Saturn Modchip resurrection

A year or two ago, I got a Saturn modchip from RacketBoy, but since these modchips are only designed for model 2 Saturns, it required modification. I had a crappy budget soldering iron at the time, which ended up getting too hot and damaging the poor little thing. Because my eyesight sucks and my electronics skills are questionable, I was wondering if anyone could take a look at some of the photos I took and give me advice on what I should be soldering to where to get it back into working order (taking into account that I never finished making all the Saturn model 1 conversion modifications, since the chip got damaged about a third of the way through the process). Any help is appreciated. It'd definitely beat having this thing sitting around not being used.

 

the socket for ribbon cable is dead
R.I.P.

 

Dead? It's melted, but I don't think it's dead. I didn't want to just try to rip the black casing off in case I break it, but it theoretically should be possible to remove that and solder the pins directly to a ribbon cable. I think that's basically a given, considering the state of it.

 

Do you have the right tool this time? A temperature controlled soldering station being one of them.

Also you should practice on some soldering first. Looking at it I see too much solder being used. Should be possible to use the chip but it'll be really messy.

 

It's theoretically possible but you're going to have to hand-solder many tiny pins to do it that way and it won't be an easy job, especially if you're still using the same tools and soldering iron that got you into that mess in the first place.

When I do very small soldering points (such as PS2 and PS3), sometimes I use one of these:



Could be of help if your eyesight isn't that good.

 

I have a much better soldering iron, although I still consider it to be crap. I don't have the money for a good temperature-controller soldering station right now. I wish I did. Here in New Zealand, a good one is at LEAST NZ$400 (~US$350), and the good ones aren't sold by many places, either. Supposedly, what I was given was a "professional soldering iron" (a Goot TQ-95), but I've never considering pen soldering irons to be professional tools.

I don't mind doing that, and yeah, I've definitely got better equipment now. Regardless, I won't try it until I'm confident (in myself and in the equipment, which may mean waiting for an even better soldering iron).

I've got a little stand with a couple of alligator clips and a magnifying glass on it, but that looks like a far better solution, so thanks, I'll look into it.

I guess my biggest problem now is just identifying where all the traces run to and what-not. Sometimes I can figure it out; other times, I can't.

EDIT: Something I forgot to ask about are the two spaces on the board for components - a crystal oscillator and a capacitor, if I'm not mistaken. Are those meant to be empty? It confuses me as to why they're even there in the first place.

 

i'm not very good with soldering too^^
a new saturnmodchip is cheaper. i had buy t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶y̶e̶a̶r̶ a universal saturn modship for £23 (including basic Airmail shipping uk to france).

 

I know Rob Webb sells the universal mod chips now, but he didn't have them when I bought this. Considering I have less than no money and provided I can actually fix this, using this one would be cheaper. It's just a shame that my new soldering iron is crap. I've been trying to make it work better all night, and ironically, it's just got worse. Still, compared to what I bought mind for, that price isn't too bad. I think mine was NZ$60 shipped to New Zealand from RacketBoy. Or maybe it was US$60. I don't remember. It wasn't cheap, anyway. And now I have a V-Saturn which is based on the model 2 Saturn, so I could have just used this chip in that if I hadn't butchered it. Dammit.

 

You might want to consider importing an iron.

 

I would, but I've yet to come across decently priced and good quality soldering stations outside of America for importing (although granted, I haven't looked much), and since we run on 240v mains here in New Zealand, that'd cause a problem if I imported from America. But I'll look around, because if I can find a way to pay even $100 less than they cost over here, that'd be a bonus.

 

have a look into chinese HAKKO clones, for the prices they go usually, its not bad at all.

http://www.fasttech.com/products/0/10009378/1830005-hakio-936-constant-temperature-soldering-station
like this one for example. remove plug and solder a NZ cable + plug in.

edit: seems like the chinese plug is same as yours, so no need to swap cables .

 

Oh, that doesn't sound too bad. Thanks, I'll check those out. That's a HELL of a lot cheaper than over here!

EDIT: Ironic that it's about the same thing, but as I thought, Chinese plugs aren't the same as over here, but ours are the same as Australia's, and that product page mentions it has an AU (Australian) plug. I just found that interesting. Also, I got a chuckle out of the name "HAKIO" (probably because I read it like "hack-ee-oh"). I've heard HAKKO is a good brand, and clones aren't always horrible, so this looks good.

 

There's many on eBay around the $60-$80 mark. I was in the same boat as you, and really didn't want to cheap out on an iron, but at the same time not spend a lot.

The clones are just as good, but just replace the tip, otherwise you'll get issue really quickly. Official or any high quality tip will fit the iron. Mine burnt out in a matter of minutes, however the better quality replacement has been good for a while.

I also recommend the finest chisel tip you can find. After being told to grab one of them, they're easy to use. I'm also quite an amature so, I'd say it's the best way to start.

 

Sounds good to me. Thanks for the tips!

EDIT: Curse you, puns.

 

You don't want to solder to a ribbon cable. You'll melt the cable, as they're not designed to get hot. Even if you managed, there's no strength in the join, and it'll break. You'd have to replace the socket, remove the solder shorting those edge connectors and repair the edge connector that's been torn off. It's just not worth it.

At soldering or spelling?

 

People seem to do it all the time. One would, of course, separate the end of the ribbon cable first so that it is not meltable. Still, I'm currently removing the socket (it melted a bit worse than I thought), and I was actually wondering if it's possible to get a replacement part cheaply. If so, that should be enough to make it work again once I finish modifying it and wire a few alternate traces.

 

Alternate traces aren't going to bring that pin back that's completely missing! As for the ribbon cable - you'll learn the hard way if you try soldering to it.

 

Except that that pin is not missing. It was just moved because its "socket" that it sat in was melted. Plus, if I desolder the entire connector and I can find a replacement one to solder in place of the old one, then I don't see the problem.
Unless, of course, you're talking about the pin at the bottom of the chip on the male connector part, in which case, I don't understand why it wouldn't work. If you aren't plugging it in directly and are manually soldering it, why can't you just solder to an alternate trace? If I wanted to plug it in directly, though, then yes, it would not work.

I'm not saying I know best about ribbon cables, but I've seen many, many people use them for such things before, as well as factory components (off the top of my head, for example, one of the Gamecube's optical drive motors) (although I realise factory-made stuff is quite different to something I'm doing at home), so I'm genuinely interested in knowing how so many can pull it off successfully when you say that it's a bad idea. I thought that as long as you stripped away the plastic before you soldered to it, and as long as you don't apply too much heat at once, it wouldn't melt, but hell, maybe I'm wrong. I've never actually tried.

 

I've only tried a few times and soldering to ribbon cables is that not that easy and will melt faster than you might think they would. I don't want to discourage you, but just sayin'. Make sure you know where to get spares in case you attempt it.

 

Is there perhaps a better alternative to ribbon cables? I can't think of anything off the top of my head, apart from single wires, which is just kind of a pain in the ass. Granted, it's not much different, but I appreciate ribbon cables being very thin and having all the "wires" stuck together.