to dump the nand more than once, and compare the dumps to ensure they were correct.

I do want to look at an RGH mod at some stage, on a Trinity board I believe.

The Last Bandit

I've done a couple of Trinity's without any problems, with whatever the latest Jrunner at the time was. Did you try different timing files ? And booting by pressing Eject ?

Are you doing RGH 2 or RGH 3?