Equipment Used
mmmonkey has built up a collection of equipment over time, this is thanks to an addiction to taking things apart. Here's an overview of the equipment used for the various mods on this site.
Antex 18 watt soldering iron and stand. You can kind of work out the size of the soldering tip I use by comparing it to my finger! Try to keep your soldering iron tip clean by wiping it on a wet sponge.
Roll of solder that's lasted me years, it's probably not the thinnest of solder available (it's 0.7mm in diameter), but it's certainly not the fattest.
30AWG Kynar wire is a must, it makes most of the mods featured here a lot easier. mmmonkey still keeps various different types of wire, you don't need to buy lots, and can sometimes scavenge wire from all types of places (old IDE cables - the 80 pin ones use nice Kynar, as well as telephone extension leads etc), just have a look around to see what cables you can chop up!
The only problem with Kynar is that it can be fiddly to strip, mmmonkey found some precision wire cutters on eBay which are perfect for Kynar and make it much simpler.
mmmonkey used to use this set of cutters and this craft knife (looks like a surgical knife to me, but craft shops sell them!) to strip wire, they are both very useful for lots of jobs though, such as cutting resistors, cutting traces on motherboards, lifting legs away from motherboards etc. These are essential.
At some point you will probably need to un-solder something, you can sometimes get away will just heating the solder up and pulling what ever it is. Having a "Solder Sucker" is useful, it literally sucks up molten solder and is what mmmonkey uses. For more delicate solder removal, you may want to try some Braid, you place it over the solder you want to remove and heat it up with your iron, the solder then seeps into the braid.
A lot of soldering guides and people who perform mods will say you must use Flux, it helps the solder to stick better. Most modern solder includes some flux, but it doesn't hurt to apply some to the what ever you're soldering together anyway. It's usually in paste form, or you can get it in a pen like the silver item in this photo.
Another very useful tool when soldering is the Fibreglass Pencil, you can use it to clean up the area you are about to solder. Some motherboards have a coating on them, a Fibreglass Pencil can gently scrape the coating away. These 2 items are not essential, but they do make life easier if you are doing lots of soldering.
Most things that you have soldered should ideally be insulated. You can usually get away with using Electrical Insulation Tape, sometimes it's easier to use heat shrink tubing - such as insulating a resistor in a Scart plug. Heat shrink comes in lots of different sizes and is easy to use, slide it over what ever you are insulating and heat it up! A hair dryer will shrink it, if you are using a flame to heat it quicker be careful not to damage anything.
When you are soldering wires together, or wires to switches etc, you usually find you could do with a third hand, if you're going to be doing this a lot then get yourself a set of Helping Hand (they usually have a magnifying glass, but mmmonkey has removed it). If you haven't got a set of helping hands, then try an elastic band and a pair of pliers.
Pliers are also useful for holding metal object that you need to solder, along with other general uses which mmmonkey can't think of right now. But you'll probably find a set of needle nose pliers useful.
(Blimey, this is going on longer than I expected)
Perhaps mmmonkey should have put these at the beginning, but it's no good having all the soldering equipment if you can't actually open your console up! A good set of various size screwdrivers is obviously useful, as well as a selection of "Security Bits" needed to open up some consoles and carts (the most common is the Gamebit)
Not pictured here is mmmonkey's Anti-Static mat, this is a roll of conductive rubber with poppers on, the poppers are used to connect the mat to Ground so it is earthed. mmmonkey has this plug which also has poppers on (linked to the Earth pin of the plug), a piece of wire with poppers on connects the mat to the plug, you can also see the wrist-strap which is used to ground you.
For diagnosing problems, and checking connections, a digital Multimeter/continuity tester is essential. This is just a cheap one, but it does it job well.
A standard pencil eraser is great at cleaning contacts on old game cartridges.
If you have to fit switches into your console case try and use an existing air vent is possible, if this isn't possible then a dremel type drill (a small drill with variable speed and lots of attachments) is great, as well as a set of needle files to tidy the holes up.
As time goes on, the more mods you do, the more kit you'll accumulate, and you end up with quite a few bits.
Some of this is sourced from suppliers on our links page and eBay (mainly cables) as well as computer fairs, all my switches, wire, resistors and other components are from a local shop, but should be available online as well, again, check the links page for details.
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