A note on PCB's: Don't.

Neon · Post by **Neon** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 7:22 pm

All that's required to fix a cold solder joint is to reheat the solder with the iron - correct?

PaCrappa · Post by **PaCrappa** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 10:03 pm

PsikyoPshumpPshooterP wrote:he fucked up my ps2 mod 1 month after he charged me around $150 for chip, installation, and shipping...had to send it back...told me he couldnt fix the problem,...thought it was a laser problem..threw down another $80 bucks for a laser...waited a month for the laser from HK..he installed the laser, stil didnt work...held onto my ps2 for another MONTH, then told me he was gonna buy a refurbished ps2 somewhere else and do the mod then...had to thrown down anther $100 bucks..all tgoether it took 3 months, and $330 for a mod that stopped reading blue disks after 4 months...

So what you're saying is it would have been easier, quicker and cheaper to just buy a Japanese PS2 in the first place. Which is exactly what you'd have done if playing Japanese games was really the focus.

It's situations like these that make me glad I never modded PS2 systems for people. Some teenager sends you his used PS2 full of dog hair, nacho particles and dead cockroaches. You do your best with it and it doesn't work because PS2 modding was never an exact science (which was chronicled at length by numerous websites including this one). Then you feel bad for the kid so you do whatever the fuck it takes to get him a working PS2 and then when it breaks down in what would be a feasible amount of time for a completely untouched PS2 to break down in, said kid goes online and tries to trash your good name because you can't hold his hand through life. This is beyond classic.

Anyways, Neon, sorry for being so cranky at you yesterday. If you see something that needs resoldered, you'll want to add a wee bit of solder and/or perhaps flux. A "cold joint" looks all dull like a metal rock. A proper solder joint should be very shiny and looking almost like liquid even though it is solid. Just buy some cheap wire and practice making your own quality joints. Try to heat the wire first and touch the solder to the wire (or part that you're soldering the wire to) and let the solder go where it needs to. You'll know you're doing it right when the solder just sort of flows right into place. For the purposes of supergun construction and maintenance you may want to spend a little coin on a nice iron with replacable tips. And then replace the tip with a sweetass needlepoint one. This here is just like my rig: http://cgi.ebay.com/Weller-Soldering-St ... dZViewItem I've had it for about 8 years now and it works a treat.

Pa

Neon · Post by **Neon** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 11:06 pm

Thanks Pa.

Have to agree about Japanese consoles as well, they've been better looking than their NA equivalents since the NES (in every case I can think of) and it's just more reliable in general, especially with ps2 where you can't get the psone enhancements with a mod.

oxtsu · Post by **oxtsu** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 11:20 pm

Props to Pa for being the inspector in this thread. Somebody pin the gold medal on this man.

PsikyoPshumpPshooterP · Mon Feb 27, 2006 11:41 pm

pa, the hair that was in the ps2 was your mom's pubes when she ejaculated through the disk tray

and thats all i have to say about that

oxtsu · Post by **oxtsu** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 11:45 pm

Pho Hoa

PsikyoPshumpPshooterP · Mon Feb 27, 2006 11:50 pm

oxtsu wrote:Pho Hoa

Pho vietnam
Pho #1
Pho #7
Saigon Pho
Pho Dac Biet
Pho Xe Lua

J2d · Post by **J2d** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 2:50 am

God I hope my uberia gun never craps out on me or that my two pcb's die because I don't know anything about these kind of things and have zero interest to learn. Antistatic bags, a clean room and the gentle touch worthy of a newborn is as far as I go.

Skyline · Post by **Skyline** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 2:56 am

PsikyoPshumpPshooterP wrote:pa, the hair that was in the ps2 was your mom's pubes when she ejaculated through the disk tray

Looks like somebody ran out of material.

Seriously, dude. Please drop it. Or at least hire better writers.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 6:30 am

Yeah... annoying when it isn't funny.

Thunder Force · Post by **Thunder Force** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 6:49 am

PPPP: There's a fine line between being annoying, and outright abusive towards other members, so constrain your trash talking, this is Shmups Forum not Xbox Live.

99pence · Post by **99pence** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 7:15 am

PaCrappa wrote:It's situations like these that make me glad I never modded PS2 systems for people. Some teenager sends you his used PS2 full of dog hair, nacho particles and dead cockroaches.

Thank fudge for collectors and people who take care of their stuff. Don't buy anything off anyone who burns their spine cards and their bras.

Pictures on ebay where someone is selling their PCBs and they have the PCB sitting on the carpet for the picture. What are they thinking really. FFS. I mean, if bananas are 30 cents...

neorichieb1971 · Post by **neorichieb1971** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 7:47 am

LMFAO!

Pa does kinda throw his weight around here on occasion and is obviously respected enough by fellow posters. I'm really surprised of PPPP though.. trash talk on the internet is just like totally pointless!

Except, its only funny the first time.

Marc · Post by **Marc** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 8:09 am

Yeah, but Pa can get away with it cause 99.9% of the time he speaks common sense.

Twiddle · Post by **Twiddle** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 8:09 am

I hear there is trash talking in this thread therefore i invite you all to fellate my spider

PaCrappa · Post by **PaCrappa** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 6:31 pm

99pence wrote:
PaCrappa wrote:It's situations like these that make me glad I never modded PS2 systems for people. Some teenager sends you his used PS2 full of dog hair, nacho particles and dead cockroaches.

Thank fudge for collectors and people who take care of their stuff. Don't buy anything off anyone who burns their spine cards and their bras.

Pictures on ebay where someone is selling their PCBs and they have the PCB sitting on the carpet for the picture. What are they thinking really. FFS. I mean, if bananas are 30 cents...

So one time I was doing a mobile mod service on this kid's PSX, the grey one. I took the lid off and saw several dead cockroaches I immediately put the lid back on and said I couldn't do it. I was afraid there'd be live ones in there! I'd have lost my motherfucking mind and made that kid fellate my spider if he'd have brought that roach motel into my residence.

Another time I opened one up and saw some residue under the power supply. I was like "That's fishy", so I removed the power supply and in what is normally the 1/4 inch space underneath, was a 1/4 inch glacier of coagulated Coca Cola with dog hairs bristling out of it.

Those are only two examples of what the diligent modsman sees on a regular basis out there on the mean streets of Liberty City. And it always disgusted me, especially because 99.99999% of the time, fools just wanna play burns. Nowadays, you gotta be in with the in crowd if you want work done.

On an unrelated note, I do love the Pho. There is a very clever joint out in Bellevue calling themselves "What the Pho?" I laughed so hard the first time I saw it. They're even more clever than that kid that just tried to insult me or my mom or whatever.

Anyways, I don't talk trash or throw any weight around on these forums. Basically, I'm like multiplatinum rapper, Too Short. "I speak only the true".

Pa

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 8:04 pm

One time a friend was fixing another friends VCR. When he opened it up, there was a dead cicada in there. No doubt put in there by my friend, but he had had that VCR since we were youngins.

matt · Post by **matt** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 11:31 am

PaCrappa wrote:It's situations like these that make me glad I never modded PS2 systems for people.

Thank you, Pacrappa. That is why I stopped doing mods.

I remember PPP's PS2 - it took up 2 months of my time and I didn't earn any money from it. I'd elaborate but Pa described the situation perfectly.

Neon, are you still having trouble with your supergun? If so, e-mail me (the_matthew@yahoo.ca). Feel free to re-send ad nauseum if I forget to answer.

On another note, there was a restaurant back home called "Pho King"...

PaCrappa · Post by **PaCrappa** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 5:58 pm

Cheers Matt

Pa

captain ahar · Post by **captain ahar** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 6:06 pm

yay matt. it boosts my spirits seeing that avatar again.

Neon · Post by **Neon** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 8:18 pm

Thanks Matt. Oxtsu has already offered, so if I can't fix it myself (still haven't had the chance to try resoldering everything...) I'll send it to him, since you're really busy these days.

Stop by more often eh?

Post by **undamned** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 7:35 pm

PCB'ing is truely a live and learn hobby. I've learned to love it, even in spite of some not so smart moves on my part. That's the thing, though: they were my bad descisions. Sombody sells me a bad PCB? It was my bad for buying from a shadey seller. My monitor craps out? It's my bad for not knowing how to fix it. You gotta man up (that sound's so strange for such a nerdy hobby).

PCB'ing is like a classic car hobby. If you aren't willing to love them and take care of them, don't buy them. Buy a new car w/ a 10k mile warranty.
-ud

kemical · Post by **kemical** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 10:18 pm

I can understand you're frustrations, although I don't agree with downright avoiding PCB collecting.

the first PCB I spent big money on (bought from germany for like 250$ bucks or some shit) I ended up breaking due to being new to it all, that was 8 or so years ago.

It's a very cool and satisfying collecting hobby though, but you can just end up burning up lots of money with it since theres way more to worry about than if the spine card is there or if there is a scratch on the cd.. etc.

the most reliable way of playing my games though is without using a supergun, currently I just have a $20 arcade PSU in a cardboard box with the jamma harness hanging out and some wires held together by electrical tape. It works great.

My most feared aspect of superguns is how the audio is hooked up, because it seems that some methods will stress the amplifier on the PCB causing it to heat up quite a bit and damage itself or other parts of the pcb. The closest to hooking your boards up to a plain old arcade setup the better, thats why I prefer using the single 8ohm speaker and all that rather than trying to get it going into you're home stereo.

gameoverDude · Post by **gameoverDude** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 3:55 am

Neon wrote: Not to mention you have to keep them in that bubblewrap and one little zap of static electricity will destroy them. Huge, fragile, expensive wastes of your time. Yeah, they're better than ports/mame - if you can get them to work. Fucking bullshit.

I've never had a problem with static zapping a PCB. Not one time. I just make sure to touch metal before any handling of the board.

SAM · Post by **SAM** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 5:40 am

kemical wrote:the most reliable way of playing my games though is without using a supergun, currently I just have a $20 arcade PSU in a cardboard box with the jamma harness hanging out and some wires held together by electrical tape. It works great.

My setup don't even got the cardboard box.

The PCB is just laying on the floor!

kemical wrote:My most feared aspect of superguns is how the audio is hooked up, because it seems that some methods will stress the amplifier on the PCB causing it to heat up quite a bit and damage itself or other parts of the pcb. The closest to hooking your boards up to a plain old arcade setup the better, thats why I prefer using the single 8ohm speaker and all that rather than trying to get it going into you're home stereo.

Well, I heard that before, but the sound dirrectly connected to a pair of PC speaker (w/ seperate power Supply), really don't know if this would course the problem you mensioned above. But this setup hard works for nearly a year and seem doesn't have a -ve effect on my PCBs.

BYW, should this topic moved to Hardware?

judesalmon · Post by **judesalmon** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 12:32 pm

I've had a cab and a good selection of PCBs for almost two years now, and have had absolutely no problems and am very happy with my purchase.

When spending so much money on something, it helps to be careful when purchasing and you should be okay.

To write off PCBs due to some small problems is a shame, because you can play lots of stuff that was never ported the way it was meant to be played.

mice · Post by **mice** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 5:40 pm

SAM wrote:
kemical wrote: the most reliable way of playing my games though is without using a supergun, currently I just have a $20 arcade PSU in a cardboard box with the jamma harness hanging out and some wires held together by electrical tape. It works great.
My setup don't even got the cardboard box.
The PCB is just laying on the floor!

I really should show a photo of my setup...
- no SG
- "converted" old PC gamepad
- old PC power supply
- lose wires for coin feeding
- no casing
- the pcb on a cardboard on the floor
- old Amiga monitor

And the pcb started the first time I tried it so I was satisfied and just let everything be like that.

matt · Post by **matt** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 9:46 am

Neon wrote:Thanks Matt. Oxtsu has already offered, so if I can't fix it myself (still haven't had the chance to try resoldering everything...) I'll send it to him, since you're really busy these days.

No, seriously - I shouldn't be too busy to fix it. It's probably a broken solder joint or wire and should be pretty quick.

shmups.system11.org

A note on PCB's: Don't.

Re: A note on PCB's: Don't.