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[border]

For future use, I would like to learn how to properly solder wires. People say that it's honestly not that hard....is it?

What's the best way to go about picking this stuff up? Obviously, I don't want my first project to be a $150 game system. Is there anywhere that I can buy a test kit? Like maybe some sort of plug-in board where a light will light up if I've properly made the connection. Are there any helpful beginner's guides on the web?

Aside from basic soldering and diagram reading, are any other skills necessary? Of the 3 major consoles, which would be the easiest to start with (excluding the no-solder Xbox mods)?

 

[explodet]

I'm thinking of doing the same - picking up a kit and doing some modding. When some places want to charge a ridiculous amount of money to do the job for you, it might be worth the risk.

I was soldering wires in high school in an electronics class - and fortunately, it's not brain surgery. I personally thought the greatest danger was burning yourself with the soldering iron. But the other concern is making sure the solder doesn't spread out and short circuit other leads.

If you know of any surplus electronics stores with LEDs and resistors and such, you should be able to find what you need there (except for the modchip).

 

[border]

I can't say I've ever used a soldering iron or seen one used, but I was under the impression that it's more or less like using a hot glue gun.....is that right? You squeeze a trigger and some hot stinky gunk comes out?

 

[Shompola]

I used soldering pen. I used 45W(15W is what you should use though) and it worked fine modding my playstation and dreamcast.
My technique is to first warm up the soldering pen, when you have done that melt a little of the solder paste to the wire to the degree that it get stuck on it. Keep the paste warm on the wire with the pen, move the wire and pen to wherever you're going to solder. It's very easy and works just fine and chances of accidently soldering off circuits is pretty much minimal.

 

[aerofx]

Some necessary equipment would be a .01mm tip 15watt soldering iron, Rosin soldering f flux, and .015 diameter solder. For fuckup jobs get some desoldering braid.

If you want to be really careful, I suggest you get an anti-static wrist strap.

I mod PS2s and Xboxes and these are the basic necessities. I can understand someone saying it's not that hard if they're a bit above the average level when it comes to soldering, especially when it comes to PS2s. Although the Xbox is really easy.. and it's great for beginners.

 

[mrklaw]

Check out toy stores for kids electronic kits. You can get stuff like building radios etc. Thats a good place to start.

But you should be OK as long as you aren't a complete knob.

Just don't apply heat for too long (and therefore fry the chips), and you can always undo what you've done if you put too much on.

 

[impirius]

I would suggest finding an cheap old network card or some other now-useless piece of PC equipment on which to practice.

The soldeirng iron is just an instrument with a metal tip that gets hot. You use this to heat up the solder and make it flow where you want. Basically, it's best to do what Shompola said; 'tin' your wire by heating some solder and applying it to the wire, then place it where you want and touch the wire with your soldering iron until the solder flows down onto the contact point. You can make things a bit easier by putting some flux on the contact point; the solder will flow right to the flux.

You won't need anything higher than a 25W soldering iron. I use a 15W. A soldering pencil is preferable since you'll be dealing with tiny contact points.

 

[mrklaw]

to be honest, the chip is the easy bit.

For xbox, I'd get someone else to do it, as then you have to get the bios flashed, get your dashboards and apps loaded.

I'm much happier having mine delivered with FTP enabled out of the box. (although I did do my Tivo myself, including an ethernet upgrade, which was very slow, but rewarding)

 

[border]

As far as I can tell, no one online is selling premodded systems with the illegal BIOS and dashboards already installed....'cause that's illegal. So either way I would be doing the flashing and installing myself.

What's a "Rosin soldering f flux"?

And I'm not entirely understanding the instructions. So I strip the end of a wire....put the solder gunk on the tip and heat it up....then apply that to some contact point on a circuit board? What is meant by "until the solder flows down onto the contact point"? Should the wire be touching the contact point as well?

If anybody knows if there's a video of this somewhere, it might be helpful. Not sure how comfortable I am doing it without any visual guides.

If I am just practicing with old PC parts, how am I going to know if I am doing it right?

 

[Killthee]

As far as I can tell, no one online is selling premodded systems with the illegal BIOS and dashboards already installed....'cause that's illegal. So either way I would be doing the flashing and installing myself.

What's a "Rosin soldering f flux"?

And I'm not entirely understanding the instructions. So I strip the end of a wire....put the solder gunk on the tip and heat it up....then apply that to some contact point on a circuit board? What is meant by "until the solder flows down onto the contact point"? Should the wire be touching the contact point as well?

If anybody knows if there's a video of this somewhere, it might be helpful. Not sure how comfortable I am doing it without any visual guides.

If I am just practicing with old PC parts, how am I going to know if I am doing it right?

The solder hardens once you remove the soldering iron. By flow we mean heat it up again and let it "flow"/melt down to the contact point.

 

[border]

Okay...so strip the wire, melt solder onto the bare end. Let it harden. Then, place the end of the wire on the contact point and melt solder over it? Or should I be holding the solder-covered end slightly above the contact point rather than over it?

And flux is some sort of, uhhh, thing that "attracts" hot solder?

 

[aerofx]

Yeah, Flux is like some gooey paste. It melts like butta...

 

[border]

Is there a "right" amount of solder to use? Will it make a difference if I fuck up and there's a big gob?

I assume the only thing that matters is having the wire touching the solder and the solder touching the contact point.

 

[Shompola]

I never used flux but it sounds like a great thing.

 

[Shompola]

Is there a "right" amount of solder to use? Will it make a difference if I fuck up and there's a big gob?

I assume the only thing that matters is having the wire touching the solder and the solder touching the contact point.

Use as little as you can as you don't want the solder to touch anything else than the contact point. Of course the wire shouldn't be loose either. Best is to experiment.

 

[aerofx]

I never used flux but it sounds like a great thing.

Yes I never used it either until I picked up some yesterday. There are some super tiny points on the PS2 that just won't stick to solder no matter how many times you touch the lead with solder. With the flux, I was able to get a very tiny piece of solder to make contact and that was enough to get some wires on it.

 

[border]

Couple extra questions -- where do I get the screwdriver that opens up the Xbox, PS2, or whatever? I'm assuming that they all use different types of screws.

What's solder paste? Do I definitely need it?

 

[Sinatar]

Just in time for the Halo 2 leak... Interesting.

 

[borghe]

modding an xbox requires no solder

 

[border]

Just in time for the Halo 2 leak... Interesting.

Except that the thread is a week old =P

I still need the screwdrivers, even for a no-solder Xbox mod....apparently those things fall out a lot though.

 

[BuddyC]

PS2 uses standard phillips head screws, so messing about with it isn't tough.

GC and Xbox require specialized bits.

For the GC, you'll want a 4.5 MM Gamebit. I also picked up a 3.8 MM Gamebit, to open up old NES/SNES games and replace the battery backup. I ended up paying 3 or 4 bucks for each, but I can't seem to find that site anymore. I know someone here recommended it.

For Xbox, you'll want a Torx 10 and a Torx 20 screwdriver. I've PM'ed you a good guide on how to open the Xbox, but I dunno the best place to snag the Torx set.

 

[border]

Does anyone know if the Torx 10/20 screwdrivers just be at any Lowe's or Home Depot? Or is it something that would have to be ordered over the internet?

 

[BuddyC]

Does anyone know if the Torx 10/20 screwdrivers just be at any Lowe's or Home Depot? Or is it something that would have to be ordered over the internet?

Likely, I know Ace Hardware carries them. This is what you're looking for.

or

As for the Gamebit, you'll have to go online for those. Just don't play $15 per bit >_<

 

[Sinatar]

Except that the thread is a week old =P

:lol doh

 

[borghe]

border - softmod your xbox. it takes literally five minutes (as long as you have a non-platinum retail copy of either splinter cell, mechassault, or 007: AUF) and is completely safe. www.xbox-scene.com has a great soft mod tutorial (UDE2) and the tutorial even contains links to the legal files required.. as for files illegal to distribute (which are mostly XDK compiled binaries), go to www.xbins.org and read in the FAQ about how to use their IRC channel to get the necessary files (evox and such).

I kid you not, five minutes. I actually did three boxes two weeks ago in under 15 minutes.

 

[borghe]

UDE2 Tutorial

 

[border]

Maybe I sound stupid, but all that softmod stuff is way too crazy for me. You say that it's quick and simple, but it seems like every tutorial immediately launches into a bunch of incomprehensible jargon, and skips important steps assuming that I already know how to do them. Not to mention that it seems as though the whole process is entirely dependent on what version Xbox you have, what kernel you're running, etc, etc.

I don't even own an Xbox at the moment, so I'm not even sure that this would work if I picked up a brand new one. I'm assuming that Microsoft is slowly but surely patching up their security holes.

I'm also a bit troubled by the fact that it's supposedly possible that I might permanently disable my Xbox if I do something incorrectly (or at least disable it until a mod chip is installed).

The softmod stuff sounded like a godsend when I heard about it long ago, but unless you wanna do it for me or walk me through it then I'm not so sure =)

 

[8bit]

Is the PS2 tricky? I've done an Xbox and afterburned a GBA recently, but they didn't have eleventy billion wires to deal with.

 

[DaCocoBrova]

:lol

The physical mod is the easy part. It's the sh!t that happens afterward that's a bitch and takes time to learn.

 

[aerofx]

PS2 points are pretty small depending on what chip you install. Magic 3's are a pain.

 

[border]

Bleh....that UDE tutorial assumes that I have a friend with a modded Xbox. If I had a friend with a modded Xbox, I would just get him to mod mine =P

It's the sh!t that happens afterward that's a bitch and takes time to learn.

Like what? *gulp*

 

[borghe]

Maybe I sound stupid, but all that softmod stuff is way too crazy for me. You say that it's quick and simple, but it seems like every tutorial immediately launches into a bunch of incomprehensible jargon, and skips important steps assuming that I already know how to do them. Not to mention that it seems as though the whole process is entirely dependent on what version Xbox you have, what kernel you're running, etc, etc.

I don't even own an Xbox at the moment, so I'm not even sure that this would work if I picked up a brand new one. I'm assuming that Microsoft is slowly but surely patching up their security holes.

I'm also a bit troubled by the fact that it's supposedly possible that I might permanently disable my Xbox if I do something incorrectly (or at least disable it until a mod chip is installed).

The softmod stuff sounded like a godsend when I heard about it long ago, but unless you wanna do it for me or walk me through it then I'm not so sure =)

actually as long as you follow the guide TO THE 'T', it works flawlessly.

as for disabling your xbox, well, I don't know about that. In theory no matter how trashed your C drive is I "believe" most games will still boot. So even if your C drive is trashed you should just be able to boot off of one of those three games, load the save, and FTP your backup back to the drive.

and one of the boxes I did a few weeks ago was BRAND NEW. We told the guy to buy a refurb because I didn't know if it would work brand new, but lo and behold the most recent fonts70.zip package has bert.xtf for the most recent kernel (58xx or something)

anyway, it is simple, quick, solderless, and total cost to you is at worst an action replay if you have no other way of getting files from the internet to your XBox (another friend's modded xbox, xbox compatible usb storage with convertor cable, etc).

trust me, learning how to do UDE2 is SIGNIFICANTLY easier than learning how to solder small solder pads.

 

[borghe]

Bleh....that UDE tutorial assumes that I have a friend with a modded Xbox. If I had a friend with a modded Xbox, I would just get him to mod mine =P

or just pay $25 for an action replay. or if you already have a usb pen drive sitting around the cost of usb and xbox extension cords.

 

[Crispy]

I can imagine the new PStwo model being difficult to mod if the old model is already hard to do.

 

[BuddyC]

I can imagine the new PStwo model being difficult to mod if the old model is already hard to do.

An exploit is already available. All it takes is the Swap Magic discs, duct tape and a screwdriver.

Seriously. I know it can run imports, but I dunno about homebrew.

Supposedly it'll only work for the first shipment of PStwos though.

 

[Dsal]

If you've never soldered before, do what I did. I bought a couple extra really cheap ICs ( like 10 cents each or something ) from Radio Shack. Then I practiced several times soldering wires onto their prongs until I was able to do it pretty well. The practice really helped.

 

[border]

What if I want to get rid of the softmod to make my machine 100% safe for Xbox Live (or install a real mod chip)? Is there a way to wipe out all traces of the old BIOS?

Have you tested to make sure that Xbox Live works with this method of softmod? I'm not really sure if I wanna do this, since the only way to ensure XBL compatibility is to login to XBL with a "clean" system, and I'm not planning on getting an XBL subscription for another couple months.

 

[DaCocoBrova]

Like what? *gulp*

Lessee...

Which BIOS to use
Flashing the BIOS
Recovering from a fucked Flash (some BIOSs are incompatible w/ some chips)
Misc. dashboard issues
Getting all the needed software (know how to use IRC).
FRAGs and recovering from them (FRAG = Flashing red and green LED)

And so on...

 

[border]

Well, sounds like the softmod actually sidesteps some of those things.....though I'm sure it has problems of its own. What causes a FRAG? =)

 

[borghe]

exactly.. the only thing you have to learn with UDE2 is that to play retail games, power on the system with the game already in the drive. and make sure that if you EVER load a game from EvoX, basically unplug your network cable. even a game without live but that is live aware will fuck you (as my friend found out last week).

beyond that there is nothing else to learn.

 

[borghe]

the ONLY PITA I have found with softmodding, and it is a PITA, is to update a live game with content you have to "unmod" your xbox (i.e. switch the fonts directories back around and switch the xboxdash.xbe files around) usually in order to download content. you only have to do it once for each game though.. apparently each game needs to update itself in some way or another the first time you try to download content. after that first time you can download new content for that game with a softmodded xbox (booting from the retail disc of course) but that first time you need your xbox back to normal.

the reason for this is that the xbox has to reboot into the dashboard and download some update. unfortunately the softmod kills the MS dashboard so when the system reboots it goes to a black screen.

but aside from that (and making sure you load all live and live aware games either from boot or without the network cable plugged in) softmodding is ridiculously easy.

 

[border]

But here's the thing -- that tutorial makes it sound as though my first Live login has to be done from a completely unmodded console, from the Dashboard. But I'm not really planning on signing up for Live until next year....so if I softmod now, does that mean I can never get on Live?

And what's a PITA? =P

 

[fallout]

And what's a PITA? =P

Not knowing what PITA stands for. =P

Anyway, before you do any serious modding, practice on useless shit first. VCRs are good targets. Maybe even some old circuit boards if you can them.

My first ever console mod was a region switch mod on my GCN. I actually did a dry run first though to have a look (I wrote a guide if anyone's interested). Just opening up systems can be dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. Plastic pieces can snap, heatsinks can be ruined, things can be short circuited, etc.

The GCN mod itself was really difficult. 30 gauge wire is incredibly thing, I'd say it slightly larger than a strand of hair, but not by much (remember, the part you solder is the actual wire, not the plastic). So to get a good bead that wasn't touching anything serious on the motherboard and was good enough to hold the wire in place was quite difficult. I actually fucked it up on first attempt and ended up having to solder it from the other (and more difficult) side.

That being said, nearly 2 years later and my GCN is still running great. Actually, some guy dropped it from about a height of 3-4 feet last year in my res, chipped off a piece of plastic ... but it still works. Tough little buggers they are.

 

[joaomgcd]

Go here instead. Much easier.

 

[nitewulf]

if you can get two people (including yourself), then this is an easy way. using the soldering iron, heat up the contact, while touching the contact with the wire. and once heated (you have to assume it is, trial and error), the second person will touch the contact or the tip of the iron with the solder wire, which will melt onto the wire and the contact.
if you are doing it by yourself, then heat up the iron, use the tip to slice of a tiny bit of soldering wire and then proceed to join the wire and contact with that bit of molten solder from the tip of the iron.
be careful not to burn the board or yourself. you can buy boards and cheap circuit elements from PC Richards to practice first. its pretty easy once you get the hang of it.

wire = copper wire you are trying to join
contact = part of the microchip or board
soldering wire = the bundle you can buy, this is the element that'll melt like wax from a heated soldering iron
soldering iron = the device you are using to melt the soldering wire

 

[NohWun]

PITA = Pain In The A$$.

Rosin serves a couple of purposes. One, it helps conduct heat. But mainly, it helps prevent the solder from oxidizing and thus makes it flow nicely.

One thing to remember when soldering: don't inhale the fumes. They contain lead.

Soldering wires is easy if you "tin" both sides of the connection first. "Tin" means to melt some solder onto it. So tin the end of the wire, then tin the connection point separately. Once you've done that, heat them both up together, and the solder that's already on there will flow together (you don't have to add more solder unless it's a big joint).

Next, remember that solder is not structurally very strong. One way to make a connection stronger and insulate it at the same time is to put hot glue over it. Down side is that it usually makes a mess.

 

[Gek54]

One thing to remember when soldering: don't inhale the fumes. They contain lead

Ah damn, what does lead poisoning do?

 

[borghe]

But here's the thing -- that tutorial makes it sound as though my first Live login has to be done from a completely unmodded console, from the Dashboard. But I'm not really planning on signing up for Live until next year....so if I softmod now, does that mean I can never get on Live?

And what's a PITA? =P

ok, here is the live deal... you HAVE to update to the newest live... if you buy a new xbox this isn't a problem because it will update live even without a live login I believe.. this is mainly a problem for older xboxes... if you have say dash 4920 (I think) and try softmodding that, it might fail.

as far as needing to go on live, there are two ways you can do it.. either rename the xboxdash.xbe files and fonts directories back or just boot from a retail live game.

imho it is easier to get yourself banned with a modchip because you can forget the modchip is on... the only way you can get banned with the softmod is to launch a live game from within EvoX.

 

[AlphaSnake]

I've been modding Playstations since I was 13. If I was able to do it since that age...anybody can. It's really not that hard. Just find the correct points and that's it. A fine tip solder iron is ideal for any situation, and doing something really wrong with one is very unlikely.

 

[mrklaw]

can the softmod be used for xbox media center?

Thats all I want on my second xbox, and if I can save £60 on a mod chip, I will.

It'd be a new crystal PAL xbox though (1.6), don't know if that makes a difference.

(I will also want to play retail games, locally and on live, but nothing ripped)