General Modding Insight/Game Gear AV Out Question

[Ghudda]

Last night I went ahead and did a full game gear re-cap install. I think the video caps were fine but the main reason why I went ahead and changed the caps was because the sound was very faint and there was no reason to replace only the audio board caps. I'm also looking for any excuse to practice soldering and hopefully get better at it.




I'm very interested in ultimately performing the AV out mod to my Game Gear and was wondering exactly how difficult the mod is with the v2.1 board



I've never installed a mod chip before. This doesn't mean that I havn't spent a fair amount of time with a soldering iron, but it still says something that i'm new to the modding scene, and really wish to get more experience under my belt.

Is the AV Out mod for the Game Gear considered "advanced"? My only concern is the very delicate situations like soldering to ends of small fuses, etc. I do have some scrap console circuit boards laying around that I could certainly practice on before hand.

If this is considered an advanced mod, are there any particular mod chip that are notoriously easy and therefor would be better for me to start on? (I really would like to mod my PSOne as well).

If some of you regular modders could share some advice, i'd greatly appreciate it.

[Ziggy]

I can't really comment on the GG mod, but it looks like you just have to solder wires from that board to points on the GG main board. How hard it is depends on what you have to solder to on the GG.

Installing a MM3 in a PSOne isn't the easiest of installs. It's only about 5 wires but some of the points you have to solder to on the main board are really small (like the side of a surface mounted resistor).

If you want to practice delicate soldering, you could always just use some junk electronics. It doesn't have to be video game stuff. Old remotes, alarm clocks, DVD players, whatever. Open them up and pretend like you're installing a mod chip or whatever. Practice soldering wires to legs of surface mounted ICs, to the sides of surfaces mounted components like resistors or caps, to vias, etc etc.

If you need tips, just ask!

[irixith]

PSOne and PS2 Slim are amongst the hardest of mod chip installs due to the tiny size of your solder points. If you feel you're not ready yet, definitely practice.

[Ziggy]

With the PSOne though, it's only about 5 wires. The PS2 chip is like 20 something wires IIRC. And does it require desoldering some components? (I never really looked into installing one before.)

[irixith]

Yeah, the chip I had to do in my slim was 27 or 29 wires. Never did another!