Anyone here experienced with soldering? (Xbox related)

[RipRocK]

Are there any good online resources, preferably with pictures or even video clips showing how to solder properly? I've never done it before and have never seen it done. Even the one comp eng course I took in college only had us using computer programs that mimicked the logic gates and never got to solder anything.

The reason I ask is cuz I bought an Xbox for my girls just a little while ago and finally got around to reading up on the tutorials and articles on how to mod the console over at xbox-scene.com.

It seems, to ensure a relatively trouble free modded experience, and also, because of the possibility that my Xbox is a v1.6, which cannot take a solderless modchip, I think I'll have to try my hand at soldering.

Frankly, this scares the heck out of me, but it is something I've been meaning to learn. Yes, I did consider paying someone locally who mods consoles for a living, but this is sort of thing I'd never pay someone to do. This is like hacking to me and can't bring myself to ask someone else to do it. If it's straight repairs, sure, like on a car, but for modding/hacking, I can't.

It's something I wanna learn. So, if someone can point me to some good tutorial/information site about soldering, I'd really appreciate it.

[Sunday Rider]

Hi RipRock,
Once you do it you will wonder why it took you so long before you tried.
Just make sure the kids are far away, the soldering tip is hot, and I have burned myself more times than I can remember. The last 3 times though, I have been smoke free.

You can checkhere , also here , scroll down to soldering, . This last site has some interesting diversions.

This will keep you busy for sometime, takes up that missing hockey time.
Have fun.

[jazcar]

I found an interesting animated tutorial here

[RipRocK]

Sunday Rider, jazcar, thanks for the links. Should keep me busy for a while.

[tim.s]

Find something similar to practice on too. Getting the right amount of heat on the part and the right amount of solder makes all the difference.

You want to avoid overheating the board you are soldering to or you might loosen the surronding connections.

Practice, practice, practice...

[RipRocK]

Originally posted by tim.s
Find something similar to practice on too. Getting the right amount of heat on the part and the right amount of solder makes all the difference.

You want to avoid overheating the board you are soldering to or you might loosen the surronding connections.

Practice, practice, practice...

Oh, yeah, that's a good idea too. I probably would've just read some tutorials, saw some pics and then tried to solder on the Xbox the first time and be out 200bucks. Thanks, dude.

[shudog]

I saw this a little while ago. It seems like a tool you could use. Luckily I have have an older version of the X so i could use a solderless chip. Not sure how 'techy' you have to be but here is a link to a place which would more likely have an answer to your question. You should really find out what version you have before you go thru the trouble of learning how to solder it.

And I must say I would sacrifice my Xbox many times over trying to get this to work as the benefits could pay off your mistakes extremely fast.

Good Luck.

[ChipUser]

If the chip to be soldered has regular leads (that go through holes in the PCB and solder on the other side), the following tutorial should be helpful. It has pictures and also shows how to desolder.

http://epemag.com/solderfaq/default.htm

If you are dealing with surface mount components, that's a bigger challenge. If you are, there are sites that have good instructions for an amatuer builder. Let us know what you are dealing with.

[RipRocK]

ChipUser, thanks for that link. Loads of good info there. I'm just basically waiting for the reviews on this one particular modchip that was just released a few days ago.

It seems that v.1.6 Xbox, which is mine, aren't too receptive to modding, particularly the OS's that are available out there which you use in conjunction with the modchips.

Meanwhile, I think I'll be going down to a Radio Shack and pick up a cheap solder kit just for practice. Thanks guys and I'll report back here once I've modded my box to update.

[ChipUser]

RipRock,

Whatever solder kit you buy, make sure you get a soldering iron that has a three pin power plug and the tip is grounded. With the coming of winter one has to be extra careful about static damage. Using a grounded-tip soldering iron and taking some simple precautions help with that.

Following article has reasonable tips for working with static sensitive materials

<http://www.quepublishing.com/article...21704&seqNum=3>

Even if you don't want to spend a lot, I would recommend buying a grounding wrist strap. Radio shck has a cheap one for $5.29
Catalog #: 276-2397

I am not into gaming machines but one of my relatives is. He has an X box and has done some modifications with software. He uses a certain version of a game that allows him to take advantage of a known weakness in the Microsoft OS & take control of the X box to play older arcade games like Packman. I will ask him what version on X box he has & for some good links.

[RipRocK]

ChipUser, thanks for your tip on protecting my...errr....my children's Xbox I never would've considered those things when buying a soldering iron.

The setup your relative is using sounds like one of those software exploits. Basically, there were some games which were improperly developed and their game saves, which reside on Xbox's hard drive, could be used to gain access to Xbox's BIOS. It's mainly exploiting the buffer overflows present in how the save game is loaded in the memory. Bad coding practice, easy pickings for the crackers.

But I'd like to leave Xbox's BIOS intact if possible and that's why I'm leaning towards a modchip with which you can switch back and forth.

There's so much crap to read and learn about this stuff. The learning curve is very high not because the concepts or methods are particularly hard to understand, but that vast amount of info is so fragmented. You read and read and kind of decide and figure out on your own.

I thought all's you had to do was install a solderless modchip, which I'm not even sure my version of Xbox can take after all, upgrade the BIOS if need be and install some utilities and be done with.

But I think it'll be all worth it in the end. Sure beats paying $60CDN a pop for just one game when the cost of a couple will let you have a really cool entertainment control center.

Been preparing...have close to 30 games on DVD-R's already