Alright, the v5 and v6 are 'quick solder' for portables. How difficult would you say the install is for the v5 or v6 boards?
I know the answer is relative for each person as everyone has different soldering skills and experience... compared to the install process of the first released MEGAdrive...... much harder or about the same?
no pins required for V5...
pins are optional, but the holes are a lot bigger this time to allow fitting solder wire and just heating it in place...
V6 will need to use a technique of solder drag at low temp...about 440*F or 540*F..you need low heat not to disturb the filters
the MEGAdrive pads will have to be "bridged" to the filters...it might seem a little unusual, but after a bit of messing around, it becomes obvious how to do it and still faster than soldering wires to the WKF/WASP...
in comparison to V1?
well no pins so its an improvement, difficulty is still based on experience but more friendly this time...
emu_kidid wrote: beer is like WD40 for megalomaniac's brain, gets the gears moving
took about 10 minutes of playing with the iron heat to get the solder to bridge correctly....after that it only took about 5 minutes solder the rest of the pads to the filters....then add a few more minutes to solder power, pin29, lid..
i suggest practicing solder bridges on old circuit boards with components very closely spaced to get the proper technique and reduce possibility of damaging the GC mainboard...as stated before low temp would be ideal so the solder can slightly melt but not totally liquefy...
then epoxy as usual....not too much or you might have overflow on the FFC connector ( unless thats the goal )
emu_kidid wrote: beer is like WD40 for megalomaniac's brain, gets the gears moving
Awesome idea. V6 is really great product as it's not that hard to solder and it eliminates neccessity to remove drive socket from the motherboard. Would you share pcb files?
The problem is that it sits under the motherboard. That makes it harder to install in a home Cube. Same for v5, which is actually easier to solder. V4 is the thing though. I wonder how it works.
@Megalomaniac: What if the DD filter were already removed? All my OMGWTF board cuts needs the filters to be removed and without them it would be a pain to solder that (beautiful) QSB due the thickness of the board. Wouldn't be possible to add vias on the pads and cut thru them, so we have "side pads"? Or have you considered the flex PCB idea? I'm not criticising, just trying to be helpful. Good work!
when i was in process of designing v6 i was not sure if i was going to go the direction of traditional pcb or flex...
the design layout was up in the air and waiting till i finalized the concept...
ultimately i decided on traditional PCB rather than flex...
having a flex design would be great for those like you who do not have filters....
and also allow for an almost flat solder drag to the pads on the GC mainboard....
this was the most advantageous aspect of flex pcb design....
however, the physical design of the board had to be considered....
was i going to design 32pin flex connection at the end or have a FFC connector to allow a FFC cable to be mated?
this is what really bugged be for a while....
if i designed the flex to have a FFC cable type end, then the WKF / WASP could only be positioned to the limit of the flex cable design...
this means any other design considerations are ruled out since the WKF/WASP must be located at a certain position...
i wanted to allow the installer the opportunity to place the modchip in the best location possible for the individual application design...
also, when the FFC connector is closed onto a cable or flex pcb design, there is a wear and tear that occurs...
i did not want to have the the possibility for a soldered on flex design to malfunction due to a possible wear and tear issue...
i have read numerous posts of how people tried to solder directly onto a flex cable and had so many issues with burning or melting the conductors...
this is something i hoped to avoid
considering these all these potential limitations and issues i also had to consider the thickness of a flex design vs pcb...
a flex cable is .3mm in thickness with the backing....
the PCB i created is .4mm in thickness...
im sure if you can solder drag a design of .3mm thickness, it would not be such a task to solder drag at traditional pcb at .4mm thickness
lets fact the facts...some people solder like shit...and burn up boards in the soldering process...
some people have even posted about burning up FFC cables while trying to solder...
my main concern was to provide a product which could withstand some abuse during the soldering process...
thats why i designed V6 with 2oz gold contacts to make sure they can hold up to the abuse...
also since the design has an included FFC connector, a cable can be replaced at anytime which is a huge advantage compared to having to desolder a flex design and installing a new one if the FFC end were to wear out...
not to mention a longer FFC cable of up to about 200mm length can be used if someone needs to extend the position of the modchip...
this is something i cannot account for in a flex design with a set termination point for an FFC end...
it really took a while for me consider all the positives and negatives of possibilities...
in the end, i believe i have come up with the most ideal solution to allow the modder not only to have a solid sturdy board design, but to also to have a design which allows a one time installation....meaning when cables wear out, they can be replaced....
going back to my previous....(would you rather replace a cable) or (desolder and resolder a new v6 flex)
emu_kidid wrote: beer is like WD40 for megalomaniac's brain, gets the gears moving
