r/consolemodding

Hi guys,

I just want to do a mod on my old 3DS XL to change the original charging port to a USB-C port. I saw some posts about it, but I can't find any tutorial with this specific version of the 3DS.

Actually, I've never done anything with soldering, and I need help to know which tools I need to do this modification.

BTW, the photos aren't mine. They're from the listing where I bought the part, and mine is exactly the same model. I'm just waiting for it to arrive.

Have PSBBN installed (great frontend but a little slow), wireless Logitech controller is a good addition.

I was going to swap the white shell from a Japanese PS2 model, but then it costs $70 + import fees… so I just went the cheap route and sprayed it myself.

After replacing the electrolytic capacitors and linear regulators and converting the board to 60 Hz, I started experiencing a very annoying horizontal banding issue on two VA6.5 boards; it took me a while to figure out why it was happening.

I discovered that the banding appears when the LM340T5s reach a certain temperature; when I cool them with a fan while the console is on, the banding temporarily disappears until they heat up again. Later revisions of the Mega Drive 1 have lower power consumption; one of the linear regulators (IC15) gets much hotter than the other, likely because the Vcc1 circuit has very little load—according to the schematics, it’s only used in the oscillator circuit and the cartridge port.

Modern LM340s seem more sensitive to high temperatures than the older 7805s and somewhat less stable with very light loads, as I’ve observed on my board. I’ve replaced all the ceramic capacitors on the board and added a resistor to the output of regulator IC15 to simulate a very light load of +10 mA, which reduces the banding by approximately 70%, though it doesn’t eliminate it completely. I didn’t want to replace the regulators, so I decided to drill a hole in the case to install a fan; this significantly lowers the heat sink temperature—I estimate by at least 30°C. I’m using the original Sega power supply that came with the console.

Part of this article is based on assumptions, since I don’t have a field meter to verify it.

I’ve also rebuilt and custom-tuned the motherboard of my Mega Drive VA6.5 Pal, since it comes from the factory with very muffled audio and interference. Here’s the list of changes I’ve made to the board—most of them are personal experiments:

- Replacement of electrolytic capacitors (approx. 38)

- Replacement of ceramic capacitors and custom adjustments per circuit (approx. 22)

- Conversion to 60 Hz, replacement of the oscillator, and a region-selection switch with shielded cable.

- New LM340T5 linear voltage regulators

- Removal of the metal chassis, which caused audio interference due to ground loops

- 100 nF ceramic decoupling capacitors for the CXA1034 and CXA1145.

- Disabled all composite video circuits on the board (Recently, I also unpinned the SBCR pin on the VDP)

- Disabled the RF modulator (it introduced some noise on the ground plane and in the audio)

- Adjustment of the low-pass filter (10k + 4700pF RC) (I kept the audio shunt ceramic capacitors the same)

- Custom tuning of the audio couplings (PSG, CD, YM2612, etc.)

- Minor corrections to the input rail.

- Added a slight +10 mA load to VCC1 (I discovered that the LM340 (IC15) wasn’t entirely stable due to the circuit’s low load in this revision)

- Original power supply with 3300uF + 1000uF capacitors

- Removing the power LED

The audio now sounds much cleaner, but it might sound a little too bright because of the extreme cleaning I did on all the power rails and because I raised the low-pass filter cutoff frequency slightly. You could adjust the cutoff back to the original frequency; this might reduce the aliasing a little, but I don't think it would make much of a difference.

After a whole month of working on this project, I was able to fit everything and solder the bms to the battery holder, and battery connector, and today it’s the first boot for the controller.
I still have a long way to go (because I used a pair of joycons that were mistreated by the previous owners, and they had stick drift) but the future looks bright.

ventilação 100%

So my first deep dive into NES repair… I went deep down a rabbit hole. From busted non functional NES to board repair, new shell and PPU digitizer, RGB to HDMI all internal. Flawlessly runs luma code to HDMI yet retains all original functionality.

You can run this on a CRT and modern HDMI simultaneously.

This build went smoothly from start to finish with no issues at all. It passed its functional test on the very first attempt.
The parts were supplied by a community member who wanted the whole build done in black, and I think it turned out really well.
Thx @starlightk7

Hi there!

I just finished installing the FM pin adaptor for SMS 2, and the FM sound chip mod on my Master System 2. I include photos of the parts and the console model.

The problem i found is that i get no sound when i enable FM sound mode. Tested with Wonder Boy Dragons Trap. I know the switch is working, because i saw the title Monster World 2, but not sound is obtained.

Using an RGB mod for output, and a hz switch (right now at 60hz).

Uploaded a video with the problem:

https://youtube.com/shorts/xMOm5v00Y7c?feature=share

Am i missing any soldering? Something i should check?

Edit: talked with Tim (the mod creator) and, after some checking, seems like the FM chip is dead 🫠. Gonna get a new one shipped tomorrow.

Thanks!

I could kind of use some advice. For those of you who "go through" a lot of consoles and especially reshell a lot, what do you do with all the OEM shells and cases you accumulate? Pretty much everything you see here is either heavily scratched/damaged, missing important pieces, heavily yellowed, or all of the above. Realistically most of it I probably couldn't even give away. Still though, it feels like, deeply wrong to me to just like, throw anything like this away. I don't have a ton of space to work with so I can't really afford to just keep storing this stuff forever, and tomorrow I have four more Super Famicoms coming in in similar condition, lol. Any thoughts/advice?

After weeks of frustration, I finally got my first NES RGB mod working! It definitely wasn’t an easy journey. I ended up damaging the original motherboard, but honestly, after nearly 40 years of service, this old console deserved a fresh start. Thankfully, replacement motherboards are available, although transferring all the components over was a challenge especially since it was my first time doing something like this.

Once I got the new motherboard and power board installed, it powered on perfectly. The last piece of the puzzle was the RGB mod. I ordered the Lava RGB kit from AliExpress, and I have to give a shout-out to the seller great communication, quality product, and I highly recommend them.

After installing the Lava RGB board and adding an SNES multi-out AV connector, this NES has a whole new lease on life. Seeing it come together after all the setbacks and frustration made all the effort worth it. Here’s to another 40 years! 🎮