Hint. To unsolder bent legs, you can use a (very) large-caliber needle from a syringe (like one you use for flux tube, or maybe a bit lower diameter). You just take a needle, put it on the tip of the leg, melt the solder with a soldering iron and unbend the leg back into place. And another tip. To punture a hole in clogged via, you can use simple wooden toothpick - melt the solder and insert pointy tip of toothpick into via thats it. Thanks for videos. I really like to see this stuff.
Neo Geo is such a rabbit hole. I've been a fan most of my life but gave up on OG hardware. I put a Pi3 into a Neo Geo X dock and couldn't be happier. It looks like an AES but man it's so much simpler. Great video though, for an OG unit it's awesome.
i love the simplicity of these old consoles. New consoles have got way too complicated which makes them more fragile and expensive. None of these old consoles are perfect and most have issues of one sort or another but they do all live on far longer than the manufacturer thought they would. But that makes things so wonderful when you can get hold of a unit from your childhood or maybe even before your time. Love the vids, you have a fun hobby
agree with the fact that they are more easy to work on. but aes boards are very fragile and tend to pop traces at random also the pads lift very easily if u have too high of a temperature while desoldering
Your soldering is spot on. I watch a lot of folk doing this stuff and they do good and perfectly acceptable soldering work, but most of the time you can tell by looking it's been done by a 3rd party. Your joints look factory.
You're very underrated I appreciate the videos you make and how you break things down I just turned 46 I had got me a neo geo system when I was like 22 from a game trader store at a mall back in the day and when I took it apart I wanted to solder some wires to that led light that was in the back and make a little puncture hole and hook it up at the top lol thank you very much for the video
Amazing work as always brotha! For those components with the legs bent parallel to the board, I like to leverage them up and snip them as flush as possible with flush cuts before desoldering. It's still a pain and isn't perfect but it helps quite a bit.
Thanks bro. I might have a bit more patience to do that than wet them with the iron and bend them straight before desoldering. Heavily edited and sped up video- the recap took just shy of a couple hours. Not looking forward to doing that again soon 😅
I trully admire your organizational skills. Your workspace, shelves, etc are so organized and clean! I wish I could do the same with my home office but I'm a lazy slob when it come to that 😁
You can, might take a weekend but you’ll get it done. You’ll feel lighter and eager to spend time in your office when it’s nice and organized trust me!
Everything is so professional and well executed. I've seen a lot of similar channels and many of them do not come close to this. Many of them try joke around while working but it just gets over the top silly, like scripted. Most of us just want to see a professional do their magic while restoring/fixing old or new hardware and hopefully learn a thing or two in the process.
I will NEVER AGAIN sell my Neo Geo. I had one NEW in the box back in 1992, sold it, then in 97 got a used one, sold it, and now got another one back in 2005, NEVER AGAIN.
The soldering on his Sega Master System II RF out to composite cable conversion was even better, as hard as that is to believe. New consoles manufactured today don’t look that good.
You can overcome most of the TV moiré effect(the swirling) by recording with the camera in a diagonal position. You lose some sharpness but I think it looks better than the moiré effect
Anyone doing restoration on the console AES, the MVS (esp gen 1) carbon resistors sometimes drift out of spec over time. Lower quality ones exhibit this moreso than others, especially if the unit was stored in less than ideal conditions. Check the values if time permits. Metal oxide replacements are perfectly fine and tend to last a lot longer.
one thing i found useful for stubborn through holes is when you use hot air to remove the chip, keep the hot air running but held slightly further away and use your desoldering gun to vacuum it out whilst its the solder is still molten from the residual heat
That’s a good tip. I’ve did something similar on the Crystal Xbox recap video for a couple of really stubborn caps but I had the board vertical in the holder, with the hot air from the back and desoldering gun in front.
I wish this video was out years ago when I did my first bios socket. I admittedly blew it. It sucks. I have since done 3 more successfully. Expensive mistake
Maybe a useful tip: to desolder those folded legs @ 11:26 without scraping the board, use a soldering iron to heat the leg up, bent the leg straight before using a desoldering gun.
The part about the early revisions being 5v is not completely correct. I have a 3-5 here that is 5v requiring the regulated power supply, and i've had much earlier units that were internally regulated and one of those was an early productuion two board console. I don't know what the reason for there being two different designs was, because as you show, the board isn't different, simply the components installed are varied. It makes more sense to supply a higher voltage and regulate internally. The 3-5 and 3-6 had the correct 470uF and 75ohm (as specified by Sony for their CXA1145 and CXA1645) combo on their RGB outputs which gives the correct output levels, earlier revisions had the wrong combo with 100uF and 68ohm which gives incorrect levels (despite the all the bullshit stories about early consoles having great RGB and the serial number having anything to do with it, MKL debunked that myth decades ago). I assume those resitors you just fitted there are 220ohm? That is what i used to use on MVS systems when i added RGB to those. The later revisions (i don't think 3-4 is affected) have the C-Sync pin on the DIN socket joined straight to the composite video pin (so do all NEO-GEO CD consoles, but because they use the CXA1645 and have s-video output, you can use luma for sync by jumping that from the s-video socket), which can be corrected by cutting the track and hooking the c-sync up to the correct pin, i didn't see which pin you connected to, but i'm not sure why you ditched the composite video because there wasn't really a need to lose that, it won't affect it at all if you use an RGB cable that is wired to the correct pin for sync. The luma sync mod on the NEO-GEO CD makes a noticeable difference if you have a display device capable of showing it. The funniest part about the 3-6 reversed L & R output is the 3-5 also had it wrong on the board, and they were corrected in the factory, exactly the way you did it there. I'm yet to see any good reason to swap capacitors in a NEO-GEO, they were very good quality and didn't fail. Replacing capacitors is a massively over-done thing these days, if caps are leaking or have failed then by all means, but it is totally pointless replacing capacitors for the sake of it. Loads of electronic equipment has had issues with failing capacitors over the years, no doubt, NEC in the late 80s/early 90s were notorious for leaking and failing caps, Sega consoles that used SMD caps from the early 90s were shocking for it, but NEO-GEOs were not. I did a full capacitor replacement in a front loader NEO-GEO CD a while ago and it did not make one single bit of difference to anything at all. They used mostly the exact same capacitors (in the same and different values) as the AES. You're just runnning the risk of damage, minimal as that risk may be with your soldering skills being as good as they are, these SNK boards are known for being big heat sinks due to their big ground planes. You saw that while trying to remove that BIOS chip, those ground pins are a pest to get the heat into.
That's what i call a perfect modding plus recaping, with a very good preparation before even pulling the soldering iron. Heart warning to see that someone still cares and do his best for old consoles! Well done!
11:10 For desoldering leads at sharp angles like that I heat up the solder and use a pair of blunt tweezers to carefully bend the lead straight up. Then add some fresh solder and the desoldering gun will cleanly free the lead.
When the legs of caps are bent over like that, I prefer to trim them as flush to the board as I can safely do with some cutters to make desoldering with the gun a little easier. A bit more work, but worth it in the end.
Oh, I used to modify a lot of NeoGeos AES/MVS for friends over 20 years ago. Some with a switch for original bios/unibios, led reset button, stereo output on the back, ... I know I have some NeoGeo AES and MVS stored in boxes, after finish remodeling my home I´ll unpack them enjoy some games with the unique joyboard.
@@BorderlineOCD yes correct, it is not that hard but it was very useable at the beginning of the Unibios development :D I enjoy your content very much and the way you work, desoldering not needed -> dissapeared from the working area ;)
I like the way you work on electronics! So well done, I mean like its well thought out, and cleanly done. Like how you made your own capacitor diagram, and marking where they are on the board before flipping it over, all the equipment you have, and its just so... wow!! I really wish I could have learned how to work on electronics from college the way you do, it would have saved SO much stress and headaches! Whenever I tried modding or repairing my own consoles, I would always do SOMETHING wrong, and it just made me lose confidence in my abilities, and I eventually lost interest and dropped out. Watching this makes me think that I could get back into electronics if I just didnt rush through things and thought things through! Where and how did you learn to work like this, man?! Instant subscribe!!
A bit of advice if your desoldering folded over leads it's a safe practice to heat the joint up with an iron and use flat tweezers to stand the legs up before using a desoldering tool. That way you won't damage the board. BTW how the hell do you keep your table so clean and organized? I'm so jealous. Ten minutes into a project and I'm already loosing tools in the clutter I've created. Great show man. Love your vids.
If you did offer consoles for sale I would buy love to buy from you! Your work and knowledge and eye to detail is second to none and also would know exactly what I'm getting with no bs! Keep up the excellent work!
I resisted buying more tools for the longest time, but I have to admit a project like this would be very challenging without the soldering gun and the hot air.
I used to think I was good, until a buddy of mine visited last July 4th weekend. He apparently also grew up on Street Fighter and similar arcades. I'm not exaggerating when I say we played a good 100 rounds over that weekend and I maybe won about 10. In summary, I'm not nearly as good as I thought I was, but it will forever remain my favorite genre of gaming.
The guide from FirebrandX suggests optional 220uf 25V caps on the RGB lines to protect against voltage backflow. I added these inside of my system in place of the removed caps, but the end result is much less clean.
@@BorderlineOCD I don't think the caps themselves resulted in any noticeable difference. They're just there to create a more correct electrical circuit. By "much less clean" I just mean my mod work inside the console was not pretty. Results look good. I also grabbed CSYNC from the TTL sync in on the Sony encoder chip and attenuating it. The reason I put them in the console rather than the cable is because I use the same RGB cables for my Neo Geo CD and CMVS. Thanks for the professional quality, interesting video, as always. Your Neo Geo videos always make me want to go play KOF 2K1. 😁
Found your channel while browsing Neo Geo vids and just wanted to say thank you for making these. I really enjoy them especially ones where you have to fault find you way through a PCB. Your narration is nice and clear and explains your thought process really well. I know in your NeoGeo repair-a-thon vids you mentioned maybe a Neo Geo CD in the future; just wondering how that is coming along or if you first need to source a console? Please note I more than understand how crazy expensive these are so I am not demanding/expecting a vid anytime soon, just moreso curious if you had any updates/thoughts on it? Cheers from Australia!
Great vid! Have you had the chance to use RGB Scart on a CRT at any stage? It's like night and day. It was the only pro of being stuck with poorly converted PAL 50hz games!
I haven't yet, but I'm on the lookout for a decent CRT with components inputs which I plan to hookup with a RetroTink RGB2COMP. I'm sure I'll find one eventually!
If you mod another 3-6, you actually don't need to do an RGB bypass. All you need to do, per Jamma Nation X, is cut the traces under the crystal. I can verify it works. See his AES tutorials. I also think it preserves the composite video, but I haven't tested.
I’m aware of the cut mod or “antenna mod” as I saw it referred to for the 3-6 but ultimately decided to do the bypass. It is my understanding that the RetroRGB approach supersedes the info on the cut mod and the RGB levels are more accurate as per the “oscilloscope analysis” in the post. Still worth a shot if you’re not already in there recapping the board and everything. Ultimately if it looks good on your equipment that’s all that matters.
There’s some interesting info on the RetroRGB post in the “oscilloscope analysis“ section. In this particular case it seems you can arrive at the correct voltage levels just by using resistors.
I have a huge console collection that i have hung onto and collected all my life that have been in storage a few years now, i stumbled across your channel from watching TronicsFix and northridge repair videos and after watching a few of yours i decided to pull some of my systems to see if they still worked, i found a few of them are no longer working ,some wont power on, others had display issues some i have already repaired this week which was a virtual boy and 2 gameboys those where pretty easy i just reflowed the ribbon cables for now but i will prolly do the VB perm fix at some point, but my nomad has a really bright spot in the middle of the screen which i belive is just aging caps, my sega model 1 and sega cd model 1 still work flawless, i replaced the belt in my model 1 sega cd a few years ago and thats the only repair its ever needed, but my model 2 sega cd no longer will power up when i put a cd in it, carts work fine though. and i think my super famicom has a minor display issue. Anyway i havent done any soldering in very long time, the last stuff i did was installing a executer 3 mod chip into my xbox back in 2007 i think , i figured the time has finaly come to where i need to go threw and start recaping all these systems so i orderd me a digital microscope, and a new 2 in 1soldering + rework station and a few other things iv seen on this channel. im gonna practice on some old pc motherboards i dont care about first and evently start giving it go. Watching your channel has given me the confidence to finaly give it try as i want to pass my collection to my daughter when she is old enougf to appriecate them. Oh yea after watching this video i checked out my neogeo and it is the 5v model ( 3-4 board ) with a realy low serial number its all orginal and never been opened and is still working perfect but evently i want to do the audio fix on it so that was pretty cool to learn after watching this
Sounds like you got a nice collection. Great to see you getting into tinkering with it. Note: the audio L/R fix is only needed for the 3-6 revision motherboard. The 3-4 audio circuit has a bypass mod to improve it’s quality, but L/R channels are correct. Confusing I know but each revision board has its unique required mods/fixes.
@@BorderlineOCD the audio fix im talking about is to replace components snk removed in the 3-3 / 3-4 versions which causes power hum to be heard, the 3-5 boards they put the Components back in, its just a couple Ceramic Capacitor's that goes on the back side and 1 Electrolytic Capacitor
Great work, great explanation. I regret selling my AES to this very day. It’s now way too expensive for me to get back into. With that being said I might purchase a boxed console and SD cart one day but unfortunately the games are a no go for me now.
If I'm not mistaken if you want to keep the composite video out you can actually just cut a few traces on the other side of the motherboard and it does the same job for you. I believe it's the 3 near the crystal oscillator. You just cut them on both sides it literally goes nowhere, not sure what the idea was for it.
You’re referring to the “antenna mod” or cut mod. Opted to go for the bypass here as new buyer is will be using this on a RetroTink with SCART. The RetroRGB article explains the benefits of stripping composite from C-SYNC (they are curiously connected on the board) so this is what we decided to go with.
Great minds think alike. I had the same thought. It was even confusing me when I was putting the capacitors back in. I stopped looking at the board and just paid attention to my diagram. Very counterintuitive.
Hint. To unsolder bent legs, you can use a (very) large-caliber needle from a syringe (like one you use for flux tube, or maybe a bit lower diameter). You just take a needle, put it on the tip of the leg, melt the solder with a soldering iron and unbend the leg back into place.
And another tip. To punture a hole in clogged via, you can use simple wooden toothpick - melt the solder and insert pointy tip of toothpick into via thats it.
Thanks for videos. I really like to see this stuff.
Why did I just find this channel? RUclips needs to do a better job at recommending channels. This is pure awesomeness. Subd
The mullet is getting better with each episode!
A mullet is damn near obligatory when you refurbish the Cadillac of ‘90s game consoles… it’s almost a crime that there’s no montage.😂
Neo Geo is such a rabbit hole. I've been a fan most of my life but gave up on OG hardware. I put a Pi3 into a Neo Geo X dock and couldn't be happier. It looks like an AES but man it's so much simpler. Great video though, for an OG unit it's awesome.
Man, it's so cool watching how good you have become at modding and fixing these old consoles.
Lots of practice and good flux!!
Very underrated channel, we love your content man!
SAME!
he should post more often, he would definitely get more recognition
He's steadily growing. At this rate I think it will really blow up in about a year.
That desoldering gun video montage sounds kinda like Sardaukar Chant from "Dune". 😂 Another easy operation by Dr. Borderline himself! Sweet! 😁
It was uneventful, but I’m always a little bit nervous firing up the system after a lot of work is done to it like this.
i love the simplicity of these old consoles. New consoles have got way too complicated which makes them more fragile and expensive. None of these old consoles are perfect and most have issues of one sort or another but they do all live on far longer than the manufacturer thought they would. But that makes things so wonderful when you can get hold of a unit from your childhood or maybe even before your time. Love the vids, you have a fun hobby
Another issue is our eyesight 🧐has gotten worse with age as the newer console components got smaller. It's not fair! 😢
agree with the fact that they are more easy to work on. but aes boards are very fragile and tend to pop traces at random also the pads lift very easily if u have too high of a temperature while desoldering
The AES holds up great as of today. So many great fighting games.
Not only fighting games: the NEOGEO was king of nice , fun games in general.
If you enjoy class arcade games nothing comes close. Modern arcade ports just don’t have the same feel.
Absolutely incredible content, wish I had discovered the channel sooner. The production quality/presentation/editing is amazing!
Your soldering is spot on. I watch a lot of folk doing this stuff and they do good and perfectly acceptable soldering work, but most of the time you can tell by looking it's been done by a 3rd party. Your joints look factory.
You're very underrated I appreciate the videos you make and how you break things down I just turned 46 I had got me a neo geo system when I was like 22 from a game trader store at a mall back in the day and when I took it apart I wanted to solder some wires to that led light that was in the back and make a little puncture hole and hook it up at the top lol thank you very much for the video
It’s that inner desire to tinker. Once you get the bug, it’s there for good.
Amazing work as always brotha! For those components with the legs bent parallel to the board, I like to leverage them up and snip them as flush as possible with flush cuts before desoldering. It's still a pain and isn't perfect but it helps quite a bit.
Thanks bro. I might have a bit more patience to do that than wet them with the iron and bend them straight before desoldering. Heavily edited and sped up video- the recap took just shy of a couple hours. Not looking forward to doing that again soon 😅
Your background looks so organized I thought you were on a green screen.
I trully admire your organizational skills. Your workspace, shelves, etc are so organized and clean! I wish I could do the same with my home office but I'm a lazy slob when it come to that 😁
You can, might take a weekend but you’ll get it done. You’ll feel lighter and eager to spend time in your office when it’s nice and organized trust me!
Everything is so professional and well executed. I've seen a lot of similar channels and many of them do not come close to this. Many of them try joke around while working but it just gets over the top silly, like scripted. Most of us just want to see a professional do their magic while restoring/fixing old or new hardware and hopefully learn a thing or two in the process.
That could be it's own channel for Patreon supporters. Dunkin' / $tarBucks / TimHortons toast to you.
@@BorderlineOCD when I start a new project it goes boom pretty fast. I do it regularly with organising. But it's needed 😂
I will NEVER AGAIN sell my Neo Geo. I had one NEW in the box back in 1992, sold it, then in 97 got a used one, sold it, and now got another one back in 2005, NEVER AGAIN.
Accurate and beautiful soldering, and very nice narration of what's being done, thanks.
Thank you very much!
The soldering on his Sega Master System II RF out to composite cable conversion was even better, as hard as that is to believe. New consoles manufactured today don’t look that good.
You can overcome most of the TV moiré effect(the swirling) by recording with the camera in a diagonal position. You lose some sharpness but I think it looks better than the moiré effect
Anyone doing restoration on the console AES, the MVS (esp gen 1) carbon resistors sometimes drift out of spec over time. Lower quality ones exhibit this moreso than others, especially if the unit was stored in less than ideal conditions. Check the values if time permits. Metal oxide replacements are perfectly fine and tend to last a lot longer.
Looking toward my own Gen 1 MVS project, that's super helpful. Thank you!
I remember as a kid dreaming of owning a Neogeo but the games cost nearly the same price as Snes or megadrive consoles
those shelves look epic, love the content and tutorials, keep up the excellent work!
I did exactly the same mods to my aes with it being my favourite of all.
one thing i found useful for stubborn through holes is when you use hot air to remove the chip, keep the hot air running but held slightly further away and use your desoldering gun to vacuum it out whilst its the solder is still molten from the residual heat
That’s a good tip. I’ve did something similar on the Crystal Xbox recap video for a couple of really stubborn caps but I had the board vertical in the holder, with the hot air from the back and desoldering gun in front.
Lovely clean setup, great video, descriptive and very informative. Love the camera views and info in the description, thanks , subscribed
I really liked your job. A very clean and conscientious service, with very adequate and accurate tooling. Congratulations.
I wish this video was out years ago when I did my first bios socket. I admittedly blew it. It sucks. I have since done 3 more successfully. Expensive mistake
Fantastic work, neat video, nice pace, makes it look easy ! No only caveat is... Dude what's up with your hair ! 80s are over my dude :)
Man, that KOF game looks crisp, and I don’t remember seen those animations, awesome mod. Great 👍!
The intro music for that game always gets me pumped up
amazing video as always, i see huge success this year for ya, and you deserve it 100% keep doing what ya doing 👍
Thank you so much!
2 uploads in a week . Thanks for the good content
Every day I’m hustlin
It's therapeutic watching videos like this one.
The coldness of that "Yeah, boi" at 3:06 SENT me
Maybe a useful tip: to desolder those folded legs @ 11:26 without scraping the board, use a soldering iron to heat the leg up, bent the leg straight before using a desoldering gun.
10:44 - 10:55 sounds a bit like a Cyberpunk 2077 soundtrack. On the serious side, amazing video. Thanks for sharing!
Haha it does a bit.
I love this channel, amazing content makes my day when I see the notification
Happy to hear that!
Very interesting video, thanks for sharing it 😁👌
Glad you enjoyed it
never get over how "angry" older chips looked, tbh they had a awsome look, if it wasnt feet it looked like jaws.
The part about the early revisions being 5v is not completely correct. I have a 3-5 here that is 5v requiring the regulated power supply, and i've had much earlier units that were internally regulated and one of those was an early productuion two board console. I don't know what the reason for there being two different designs was, because as you show, the board isn't different, simply the components installed are varied. It makes more sense to supply a higher voltage and regulate internally.
The 3-5 and 3-6 had the correct 470uF and 75ohm (as specified by Sony for their CXA1145 and CXA1645) combo on their RGB outputs which gives the correct output levels, earlier revisions had the wrong combo with 100uF and 68ohm which gives incorrect levels (despite the all the bullshit stories about early consoles having great RGB and the serial number having anything to do with it, MKL debunked that myth decades ago). I assume those resitors you just fitted there are 220ohm? That is what i used to use on MVS systems when i added RGB to those.
The later revisions (i don't think 3-4 is affected) have the C-Sync pin on the DIN socket joined straight to the composite video pin (so do all NEO-GEO CD consoles, but because they use the CXA1645 and have s-video output, you can use luma for sync by jumping that from the s-video socket), which can be corrected by cutting the track and hooking the c-sync up to the correct pin, i didn't see which pin you connected to, but i'm not sure why you ditched the composite video because there wasn't really a need to lose that, it won't affect it at all if you use an RGB cable that is wired to the correct pin for sync. The luma sync mod on the NEO-GEO CD makes a noticeable difference if you have a display device capable of showing it.
The funniest part about the 3-6 reversed L & R output is the 3-5 also had it wrong on the board, and they were corrected in the factory, exactly the way you did it there.
I'm yet to see any good reason to swap capacitors in a NEO-GEO, they were very good quality and didn't fail. Replacing capacitors is a massively over-done thing these days, if caps are leaking or have failed then by all means, but it is totally pointless replacing capacitors for the sake of it. Loads of electronic equipment has had issues with failing capacitors over the years, no doubt, NEC in the late 80s/early 90s were notorious for leaking and failing caps, Sega consoles that used SMD caps from the early 90s were shocking for it, but NEO-GEOs were not. I did a full capacitor replacement in a front loader NEO-GEO CD a while ago and it did not make one single bit of difference to anything at all. They used mostly the exact same capacitors (in the same and different values) as the AES.
You're just runnning the risk of damage, minimal as that risk may be with your soldering skills being as good as they are, these SNK boards are known for being big heat sinks due to their big ground planes. You saw that while trying to remove that BIOS chip, those ground pins are a pest to get the heat into.
awesome mods sir, hope you can do some repairs like PS3 FAT launch model, PS4's (Fat, Slim, Pro) and PS5's (with Disc tray, or without disc tray)
I may consider it, but I’m just not very attached to them. My personal history with video games kind of tapers off at the Xbox 360.
I’d love to have a consolized mvs system. Hell I’d settle for a cd based system
Another OCB approved item. Great work and mod. Enjoy these videos.
Thanks again!
The neo geo is the one system that'll forever be out of my price range but man what an awesome system
You can always sell a kidney and make things happen.
You can also enjoy the entire library for free via emulation. There's more than one way to skin a cat.
That's what i call a perfect modding plus recaping, with a very good preparation before even pulling the soldering iron. Heart warning to see that someone still cares and do his best for old consoles! Well done!
These beauties deserve nothing less than my very best.
nice work. I did mine long ago and did the power LED under the reset switch mod as well.
Nice 👍
Very neat soldering, nice work
Thanks 👍
wait, is the audio from EVERY Neo Geo mirrored unless you do this?
3-6 motherboard revision only
Your videos are always mixture of entertainment and educational. Pure awesome.
Love your vids. Binge-watched about 10 a few days ago. 😂
Glad you’re enjoying the content.
Thank you so much, again a nice 'tutorial/how to' to keep for my future mods. A+
Enjoy!
Love the Videos man. Keep em up. I'm new to this Channel but I truly appreciate you and the videos. Thank you!
I just did the simple 'trace cut' mod on my 3-6 board,gives perfect RGB
11:10 For desoldering leads at sharp angles like that I heat up the solder and use a pair of blunt tweezers to carefully bend the lead straight up. Then add some fresh solder and the desoldering gun will cleanly free the lead.
That's a good tip!
Cool. I just recap my Neo Geo CDZ last week. It was put in the box for 25 years.
When the legs of caps are bent over like that, I prefer to trim them as flush to the board as I can safely do with some cutters to make desoldering with the gun a little easier. A bit more work, but worth it in the end.
Oh, I used to modify a lot of NeoGeos AES/MVS for friends over 20 years ago. Some with a switch for original bios/unibios, led reset button, stereo output on the back, ...
I know I have some NeoGeo AES and MVS stored in boxes, after finish remodeling my home I´ll unpack them enjoy some games with the unique joyboard.
Very cool. I haven't heard of the switchable BIOS mod. I'm assuming you do a piggyback install and switch VCC or something?
@@BorderlineOCD yes correct, it is not that hard but it was very useable at the beginning of the Unibios development :D
I enjoy your content very much and the way you work, desoldering not needed -> dissapeared from the working area ;)
I like the way you work on electronics! So well done, I mean like its well thought out, and cleanly done. Like how you made your own capacitor diagram, and marking where they are on the board before flipping it over, all the equipment you have, and its just so... wow!! I really wish I could have learned how to work on electronics from college the way you do, it would have saved SO much stress and headaches! Whenever I tried modding or repairing my own consoles, I would always do SOMETHING wrong, and it just made me lose confidence in my abilities, and I eventually lost interest and dropped out. Watching this makes me think that I could get back into electronics if I just didnt rush through things and thought things through! Where and how did you learn to work like this, man?! Instant subscribe!!
Impeccable work, as usual. Love it
Much appreciated
A bit of advice if your desoldering folded over leads it's a safe practice to heat the joint up with an iron and use flat tweezers to stand the legs up before using a desoldering tool. That way you won't damage the board. BTW how the hell do you keep your table so clean and organized? I'm so jealous. Ten minutes into a project and I'm already loosing tools in the clutter I've created. Great show man. Love your vids.
Good tip with the tweezers. I've always been a very organized person. I find it more enjoyable to work on projects when I approach them methodically.
Love it, very clean work. You’ve inspired me to do my early 5V US model, but I wouldn’t mind grabbing a later revision unit like that one
Another great one. Now I know where to send all the stuff my wife makes me throw away...
Try convincing her it’s an investment that will pay great dividends in future 😅
If you did offer consoles for sale I would buy love to buy from you! Your work and knowledge and eye to detail is second to none and also would know exactly what I'm getting with no bs! Keep up the excellent work!
Maybe one day!
To unclog the holes, preheat your board with the hotair, then use the desoldering gun.
Great work dude.
Thank you!
Amazing soldering skills!
Those were some clean inputs on that arcade stick. 🤘🏿🤘🏿🤘🏿
For a 30 year old arcade stick it feels awesome!
I've been wanting an AES since I was a kid and put off buying one for the past year and now the prices have shot up even for broken consoles.
Amazing content as always can't wait to get a few tools in so can start doing these kinda projects.
I resisted buying more tools for the longest time, but I have to admit a project like this would be very challenging without the soldering gun and the hot air.
@@BorderlineOCD got those finally just need this solder gun so much easier then using a wick can't seem to get the hang of that.
Man I love your methodical working style.
And your easy explanations even if I don't have the skill to copy you ! 😀
I appreciate that!
Mad KOF skills, this has really made me want to get an AES system.
I used to think I was good, until a buddy of mine visited last July 4th weekend. He apparently also grew up on Street Fighter and similar arcades. I'm not exaggerating when I say we played a good 100 rounds over that weekend and I maybe won about 10. In summary, I'm not nearly as good as I thought I was, but it will forever remain my favorite genre of gaming.
The guide from FirebrandX suggests optional 220uf 25V caps on the RGB lines to protect against voltage backflow. I added these inside of my system in place of the removed caps, but the end result is much less clean.
What does your end result look like? Is the image darker or do you just still see some jail bars?
@@BorderlineOCD I don't think the caps themselves resulted in any noticeable difference. They're just there to create a more correct electrical circuit. By "much less clean" I just mean my mod work inside the console was not pretty.
Results look good. I also grabbed CSYNC from the TTL sync in on the Sony encoder chip and attenuating it.
The reason I put them in the console rather than the cable is because I use the same RGB cables for my Neo Geo CD and CMVS.
Thanks for the professional quality, interesting video, as always. Your Neo Geo videos always make me want to go play KOF 2K1. 😁
Great Work Buddy...
Thanks ✌️
Found your channel while browsing Neo Geo vids and just wanted to say thank you for making these. I really enjoy them especially ones where you have to fault find you way through a PCB. Your narration is nice and clear and explains your thought process really well.
I know in your NeoGeo repair-a-thon vids you mentioned maybe a Neo Geo CD in the future; just wondering how that is coming along or if you first need to source a console?
Please note I more than understand how crazy expensive these are so I am not demanding/expecting a vid anytime soon, just moreso curious if you had any updates/thoughts on it?
Cheers from Australia!
As always, great job. I love watching your videos, your content is always very interesting!
Glad you enjoy it!
Great methodical work. Preparation is key to an easy mod. 👏
Thank you.
Great vid! Have you had the chance to use RGB Scart on a CRT at any stage? It's like night and day. It was the only pro of being stuck with poorly converted PAL 50hz games!
I haven't yet, but I'm on the lookout for a decent CRT with components inputs which I plan to hookup with a RetroTink RGB2COMP. I'm sure I'll find one eventually!
Clean work, thanks for sharing.
Thanks for watching!
Love your channel 👍 Superb stuff and a great job too!
Thank you so much!
Only thing that would make it even more versatile is to have an Everdrive cart you could load modified games with.
Great video, as always.
Fantastic job
Amazing video. If by some miracle I buy Neo Geo, I know what to do.
50k subscriber special idea: supercut of all screw and solder removal clips only from all you videos
Какой автор красавчик и аккуратист, люблю такую работу. Жаль мне не удалось достать эту консоль, зато получилось собрать на основе аркадного автомата.
If you mod another 3-6, you actually don't need to do an RGB bypass. All you need to do, per Jamma Nation X, is cut the traces under the crystal. I can verify it works. See his AES tutorials. I also think it preserves the composite video, but I haven't tested.
I’m aware of the cut mod or “antenna mod” as I saw it referred to for the 3-6 but ultimately decided to do the bypass. It is my understanding that the RetroRGB approach supersedes the info on the cut mod and the RGB levels are more accurate as per the “oscilloscope analysis” in the post. Still worth a shot if you’re not already in there recapping the board and everything. Ultimately if it looks good on your equipment that’s all that matters.
Thank you for sharing your skills :)
I'm surprised that all you need for RGBBypass is only 3 resistors and not some tiny pcb with one of those ths7374 or 7314 reamps
There’s some interesting info on the RetroRGB post in the “oscilloscope analysis“ section. In this particular case it seems you can arrive at the correct voltage levels just by using resistors.
Great video as always
Thanks man
I have a huge console collection that i have hung onto and collected all my life that have been in storage a few years now, i stumbled across your channel from watching TronicsFix and northridge repair videos and after watching a few of yours i decided to pull some of my systems to see if they still worked, i found a few of them are no longer working ,some wont power on, others had display issues some i have already repaired this week which was a virtual boy and 2 gameboys those where pretty easy i just reflowed the ribbon cables for now but i will prolly do the VB perm fix at some point, but my nomad has a really bright spot in the middle of the screen which i belive is just aging caps, my sega model 1 and sega cd model 1 still work flawless, i replaced the belt in my model 1 sega cd a few years ago and thats the only repair its ever needed, but my model 2 sega cd no longer will power up when i put a cd in it, carts work fine though. and i think my super famicom has a minor display issue. Anyway i havent done any soldering in very long time, the last stuff i did was installing a executer 3 mod chip into my xbox back in 2007 i think , i figured the time has finaly come to where i need to go threw and start recaping all these systems so i orderd me a digital microscope, and a new 2 in 1soldering + rework station and a few other things iv seen on this channel. im gonna practice on some old pc motherboards i dont care about first and evently start giving it go. Watching your channel has given me the confidence to finaly give it try as i want to pass my collection to my daughter when she is old enougf to appriecate them. Oh yea after watching this video i checked out my neogeo and it is the 5v model ( 3-4 board ) with a realy low serial number its all orginal and never been opened and is still working perfect but evently i want to do the audio fix on it so that was pretty cool to learn after watching this
Sounds like you got a nice collection. Great to see you getting into tinkering with it. Note: the audio L/R fix is only needed for the 3-6 revision motherboard. The 3-4 audio circuit has a bypass mod to improve it’s quality, but L/R channels are correct. Confusing I know but each revision board has its unique required mods/fixes.
@@BorderlineOCD the audio fix im talking about is to replace components snk removed in the 3-3 / 3-4 versions which causes power hum to be heard, the 3-5 boards they put the Components back in, its just a couple Ceramic Capacitor's that goes on the back side and 1 Electrolytic Capacitor
Yeah Dud...your content really is great! Subscribing now.
Welcome aboard
Nice vid detailing the mods. Glad I picked up a pre modded unit - I’d be sweating beads! 😅
It’s a project, that’s for sure. Couple of the folks that reached out to me over the years all seem to struggle with the BIOS socket the most.
Great job man!
You still have those 5 AES consoles?
Are you planning to sell some of them?
I’ll have 3 left after I get rid of this one. One will stay stock, one is UniBios modded, the last TBD in case some new mods are released I guess 😅
@@BorderlineOCD oh 🙂 very good. Bring us more content about them and about Sega Saturn please
That joystick sound!💔
Excellent skills man 👍 I always wanted a Neo Geo during my childhood, but could never afford to purchase 1. Maybe 1 day I can buy a AES 😂🤣😅
Do you have an ebay store? I'd love to buy one of these neo geos you restore and mod!
Great work, great explanation. I regret selling my AES to this very day. It’s now way too expensive for me to get back into. With that being said I might purchase a boxed console and SD cart one day but unfortunately the games are a no go for me now.
Like this content my first video, i am happy to subscribe
Edit: this video is art!
Great video as always. The picture could be even better and no lag if you had a crt. How come you do not have one ?
It's pretty legit through the RetroTink, but I plan to acquire a CRT at some point. Haven't found what I'm looking for yet.
If you come across a NEO GEO AES in mint condition, I’m interested with the all mods too
If I'm not mistaken if you want to keep the composite video out you can actually just cut a few traces on the other side of the motherboard and it does the same job for you.
I believe it's the 3 near the crystal oscillator. You just cut them on both sides it literally goes nowhere, not sure what the idea was for it.
You’re referring to the “antenna mod” or cut mod. Opted to go for the bypass here as new buyer is will be using this on a RetroTink with SCART. The RetroRGB article explains the benefits of stripping composite from C-SYNC (they are curiously connected on the board) so this is what we decided to go with.
Weird that the white silk screen marking for the caps is actually positive, I thought you put in some backwards until I rewound and checked.
Great minds think alike. I had the same thought. It was even confusing me when I was putting the capacitors back in. I stopped looking at the board and just paid attention to my diagram. Very counterintuitive.