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

Myrddin

Not a mod as such, but wondering if anyone with even basic photoshop skills might be able to help me. The two images below are borders/skins for the GB/GBC emu's on my bartop. The white around the edges just looks awful...can this white space around the two game boys be made black at all?

The Last Bandit

The PSU board in these is fairly complicated, it has the HV section to drive the tube as well so not something you'll get anywhere apart from another Vectrex. Probably can be rebuilt but finding stuff like the LOPT could be very difficult.

Steve X2

Myrddin wrote: »

Not a mod as such, but wondering if anyone with even basic photoshop skills might be able to help me. The two images below are borders/skins for the GB/GBC emu's on my bartop. The white around the edges just looks awful...can this white space around the two game boys be made black at all?

Would you not be better off with a transparent png image with the borders removed completely?
I've attached the png's.

The Last Bandit wrote: »

The PSU board in these is fairly complicated, it has the HV section to drive the tube as well so not something you'll get anywhere apart from another Vectrex. Probably can be rebuilt but finding stuff like the LOPT could be very difficult.

Hmm, i do have another donor vectrex.

CiDeRmAn

Myrddin wrote: »

Not a mod as such, but wondering if anyone with even basic photoshop skills might be able to help me. The two images below are borders/skins for the GB/GBC emu's on my bartop. The white around the edges just looks awful...can this white space around the two game boys be made black at all?

I'll have a look at it tomorrow.
I know a guy with a perfectly legit copy if CS5 at home.....

Myrddin

Steve X2 wrote: »

Would you not be better off with a transparent png image with the borders removed completely?
I've attached the png's.

Cheers Steve. The emulator needs them in BMP format though, & when I save these png's as bmp's, the white remains...:(

Steve X2

Myrddin wrote: »

Cheers Steve. The emulator needs them in BMP format though, & when I save these png's as bmp's, the white remains...:(

Ok, here they are in black. Should be ok I think.
Just rename them as i added some text.

Myrddin

The look absolutely perfect Steve, much appreciated dude.

Myrddin

Quick question while we're on the subject of skins, does anyone know of a GBA emulator that has full screen skin support? As in, I'd like the image of a GBA on screen in full screen with the game playing in the smaller screen...can't seem to find one though. Visual Boy Advance supports skins but not in full screen mode...

Atavan-Halen

So I want to try my hand at soldering and simple console mods so I've decided to do the 50/60hz & Region mod on my megadrive 2. I know it's a little bit more complicated compared to the model 1 megadrive but I reckon it should be doable. After some research I figure I'm going to do it this way, rather than try lifting the pins.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmW8UVtAnWM

Just a couple of questions though. At 7.50 in the video, where he locates the 5v and ground points, would it be ok to solder 2 sets of wires to each? As in 2 wires coming from the one 5v point and 2 from the ground point rather than bridging them from the switches if that makes sense? Also, any recommendations on a cheap soldering iron, preferably that I can pick up in a shop in Dublin. Nothing fancy, just something that'll do these type of jobs.

I definitely would practice on some thing that's already broken.
Get flux , braid solder sucker and isopropyl alcohol.
As for the iron. Skip the cheap one and get something that works.

CathalDublin

Antex 25watt iron from Radionics is about €25-30 iirc, best budget iron you can buy

edit here you go linky to iron

Want to practice soldering, get some stripboard here and practice soldering/de-soldering, just remember stripboard is easier and stronger than most boards, you are far more likely to lift a trace/track on an actual circuit board than on stripboard.

Jack burton

Think thats the iron I got, works a treat! I got mine on amazon and got the .3m tip aswell. Very handy

Myrddin

CathalDublin wrote: »

Antex 25watt iron from Radionics is about €25-30 iirc, best budget iron you can buy

edit here you go linky

I'd second that, perfect for learning on, a good budget iron to boot, and is cheap to buy. I've used basic Antex irons for mods like this right up to building a supergun.

Regards your question about bringing two wires from each point, yeah that's fine to do so long as you get a good solder connection & the point itself isn't too small physically. A weak solder connection could lead to wires breaking away & shorting etc.

I'd find a cheap broken pcb from something & practice on that first too, just until you get a good idea of how solder flows, what heat you need, how long to apply heat for, where to apply heat et.

Atavan-Halen

Great advice there, cheers. I've a couple of broken ps1s I can practice on first Alright.

Steve X2

Decided to give my Amiga 1200 a CF backplate extension and some new clean feet.

The A1200:


The backplate and CF HDD extension:


Installed:



New feet next to old stinky feet:


Easy access to the Amiga Hdd will be very handy when doing stuff in WinUAE and moving it across the the real Amiga hardware.

Backplate: http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=1216
Feet: http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=1017

Jack burton

Speaking of PS1, any worthwhile mods to do to them? Hardly

I have about 5 of them lying around.

CiDeRmAn

Jack burton wrote: »

Speaking of PS1, any worthwhile mods to do to them? Hardly

I have about 5 of them lying around.

Region
Make it read CDR
That's all I can think of, unless there is a ssd solution out there that I don't know about.

KeRbDoG

Jack burton wrote: »

Speaking of PS1, any worthwhile mods to do to them? Hardly

I have about 5 of them lying around.

Depending on the model(s) you can also;

• Audiophile it (unsure if its is just a fools-gold thing)
• Mod a PAL PS1 to output an NTSC signal in colour over composite, but who uses composite these days? RGB'4'LiFe!

Atavan-Halen

Right, let's give this soldering lark a go

CathalDublin

Get a little damp sponge to clean the tip as you go

Oh and

Star Lord

Not sure if heat is conducted down into that metal stand, might be worth putting a coaster under it just in case...

The Last Bandit

Star Lord wrote: »

Not sure if heat is conducted down into that metal stand, might be worth putting a coaster under it just in case...

Best place for that 'stand' is it the bin. Pick up an Antex ST4 stand if you can.

CiDeRmAn

Atavan-Halen wrote: »

Right, let's give this soldering lark a go

Don't forget this

Jack burton

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Region
Make it read CDR
That's all I can think of, unless there is a ssd solution out there that I don't know about.

On my phone so I cant get the link now but I saw something last night about a SD card mod for ps1. Ill post it up when I get home

Steve X2

Jack burton wrote: »

On my phone so I cant get the link now but I saw something last night about a SD card mod for ps1. Ill post it up when I get home

http://ps-io.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gE9J4g5TYPw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-3Aui2387Y

Atavan-Halen

Seems to be going ok so far (with minimal burns :P) but I'm having one issue. I can't get the solder to stick to a trace or get a wire to stick to a trace. I'm tinning the wire and tip of the iron, scraping back to protective coating on the trace, cleaning the area with the alcohol and adding a little flux. When I try to add some solder to the trace it just seems to be attracting to the iron and collecting all on the tip of the iron and not the board. Any tips?

CathalDublin

Give the trace a good scrape, are they copper traces?

sugarman

sugarman wrote: »

No need to do that, could damage them or pull them away/off the pcb.

He just needs practice.

Place the irons tip on the edge of the pad when soldering and just feed in plenty of solder in until it looks good.

He's not soldering to a pad.
Try cleaning the iron when it's cold. Even rub it lightly with fine sandpaper to get all the crud off.

Myrddin

The trace isn't hot enough for the solder to stick to it Atavan, try getting a little more heat into it first & then apply the solder

CathalDublin

sugarman wrote: »

No need to do that, could damage them or pull them away/off the pcb.

It's only a scrap PCB;)