How do I learn to do this?

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greenmagic469
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How do I learn to do this?

Post by greenmagic469 » Tue Jul 14, 2015 11:01 pm

This is a rather vague and perhaps out-of-place question, but I'd really like some help in the matter...

How do I learn to do all of this programming, hacking, modification kind of stuff? I have a huge wealth of knowledge in regards to consoles, games, history, networking... But I just don't understand how I can learn everything I need to, to allow me to do the kind of things some people on this site do. Some of you are capable of creating emulators, making your own component cables, modifying the console to use DVD's, even creating your own homebrew programs...

For a novice like myself, where do YOU think that I could begin learning these kinds of skills? I'm so interested in this community but I lack the skills to contribute, and I'd really like to learn how. I'll take any advice I can get, thank you.
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megalomaniac
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Re: How do I learn to do this?

Post by megalomaniac » Tue Jul 14, 2015 11:07 pm

you have a lot of learning choices listed there...
best way to start: put all the different fields of practice on a dart board...
throw a dart...that will be the field of practice you should focus on...

once you have direction it would be easier to guide you how to start
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andre104623
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Re: How do I learn to do this?

Post by andre104623 » Wed Jul 15, 2015 1:17 pm

greenmagic469 wrote:This is a rather vague and perhaps out-of-place question, but I'd really like some help in the matter...

How do I learn to do all of this programming, hacking, modification kind of stuff? I have a huge wealth of knowledge in regards to consoles, games, history, networking... But I just don't understand how I can learn everything I need to, to allow me to do the kind of things some people on this site do. Some of you are capable of creating emulators, making your own component cables, modifying the console to use DVD's, even creating your own homebrew programs...

For a novice like myself, where do YOU think that I could begin learning these kinds of skills? I'm so interested in this community but I lack the skills to contribute, and I'd really like to learn how. I'll take any advice I can get, thank you.
Start off with soldering if you don't know how and learn from there. Programming is very hard if not understood and it will take forever. This is the reason I stopped going over to GBAtemp.net its all kids begging and bitching for homebrew and emulators when they don't understand how much time and work goes into making a program/emulators.

Go to youtube watch some info on basic soldering and advanced soldering like SMD work and rework and see if its something you want to put yourself though. A lot of people make it look easy but you will find if you do it yourself it's a art that takes years to master but so much self satisfaction when you complete something. I would say at least 60% of game console hacking needs some kind of soldering like a modchip or like the xbox I just did when I upgraded the RAM that took me 2 try's to complete so I ended up with a dead xbox. Sometimes your just trying to fix a console like a RROD xbox 360 or YLOD PS3 or a retro console like a sega gamegear which all the caps are blown out because of age.

It's really up to you and your will to learn. For me I tried soldering when I was a teenager and I just didn't have the patience for it then but now I'm almost in my 30s and been soldering something at least once a week for 5 years I think. When your ready to try SMD work you can stop over at OSHpark.com and look for there "Shared Projects" page. There people have some of there own designs or even Xeno GC clones you can order and build yourself. Some are simple others are crazy so there is a lot of patience work.

Good luck
novenary
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Re: How do I learn to do this?

Post by novenary » Wed Jul 15, 2015 2:25 pm

Programming isn't as hard as you make it sound like Andre. The hard part is to actually come up with a good design (like everything else) which requires some theory but it's all documented on the interwebs. Googling skills are very helpful if you want to learn anything. I first learned programming on a graphing calculator when I was 12, it doesn't require much knowledge but if you stick with it you'll eventually start understanding how computers work at a hardware level.
Since you're aiming at consoles I'd recommend that you go find a good C tutorial to get started. C++ is good to know as well but it adds a lot of features that you might find overwhelming at first. Once you have a decent grasp of the language and experimented with it for a while, grab some open source homebrew and poke around at the code to make it do new things. Eventually you'll be able to make your own stuff.
Only time and practice will make you better. A little over two years ago when I joined this forum I tried to read the old hacking notes from tmbinc and friends, checked out the XenoGC source but I could barely understand what the fuck was going on but now I can and I'm working on my own modchip and a game engine (not console related but on a bare bones platform).
andre104623
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Re: How do I learn to do this?

Post by andre104623 » Wed Jul 15, 2015 11:22 pm

Streetwalker wrote:Programming isn't as hard as you make it sound like Andre. The hard part is to actually come up with a good design (like everything else) which requires some theory but it's all documented on the interwebs. Googling skills are very helpful if you want to learn anything. I first learned programming on a graphing calculator when I was 12, it doesn't require much knowledge but if you stick with it you'll eventually start understanding how computers work at a hardware level.
Since you're aiming at consoles I'd recommend that you go find a good C tutorial to get started. C++ is good to know as well but it adds a lot of features that you might find overwhelming at first. Once you have a decent grasp of the language and experimented with it for a while, grab some open source homebrew and poke around at the code to make it do new things. Eventually you'll be able to make your own stuff.
Only time and practice will make you better. A little over two years ago when I joined this forum I tried to read the old hacking notes from tmbinc and friends, checked out the XenoGC source but I could barely understand what the fuck was going on but now I can and I'm working on my own modchip and a game engine (not console related but on a bare bones platform).
I do understand programming this guy is just getting a little ahead of himself. Programming is hard depending on what your programming for I saw your Raspberry PI Xeno GC very cool a little big but still cool. I have myself built 2 Xeno GC clones just to see if I could do it seemed simple. The only hard part of making my Xeno's was programming them. 400th post :D
20150704_124816.jpg
(3.46 MiB) Not downloaded yet
At the end of the day it cost me more to make the Xeno clone then if I went out and bought a real one from Ebay.
novenary
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Re: How do I learn to do this?

Post by novenary » Thu Jul 16, 2015 1:15 am

That raspberry thing... It's the result of being bored and motivated to finally get stuff running on my GC. I didn't exactly intend to keep it this long but as of now it's still my primary way to boot swiss. Hopefully not for long.
Also let's not confuse programming as in writing code and programming as in flashing chips. While they're a whole process, it's not really the same thing.
andre104623
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Re: How do I learn to do this?

Post by andre104623 » Fri Jul 17, 2015 3:32 pm

Streetwalker wrote:That raspberry thing... It's the result of being bored and motivated to finally get stuff running on my GC. I didn't exactly intend to keep it this long but as of now it's still my primary way to boot swiss. Hopefully not for long.
Also let's not confuse programming as in writing code and programming as in flashing chips. While they're a whole process, it's not really the same thing.
Still it's pretty cool you used a Pi to patch a DVD drive to play backups. I have a Pi model B+ and I never found a good use for it besides playing movies and TV shows even then its a mess.
novenary
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Re: How do I learn to do this?

Post by novenary » Fri Jul 17, 2015 8:51 pm

That's pretty much what I did for a few weeks with my B2 but now I don't really have a use for it anymore. Might set it up as some small server or something.
greenmagic469
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Re: How do I learn to do this?

Post by greenmagic469 » Fri Jul 17, 2015 10:54 pm

I appreciate your insight, each of you.

I think I'm going to start off learning how to solder, as was suggested. This is probably the most immediately useful and acquirable ability, so it seems like a good place to begin. Do any of you have any recommendations for where I can learn to do this? When I've tried in the past, I've done some google searching and even looked up YouTube videos but I feel like I can't get a good grasp of the exact process from these sources alone. If you have a particular book, site, reference, etc, that you would suggest, I'd love to hear it.
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megalomaniac
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Re: How do I learn to do this?

Post by megalomaniac » Sat Jul 18, 2015 3:38 am

if you are going to choose to learn how to solder then do not buy a 15$ lightning rod....
those are very low powered and only provide nothing but frustration when trying to apply solder to GND or some other large copper area...
if anything, you are better off with a 40$ hakko 936 clone which has at least 2x or 3x the power of those crappy lightning rods...

greenmagic469 wrote: When I've tried in the past, I've done some google searching and even looked up YouTube videos but I feel like I can't get a good grasp of the exact process from these sources alone.
you cant learn karate from reading a book
same with soldering you cant learn from reading a book...maybe watching a video will help understand some of the technique but its really nothing more than this: heat a point on a PCB, apply solder

but the PCB will fight back if you have an underpowered iron...this can be very frustrating to newcomers because you will have solder blobs, cold joints, or even tear solder pads off a PCB....



you can try something like this for a first project:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/251838370389
emu_kidid wrote: beer is like WD40 for megalomaniac's brain, gets the gears moving
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