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

Steve X2

Got it mounted anyway. I never could find a proper bezel to fit the lcd so I used more sugru to try and blend it in a bit rather than just having gaps around it like the last one. I can cut the sugru to a more perfect shape after 24 hours or so.





Next to an A1200(the text on the LCD is easily readable even with the backlight off, unlike the previous one):


SD Card Manager Software for Amiga:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWprKU89lDE

KeRbDoG

Just ordered a heap of sugru - sweet. Didn't know an Irish lady invented it

Steve X2

KeRbDoG wrote: »

Just ordered a heap of sugru - sweet. Didn't know an Irish lady invented it

You can never have enough sugru, the stuff is a modders dream
Stick it in the fridge and it lasts a lot longer than 6 months, but Ive never had any lay around for that long without getting used up. Had a sugru delivery today actually

o1s1n

Where do you pick it up from as a matter of interest?

Seems like great stuff, but the price versus the amount you get always seemed too prohibitive to experiment with it.

Steve X2

o1s1n wrote: »

Where do you pick it up from as a matter of interest?

Seems like great stuff, but the price versus the amount you get always seemed too prohibitive to experiment with it.

I usually buy direct from the website. They do sales from time to time and the order I just got was 50 percent off, which is decent.

Steve X2

Just the usual Sunday morning ritual. Sticking an Amiga 500+ motherboard in the dishwasher



This particular A500+ has been dead and sitting in storage for a good few years. Decided to open it up and have a look yesterday and the battery has leaked and the board is not in the best shape because of it.

Damn battery.



Be gone!


Will see if the dishwasher technique will fix it up like it did my Macintosh classic.

The Last Bandit

Looks nasty, hopefully no tracks have been corroded through.

Steve X2

The Last Bandit wrote: »

Looks nasty, hopefully no tracks have been corroded through.

I should have looked at it years ago instead of sticking it in storage and forgetting about it. Probably wouldn't have been as bad back then.

Steve X2

Out of the dishwasher and it looks a lot cleaner.
Will need to go at it now with some cotton buds and alcohol cleaner stuff to try and get rid of the remainder of the gunk and residue.



Definitely some corrosion on the board
The corrosion is from the battery leak, the caps actually look ok and don't seem to have leaked.



I removed all the socketed chips and washed them in the cutlery section of the dishwasher.

The Last Bandit

Bit of Amstrad Action

Fitted Hxc floppy emulator to a 6128, works great and fully reversible if I ever want to restore the 6128 back to stock. Has the added benefit of only requiring 5V's now as the mechanical disc drive is gone.

Steve X2

So, are we gonna kill off the resources thread and welcome this old friend back?

Doge

Steve SI wrote: »

So, are we gonna kill off the resources thread and welcome this old friend back?

Hmmmmmm, I'll let you get away with this time.....



Besides, I need to repair the joystick I bought for the c64 recently! :pac:

CiDeRmAn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxpTx0VDBKw

Steve X2

Cheers dude,

Steve X2

Dat original screen :eek:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGCxu2G-P0I

This is the "Before", hopefully I'll have the "After" in a few weeks when I get around to replacing the screen and doing a few other bits.
Make sure to watch in 1080 fullscreen to really see that blur

The Last Bandit

So fitted the NESRGB board into my NES and its well worth it !!

Zero dot crawl anymore, nice clear separation between all the colours. Even looks decent on the 29" screen, with composite it looked really bad on a larger screen. Kit came with a mini din connector and an audio jack for output but rather than having to make up more cables I used a SNES AV connector so I could use my existing SNES cable.
It would have been better to keep the audio separate from the video to minimise any interference but I'm happy enough with it as is.

Myrddin

Awesome, looks class. How did you hook up a Snes av connector to it?

The Last Bandit

Cut a semi accurate hole in the case the glue the old AV connector into it, just soldered the wires back to the NESRGB board. I didn't bother adding the palette switch, just jumpered it into 'normal' mode and left it at that.

Myrddin

Top class, well done

STG.Otaku

Thats rather epic. Well done.

Steve X2

Ninja soldering skills required for the NES RGB mod??

The Last Bandit

Steve SI wrote: »

Ninja soldering skills required for the NES RGB mod??

Not really its fairly straightforward, the most difficult part is in removing the original PPU but if you have a decent desoldering kit its not a problem.

I got one of these a while back so makes these jobs a lot easier !!

Doge

The Last Bandit wrote: »

Not really its fairly straightforward, the most difficult part is in removing the original PPU but if you have a decent desoldering kit its not a problem.

I got one of these a while back so makes these jobs a lot easier !!

How much did that yoke set you back?

I've been keeping my eye on the cheap ones without the station:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/S-993A-Electric-Vacuum-Desoldering-Pump-Solder-Sucker-Gun-350-450-c-100W-220V-/251581520713?pt=UK_Home_Garden_PowerTools_SM&hash=item3a936d5b49



Doubt I'd ever get enough use to justify the cost though.

This is for real men

Myrddin

Those solder suckers are only OK...the proper vacuum pumps are far superior.

The Last Bandit

Ya them suckers are ok if you're stuck but you're much more likely to overheat the chips using them. That one cost be around €90 delivered I think but I get a lot of use of it so worth it to me.

Doge

The Last Bandit wrote: »

Ya them suckers are ok if you're stuck but you're much more likely to overheat the chips using them. That one cost be around €90 delivered I think but I get a lot of use of it so worth it to me.

That's for nothing!
Sure the one I linked to goes for about that or even more!

Any idea of the brand name / model?

The Last Bandit

Duratool D00672

Doge

Thanks a lot for that, might invest in one.

I just discovered the biggest bargain ever after watching an EEVBlog review of a desoldering station.

In the related videos was a review of a Hakko 936b Soldering Station clone that was wait for it....

$16!

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__32515__Soldering_Station_with_Adjustable_Heat_Range_with_EU_plug_EU_warehouse_.html




The above link will take you to HobbyKing's European version, sold from their European warehouse.

The price comes to €13.76 and I think that may include free shipping!


I payed about €50 for my Atten 936b, i wonder how the quality of both clones compare!


Here's the eevblog review, although the thermal test isn't really fair as the calibration was out on the iron:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GdV7XBae74

He should really have adjusted the pot to get it upto the right temperature and see how it performed afterwards.

And if any ever finds the thermal capacity isn't enough to bond the solder, there's a simple solution - turn up the temperature!

Steve X2

New revision of the raspberry Pi is looking good for modders. That new switching power regulator(old one was linear), 4 USB ports, micro sd instead of the old full size sd and some other changes. Certainly gonna be a tiny bit easier to fit inside small cases like a Game Boy or other(neater sides and rounded corners) and power won't be an issue anymore so it should be rock solid even if your leeching power for a screen, controls and storage directly(with a 2A psu).

I've ordered up one to give it a go in a faulty Game Boy Pocket I have.

Anyone else done anything interesting (retro wise)with the Pi? Other than just downloading Retropie OS for it that is