only 2 CopyNES complete boards+cables left!

kevtris · Post by **kevtris** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 3:24 am

As the subject says, I have two boards+cables left, after that I only have a few boards without the long PC cable.

I got the mail issue straightened out, so I can accept orders from people out of the country again. If you want a copyNES, better hurry up, hehe. Once these two are gone, I will sell off the remaining stuffed/tested boards.

As before, it's $55 + shipping for a completely stuffed and tested PCB, with IDC connector, 6 foot DB-25 cable. You remove your CPU, add the sockets that are included and plug in the copyNES board and plug the CPU into the board.

If you wish to buy a board without the cable, it's $49 + shipping. Once the two cables are gone I will sell off the remainder of the tested/stuffed boards for $49 + shipping.

peppers · Post by **peppers** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 10:24 am

so what is specal about the cables compared to a regular one?

kevtris · Post by **kevtris** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 2:29 pm

peppers wrote:so what is specal about the cables compared to a regular one?

Nothing, but I figure people would want an "official" cable that was tested/working instead of going out and buying one. The cable's just a DB-25 male to DB-25 male straight through cable and nothing special.

kevtris · Post by **kevtris** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 4:53 pm

Woop, all the complete units are gone. I have a few board only units left. This is a complete stuffed PCB + IDC cable, completely tested and working. You have to supply the NES + DB-25 male/male cable to connect it to your parallel port. These are $49 + shipping. After these are gone, I am not making any more.

MatthewCallis · Post by **MatthewCallis** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 11:31 am

Can you recommend me a good desoldering tool? I am having a lot of trouble getting the CPU off the NES board with a soldering gun and a little red hand pump.

peppers · Post by **peppers** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 11:40 am

desoldering braid works fine for me

Btw usually the guns are higher wattage if this is something high with no temperature adjust you going to want a smaller iron like something around a 30w iron sence something high will both burn your board and fry the IC's

MatthewCallis · Post by **MatthewCallis** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 3:33 pm

Alright, I finally got the damn chip off, but it wasn't easy. Now I am concerned as to whether or not I can save the board itself. I'm not great at soldering or working with my hands in general (very shaky) and so I scanned it. I do see some of the copper strips pulling up but I thought soldering over that might be able to fix it.
It's only 285KB, just wide.
http://eludevisibility.org/SaveAble.jpg

peppers · Post by **peppers** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 3:44 pm

wow, you definatley burnt/riped off a few traces

could not tell how extencive the dameage is without seeing the outer side of the board

how I would go about repairing it is to scrape off the soldermask on the remaining trace then solder small peaces wire to it in order to make the connection to the throughholes, you would have to do it with the dameaged traces on both sides of the board

also once more I am guessing you used a 100w soldering gun?
your going to want to get a 15w soldering iron to continue the work. This is assumeing you did not fry the CPU in the process of removeing it with way too much heat

MatthewCallis · Post by **MatthewCallis** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 4:02 pm

I used a 40watt soldering iron, I don't know why I said gun, just seems more natural; but yeah I suck at soldering.
The other side of the board looks much better than that side, the silver circles are all still present.
I got the chip from another NES so I'm not too worried about the fried one. I've only got a few old style NESes left and the 1 CopyNES that I really don't want to break/ruin with my shaking hands.
Maybe someone would like to do this for me? I can pay for it.

peppers · Post by **peppers** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 11:54 am

I would not give up the CPU can plug into the socket so the onley additinal risk is to the nes

just a repair the throughholes and solder in the sockets after that plug the CPU into that and try out the nes, if this is working then all you have to do with the copynes is plug it in the same way you did the CPU

this way nothing rare or expencive is being risked

but before you plug in the copynes you can just cut the old capasitor out and solder the new one to its legs then you would have to carefully cut pin 4 on the CIC and your done

btw here ia a little soldering guide it is more geared twards modchip installs but the pricaples are the same http://soldering.tehskeen.com/

everyone has shakey hands when they start but with enough practase it really become a simple matter even to solder to very small IC's

note witch would have come in handy sooner: the solder suckers are not all that good at removeing solder from throughholes your better off useing braid

note2:40 is still a little high for this kind of work I think you would be better off with a 15w for soldering and 30w for heavy desoldering as long as you onley touch the braid with the iron and not the board

BootGod · Post by **BootGod** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 6:51 pm

Ouch yeah that board has seen better days! If your unable to fix the thru-holes, you could use some jumper wire to connect to the socket pin to the first point you can tap into along the broken trace.

MatthewCallis · Post by **MatthewCallis** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 7:41 pm

Would just covering the traces with solder to the point where they connect with the printed copper work for a solid connection? The traces on the top side are all connected and intact.
I'm not entirely clear about the method that peppers mention:

how I would go about repairing it is to scrape off the soldermask on the remaining trace then solder small peaces wire to it in order to make the connection to the throughholes, you would have to do it with the dameaged traces on both sides of the board

but BootGod's method is clear so if it's the better of the two I can go on and proceed with that.

As an observational note I didn't really think it would so hard to install; I had no trouble at all installing a mod chip a few years ago on an old PS1. I'm eager to get this installed and start dumping; once I'm sure it's working I'm going to try porting one of the windows clients to OSX, which I'm excited to play with even if it never works.

peppers · Post by **peppers** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 11:35 am

Trying a blob of solder to make the connections might work but its probably better to go with wire

both methods mentioned are about the same in difficulty and both should work so pick the one you feel like doing although stringing longer wires would lower the signal quality but should not be enough to be a problem

but to clarify what I said you would take a needle and crape off more of the green stuff that covers the closest trace witch is not damaged to expose more metal to make it easy to solder to, attach 30 awg or smaller wire to the place you scraped off then put it through the throughhole and solder it to the appriprate place on the outher side of the board then jam the socket in over it and solder it in place

ether way you go keep in mind that the connections on the other side of the board need to be made also and some of the holes may be damages to the point where just putting solder on the back might not do that trick

looping 30awg wire with plastic removed straight through the holes and soldering to the other side would guarantee this and you should still be able to jam the socket in over them

rbudrick · Post by **rbudrick** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 1:21 pm

I say the easiest solution is to buy another NES. That's a LOT of work to fix there.

-Rob

kevtris · Post by **kevtris** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 2:08 pm

MatthewCallis wrote:Alright, I finally got the damn chip off, but it wasn't easy. Now I am concerned as to whether or not I can save the board itself. I'm not great at soldering or working with my hands in general (very shaky) and so I scanned it. I do see some of the copper strips pulling up but I thought soldering over that might be able to fix it.
It's only 285KB, just wide.
http://eludevisibility.org/SaveAble.jpg

Oh my. Well if you wish to try fixing it (if only the bottom is affected) then it shouldn't be TOO tough. It looks worse than it really is. First, obtain a 40 pin *machined pin* socket. It must be a machined pin socket or else it won't fit the copyNES board well. Then solder it where the CPU went.

Next, here is the important part. Whip out your multimeter and TEST each connection. This is the sure way and if you get continuity on every pin, it *will* work. (provided the CPU isn't blown or something)

test the pins. If you get continuity, move to the next pin. If it's open circuit, carefully use an x-acto knife to scrape the solder mask (green stuff) off the copper and solder a fine wire from the route to the pin. Repeat for all broken routes on the chip.

Plug the CPU in and it will work if all connections are good, the chips are good, and there's no shorts.