Radio Shack soldering irons! :mad:

[Radio Shack soldering irons! :mad:]

My point was simply this, people here were complaining about their cheap-o Radio Shack soldering irons failing, and I myself have an inexpensive Hakko pencil-iron that has served me well for about 7 years. I would personally assume that people here that are doing hobbyist type soldering, a few points tapped to a PCB, and potentially a few points on some a/v output jacks, do not need a professional soldering station to do the kind of work they are trying to do. There probably aren't many people here who have to solder 1000 points under 2 minutes to keep up with a production line. My iron, once turn on is at temp in about 2 minutes, and remains at temp no matter how many points I solder. I'm not trying to say that professional grade soldering stations aren't nice, just that they are completely necessary for what most people are doing. As mentioned, prehaps "cheap" irons suffer from tip cool down when a wet sponge is used, does not mean that you have to buy an expensive soldering station, or suffer through waiting for the tip to reheat in between soldering points. The industry makes and sells a brass tip cleaner, that requires no water, and will not cool the tip at all.

 

In any event, if you can get a good deal on a used Metcal then that's the way to go. In my case I didn't spend any more for it than a new hobbyist-grade station of average performance would have cost (take away shipping cost and it was even less money; about $25).

 

A Metcal makes soldering easier and more enjoyable than cheap irons. For one thing, it is ready to go in 7 seconds which is nice. With all that heating power on tap (yet still being tightly regulated at the correct temperature), you can use the same small and precise tip that you use for small joints on larger jobs (like soldering in a new flyback transformer on a CRT monitor with ease). You'll quickly see the limitations of a 15 Watt iron if you try that; especially with a small tip like you'd use for more typical PCB soldering.

 

Probably my favorite aspect of the Metcal is the ergonomics of the handpiece and the short grip-to-tip distance. This allows more comfort and better control when you are soldering. Here is a comparison picture showing the Metcal RM3E handpiece next to a more conventional soldering iron:

 

 

You can demonstrate to yourself the difference in the level of control that a short grip-to-tip distance makes by trying to sign your name with neat penmanship (neat penmanship indicates a high level of control over the pen's tip) while gripping the pen in the middle (if you can wrap a bunch of tape around the pen to make it as fat as a typical soldering iron grip, that will demonstrate it even better). It is a lot easier when gripping down near the tip of course; and the same principle applies to a soldering iron. So you're right; it is unlikely that anyone here needs to keep up with an assembly line; but high levels of comfort, control, and versatility are things that anyone can appreciate.

 

Another quote from an electronics newsgroup:

 

I couldn't agree more. Metcal irons are miraculous. If you haven't tried

one, you haven't been enjoying soldering. It took me months to talk my

new employer into trying one. In less time than that, we now have them all

over the company. One assembler called it a 'dream iron'. Yes, they're

*that* good. Those of you who work with your soldering station switched on

most or all of the day really owe it to yourselves to try one. They're

expensive, but well worth the money if you solder a good deal. For fine

pitch work, they're not merely a luxury -- once you try one you'll be hooked.

[HDMI ColecoVision Mod]

I think those only work with progressive scan component video not interlaced; I could be wrong though. Even if it did work, all you would achieve is the standard 256 x 192 resolution, through an HDMI cable, no upscalling would be accomplished.

 

You aren't going to get better quality by increasing the display resolution over the source's native resolution. Sure, you can line double, pixel replicate, and filter and process to your heart's content, but the source is still 256 x 192, and the truest representation of that source is on a monitor that can display that resolution unaltered.

 

If I'm not mistaken, the ColecoVision's VDP outputs a color difference signal (Y [b-Y] [R-Y]), so the best signal you can get from that would be YPbPr ("component video"). Feed that to a standard resolution CRT TV with component inputs and that is as good as you are going to get (and it will be very good). The only thing better would be if the CV's VDP could output RGB, and then you could feed it to a standard resolution (15 kHz) arcade monitor (or other form of standard resolution or multisync RGB CRT monitor), and that would be perfect; as well as being viewed on the intended display device (15 kHz CRT).

 

The course dot-pitch and course triad shadow mask, along with the general characteristics of the phosphor in a standard resolution CRT all combine to create certain effects that the original developers of these games counted on. These effects include softening and blending of color transition points. The softening effect also helps blend stair-stepping. For example, in the arcade game Pac-Man when viewed in its original intended form, Pac-Man appears round, as do the power-up pellets in the corners, as do the dots you eat. The Ghosts appear to have a rounded and smooth shape as well. The text in the game does not look like a series of jagged, stair-stepping lines; but rather; smooth, curvy lines. These old standard-resolution video games look horrible on high-resolution displays. Anyone can see this for themselves by firing up an emulator and playing the game in full-screen mode to see how the games look on their high resolution PC monitors. You'll see one of two things; either razor sharp edges to every object, full of ugly jagged stair-stepping (this is done with basic pixel replication resizing), or an artificial looking, pasty, hazy smoothing effect, which is done via filters/processing. Neither effect is pretty.

 

Here is an example of one can expect with "upscaling" an old standard resolution video game to display on a high resolution monitor:

 

Pixel Replication (unfiltered):

 

 

Upscaled with bilinear filtering:

 

 

Native resolution on 15 kHz RGB CRT monitor:

 

 

I used SPO as an example because I happened to already have a picture of it displaying on an arcade monitor. Also keep in mind that the picture was taken with a cheap digital camera and the arcade monitor is well worn; i.e., losing its ability to have good focus; has weak reds, and some significant screen burn; but it still illustrates the general idea.

[Atari 5200 & ColecoVision review scans]

Good stuff. Not surprisingly, there is no mention of how horrible the 5200 joysticks are. Nothing about having problems playing games because the controller doesn't self center. There is a bit of ripping about using a joystick for Super Breakout rather than a paddle, but it sounds like the reviewer had no problems with the controller beyond that.

The reviewer did not like the controllers as well as conventional controllers in general:

 

It's a brave experiment but not an entirely successful one. It could well become the only type of joystick for the serious player once Atari or some other manufacturer get all the little bugs squashed, but it is not as good as a convention[al] command device at the present time.

 

He vaguely referred to "bugs", and it is quite possible that the lack of self-centering was one of the bugs that he was referring to.

[Radio Shack soldering irons! :mad:]

And I can't believe that anybody in the world, in 2009, would still be using a damp rag or damp sponge to clean their tips, it absolutely boggles my mind. Especially if you want to solder more than one point every 2 minutes.

Damp sponges are what most people use and they work fine with a fast-recovery station. It boggles my mind that people try to do any serious work with a low-power pencil.

 

It would seem that he was basing his "Especially if you want to solder more than one point every 2 minutes" statement on personal experience with his own iron. If so, he pointed out the weakness of his own iron without anyone else having to do so. Also, any iron which takes two minutes to recover after cleaning the tip with a damp sponge is going to take a significant amount of time just to recover from the heat it dumps into the pad, component, and solder while soldering a single joint. It is odd that he would expect a commercial-grade soldering iron retailing for several hundred dollars to have the same deficiencies as his own 15-Watter.

 

Metcal's handpiece stands include a built-in tray in front for a sponge. They also sell sponges with a hole in the center sized to fit in that tray. The hole in the center is so you can clean the iron tip on the inner edge of the hole and the solder pieces will fall down into the tray rather than remain on top of the sponge getting in the way.

 

Cleaning the tip of the iron in this manner is standard practice on soldering assembly lines, and has been for ages. It doesn't even remotely slow anyone down; assuming they are using an iron that actually has some berries; as pretty much anyone on an assembly line is. A PCB factory doesn't skimp on its equipment, because it would end up costing them far more than they'd initially saved, in the form of lowered productivity.

[What is the best NES clone system available today?]

I'll bet that Jrok could do it (apparently he's not the same guy who posts here under the name "jrok"; he posts on KLOV though under the name "jrok"). Reading his page about his Multi-Williams arcade board leads me to suspect he could properly recreate the NES hardware. He used a combination of an FPGA with the CPU from the original hardware. So maybe the key to a perfect NES clone is to use a real 2A03 CPU and do the rest in an FPGA. It would probably be too expensive though, especially when real NESs are still so easy to find.

[Carts vs Disc, what do you think?]

Cartridge-based systems seem to be more dependable than optical disc-based systems (no moving parts as mentioned above). They also have very fast load times. Some form of flash memory cartridge would be ideal I think in this day and age, rather than traditional ROM chips; that way storage capacity could equal or exceed any optical disc out there; though the overall cost would still be more for a cartridge than for a disc.

 

I like the look, feel, and "substance" of cartridges better than discs too.

[What is the best NES clone system available today?]

Are the best NES emulators better than the best NOACs? If so, you'd think someone would embed an emulator in some firmware and make a NES console that way. Also, couldn't the NES hardware logic be implemented in an FPGA? Or would that present the same hurdles as the NOAC manufacturers face? What part or parts of the NES hardware still remains a mystery to the point that perfect replication of it is not yet possible?

[Decided to go after Todd Rogers Galaxian record this summer]

Homer, is there a thread about your record on the Twin Galaxies forum?

Nope, not even a mention about anywhere strangely enough.

 

That's strange. I see plenty of "WR" (world record) announcement threads over there, even on obscure games for obscure systems (like the Vectrex). You'd think that beating a Todd Rogers score on a 2600 game would be an obvious thing to mention, given that he's the most well-known 2600 player out there, as well as one of the best known classic gamers in general. Maybe you have to beat Mr. Activision himself at an Activision game to get noticed; particularly Dragster.

[Street Fighter for Atari 2600 demo FOUND!]

I have no doubt that Capcom was capable of producing a brilliant, arcade-perfect port of Street Fighter for the Atari 2600. It may seem impossible, but after all, if they were capable of time traveling to grab the Street Fighter Alpha poster for their cartridge label, then surely such a task would be child's play.

[I'm so jealous of everyone on here that grew up with classic games]

whilst the graphics etc were'nt arcade quality, who cared... it was the gameplay and the concept behind the game that was it's driving force

 

Some concepts and gameplay elements require a certain level of hardware capability to render satisfactorily. Plus nice graphics are satisfying to look at in and of themselves. For example, I'd rather watch a cartoon or read a comic book with good drawings, rather than poorly done drawings. Video games, like comic books and cartoons, are a visual medium; the images play a significant part in relaying the experience.

 

Now, I prefer a game with good gameplay and bad graphics to a game with good graphics and bad gameplay, but that doesn't mean graphics are not important. I'd much rather have both good graphics and good gameplay, than solely one or the other. You don't even need terribly powerful hardware for eye pleasing graphics. You just need enough power to give your sprites several colors and some curves (rather than blocks). For example, the lowly (by today's standards) Nintendo Radar Scope hardware from 1980 was capable of making Donkey Kong look good. Nintendo's Popeye and Punch-Out looked awesome, and still do IMO. Bally Midway's MCR-3 hardware (e.g., Tapper, Timber, Demolition Derby, Discs of Tron) was capable of beautiful graphics in 1983.

 

The Atari 2600 had horrible graphics; there are no two ways about it. Its hardware design dates from the mid-1970s and it was primarily designed to play Pong-type games. Yes, the programmers eventually squeezed more out of it than was originally thought possible, but even the best graphics on the 2600 don't even approach the level of a simple low-budget cartoon. The Intellivision wasn't much better, and the ColecoVision and Atari 5200 were big improvements but still had a ways to go just to reach arcade Donkey Kong-level graphics (which I consider to be the minimum for eye-pleasing graphics that feature human and/or animal characters).

 

The NES was the first console in the U.S. to have nice looking graphics IMO, and that was 1983 technology. Unfortunately; in 1983 we still didn't have anything like that in the U.S. in console form; what with the video game crash going on and all. It was the difference between what could have been, and what was, that irritated me back then.

[A little help with an I, Robot machine]

I was a hardware engineer. I worked in the Tgroup designing the electronics - Area51 : Site4 is on a platform I designed.

 

That's incredible. You should join the KLOV forums as well; you'd be quite an asset in the "Videogames - Technical - General Repair And Help" section; assuming you have any extra time for that sort of thing, that is.

 

So Area 51: Site 4 was on the "MediaGX" hardware which was PC-based. Wasn't this the first Atari arcade hardware to be PC-based rather than completely custom? I think that's an interesting point in history, when arcade hardware shifted from custom to existing PC and console-based designs.

[Decided to go after Todd Rogers Galaxian record this summer]

Homer, is there a thread about your record on the Twin Galaxies forum?

[Radio Shack soldering irons! :mad:]

I've been using a 15W Hakko pencil style soldering iron for about 7 years now. With this 1 iron, I've refurbished/repaired/modded over 100 consoles, more than 200 controllers, and assembled more than 50 cartridges. I think I got it from Mouser for about $20-$25 and I've never had an issue with it. Hell, I've even left the iron on over night on more than one occasion, and it still works like a champ.

 

Just as a reference point, I've soldered about 250,000 boards. These were not gaming boards; they were boards for commercial fire alarm systems (we built the fire alarm systems for Disney World for example) and were categorized as "life saving equipment", meaning there was additional mandated red tape that had to be complied with in the area of quality control.

 

I would say that about 95% of hobbyist type people under no circumstance would ever need a multi-hundred/thousand dollar soldering station.

 

Used Metcals can be had for under $100 quite often on eBay. I got mine for under $40 shipped.

 

Just get a Hakko pencil style iron and you'll be fine. And I can't believe that anybody in the world, in 2009, would still be using a damp rag or damp sponge to clean their tips, it absolutely boggles my mind. Especially if you want to solder more than one point every 2 minutes.

 

You are obviously unfamiliar with Metcals. They have the fastest recovery time of anything out there. They heat from dead cold to operating temperature in 7 seconds. This is why they are so popular for assembly lines. For example, we spent less than 1 second per fillet (about 100 fillets every 90 seconds). You can not outrun a Metcal with normal PCB soldering; it is not humanly possible. Cleaning the tip with a damp sponge does not even put a dent in its tip temperature (it may cool it off for like 1/100th of a second before it is back to operating temperature). Here is a technical explanation of how Metcals work:

 

The clever thing about the design is the method of heating. The

"station" consist of high power rf generator enclosed in well shielded

case. The power is delivered to the tip via a coaxial cable. The tip

is so constructed that it absorbs the energy at the working end and

heats up until it reaches a curie point temperature at which it

becomes high impedance. This transition is very sharp, meaning that

the tip is always at the correct temperature. The response is

phenomenal. It will hit operating temperature in seven seconds and

3/32" tip can solder a penny to a copper clad circuit board without

overheating anything. I had it feed through a SWR meter and could see

the needle jump moment the tip touched the workpiece. The selection

of tips is large and replacement is easy as they just pull out of the

handle.

 

Boris Mohar

 

It is not a matter of a hobbyist "needing" a Metcal (you are right; they don't; I've soldered with a screw driver heated with a torch before); but rather a matter of; if you can get a used one (which, as long as it works at all, works like new given a new tip cartridge) for under a hundred dollars, or possibly under $50, why bother with anything else?

[Radio Shack soldering irons! :mad:]

I worked in a PCB factory for two years soldering and inspecting boards; about 1,000 a night. This is what we used:

 

Iron: Metcal MX-500 and STSS stations. Metcals are in their own league. You can't do better no matter how much you spend. They cost several hundred dollars new, but I got a used one including the handpiece, stand, and a tip for under $40 shipped on eBay a few years ago. For some detailed information about Metcals, see this thread (reply #5 has information specifically for people looking to buy a Metcal).

 

Solder: Alphametals 63/37 "no clean" flux-core solder in .025" diameter for most jobs, .015" diameter for fine-pitch soldering. Kester is also a good brand. 63/37 solder is intended for soldering on PCBs as it has a lower melting point than 60/40 which is for more general purpose electrical soldering (you definitely don't want to use 50/50).

 

Desoldering tool (AKA: "solder sucker): A full size Edsyn Soldapullt. We used the DS017 (about $20), along with the "ESD safe" variants (DS017LS, and AS196) interchangeably. Beware of cheap solder suckers like you may find at Radio Shack or wherever. They are not worth it. Edsyn Soldapullt = the real thing. Also, proper use is important with a solder sucker, else you could lift a pad.

[A little help with an I, Robot machine]

Greetings all -

 

a friend of mine owns an I, Robot machine that I restored years ago while I was an employee of atari coin op. Apparently, one of the proms has decayed and become corrupt according to the machine. Files are no problem, but the tools required are. It's been years since I had access to a simple PROM programmer. Is there anybody in this neighborhood who has access to a programmer that might be able to burn the requisite PROM on my behalf?

 

Thanks for your help.

 

http://www.hobbyroms.com/

 

I've had him burn a ROM for my Super Punch-Out machine a few years ago. I'm pretty sure there are people on this forum that have burners too. Another place to check is the KLOV forum; their entire forum is geared toward arcade machines.

 

What did you do at Atari?

[Is there something wrong with my Super Mario Bros. 3 NES cartridge?]

I'm pretty sure the bar is a programming glitch and that your cartridge is not defective or damaged. As far as I know, its not generally noticeable when using a genuine NES, but on an emulator (including Virtual Console) or Famiclone it's more apparent.

 

All of my NES's are genuine, and it is very noticeable. It is not there when you first turn on the machine and it is in attract mode. Once you press the start button to bring up the 1 or 2 player game selection option, the bar instantly appears. If you don't press anything else and let it go back into attract mode, the bar goes away. It is always there when playing the game.

[Is there something wrong with my Super Mario Bros. 3 NES cartridge?]

yes, that's what i'm talking about. the blue bar on the left and the wrapping graphics on the right aren't normally visible on a crt set. you didn't answer my question about what kind of tv you have.

 

A TV would have to be severely overscanning for that left blue bar to be hidden. I have a normal 4:3 standard resolution CRT TV. The NES is a normal front-loader hooked to the TV with a composite video connection.

[I'm so jealous of everyone on here that grew up with classic games]

I am 34 and I wasn't real pleased with the home console situation as a kid. All the games paled in comparison to what was available in the arcades and that irritated me. It was kind of depressing in 1984 to come home to this...

 

 

... after playing this...

 

 

... at the arcade.

 

I'm most nostalgic about the arcades. I viewed home consoles of the time as being a "better than nothing" thing for when I was fresh out of quarters.

 

I now own several arcade machines (including a Super Punch-Out/Punch-Out machine), and that covers a good deal of the nostalgia. If I could get Lawton Mann to come over and go head to head with me for high score on Super Punch-Out, just like we used to do in the '80s, that would cover even more nostalgia.

 

The atmosphere of a real arcade (no, there were no music videos playing on the wall, and the only black lights were from Tron) was cool, but I'm not terribly nostalgic about it; mainly because I mostly played arcade games at the local laundromat and general store. The closest dedicated arcade (Space Port in the mall) was some 45 miles away so I didn't go there all that often until I got my driver's license in '92; just in time for the Street Fighter II craze.

[Is there something wrong with my Super Mario Bros. 3 NES cartridge?]

what kind of tv are you playing on? on a crt tv that part of the screen would be drawn where you wouldn't normally see it. on an lcd or plasma set the whole picture gets drawn where you can see it so you see the stuff at the edge of the screen. if you're seeing this on a crt I would guess it could use an adjustment.

 

I'm not talking about the pillar boxing in that video; which is just the result of displaying a 4:3 video in a 16:9 player.

 

This screenshot from that video shows what I'm talking about:

 

 

See how the graphics don't go all the way to the left, but stop short about 1/2"? Also look at the thin strip of of graphics that don't belong on the right edge of the screen. Those flash as the game scrolls to the side. You can see it in the video. It does the same thing on my console.

[Is there something wrong with my Super Mario Bros. 3 NES cartridge?]

Okay, I just checked the game on an emulator, and it does the same thing, so I'm guessing it is just a design flaw of the game. In the attract mode, the game perfectly fills the screen, but in gameplay, it looks like a half inch or so is cut off on the left side of the screen. You can see it in

gameplay video on YouTube as well. You can also see the same graphical oddities on the right edge of the screen as it scrolls that my cartridge has (those were the oddities that I don't know how to describe; just watch the right edge of the screen as it scrolls).

[Is there something wrong with my Super Mario Bros. 3 NES cartridge?]

Well, I have an SMB 3 cart, it doesnt do that... Have you tried cleaning it with some Rubbing alcohol or even water?

(Yes, you CAN do that, the official NES cleaning kit was 50% Rubbing Alcohol and 50% Water.)

 

Yes, the card edge contacts are very clean and in good condition. I've taken the cartridge apart and cleaned it with a pencil eraser and then alcohol. Nothing changed. The cartridge was in a box of random cartridges so I don't know when exactly it started doing this (maybe it's done it since it was brand new).

 

I'm thinking about reflowing all the solder joints on the PCB. If that doesn't fix it, then it has to be a defective chip or component, but I don't know which one. There are only 5 chips on the board, plus an electrolytic capacitor, a disc capacitor, and two resistors.

[Is there something wrong with my Super Mario Bros. 3 NES cartridge?]

It doesn't fill the whole TV screen on the left side; there is about a half inch gap there. There are a few other minor graphic oddities as well that are hard to describe. Otherwise, the game plays fine. Other cartridges don't have these issues on this NES, and this cartridge does the same thing on my 3 other NESs (one of them being a top-loader).

 

So if you have an SMB3 cartridge, does it completely fill your TV screen and is it free of graphical oddities?

[What were the hardest arcade coin-op games?]

Well, I knew there was a duck button, but I guess I freaked myself out, expecting him to jump to another corner before attacking me. IIRC he'd mix it up, sometimes he'd jump 3 times, sometimes 2, maybe 1. I let that throw me off completely.

 

No, he always has the same pattern. The only thing he mixes up is the direction; i.e., sometimes he makes his jumps around the ring in a counter clockwise pattern like in the video I linked to. Other times he does the same jumps but in a clockwise pattern. It is always 4 jumps plus the jumpkick; the first jump is directly to the left or right into a crouching stance on the mat. The second jump is to the turnbuckle directly behind him. The third jump is to the other rear turnbuckle. The fourth jump is back down to the crouching stance on the mat, on the opposite side of his first jump. At that point you want to duck, because his jumpkick is next.

 

The second Dragon Chan and higher only does one jump, and it is the first jump from his earlier pattern. The difficulty here is that he waits in his crouching stance on the mat for a variable length of time before doing the jump kick, so it is not as easy to predict when the kick will arrive.

[What were the hardest arcade coin-op games?]

I always had a hell of a time getting the timing right on avoiding Dragon Chan's kick.

 

The first Dragon Chan? There is a big timing window for that. It gets more difficult with the 3rd and higher Dragon Chan. Now, I've actually talked to someone who asked me about avoiding Dragon Chan's kick; he said he could never do it. Well it turned out that he was unaware of the "duck" function in this game (which original Punch-Out does not have). So I'll go ahead and point out that you have to duck, just in case you didn't know. This video that I made for reporting a bug in MAME shows the correct time to duck Dragon Chan's kick - link.

[You know what's odd?]

I don't see or play arcade machines very often. I had my first experience with arcade space invaders just a few years ago, and thought the controls were goofy. Same with Asteroids and Defender. Was there a shortage of joysticks back then?

 

There were two versions of the Space Invaders cabinet; Midway and Taito. Taito SI cabinets used a joystick for directional control while Midway used two buttons close together for directional control. The Midway cabinets were the more common of the two in the US.

 

I have no idea why Asteroids didn't use a joystick.

 

I don't know why you mentioned Defender though, given that it did use a joystick. However, they didn't implement the joystick very well IMO. They used a 2-way joystick which only went up or down and used buttons for thrust and changing direction. They should have used a 4-way joystick, with the left and right directions controlling thrust and the direction you want to fly in; the same way Atari did it for the 2600 port. In some versions of MAME you can configure the controls to work like the controls of the Atari 2600 version.