Can you solder? Would you solder for a homebrew project?

[No Depth]

I did it once for a GBA Afterburner backlight solution(original purple GBA).

It worked well enough, but the screen had a bit of glue marks and dust that trapped, so it didn't look pristine as before and the lighting really picked up that stuff.

The soldering was easy for my first time doing it tho.

 

[TheWooniestWoona]

I can solder, and I've done several mods and repairs on consoles.

Most of them have gone pretty well, I'm still really happy with how the UltraHDMI turned out, but I did manage to kill a poor GameGear. Well, I guess I didn't kill it, as it already had issues, but I managed to damage it beyond repair while trying to fix it.

 

[gebler]

Sure. I'm not very skilled at it, but I know my limits, and believe I have a good understanding of what can go wrong and how to avoid it. I wouldn't want to work on medical equipment or anything where a bad solder joint could have serious consequences, but most game console stuff should be fine (I'd still stay away from power supplies, high-voltage displays, etc.)

 

[Symphony]

I know the process well enough from various Youtube videos at this point so I know I could do it, it's just that my hand can be a little shaky so I usually ask my Dad to come around and do it. Gonna recap my faulty Mega CD at some point for experience, just need to get a desolder station first. The one thing I'm forever staying away from though is touching anything relating to a CRT display.

 

[storaføtter]

I have terrible self esteem issues. I could probably do the most basic stuff but too scared to get started. Been thinking about trying to solder stuff for years now without jumping into it.

 

[Ada]

Yes, made a custom PCB for my ps4.

 

[Hilarious_Bearious]

I've built some kit amplifiers and other little projects in the past, and am in the process of building a bass guitar. Also used to do stuff with computers back in the day when you had to sometimes solder pads to set things like FSB.

So yeah, I'd give it a go. I'm not the neatest but I could get the job done.

 

[inspectah]

I soldered the Ultra HDMI for me and some friends and did some other stuff, but I still wouldn't call myself good at soldering.

 

[UsoEwin]

I can solder, but I hate it and I have shaky hands which doesn't help. Had to replace the TRS on one of my pairs of headphones not too long ago, dealing with that small of resin coated gauge that was uncased in a ton of thick plastic that I had to shave down with a razor made me want to kill myself.

 

[Akelisrain]

Yes, made a custom PCB for my ps4.

Click to shrink...

What kind?

 

[Lafazar]

I offer two lessons of soldering in my physics/electricity course for my students, so I have some experience. But I'm only really good at soldering through-hole components. I have not had a very good success rate with soldering SMD components (surface mount) by hand, because they are just so damn small.

 

[StereoVSN]

So you'd be cool with buying this completely other item at $20, which you'd still have to solder stuff to, but you'd be spared having to cut up the HDMI cable? Or would you just not bother at all?

Click to shrink...

Personally I would spend the $20 to avoid messing around with the HDMI cable as the other portion of the soldering job looks fairly straightforward.

Edit: I would want to have a decent soldering station and probably a magnifier of some sort as I am terrible at judging connection sizes and avoiding bridging stuff otherwise.

 

[Sword Familiar]

I own a soldering iron, but sadly I'm not brave enough to try anything too complex. If I could do it myself I would install a chip into a PS2, but that seems like a nightmare to me so I hold off.

 

[Strings]

I'd honestly just buy an already complete version >.> The stress of doing this sort of thing just isn't worth it to me.

 

[DSP]

Those example are extremely easy to do. I can't do tiny SMD soldering by hand though, my hand is too large for those kind of works, you need to be very precise and quick and probably use some kind of magnifier and other tools to make it work which I don't have. Soldering some wires to a PCB though? That's so easy, anyone can do it if they care to learn in 30min.

I have built my own audio amps and dacs. They are so easy to design and put together with basic knowledge of electronics and you get very good sound for extremely cheap as most everything in audio these days are heavily integrated on $5 chips with exceptional quality but the finished product is going to sell for like $200 instead.

 

[Ada]

What kind?

Click to shrink...

Daughter board that has an Arduino that reads fan rpm/cpu temp and displays it on an LCD. It also controls the ATX powersupply.

 

[GamerJM]

I'd probably hire someone else to do it for me. I've watched a few of Voultar's tutorials for installing homebrew and mods on actual cartridges and while the soldering doesn't seem too hard, I don't trust myself with any kind of tool that's remotely dangerous. I'm also the kind of person who's too afraid to drive or cook complex meals though.

 

[Akelisrain]

Daughter board that has an Arduino that reads fan rpm/cpu temp and displays it on an LCD. It also controls the ATX powersupply.

Click to shrink...

Oh, nice!

 

[Danthrax]

What unholy things do you planned for this poor little serial port?

Click to shrink...

Judging by his disparate posts in this thread, I gather that he wants to solder a makeshift USB port to a Dreamcast to make homebrewing easier.

 

[Sprat]

I wish I could. Would love to have the N64 HDMI mod installed on my console.

Click to shrink...

If you were in the UK I'd gladly help but gonna guess you are in the US being an ign employee

 

[Mechaplum]

Can solder no problem, used to do buttloads in my comp engineering days. For a hobby though? Maybe not.

 

[Mass_Pincup]

Let's be more specific, does something like this look doable to people here:

How about this instead:

Click to shrink...

We learned how to do that in middle school so probably.

It's been awhile though.

 

[tsampikos]

I was taught how to do this in grade school. With the proper tools and a sufficient set of directions, as long as I don't have to improvise... why not?

Last thing I had to solder was the width of a grain of rice. A wacom stylus of mine had stopped working and instead of immediately shelling out $70 for a replacement I opened it up and saw a tiny wire had come undone from some solder. Fixed that problem real quick.

 

[CaptainDreads]

I can solder, but it has been a very long time since I've done any.

The last project I did which actually went well was modifying a SNES controller to connect to a parallel port.
After finding the correct drivers I could use a genuine SNES controller on my PC at the time.

edit: slight correction

 

[Deleted member 54320]

If you were in the UK I'd gladly help but gonna guess you are in the US being an ign employee

Click to shrink...

I'm actually over at IGN UK!

 

[Astral Lovelace]

If any Era peeps want some mods done to your systems, just let me know, I have fun soldering these types of things. Just about any but the most extreme mods I can handle, if maybe not quite at the Voultar ease.

 

[B.K.]

I soldered the Ultra HDMI for me and some friends and did some other stuff, but I still wouldn't call myself good at soldering.

Click to shrink...

How do you do such small points without overlapping more than one point with solder?

 

[Lightning]

How do you do such small points without overlapping more than one point with solder?

Click to shrink...

The secret is to use flux and intentionally cover everything. The flux cleans the joins which then attract the solder and give a nice clean connection like that.

So many people don't know the wonders of using flux when soldering.

 

[Storminormin]

I've thought about doing it. I'd like to mod both my Dreamcast and Nintendo 64. Both have issues though. Laser is dying on the Dreamcast, and the cart slot on the 64 barely works!
They got used too much :(

 

[Fat4all]

my mom taught me some basic soldering, but its been a while since I've done any soldering

 

[The Riot Inside]

I went to a trade school for high school and studied comp tech and electronics design. Learned how to solder and design custom pcb. So I could but it has been 18ish years since then so cannot guarantee quality work.

 

[Kaeden]

I learned to solder so I could do the GBA AGS-101 backlight mode. No regrets.

Click to shrink...

This is the only mod that I've ever installed as well. I remember being so apprehensive about it and in the end it was so easy. No idea what I did my soldering gun and solder though. hmmm

 

[Stop It]

I certainly could but I'm a bit too lazy to do so!

If I really had to though, certainly. Learned to solder at college so had more than my share of lead fumes thanks to soldering lessons.

 

[hephaestus]

I removed the microswitches from my xbox controller and soldered on new ones. I was a little nervouse but it was surprisingly easy.

 

[Stop It]

So you'd be cool with buying this completely other item at $20, which you'd still have to solder stuff to, but you'd be spared having to cut up the HDMI cable? Or would you just not bother at all?

Click to shrink...

You reminded me I hacked together a USB connector to fit on an original Xbox controller as the pinout was the same but the connector was proprietary.

So, I guess I could do the full hack job you specified!

 

[aidan]

This is the only mod that I've ever installed as well. I remember being so apprehensive about it and in the end it was so easy. No idea what I did my soldering gun and solder though. hmmm

Click to shrink...

Yup. Ended up being way easier than I'd fear, and I feel like I could do a cleaner job if I modded a second GBA, and I have the confidence to do more soldering jobs in the future.

 

[OnionPowder]

I think you need to solder the get proper video out instead of only cable out on the NES-101 which has deterred me for years despite wanting to do it so I don't have to deal with horizontal carts anymore.

 

[Linkhero1]

Yes. Soldered a lot in college and have my tools laying around somewhere. I've soldered a few SNES carts to install battery holders so I can easily swap out batteries when they die. There's definitely some level of risk involved but I haven't found it to be diffcult personally.

 

[Deleted member 48897]

Tried doing this one time and it absolutely killed the unit. I lack the fine motor control to properly accomplish something like this.

Yes, it's frustrating.

 

[Pirate Bae]

I solder a lot in my job so yeah. I'd try to get a smaller tip iron though, micro soldering is kind of a pain.

 

[Deleted member 12790]

You reminded me I hacked together a USB connector to fit on an original Xbox controller as the pinout was the same but the connector was proprietary.

So, I guess I could do the full hack job you specified!

Click to shrink...

Funny you mention this, I dug this just out of a box last weekend:

Ignore the dog hairs lol. I made this back in 2003.

 

[Deleted member 1849]

I actually learnt how to solder at school. Haven't used that skill in years but definitely would not be put off by the idea

 

[DHR54]

I preordered the GBA HDMI mod from game tech. So I gotta do a bunch of soldering. Never did it in school. Just going to start with some battery swaps first and hopefully be comfortable enough to get it done. I bought a full kits worth of things to make this happen but I'm scared as shit. I've tried watching how to videos on soldering but I'm still not very confident. Wish I knew a person with the skill to help me.

 

[Stop It]

Funny you mention this, I dug this just out of a box last weekend:

Ignore the dog hairs lol. I made this back in 2003.

Click to shrink...

That's one way to do it! I just spliced together the controller straight to a USB connector. Of course your way means you could still use it on an Xbox too. D'oh!

 

[Deleted member 12790]

That's one way to do it! I just spliced together the controller straight to a USB connector. Of course your way means you could still use it on an Xbox too. D'oh!

Click to shrink...

oh, what I built was actually a way for you to insert a USB drive into your xbox. It was for a soft mod. Still had to cannibalize a controller to get the connector to the Xbox. I think it was a madcatz controller so no biggie.

 

[Serein]

Learning to solder is something I've been considering recently as I've been thinking about pimping up one of my Dreamcasts. It's just a skill I'd like to have in general though.

 

[Sprat]

I'm actually over at IGN UK!

Click to shrink...

Shoot me a pm and we can discuss it further if you like without clogging up the thread.

 

[Fredrik]

It's my work :P But still, as a rule I try to not mess around with functional electronics, especially retro systems, it's not like the soldering is intimidating but it's easy to forget that it can be tricky to hunt down replacement components.

 

[kubev]

Learning to solder is something I've been considering recently as I've been thinking about pimping up one of my Dreamcasts. It's just a skill I'd like to have in general though.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I'm thinking of finally taking the plunge so I can install a DCHDMI. External solutions are just driving me crazy at this point.

Question for anyone who already knows how to solder: What's the best way to become comfortable with it without ruining electronics I already own? Are those soldering practice kits worthwhile?

 

[Hilarious_Bearious]

Question for anyone who already knows how to solder: What's the best way to become comfortable with it without ruining electronics I already own? Are those soldering practice kits worthwhile?

Click to shrink...

Absolutely! Those little DIY kits are a perfect learning tool. The basic ones tend to have fairly big solder pads and use components that are fairly heat-resistant, so they're beginner friendly. You can find all kinds of fun little projects like little radio transmitters, IR blasters, flashing LED displays. From there you can move on to more elaborate kits that involve some tidier soldiering and using heatsinks etc.

Here in Australia we have a magazine called "Silicon Chip" which is full of fun little projects, and stores like JayCar or Altronics that stock kits on the shelf. There are kits you can buy off cheap Chinese sites which are OK I guess. Just be sure to test each component with a multimeter as you go and use your own solder. I'm thinking of grabbing one of the cheaper valve headphone amp kits for a lark.