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What the heck is this on the modchip
racketboy - Jan 7, 2003

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  racketboy Jan 7, 2003
I'm a little confused as to what I need to do about this diagram:



How do I know which model I have and how do I "connect" them.

I never heard of this before in other tutorials

 mal Jan 7, 2003
Solder the blue wire (red in your pic) to the point marked 'B' on the mod board.

Attach the red wire (green in your pic) in some manner to the 5v section of the power supply.

You shouldn't need to change the 0014/0019 setting; I never have. ???

BTW, isn't one thread about installing your mod enough?

 racketboy Jan 7, 2003
well I thought of the other question later and it wasn't really the same -- sorry.

what are you talking about "the point marked 'B' on the mod board". I don't have "A" and "B" on my chip -- the wires are already attached though.

I thought the blue wire goes on that chip on the system board???

This is getting kinda confusing

Thanks though mal

 mal Jan 7, 2003
If you look at the underside of the mod where the blue wire is attached, you should see a small capital 'A' and 'B' on the circuit board.

The blue wire will already be attached to the 'A' point.

All you should need to do is to either solder the other end of the blue wire to the 'B' point on the mod board, or use a big blob of solder to link the 'A' and 'B' points.

I outlined all of this in the sticky thread at the top of the Saturn forum, but it is a very long read so I'll let you off this time. ::

 racketboy Jan 8, 2003
Well we tried it the "old-fashioned" way of putting the blue wire to the board, but now the drive won't spin at all when we turn the unit on.

We tried taking the chip out and putting the ribbon back in place but the drive still won't spin. The power light goes on, but that's it.

We didn't have a TV handy (we did it at work) so I don't know what's on the screen. We also didn't have the top of the case on, but I was holding the closed-door-detection-thing down.

Any suggestions?

I do have the model with the round buttons.

Thanks!

 racketboy Jan 8, 2003
BTW, how easy is it to damage the main board with solder or heat?

 mal Jan 8, 2003
Main board? What were you soldering to that for? Maybe you mean the CD board.

It would be fairly easy to damage the Saturn if you were to use too much solder and create a short somewhere, or leave the iron on a component too long and overheat it.

 racketboy Jan 8, 2003

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by mal@Jan. 08 2003, 4:05 pm



Main board? What were you soldering to that for? Maybe yo mean the CD board. 



It would be fairly easy to damage the Saturn if you were to use too much solder and create a short somewhere, or leave the iron on a component too long and overheat it.


yeah i meant CD board.

Well the guy that worked on it (Ken) said a little solder might have gotten to the pin beside the "target pin" but he tried to clean most of it up.

Also, how long is "too long" for heat?

Any suggestions on what to do next?

 mal Jan 8, 2003
How long is too long? The best I can say is to be as quick as you can. I'd try not to apply heat to a sensitive component for more than 5 seconds and the less time (while still making a good joint) the better.

What to do now? Hook it up to a TV and see what it displays.

 racketboy Jan 8, 2003
yeah I think the max time he used was 3-4 seconds.

I guess I'll take it home and try it out.

Sigh..... I hope my little buddy isn't dead

 racketboy Jan 9, 2003
Ok, I tried it out on my TV

It takes a second and then it shows the Saturn logo.

No animation -- just the logo.

Then it takes another second and then goes to the CD screen and says "Recognizing Disc Format" or something like that.

Then it just sits there.

No disk drive activity at all.

This is without the chip and the ribbon put back in place.

I'm pretty sure the ribbon is in all the way, unless you have to push farther than I think.

 mal Jan 9, 2003
I'm guessing from what you wrote in your other thread that this is a 64 pin Saturn that you are modding. Where did you get the mod from?

Does the ribbon cable still have the 180 degree twist in it?

It may help to try re inserting the ribbon cable at both ends as I've had a good mod installation appear to be bad because the ribbon cable wasn't quite lined up properly with the socket. I do realise that you're testing it without the mod, but the same theory applies.

 racketboy Jan 9, 2003
It's a 32-pin model.

I got the chip from a guy I know, but I'm not sure where I got it.

None of the times we hooked it up with or without the chip did the ribbon have twist in it.

 mal Jan 9, 2003
Well I got that well and truly wrong.

It was when you mentioned soldering to pin 8 that I assumed you meant a 64 pin Saturn. 32 pin Saturns don't have the twist in the ribbon cable, only 64 pin Saturns do.

Try reseating the ribbon cable and see if that helps.

Did you remove any other connectors when fitting the mod? It's easy to forget to reconnect them.

If neither of my suggestions do anything it could be that the excess solder has damaged the IC or has formed a short that's causing problems. Any chance of getting a picture of your CD board?

 racketboy Jan 9, 2003
so does excess solder damage the board permenantly or just cause it so it doesn't work.

I'll see what I can do about a picture

Again, thanks for your help and patience

 mal Jan 9, 2003
I guess it depends on what it is that's shorting as to whether it will cause any permanent problems. I couldn't say for sure.

Hopefully it will be only be temporary. I had a mod that had a couple of pins shorting that suffered no lasting ill effects after fixing the problem.

 Jaded God Jan 9, 2003
not to mention little IC Legs of the chip touching each other with the tiniest hairline of a metal connecting some together.. Bend all the legs straight up with pliars and flicked off the connections from the legs and whipped off the legs... pushed back the metal hairlines to one of the legs and viOla... Music is now playing Just keep trying to fool with it man.. You will get it... That is if you didn't overheat anything with solder.

 racketboy Jan 10, 2003

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by Jaded God@Jan. 09 2003, 11:04 pm



You will get it... That is if you didn't overheat anything with solder.


yeah... that's the thing -- I don't know if I overdid it or not.

I'm not thinking so, but it's kinda frustrating

 mal Jan 10, 2003
I can understand that it's frustrating.

A 32 pin Saturn should be the easiest to mod... ???

 Nemesis Jan 11, 2003
Just take comfort from this: However bad it ends up, it'll never end up worse than my attempt to mod a PSone.

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