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Couple of questions bout modding a saturn

Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 1:30 pm
by elios_kenni
I ordered my sega saturn model 2 mod chip from racketboy yesterday. I have a few questions about it before I receive it. I'm wanting to do a solder less install. I've never solder'd in my life and don't wanna start on my saturn and take a chance of screwing it up or the mod chip. Okay I've been reading on the site that it is possible to do a solder less install if the A-B is already done. What does that mean? Also if I need to extend the wire from the modchip so it can reach the power supply pin or whatever it's called. What kind of wire do I need to use? Copper or what?

Re: Couple of questions bout modding a saturn

Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 7:18 pm
by Curlypaul
There are 2 points marked on the chip with A and B. If these are bridged with solder then you might not have to solder the blue wire to the tiny pins on the chip on the cd rom board.

The power wire could be easily held onto the contact with whatever you think will work, and yes you should extend it with copper wire.

Re: Couple of questions bout modding a saturn

Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 4:31 am
by elios_kenni
Alright thanks for explaining that. I'm going to just try and loop the signal wire around the 14th pin and maybe black tape it in place. If that's possible. Cause I won't really wanna solder since I've never done so.

Re: Couple of questions bout modding a saturn

Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 5:16 pm
by Ziggy
The soldering required for the Saturn mod chip installation is really not hard to do at all, even if you never soldered before in your life. You can get it to work if you don't solder, but the contacts aren't really solid. They can come loose from vibrations and whatnot. It would be a shame to come loose while in the middle of a game.

Soldering is really easy in this situation. To bridge the A and B connection, just touch a heated solder iron to the contacts very lightly and get the solder to touch both contacts (literally a bridge between them). You're never really suppose to ever touch the iron directly to solder, but in this case this is what I would do to make life easier, especially for a beginner.

Then for the power wire, I'm pretty sure Racket's mod chip's wires come with the tips pre soldered. So all you'd have to do is heat the solder up on the end of the wire and touch it to the contact on the power supply while its still hot and then it will stick when it's cooled. Just give the wire a little tug to make sure it made a good connection. I used a little extra solder myself, but that can get messy with beginners. Again, you're not suppose to touch the wire with the solder on it to the iron, but its ok. They way you're suppose to do it is touch the iron to the contact point to heat it up, then touch the wire with the solder on it to the heated point. The solder would then melt on it, pull the iron off and let it cool, and then its like glue.

The wire to the power supply was very taunt but I just left it like that. It was literally JUST enough to reach. If you want to extend it, just use some ordinary speaker wire. You might want to strip the mod chip's wire down a little more (I like to have about 1-1 1/2 inch of wire exposed. Twist the wires together, not one around the other. Twist them real tight, then hit it up with a little bit of electrical tape. You could hit up the twisted wires with some solder to ensure a perfect connection, but that's not really needed in this case.

But hell, if you're not comfortable doing it then don't. The only thing you really need is a steady hand and some patience.

Re: Couple of questions bout modding a saturn

Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 11:30 pm
by blackbanta
I cant see good enough anymore to solder at all.All the pins blur, period.I tried .I gave up, and am not sure if I screwed up my chip.Is their anyone on these boards that does modchip installs?I went and bought another round button off of ebay and am ready to send it and the modchip to some-one else to do.please some-one out-there give an old man a break!