$0 to $10,000 Repaired in Less Than A Year? - Month 9

[@ShockingPikachu]

The true unsung hero of this series is magnet wire

[@gamejaeger]

Lol It really is…

[@BornToKillMan]

This series is amazing! For the PS2 Controllers: the socket can be desoldered without the use of an hot air gun: i tipically pass on the pins back and forth with the soldering iron, meanwhile i gently push away (pushing upside) the connector with a pair of tweezers that grab the left side of the socket, the trick is to push up while continuing to heat the pins, and eventually the socket will detach from the board. The problem with this repair is the membrane: i bought ten of SA1Q43-A and every one of them didn't work, researching online this is a common issue so prepare to buy a lot of membrane. I have maybe 8 of these Model H Dualshock 2 and i really need to buy a lot membrane and fix them up.

[@gamejaeger]

Yeah I read that too. I only picked up 10 to start to see how many of them were working. I guess you can test one spot on the membrane and if its over certain value, it's good. I don't remember the values off hand but I know that was an easy way to pass/ fail these. Thanks for the tip too. I may try that whenever I get back to them...

[@eduartmisiraj8031]

Awesome video. I saw you had some trouble with the PS2 controller flex replacement. I've fixed like hundreds of those. The trick to not ripping the pads is to cut the pins with a pair of flash cuts, no hot air and no hot iron. Any ather method will result in damage. Also the replacement flex membranes you got need some trimming on R2 L2 side and they work great. Cheers 😊

[@gamejaeger]

Really, hmm. I would never have thought that would work. I’m assuming you meant flush cut too? So do you flush cut pins completely off or do you flush cut the top of the membrane and then use hot air to remove the bits, like a 2 step process? I can try it out a few different ways, just curious if there’s anything else to it. Thanks for the tip!

[@eduartmisiraj8031]

@@gamejaeger I meant to cut the pins of the old connector off one by one with a pair of flash cuts, not flash to the board. Don't use hot air you'll ruin it. Just cut the small legs of the connector one at a time, it's very easy trust me

[@JesperHultqvist]

@@eduartmisiraj8031 I am having the same problem and I am not sure I understand your explanation. Could you post images somewhere?

[@gamejaeger]

Thanks for the info, I will have to try that and see how it goes. That would be a huge time saver if it works too. No worry about messing up the pins either.

[@LetsPlayKeldeo]

Love seeing your updates I am also repairing consoles and its cool seeing other people also casually doing it at home

[@gamejaeger]

Thanks! Glad you’re enjoying it!

[@JesperHultqvist]

Great series! I don't know why I haven't found it until just now though!

[@gamejaeger]

Glad you enjoy it!

[@banditrw27]

I’ve refurbished many an OG Xbox and have found, along with a lot of people, that the Philips DVD drives are crap even if you replace the laser. I found from doing these that you have a 50/50 chance the new laser will be bad as well. The Samsung drive’s I’ve never had issues with that couldn’t be fixed with a laser adjustment on the replacement. I used to have about 3 of the Samsung replacement drives but I unfortunately got rid of after I no longer had a use for them, otherwise I could have sent them to you. 😊.Hit me up if there’s something you need, I still have some Samsung replacement lasers along with other parts and Modchips !

[@gamejaeger]

Omg thank you for the comment! I thought I was crazy or just bad at the replacements lol. Yeah I’ve had a lot of issues with the Philips drives myself so it’s good to know I’m not alone. By chance where did you get the Samsung replacement lasers from? For the most part I’ve found if you’re able to replace the caps on those boards, they will work. But Thomsons and Philips drives are the worst for sure.

[@luke9511]

for the ps2 controllers you are correct you need hot air, thats how i repair them, something else you might need to trim the flex pcbs to make them fit around the shoulder buttons

[@gamejaeger]

Thanks, I had read about that too. Weird that they would need to be trimmed, I feel like if that’s a widely known issue, it should easy to remedy by adjusting the manufacturing. But I guess these probably aren’t sold like newer components so they probably figure, why bother change it at this point?

[@Zackprojects]

Great video! Awesome to find others that tinker. That modded xbox with the bad laser, I would check the power going to the disk drive, maybe the wires are bad or the power supply is weak and its not getting enough power to fully run the drive. I seen that happen on a few different types of consoles. Also boil water and put those egg shaped xbox disk drive bands in the water and most the time they pop back into circle shape. Thanks for posting. I gave a sub!

[@gamejaeger]

Thank you, I’ll look into. Also I used to boil stuff like that long ago but it was such a time suck and the new parts are really cheap now so I just stopped just for the time it saved. It for sure works, but I always wondered how long they would be good for after that and if the heat would degrade the rubber at all too. Never really looked into it further though. Thanks for the sub!

[@ileox4170]

for the DVD Drive issues on your xbox graveyard, you should go into some basic modding for those

[@gamejaeger]

I was thinking about it but I don’t know yet. From what I’ve seen there are restrictions on selling units with games preloaded on them (which makes sense) but I don’t know if that extends to the modding process in general. It seems to be a touchy subject with eBay and several other selling platforms. I’m sure it would be fine but I’m not committed to take that chance just yet lol. Besides I like the idea of bring items back from the dead versus changing how they function. Another option was to buy some junk disc drives and see about fixing those but I’m on the fence about that too. Odds are I’m going to be running into the same issues I have now though. I was also thinking about selling the motherboard and hard drive combos as replacements but that’s a process too. So we will see! That may be something I do at the end of this challenge lol

[@ominae1]

Great a new episode. I seen that the PS2 video problems could be caused be dead resistors between the graphic chip or the ones in the video output. They had to put 47 ohms. Louis Rossmann had a video about that. "23 year old PlayStation 2 console with no video - can we fix it?" And for the discdrive you can try ajust the potenciometers in the back side of the laser like in the xboxs, I think 650 to 900 ohms for the dvd and 900 to 1100 for the cd are good.

[@gamejaeger]

Thank you for posting this! I was looking for adjustment values and was coming up with nothing. I just found info on using an oscilloscope for the total laser replacement. I’ll have to check out that other video as well. Thank you!

[@calebkleven614]

Yeah I think anyone who has worked on PS2 controllers had that issue their first go at it. Like I said last month, hot air is definitely the way to go for those. But you still want to be careful because if you pull the connector you can still rip the pads. At least you didn't waste any new connectors doing those.

[@gamejaeger]

Yeah, I found that out pretty quick. Lol. My repairs are really pushing me to get a hot air station…

[@Paceurself]

You can use low melt solder for the ps2 controllers.

[@gamejaeger]

I was thinking about using chip melt solder but figured I’d might just wait. I feel like the more stuff I fix the more I might use a hot air station, so I might just go that route. But good suggestion!

[@anthonyaviles8665]

where you get the lasers for the dvd drives on the xbox thompson drives

[@gamejaeger]

It was Philips lasers and I got them from XYAB

[@marsinvader9078]

Could you do a little video on patching with magnet wire in general?

[@gamejaeger]

Sure, I can do a mini video about it maybe. What sort of info were you looking for specifically? Just the general process?

[@marsinvader9078]

@@gamejaeger the process, applications, what other people do, what you do. Thanks!

[@gamejaeger]

Sounds good! Thanks for the info!

[@sweetlilmre]

Where do you get your replacement belts for xbox drives?

[@gamejaeger]

Hi, link is in the description but I get them on eBay typically.

[@sweetlilmre]

Thank you, I should have looked in the description.

[@gamejaeger]

No worries!

[@gregjarvis1232]

You have made a $1000 profit this month time to buya hot air station and fix those controllers

[@gamejaeger]

Lol. I know I should! I’m still hesitant because it takes time to learn another tool like that and I only have a few months left in the challenge.

[@donnydarko7624]

Splinter Cell is one of the games you can use to do the Soft mod with.

[@gamejaeger]

Very true. Maybe the original owner was trying to softmod it to see if it fixed the issues?

[@donnydarko7624]

Seeing how it was probably a 2001 model/rev 1 probably got returned and ended up being sold with a bunch of other warranty returns from someplace like Best buy or GameStop through an auction company and then whoever bought it tried the soft mod years later.

[@gamejaeger]

That’s a really good point. Just got traded off from place to place.

[@donnydarko7624]

@@gamejaeger More than likely. I've never personally thought it was a good idea to buy a pallet of returned items off of one of those auctions, but I'm sure depending on what's on it, you could come out ahead. I feel like the biggest problem with them is the unfixable stuff, and the things that would net you such a small profit that it's not worth the time it takes to take photos, post a listing and pack it up. Then you need to have somewhere to get rid of that stuff. I seen my brother do that s***, and there a pile of stuff that is worth like five dollars or less taking up a bunch of space in my house.

[@gamejaeger]

It's funny because I've looked into buying a pallet of stuff like that before but I came to the same conclusion. I'm sure some people come out ahead with stuff like that but to me it seems like a lot of work without much reward. Unless you do it at scale where that's your full time business and you buy a truckload at a time, I don't see that being a good option.

[@ileox4170]

YAAAAAAY

[@gamejaeger]

New episode!!!!! Yay! lol

[@ileox4170]

@@gamejaeger Instant comment for algorythm :D ❤️❤️ Everybody watching -> Subscribe! Only 3 months left 🫶🏻 Or will there be a Season two…? 😘

[@gamejaeger]

Exactly! Lol …we will see about season 2 lol.

[@cy8646]

I'm a hardware guy, not a software guy 😂 I'm the same.

[@gamejaeger]

Exactly! You get it.