 If you haven't soldered before and if you have and would like to improve your skills you may find this page to be usefull in your quest to install console mods.
Okay now that you have the proper tools lets go over what each one of them will be used for. 15-Watt Soldering Iron It is very important when working with small eletronical components to use a low wattage iron. If you use a higher wattage you'll have to be quick, because if heat up any important components for too long of a time you could damage and/or destroy them. If you're new to soldering it is worth it to go get a 15 Watt Iron. 60/40 Standard Rosin-Core Solder .032 Diameter or Similar A solder is a fusible (meltable) metal alloy made of tin with a melting point or melting range below 450°C (840°F) and is melted to join metallic surfaces such as the wires that will connect to various points on the motherboard. Flux-Pen, Flux Paste and/or Pre-Fluxed Solder Flux is a thick paste like substance that will help the solder bond to your wire and the various points on the motherboard. If you're new to soldering get some of this stuff; it really helps! Digital Multi-Meter A multi-meter will check to see if there is a current flowing between two points. You can use this to make sure you don't have any shorts before you turn on the console! If you do have a short and you turn on your console you'll most likely need to buy a new one. A short is when two medal points have been connected and you don't want the wrong points connected! Magnifier Glass Some of the point on the motherboard are rather small so having one of these can assist you in checking for shorts (the ones you can see) and in the soldering process itself. I would recommend a magnify glass mounted onto a head band so you can free up your hands for the soldering. Pick Knife and/or Razor Blade Used to cut traces on the motherboard, strip wire, remove solder and/or clean the tip of the soldering iron. Also handy for cutting/stripping the wire you'll be using. Desoldering Braid This is a small band of copper braiding that when heated will suck up any solder that you may have put in the wrong place. It is really good for removing shorts on the tiny IC chip legs like the ones on the GameCube's BIOS. Solder Sucker This is basically a small pump that will 'suck' off melted solder off of the motherboard. Tip Tinner This is used to clean a dirty soldering iron tip (the thing that heats up and you use to solder with). Having a clean tip is very important when soldering. Heat Tape and/or Non-Conductive Electrical Tape You will need this to tape down the wires or place it on metal components where you plan to set the chip on. Metal + Chip = BAD Normal Sized, Micro and Specific Screw Drivers You never know (or will know) what parts you will have to remove from the motherboard. The GameCube itself requires what is called a 4.5mm GameBit to take the case apart. 30-26 Guage Wire Some chips do not come with wire so you will have to wire them yourself. You will need to stay in the 30-26 range as anything higher or lower will either be too large or too small (the lower the number the larger the wire is). Double Sided Foam Tape You will need to use some of this to attach your modchip to someplace inside the GameCube so it will stay steady and not bounce around which could lead to an accidental shorting. Wire Cutters and/or Sciccors You will need to cut and strip the wires regardless if they came with the modchip or not. When soldering small points such as in the GameCube you will just need a tiny bit of exposed wire to get the job done. The wire harnesses that come with the Qoob and Viper chips are pre-stripped, but need the exposed wire to be shorted to avoid shorts. Cleaning Sponge/Pad for Soldering Iron You will use this to clean off the excess solder on the tip of the soldering iron. Once you've taken apart the GameCube (or any other video game console) you'll want to locate the points that you are going to solder onto. One of the most important things is to take your time and don't rush things. Additionally, always solder in a well lit ventillated area as you will want to see what you are doing and also not inhale toxic fumes. Before soldering you will want to check all of the connections you are going to have to solder and if any of them look dirty (not shiny metallic color) use the razor blade to lightly scrape off any dirt and then rub the points with a little bit of alcholol and wait for it to evaporate. Now when you're dealing with small points as you will find in video game consoles you should follow this process.
If you accidently solder two points together (like two bios legs) remove the wire by heating it up and then grab the solder sucker. Now heat the solder up again and then suck it up. Double check the points using your magnify glass to make sure they still are not connected. If they are still connected then grab your desoldering braid. Lay it on top of the two points and heat it up until you see a bit of smoke then quickly remove it before it dries. If it dries just heat it up again and remove it faster! If you want to be triple sure that the two points are still not connected take out your Digital Multi-Meter and set it to the continuity checker ( it looks like this -|> ) and then put the black (negative lead) on one point and the red (positive) on the other point (it doesn't matter which goes where) and then check the display on the multimeter. It should read 0 or 0L. If it reads anything else you might have a short. If you do repeat the process in the above paragraph. Once you're sure there is no short pull on the wire a little bit. If it comes off you didn't solder it on good enough. So try again and use a little more solder, but not too much. Here are some tips for soldering onto the different points you may have to solder onto.  Small Silver Circle (Pads) - If the pad is a silver color it most likely already has some solder on it. Touch it with the iron and see if the solder melts. If it does you can use less solder during the process. If it doesn't melt read the Gold Circle tip below. Small Gold Circle - These can be a little tricky, but are you can get it done. If you're wanting to see an example of one of these pads check out the 5v point on the Qoob Pro Installation Diagram. First take your razor blade and *gently* scratch it so it has a ruff surface. Don't scratch too hard or you could remove the pad! Once it's scratched clean it with some alcholol and then let it evaporate. Next put some flux on it. After that grab a strip of solder in one hand and your iron in the other. Touch the iron and the solder to the point at the same time and then as soon as the point turns silver remove the iron and solder. Now you can solder onto the point using the process outlined in what you just read.  Legs on Chips (IC Legs) - Just use the normal process outlined in what you just read for soldering, but you will want to use even less solder when bonding your wire to the LEG as it is really easy to short two legs together.  Small Square Things (Resistor, Fuse, etc) - You may need to solder a wire onto the end of one of those small things that look like chips, but they are actually a fuse or a resitor (see the NinjaMod diagram). You will do the same thing you did for the IC leg using the process you read above, but you can be a little more generous with the amount of solder you use.  Traces - So far you no GameCube modchips require you to solder onto a trace (the small gold or silver lines on the motherboard running from chip to chip), but in the future you run into one here is how to do it. First clean the trace with some alcholol, let it evaporate and then put a very small amount of solder onto the end of your iron. Next take your small knife (or a toothpick) and put a small amount of flux onto the trace. Make sure no flux gets on other traces! Now take the iron and make contact with the trace while slightly moving the iron up and down the trace until you see a small line of solder appear on it. Now you can use that solder along with the method outlined above to solder a wire onto it. I would only use 30 guage wire for traces (unless they are super big). You get all of that? Of course not! Soldering isn't something you can just pickup and master on the first try. So what should you do before you go tinkering with your valued video game console? Simple - practice! You can practice on anything that has eletronical components on it, but I would stick to something made in the 1990's as you'll need to tweak your skills using small points. Your best bet is to find an old computer motherboard. You can usually pick one up for around $5-$10 at a small computer shop or try finding a phone you don't use anymore. Basically you can pratice on anything that has IC's (the black chips) and Pads. In my NOOB exmaple I'll be using an old ASUS motherboard as I don't use it anymore. I would generally call myself a skilled solderer, but for the example below I will try to act like it's my first time trying to solder.  First I will strip the wires just a little bit as leaving too much exposed wire is bad as it might connect with some other thing and cause a short.  Next I 'tin' the wire by applying a little bit of solder to the end of it. I do this by covering the exposed wire with some flux then dabbing it in some melted solder.  Now the first thing I did with the motherboard was find a pad and heat it up and then applied a tiny bit of solder to it and now if I wanted to add a wire all I would do it heat up that bubble of solder and attach the wire.  Make sure not to apply too much solder and you probably wont get a good connection and also try not to 'bridge' (connect two points together) the pads as this will cause a short.   Also notice that sometimes the hot solder has a mind of it's own and will splatter on different locations of the motherboard which can also cause a short if two or more parts are connected like the traces in the picture below.  Next I have tried to apply solder to an IC leg and too much ran off and the solder sucker will not remove all of it!  To solve this problem I use some desolder braid! The proper method to use this stuff is to put it on top of the solder you wish to remove and then apply heat to it. After a little bit you will see some smoke from the solder and then you can remove the braid, but make sure to remove it while it is still hot or it will bond with the motherboard.  Now I attach a wire from above the point (which I find to be easier then in front of it). To do this place your tinned wire to were you wish to connect it to and apply heat with the soldering iron. The solder will melt then remove the heat and wait a few seconds for it to cool down and bond.  You can also solder on the wire from in front of the IC.  So now you know how to solder pads and IC legs so next we'll cover the easy part which is soldering the larger cable to a ground point. Simply heat the point up and then apply some solder to it and then while the solder is still hot attach the wire. If you have to solder into a circuit board hole put the wire through the hole and then heat the outside ring and apply solder to it.  If for some reason you need to remove a chip flip the board over and find it's legs and heat up the solder around them and pull on the chip from the otherside of the board to remove it. To put a chip back on in it's place simply put the legs through the board and add some solder to them from the back of the board.  To test your if you have a short set your multimeter to the continuity setting "the funky looking -|>" and touch the two points together that you think may be bridged. If the meter reads '0' then it is bridged. If it reads '0-100' then it is slightly bridged and if it reads anything above that it is most likely not bridged. It is good to test each solder point on IC legs with the legs around them to make sure you don't have a short as if you turn on your console with a short you will most likely fry the IC itself and could possibly fry the entire motherboard. This is what a poor soldering job might look like...  More Professional Tips  As you can see in the example above the soldering done inside the green circles using a fair amount of solder which will result in the wire not coming lose any time soon, but the red circles you can see just a thin layer of solder covering the wires which will result in the wires coming loose sooner or later. You can actually get away with just using any wattage soldering iron and some solder, but be warned that it might take some extra time and you might mess something up. I just know as I've had to do some "on the spot" soldering with only these two things handy. Don't go blaming it on me if you screw something up! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The purpose and character of the use of any copyrighted material on this page is for
nonprofit educational purposes. All other content (C)opyright PhantomX.NET, 2005
Page design by "brakken" and hosting is provied by TehSkeen