Newbie modder introduction

Hi, decided to make myself an account and introduce myself after seeing so many amazing hacks and mods around the forum and from its members.

I'm just getting into this as a hobby right now, doing some AV mods, learning some lessons and working to improve my skills. Most lessons so far have been about trying to solder hookup wire directly to the legs of SMD components, like "DON'T" and "DOOOOOOOON'T". Conductive epoxy has become my best friend lately.

Hopefully I'll get good enough at this to post a decent ratio of "check out this thing!" vs. "hey, I broke this, help?"

usetheswordASasword wrote:

Hi, decided to make myself an account and introduce myself after seeing so many amazing hacks and mods around the forum and from its members.

I'm just getting into this as a hobby right now, doing some AV mods, learning some lessons and working to improve my skills. Most lessons so far have been about trying to solder hookup wire directly to the legs of SMD components, like "DON'T" and "DOOOOOOOON'T". Conductive epoxy has become my best friend lately.

Hopefully I'll get good enough at this to post a decent ratio of "check out this thing!" vs. "hey, I broke this, help?"

Yeah I usually keep projects a secret until it's finished or had a major breakthrough.  Directly to the legs of smd components is doable for sop level but if you can connect to the other end of the trace that the leg attaches to that usually makes it much easier.  Sometimes spending time to find the safest and easiest way to do a mod makes all the difference.  Sometimes the easiest way to get something done requires patiently waiting for parts and hardware that will make it easier.  Welcome to le forum.

Isn't epoxy kind of permanent?  I try to use hot glue since it can always be removed later. I tend to find ways to improve my mods and circuits down the road as I learn to understand the hardware better and when those times come I'm so happy I used hot glue instead of epoxy.

Drakon wrote:

Yeah I usually keep projects a secret until it's finished or had a major breakthrough.  Directly to the legs of smd components is doable for sop level but if you can connect to the other end of the trace that the leg attaches to that usually makes it much easier.  Sometimes spending time to find the safest and easiest way to do a mod makes all the difference.  Sometimes the easiest way to get something done requires patiently waiting for parts and hardware that will make it easier.  Welcome to le forum.

Isn't epoxy kind of permanent?  I try to use hot glue since it can always be removed later.  I tend to find ways to improve my mods and circuits down the road as I learn to understand the hardware better and when those times come I'm so happy I used hot glue instead of epoxy.

Well the epoxy was for RGB and S-video mods on an SNS-101, since the pins in question are unconnected. And I broke a few trying to solder directly to them, so it made more sense to me to use a silver-filled epoxy to connect hookup wires to the legs, instead of solder. It would have worked but there was an unfortunate... accident... with the toaster oven I was using to cure the epoxy... and, yeah, that board is pretty dead at this point. Oh well, it was a non-working machine when I started on it. I think next time I'm just going to etch a little board that'll provide safe soldering pads for those connections. Thanks for le welcome!

So you were trying to solder to the video encoder that's right next to the cartridge slot? I managed to get connections there but the process is time consuming to explain.

Drakon wrote:

So you were trying to solder to the video encoder that's right next to the cartridge slot?  I managed to get connections there but the process is time consuming to explain.

Yeah, the S-RGB chip.

Yeah it involves careful soldering technique. I solder clipped metal resistor legs to the pins so I can solder wires up easier.

The only use I ever had for conductive epoxy was to "solder" on carbon contact pads or aluminum or other stuff solder will not stick to. Otherwise it is inferior to real solder in almost any regards. soldering on loose pins is safe and easy with proper techniques.