Noah98 Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 (edited) I decided to learn how to solder today and fixed my 7800 power button! Desoldering the old switch was not easy, but everything else went fine. I decided to leave the other buttons alone for now since they are working. The new switch seems much more durable and has a better click. Now my power button works every time, not every 5th try! I ordered these from Amazon with free shipping: http://www.amazon.com/4-3mm-Momentary-Tactile-Button-Switch/dp/B00974Z6I6/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1423437317&sr=8-3&keywords=Panel+pcb+Tactile+tact+momentary+push+button+switch+dip My next daring adventure will be the AV mod kit that I just ordered! Edited February 8, 2015 by Noah98 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigO Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 (edited) Nice. Congratulations on the acquisition of a new and valuable skill. Edited February 8, 2015 by BigO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Zeptari Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 How's the AV mod going? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emehr Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 Right on! That's something I need to do very soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noah98 Posted February 20, 2015 Author Share Posted February 20, 2015 How's the AV mod going? Still waiting for the kit to arrive in the mail. I'll update as soon as I get it. I'm also going to attempt a Colecovision AV mod. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tep392 Posted February 28, 2015 Share Posted February 28, 2015 Excellent! Skill with a soldering iron is a good thing to have when your a collector of retro game systems. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noah98 Posted March 12, 2015 Author Share Posted March 12, 2015 (edited) Last weekend I finally got a chance to work on my 7800 AV mod and...holy crap that was hard! Thank goodness my wife assisted me or it would not have ended well! I was feeling pretty confident after AV modding my Colecovision (relatively easy and painless) but the 7800 mod didn't go as smooth. I also decided while I was in there to change out the reset, select, and pause buttons. Observations: 1. Desoldering anything on that board is a chore! It took forever to remove the old components. 2. The traces were tiny and hard to solder wires to. It was really hard to avoid solder bridges. 3. The wires for the AV mod were so thin that my wire strippers didn't have a hole small enough. Had to use needlenose pliers (not ideal) 4. Tried to drill the case for the two AV ports and a huge chunk of the plastic cracked off. Super Glue to the rescue! 5. Got it all together, crossed my fingers and... No video! I was convinced it was toast. Opened it up, cleaned up the solder points and tried again. Success and beautiful picture! Until...10 minutes into playing, I switched cartridges again and no video! Opened it up again, resoldered the three main wires, tried it again and video was back. Played for 15 minutes straight, multiple games, was about to pack it up but decided to put in 2600 Donkey Kong and...no video again! Cracked it opened and cleaned the board up with rubbing alcohol checked for solder bridges, assumed I was screwed, tried again and so far no more problems. I'm hoping the issue will not return. Any thoughts on the video going out like that? Could the mod board be faulty? (It Looks fine and is really a simple design.) If the video goes out again, what should I check for? Anyway, right now it is working after multiple playthroughs so I am going to chalk it up as a successful learning experience. The 7800 I bought was pretty beat up and I way overpaid for it, but I'm glad it works better than it looks. The video quality is so much better. Before the colors were washed out, it was blurry, and there was ample RF noise. Now it looks bright and vibrant. Worth the pain? Edited March 12, 2015 by Noah98 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gilsaluki Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 I tried to do a vid mod to one of my 7800s. It was not pretty. I finally went back to the normal RF. It still works fine (just with three RCA jacks in the side. Nightmare city, never again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emehr Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 I finally got around to ordering some new tactile switches for my 7800. The power button has been flaky for many years and it got worse just recently so I figured it was time. The old switch came off alright. Some desoldering wick, patience, and a little prying and it popped right out. The replacement switches have a tall profile and you can either cut the stem off the 7800's power button (which I didn't want to do) or shave the switch down somehow. I opted to hand-drill a hole into the new switch to recess the surface a bit. That way the 7800's switch stem sits right in it. It powers on and off like a champ now! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebor Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 In case it helps any following along who rather avoid the hand-drilling part (Nevertheless, great work and good thinking Emehr), very inexpensive replacement switches can be purchased from Mouser. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 1up! I've been soldering since age 5. And it is absolutely vital for anything retro! From replacing switches and refreshing cracked solder joints to doing mods on multi-plane motherboards and repairing DIP IC's. Making cables, replacing soldered-on batteries (leakers), fixing controllers, upgrading, re-capping supplies and monitors.. Replacing non-socketed chips. It's all stuff that needs some soldering ability. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 @Emehr: I'da just melted the switch flatter/shorter with none other than my soldering iron! Yet another important skill - burning plastic to make things fit. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevEng Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 4. Tried to drill the case for the two AV ports and a huge chunk of the plastic cracked off. Super Glue to the rescue! This is very common. The conventional wisdom to avoid it is to use a forstner drill bit instead. I've personally had great success a few times by running a regular bit in reverse to shave/melt through the plastic, instead of drilling. Going in reverse means there's no chance of the bit biting into the plastic and applying force to it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emehr Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 @Trebor: Thanks for the link! My Mouser-fu must be weak because I could swear I looked on their site for that style of button. @Keatah: Hmm, I didn't think about melting down the plastic. I did consider the Dremel tool but thought I'd try drilling the hole first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noah98 Posted March 12, 2015 Author Share Posted March 12, 2015 This is very common. The conventional wisdom to avoid it is to use a forstner drill bit instead. I've personally had great success a few times by running a regular bit in reverse to shave/melt through the plastic, instead of drilling. Going in reverse means there's no chance of the bit biting into the plastic and applying force to it. Great tip! I'll definitely try that next time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noah98 Posted March 12, 2015 Author Share Posted March 12, 2015 @Trebor: Thanks for the link! My Mouser-fu must be weak because I could swear I looked on their site for that style of button. @Keatah: Hmm, I didn't think about melting down the plastic. I did consider the Dremel tool but thought I'd try drilling the hole first. The buttons from the link I posted earlier fit perfectly and were cheaper than Mouser due to the free shipping: http://www.amazon.com/4-3mm-Momentary-Tactile-Button-Switch/dp/B00974Z6I6/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1423437317&sr=8-3&keywords=Panel+pcb+Tactile+tact+momentary+push+button+switch+dip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noah98 Posted March 15, 2015 Author Share Posted March 15, 2015 (edited) System still working great! Video is just so much better now. Wish I could make the case look nicer though! Edited March 15, 2015 by Noah98 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+-^CrossBow^- Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 Another tip that works for me to avoid cracking the plastic is that I use painter's tape on the surface where I'm going to drill. Additionally, I always start with making a smaller drill hole first. Like an 1/8th bit or something before moving onto the 1/4 and larger for the AV plugs. The tape keeps things together while drilling, provides a slightly rougher surface for the bit to attach to while drilling without it slipping, and is the perfect medium to write my sharpie marks onto for the drilling. So far so good...but I would like to get a set of forstner bits for the future. Noah98 - I'm curious what AV mod you ended up using and doing for your CV? I actually had quite a bit of difficulty getting mine to work, and the brightness is still a bit too high even with the potentiometer on it for adjusting it... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noah98 Posted March 15, 2015 Author Share Posted March 15, 2015 I used these: http://www.coolretroprojects.com/Mods-Kits.html They were cheap and easy, although the shipping takes a few weeks. For the price it was definitely worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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