An update on the whole Sega Game Gear situation.
The other day I went to work and re-soldered all the capacitors. I've never done any type of soldering before besides from the night before when I used the iron for the first time. I guess the chances for success weren't in my favour in the first place as, well, to be blunt I f*cked it up. It's jumped from one capacitor problem to another. Now it turns off as soon as it's turned on.
Posting some pictures to a Racket Boy thread and the general consensus I got was I used too much solder and didn't clean off the gunk from the previous blown capacitors. Now that I know what I've done wrong I plan on fixing it. I'm going to get rid of my soldering job, clean were I need to and then re-solder using smaller solder (the bunch I used was quite thick).
I bought a 'Solder Sucker' off eBay for...
One dollar!!!
Plus $1 postage.
Now all I need to do is find some smaller in diameter solder and I'm good to go.
I honestly didn't expect this project to go flawlessly the first time anyway. It is my first fix after all, I'm sure plenty of people failed their first try. The most important thing in my opinion, is that I keep trying. In the end it may or may not work but I won't be satisfied until I least know I tried.
Top tip from an experienced console modding-type-person - get some desoldering braid/wick as well. You place part of the wick over the big glob of solder, heat up and it sucks everything up into the braid; once its done, snip off the solder-sucked bit of the braid. I use a combination of solder sucker and braid when I'm working on stuff, though if I did more work (especially messing with ICs or arcade PCB repair) I'd get a proper desoldering station, as they're supposed to be pretty awesome.
ReplyDeleteThe only reason I mention desoldering braid/wick is because it can be a little more gentle on tracks on the PCB than a desolder pump.
Regardless, don't give up - good luck on getting your Game Gear sorted!
Ah, thanks for the advice :)
ReplyDelete