Shame. I got an email back from the ebay seller I dealt with saying he'd see how many kits and carts he has and then he'd consider selling some games seperately. I'm guessing he has a lot of them.
Well today was a bit of a disaster, sat down and got everything prepared to go, soldered one fuse holder on - no problem. Soldered the next leg of the next fuse holder - no problem. Tried to solder the next leg....mess. My brand new soldering iron has stopped transferring any heat to the tip. I'm so annoyed, this was gonna be the night where I sat up all night and got it to work.
Seems like you are having bigger problems than me. I shouldn't complain, an iron can easily be replaced I guess.
Hmm, sounds very odd! What kind of iron are you using? Did you tin it correctly and everything to start with?
Yup, everything by the book. Really don't get it. EDIT: I grabbed a file and cleaned the tip, it flows a lot better now but still needs to be cleaned every few mins. Managed to get all of the power wired up, tomorrow I'll make a start on the video and controllers and it should be up and running. One thing I am concerned about is the thickness of the power wires. I've used 16/0.2 as the holes in my strip board aren't big enough for 24. Will it matter or is it more of a safety concern?
Ok, there's also one part of Chad's tutorial I don't quite follow. When connecting up the female scart socket. There is red green etc which connect to the appropriate pins on the loom but I noticed each color sync also needs a ground. Does this mean I need 3 wires for red green and blue, and then another three for each colours ground, as well as a seperate ground and seperate sync? Also is it worth wiring up the +5v to the scart?
Most SCART sockets have all the grounds connected internally so you only really have to use video ground, although you can hook up every other ground if you want to. Yes wire up +5V to Pin 16 with a 100Ohm resister so the TV will switch to RGB mode. I always find the fuses / fuseholders fairly redundant if you use a decent power supply (well at least decent Arcade ones) have short circuit / overload protection, a quick look at arcade machines in the last 10 years will see a lack of fuses apart from one for the AC voltage... Don't file tips as you ruin them, just make sure you wipe the soldering iron on a wet sponge pad or a brass shavings tip cleaner and you'll find it will be fine. If there is more then a fine flat amount of solder on a the tip, you will find the solder will corrode and eat away at the tip.
Yeah, tie the grounds together, that's fine. Certain SCART functions require voltage applied - as Jamtex said 1-3V on pin 16 will set the output to RGB. Pin 8 controls the aspect ratio, you might want to set that, too, but auto should be OK. You want to use a fuse on a home appliance. It isn't a wooden arcade machine. OK, the plug is fused, but it is best to be safe than sorry.... NEVER file a tip!! You need to tin it properly when you first get the iron - "wear it in". Then you keep it tinned. Keep it on the stand when you're not using it and frequently wipe it on the wet sponge (as Jamtex said). The tip tinner/cleaners are only really for occasional use, IMHO. You should be using the sponge that came with the stand. As for what wire you use, yes it is important! The wire is rated for a certain current. I think you'll find 24/0.2 is rated at 6 amps whereas 16/0.2 is only 3 amps. That's a bit iffy, although you might get away with it. IIRC I favour the 32/0.2 but I'm not sure offhand. If you can't fit a wire in stripboard, drill it with a dremel. Otherwise, use terminal block of adequate rating and make sure the terminal block is securely fastened.
Advice taken on the soldering iron. I obviously didn't tin it properly, I've done plenty of soldering before but I'd been using the same old iron for years this was a new one and it was quite cheap so whatever. In other news power supply is dead. I've spent all day looking for a replacement but can find nothing reasonably priced and I'm getting a little impatient for ebay. Figured I'd sit down and wire up the scart socket only to find my mum has thrown away the 100ohm resistor (epic fail). Maplins have none in stock so it's back to waiting again. Nothing I ever sit down to do works. As for the wire issue, I'm just going to risk it.
You can get ATX PSUs for £10. How much more reasonably priced can you get?! ;-) You just need to tie two pins together to override the switch thingumuh. Yeah, soldering irons aren't what they used to be! Have you seen this? http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Variable-Temp...14&_trkparms=72:1688|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1308 That's scarily cheap! It makes you wonder what the quality is like. I have something similar, but I've barely used it. It was a Christmas present a few years back, but I'd not long before acquired a £600 Weller soldering station, heh.
Perhaps on the interweb but not in a store here, not in Dorset. Cheapest unbranded run of the mill PSU I have found is £24.99. I went to my local rubbish tip and asked them if they had any PC towers. "We gaaat fuckin' loadz of em" The guy said in his wurzle accent "take a look." He led me to where they all are let me have a look and then told me that they weren't allowed to let me take them due to health and safety. Of course I can just buy one of the net but I've planned this for two weekends and I just wanted to spend my sunday and saturday getting it done and out of the way. However...car boot sale tomorrow!
What's wrong with the net? Whilst you've been debating it, you could have ordered for next day delivery ;-) hehe. If you know where the PCs are, break in at night! haha. Do you not have the Freeads? Look through there for an old crapper. We sold PSUs for £12. Seems we weren't the only local computer shop - here's one that should be somewhere near you: http://www.bournemouth-computer-sales.co.uk/store/ACE-400W-GREY-PSU-8CM-FAN-SATA--p30847.html As do ezcomputers.co.uk - first two I looked at in Dorset have sub-£15 PSUs ;-) Try this: http://www.computershopfinder.co.uk/city-Bournemouth.html
Yeah, all you're looking for is 1-3 volts on pin 16 - anything below will probably cause the television to switch to composite mode.
Picked up a 1995 Pentium PC from the car boot sale a real relic. Came with a lovely 300w AT power supply. Spent the afternoon soldering and connecting, I've decided to make this a proto board seeing as the soldering iron has resulted in a bit of a mess in places. I've therefore soldered a cheap scart cable directly to the Jamma connector. I still have the buttons and controllers to wire up but I don't want to do that until I know the power all works, I would love to fire it up and try it but surprise surprise something else is missing from my plan...a power cable. The PC tower didn't come with one but I presumed I had one lying around at home...wrong. I've phoned around but nobody has a spare (even kettles don't seem to have them these days). Anyway, here's a pic of it waiting:
All that brushed chrome! Cor, it don't 'alf look lurvly! So, what's the output like, but what is this... Oh, NOOOOO! Not another delay!
It is a stunner. I'd love to spend a bit of money and consolize it somehow would look the biz if it was done right. (There's a good 4 inches of metal that could be angle ground off) and to be honest I've had a good look in it and the board could easily come out of the chassis and into something else. The PCB inside the carts aren't that large either. I used to have 5-10 3 pin plugs sitting around the house, seems like the folks have thrown them away and it was after 5 when I finished so no shops open to get one. The scart is wired up without the +5v for now as I forgot to go and pick a new resistor up i'm guessing that will just output in composite or just scroll like hell. Only one more sleep and i'll get to play!
