Saturn Modchip resurrection

Buy new modchip from zero-2k11 cheaper and much easier, fix this one by removing the socket and desoldering the rest of the stuff. Just don't think about soldering the ribbon.

 

I'm not familiar with zero-2k11 (is that a forum user?) but I was planning to get another one regardless, probably from Sega Style or direct from Rob Webb.

Regardless, that costs money that I don't have right now, and the mod chip I have does not, so I'd like to repair it, anyway. I've currently got two Saturns, so that'd help. Because one of the pins on the male connector is burnt out, though, I'd need to recreate it somehow or find a way to solder it directly (without a ribbon cable, since people seem to be opposed to that, and preferably without a mess of singular wires, too). I'd opt to just transfer the components over to veroboard, but considering that most of the component are surface-mounted, that's easier said than done (plus I'm not really quite confident enough to do that).

On a side-note, something I mentioned before was the two empty component spaces on the board. Now, the V1 and V2 modchips have a signal wire, but the V3 does not (apparently it has the crystal oscillator on-board), so I'm assuming I could add the crystal oscillator to this modchip and make the signal wire redundant. Am I correct in this assumption, and is there any reason why I should just use the signal wire instead?

 

I've seen those ribbon connectors before mostly in DVD players and printers. I'm sure Ebay will have a new one for a couple of £$£. If you missing the ribbon cable I'm sure it can be bought or pillaged from said printer / DVD player.

 

I don't have any old hardware lying around right now that'd have ribbon cables in it, unfortunately, but I know exactly what type to look for, so it shouldn't be a problem. I'll go scour eBay for a bit and see if I can find a replacement connector~

 

Honestly, I've owned both chips (Racket Boy and the Sega Style V3 universal) and the Racket Boy chips are flimsy garbage, their only plus point being model 2 plug and play. The PCB on mine felt like it would break if I looked at it wrong. I suspect Racket Boy's infamous hoard (I didn't like the way he jacked his prices as his supply ran low) were produced in the early days of Saturn modchips.

The v3 universal is plug and play on model 1 Saturns and work perfectly, it's also slightly more robust (though still poorly made) and comes with the ribbon cable you need.

I sympathize with your desire to revive this chip (I hate to throw stuff away, even when it's obviously dead), but at your current level of soldering skill you're just going to frustrate and ultimately disappoint yourself.

I would suggest offering the chip to one of the more skilled members here who may want to duplicate the PCB, these chips are supposed to be easier to use with Hi-Saturn IIRC, and there are supposedly none left.

I'm somewhat interested in the unpopulated connections for capacitor, resistor, crystal and chip on the PCB, anyone shed any light on those?

 

I can certainly agree with the quality. It's almost paper-thin. I didn't know he did an eBay trick with those, which I don't ever like either (slightly off-topic: BigBadToyStore does the same for things that are in high demand/rarer just to get more money, and it's disgusting), but I've still been pretty happy with buying from there in the past (granted I've only done it twice, but it was one of the best/easiest ways to get a Dreamcast VGA cable a while back, and that was totally worth it).

You're right about not wanting to throw stuff away, but if you think someone else could get use out of it, I totally will offer it to anyone who wants it (although I can't obviously make a sale thread yet until my post count is higher), and since it's basically worthless to me at this point, anyway, I can give it away for next to nothing, especially if it helps someone else. I guess I'll just have to get a v3 chip once money allows. Thankfully they're slightly less expensive than the v2 chip was.

Actually, I didn't notice it until you pointed it out, but there are indeed two other unpopulated spaces on the board that I didn't mention: an IC and a (presumably surface-mount) resistor. If the crystal oscillator can indeed replace the signal wire, that's one thing, but the other components, I'm not so sure about. My theory is that the other components are required if you use the crystal oscillator over the signal wire, although why it'd need another IC, I'm not so sure.

 

The later chips work perfect on a Hi-Saturn model 2 (MMP-11), it uses a standard early 32pin cd drive. The model 1s however need a chip that is either 20pin (for Hi-Saturn MMP-1 and MMP-1-1), or works with 21pin boards that have the 64pin controller (for Hi-Saturn MMP-1-2).

The unpopulated components on the SSIC8 chip are there because it is essentially a cut-down plug and play version of the EMSIC7 chips. Those included an extra 8mhz oscillator (for VA10+ boards) and a 7404 to buffer the sync signal (improves compatibility with 64pin chips depending on firmware version). The SSIC8 lacks those, so it may or may not work on 64pin machines, and it needs an extra sync cable if you want to use it on VA10 or later Saturns.

 

Very insightful. Thanks for the info~

 

Rob still has stock AFAIK.

I am still working on the design too.

 

Rob i deal with a lot he has new stock bulit and is a good chip just some people don't know how to install the chip and fry the board.

 

I don't know anything about APE's chips.

Rob still has chips, last I checked. I thought SegaStyle did when I checked the other day, too, but maybe not. Racketboy's chips were more expensive (about US$60), anyway, but you're right, they haven't had stock for a year or two.

Pretty sure you're right.

I'm still, in all honesty, confused as to which chip would be best to buy. It sounds like Zero's chip is better than Rob's, and Racketboy's is basically obsolete. SegaStyle's appears to be identical to Rob's (I assumed they were just reselling it). Like I said, though, I know nothing about APE's chip.

Isn't it just plugging it in via ribbon cable(s) and soldering the 3v (or is it 5v? I forgot) wire on? I thought Rob's v3 universal chip made the signal wire obsolete since it was all on-board, and that you only had to solder the one wire. If that is the case, how on earth are people frying the thing?

 

You are confusing segastyle with racketboy hex1gon.

segastyle currently sells the same chips as consolegoods.

"Zero's" and "APE's" are the same chip - APE is reselling it.

I designed that chip, in a partnership with Zero. I do not sell them to end users, I am considering supplying resellers when I finish the redesign I have been working on for awhile (its about done, finally).

The thread with information on the "Phantom" - http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?51058-Group-buy-Universal-Saturn-modchips/page3

 

Since we've already had the discussion before the site went down, I thought I'd just post this for anyone else that looks: as Bad_Ad84 has previously told me (the post is now deleted because of the site dying), the redesign changes nothing on the end-user side.