Fixing up Pioneers Laser Active console to run Sega Laserdiscs | Trash to Treasure

[@KoolJ00]

You got RickRoll by a CD+G disc that's some top tier level of trolling

[@dovic2293]

and us as the viewers got RickRolled at the same time lol xD

[@MarkFixesStuff]

Rick gets everywhere!

[@AshenTechDotCom]

the game comes after the RR... that would be epic ;)

[@gordoncreAtive]

That was probably the most sophisticated rickroll I've ever encountered.

[@MarkFixesStuff]

A good result. Thanks for having me in the cave and nice to see a realistic video on youtube about how these repairs go.

[@ThePobolycwm]

But Mark with a K wasnt there on the first day Ahhhh You're a Wizard Marky and a thumpin good one too now you've been trained up a little

[@MarkFixesStuff]

@@ThePobolycwm I was present via Discord on day one :P

[@steve.9138]

Mark you are the man

[@ChrisKewl]

Love that this was posted a week ago and I just got this in my list today. :)

[@TheRetroCollective]

@@ChrisKewl hey Chris my videos go on early access to Patrons for a week before public release so that's why there are older comments 🖒

[@HisVirusness]

I live in America; all my life, I've called in the "Sega Genesis". Because I watch so many videos like yours, I've now been referring to it as the "Mega Drive" without realizing it. Never have my friends been so confused.

[@KuraIthys]

bhahhaha. I've lived in a bunch of countries, but they're all PAL territories, so it was always Mega Drive to me. What I've run into since being online is the opposite problem. Most of the people that bring up the system exclusively talk about 'Genesis' this and 'Genesis' that. It's hard not to get confused, and I keep ending up writing stuff like Mega Drive/Genesis because if it, even though that's really tedious and clunky. XD And all of that mess solely because Mega Drive was a pre-existing trademark in the US... XD Not the only time that problem has shown up. Starfox became Lylat wars in Europe for exactly the same underlying reason... But it's still awkward whenever that happens.

[@ScholRLea]

Every hero has a MegaDrive...

[@TheMalMeninga]

Superb work, Bastian.

[@TheRetroCollective]

Thank you for watching, and a special thanks for Mark Fixes Stuff (kzbin.info) who returns to tackle the beast that is the Laser Active with me. Today we saw that everything doesn't always go to plan, and techniques can get ugly, but providing we end up with a working system without damage caused by our methods then it's a good result. We'll explore more techniques in Part 3 including the use of solder paste and "chip quik" as we repair the PC Engine PAC. Neil - RMC The all important links! ● Patreon: www.patreon.com/RetroManCave ● MonsterJoysticks: monsterjoysticks.com/RMC ● 1ClickPrint: www.1clickprint.com#retromancave

[@TheSmarsden]

Your commitment to the Trash to Treasure series is increasing and highly commendable. Excellent work, I'm glued (soldered even), to your channel. Keep it up :)

[@TheRetroCollective]

Thank you Simon, we're in too deep with this one to go back now!

[@MarkFixesStuff]

Ahhh Simon.... IC what you did there.

[@LeftoverBeefcake]

I find these types of videos very valuable because it shows surface mount component n00bs like me the types of things that can go wrong when working on a project like this, and the approaches you can use to fix them. It was a daunting task, but Brits truly keep a stiff upper lip and soldier on. Excellent work!

[@mndlessdrwer]

It's so nice that they labeled the silkscreen so thoroughly. You aren't always so lucky and it makes things so much easier not needing to refer back to diagrams or try to find the labeled images of the boards.

[@Akuzastar]

Bastion playing the long haul game haha love it. Great video 👏

[@KevinFields777]

Nowe we just need to find a way to connect the Sega 32X to this beast! :) :D

[@juniorbcm5375]

A cartridge slot extender should do the job.

[@jay_kay_jay]

Must be a great feeling to restore an old piece of hardware like this. Have followed your videos through the whole process, I don't know much about hardware repair, soldering, etc but it has been interesting to watch the techniques used and overall progress made along the way. The rick roll at the end was hilarious too haha. Well done :)

[@emmettturner9452]

Two pieces of advice: 1) Get a board preheater to reduce dwell times with the hot air. You soak the board, ground plane and all, in heat that’s well below the danger zone but still drastically reduces how much heat is lost to the thermal mass of the board and surrounding components. You point the nozzle at the component and, since it was already half-way there, it melts much quicker. The problematic board likely had additional layers inside for power and ground planes, which is why it sinks more heat. 2) If you are going to hand-solder without paste, only load one pad with solder. Next, flux the capacitors and/or pads and position the caps near the pads. Introduce heat to the one pad that has solder on it and move the capacitor into it until it the opposite leg is centered and flat on the pad that has no solder. Hold it flat after removing heat from the solder side. Once stable, you can easily solder the other side without worrying about alignment. To flux the surface mount caps I stick mine to the upside-down lid of my tub of gel flux. It works perfectly!

[@AmigosRetroGaming]

Excellent work. I won't fault you for snipping those caps...I know there are many that frown on that method but if you are careful and the snips are on point, it's a safe method for removal. I've used that low heat Chip Quik solder...it's a miracle from heaven. Pulling J-lead chips without an airvac was nightmarish...with that stuff virtually any non-BGA style chip can be removed with little difficulty. I don't know if it's something i'd have used on this project, but it's definitely something handy to have in the soldering arsonal. Very entertaining and informative stuff sir!

[@MarkyShaw]

Wow, man. This was an excellent series to watch. I would have thought it was hopeless to repair this thing. So glad you guys persevered because the result was awesome! This would definitely be a permanent fixture on my entertainment center :-)

[@MontieMongoose]

Excellent video as always. I love seeing you fix these old gems.

[@MarkFixesStuff]

He also makes good coffee.

[@returnofbeaux]

The score and editing is super fine. That synth intro massaged my bong resin buzz.

[@bombjack1984]

Love that dramatic intro. What a quality machine this would have been to own on release, shame it cost a fortune! Well done with the restoration.

[@sjarken3979]

Now everyone knows how painful surface mounted caps really are. Nice work.

[@rolaroli]

@@primus711 Exactly. I hate people telling me how through hole is easier to work with. This is especially true when you have some multi layered boards with large ground planes. One tip for installing them though - add regular solder with a soldering iron, add some flux, then apply heat with a hot air gun, after a while just slide the new cap onto the pad and you are done. This works especially well when you have some really small caps (like 0402) clustered close together. Solder paste of course works too, but can be a bit annoying to apply (though this is not a problem for large pads such as these).

[@Pathos312]

These videos are pretty inspiring for me. Thanks for sharing this sort of work!

[@TheRetroCollective]

My pleasure, thanks for watching

[@peshozmiata]

The mainboard might be a 4-layer board, you made the right call using the snips. Modern PC motherboards are like this, and they require the largest soldering iron tips and the highest temperature setting to get anything done. The "professional" procedure with those is to use an expensive temperature-controlled hotplate, but this works just as well.

[@ethanpoole3443]

Typically you will use an infrared PCB preheater to heat the underside of the board to around 100°C while desoldering. While not cheap you can get decent models for a few hundred dollars these days, depending upon how large a unit you require. A hobbyist level alternative is to bake the entire PCB in an oven for awhile to heat the entire board to 70-100°C and then quickly desolder components while it is still hot, periodically reheating the board as necessary.

[@NeoTrggrTheGammer]

entertaining video and first time I ever heard of this device...always fun watching these restoration videos and getting to see what makes old technology tick

[@MarkFixesStuff]

When you work on this machine you get the impression that they had NO restriction on build cost at all.

[@GimblyGFR]

Excellent episode. I really, really love Trash to Treasure, and Laser Active is an amazing piece of hardware. Waiting for part 3.

[@Dorelaxen]

Great video. The LaserActive has long been a holy grail of mine. I got to play on one 3 years ago at a convention, but it wasn't for sale (and would have cost an organ if it had been). Maybe one day I'll run across one at a yard sale or buried in a corner of a flea market.

[@garfieldepicmoments]

One thing you might want to take a look at- the Sega CD systems actually use an ML2016 rechargeable battery instead of the non-rechargeable CR2032 you replaced it with. You probably want to replace the CR2032 with an ML2032 before too long, as otherwise the console will be trying to charge the CR2032, leading to "interesting" results.

[@TheRetroCollective]

I'll triple check that thanks for the heads up

[@TheSeanBean]

I was just going to say the same after watching the video. I had the same situation on a Dreamcast! I think there is a zener diode mod to stop current flowing back into the non-rechargeable battery. Love the vids :)

[@samsulummasamsulumma6898]

Lovely, lovely video. Maximum respect to you and Mark!

[@lokz9632]

Mark and you make a great team. Give us some more joint force stuff fixing videos!

[@Carlo_GM]

Quality content as always. Cheers mate from PHL to the cave.

[@TheRetroCollective]

Cheers!

[@DoRC]

4:20 taking the extra time to insulate components when using a hot air gun is Always worthwhile. It's cheap insurance, costs almost nothing and takes very little time. Making a little aluminum foil A frame to just move around the board as you go works well to protect the innocent as well.

[@QunMang]

Another great video, Neil. Already mentioned my own past with LaseActive in another video so I won't repeat it here. Anyway, I hope you didn't get copyright claimed for that last bit.

[@stefanmarinescu5086]

I am genuinly impressed :) I watched the past episode where you made the previous repair and wow....

[@SproutyPottedPlant]

Good thing that machine found you guys to bring it back to life! A cool machine, perhaps not for the average Mega Drive enthusiast. I wish there was a Mega CD and 32x built into that new Analogue SG machine that is coming soon.

[@wolvenar]

Wow, that is one of the toys I would love to own . You sure have an excellent collection.

[@amirpourghoureiyan1637]

GameTechUS did a series of videos on these expansion packs for the LaserActive, he stated how the type of capacitor has no bearing on performance, he used standard ceramic capacitors which guarantees it a much longer life span compared to the electrolytic ones. Would be worth exploring this for the PC Engine pack!

[@miikasuominen3845]

Those "hard to take off" caps are most probably on large ground plane, which suck the heat away. Two solder irons, with fitting tips, to both legs at the same time. Or careful snipping, as you did, is the way to go. Of course, pre-heating and such also help, if one has the toys of such nature available 😜

[@TheRetroCollective]

Thanks Miika. I'm looking at pcb heaters, I'd be interested to see if they make the job much easier.

[@miikasuominen3845]

@@TheRetroCollective Never checked, what such things cost. Been using them at work, mostly what we called "under heater" which, as the name implies, blows warm air from underneath the pcb. And then a "hot plate", which is a heating plane, where you put the pcb to pre-heat it.

[@takaoiwate]

Thank you for reinstatement!. I am impressed in a corner of Japan.

[@DouglasTitchmarsh]

Great work guys. Good to see this got saved just in time.

[@Jef_Vermassen]

Very informative video, thank you Neil and Mark! No doubt a boring job, but I enjoyed the explanation on the capping methods. Also, very much interested what this machine can do and its game specific catalogue so looking forward to the next videos! :D

[@TheRetroCollective]

Thanks Jef. A mundane job but it was all the more fun for doing it with Mark

[@MarkFixesStuff]

Ahhhhh... thanks@@TheRetroCollective and Jef !

[@Galerak1]

Ahhh, the old legendary Retro Rick Roll. Awesome xD

[@justinv433]

Awesome video! I’ve watched a few and have now subscribed. I look forward to seeing more.

[@MrJans3n]

Fantastic job with this video. If I ever get one of these PACs for my Laseractive I'm hoping to find one that's had work done already, but worst case scenario this will serve as a good guide.

[@spud3149]

Great video as always. Long live the cave

[@MarkFixesStuff]

Cave4lyfe yo! (or something)

[@DEMENTO01]

I love these repairs on odd hardware

[@MarkFixesStuff]

With all this pacs and different systems it's like when characters from different TV series "crossover".

[@stevencarlson5422]

so worth it to fix that up man if i wouldve had something like that growing up oh man !

[@BendingInTheWind]

That is an awesome console. Seems a bit ahead of it's time. Kind of an omni-entertainment system like consoles today. Good work on getting it up and running, guys!

[@sscoreriotdx]

Love this Machine right behind the Wondermega 1.0

[@paulb4uk]

Another awesome episode superb fix

[@Dev_olution]

Well done guys, amazing amount of work and well worth it to restore this system :)

[@10p6]

Another great video, and I loved the explanation of all the chips. Ohhhh.....

[@patrickweggler]

Your desolder gun works great as a replacement for the braided wire. PS: Great Video again!

[@DAVIDGREGORYKERR]

Hope you get the rest of this Pioneer Laser Player fixed soon.

[@noside.foxhound]

Amazing! very professional cleaning!

[@graealex]

Preheating the board uniformly to around 80-100°C (on a heated plate) will help alot, especially with large ground planes. You can then use a much lower temperature setting on the heat gun, or apply the heat for shorter periods, without any damage.

[@TheRetroCollective]

Thanks for the tip

[@ShapeyFiend]

Bastion wins the internet. Congratulations.

[@Renebean]

Nice work!

[@RonPrieston]

I have a Denon Multi Disc Player I bought for 1000 dollars back in the early 90's. It plays all sorts of Discs. I have not used it in 15 years and its in mint condition.

[@WiggysanWiggysan]

Great video Gents. So much information. 2019 is going great guns. Keep them coming.

[@TheRetroCollective]

Thanks Wiggy! It's amazing what a Christmas break does for production. I should take more holidays :D

[@thedungeondelver]

Hey maybe you can help me out, I've got this RDI Halcyon system that needs a recap and...guys? Guys? Where are you going?

[@loganjorgensen]

Man what was that, permanent solder, practically welded on? Sweet soundtrack in this episode. :D

[@Doobie3010]

Intresting kit,never envy replacing CAPs.

[@PierreVonStaines]

I was having a really boring day at work until I start watching this, I'm half way through watching and now I'm having a really, really boring day at work..........................................only joking! Great content Mr. T, the Laser Active is a complicated beast! Wouldn't like to pick up that repair bill! :D

[@terryfernandez2852]

very nice video, nice work recapping those boards!!

[@TheRetroCollective]

Cheers Terry

[@Complextro93kg]

Nice to see it working.

[@NEOGEOJunkie]

Another fine video! Sooooo many caps!!! 😳

[@OntologicalQuandry]

The motherboard wasn't made in a different factory but had a different construction. Likely there were vias in or near the pads that wicked the heat away into the internal layers and got the PCB acting as a massive heat sink. I have seen this regularly with modern electronics where multiple micro-vias ensure excellent grounding but also make rework very tricky. Cutting the caps was the correct thing to do.

[@ag3ntorange164]

Please re-cap/fix a busted Vectrex. Always wanted to see your particular filming style and quality of work applied to this machine. i think it would become the definitive video guide to it. I greatly value your excellent advice and ability to film those really hard to get to places in very high quality. I would love to see the Vectrex get the RetroManCave love!

Man I really dig your intros!

[@holnrew]

I had to think for a moment when you said IPA, I was wondering how beer could clean electronics

[@MarkFixesStuff]

Beer doesn't clean devices, but it makes you care less if they are dirty.

[@Power-Wiesel]

@@MarkFixesStuff Hi mark

[@MarkFixesStuff]

Hi there@@Power-Wiesel!

[@Kevin-wj1do]

If that is a single sided board, a good way to pre heat it to make it easier to take the caps off is to heat the other side of the board, that way you don't need to worry about damaging components.

[@davidegalliussi1979]

It's possible mod in rgb out? :)

[@sergioavl]

Nice job! One more LaserActive works in this world...

[@ShinobiShowdown]

Laserdisc! - there's a movie in there!

[@TheRetroCollective]

Prepare yourself, a review is incoming and it's not good

[@sj-qn4uy]

great video as usual ,DRAGONS LAIR on the cdi is arcade perfect using the FMV addon cartrige, as is CHAOS CONTROL , and other F-ull M-otion V-ideo,games i.e THE 7th GUEST, all on the philpis cd-i were the best versions!!

[@donpalmera]

Maybe you should invest in a board pre-heater. I think it'd help when working on big boards like this.

[@MarkFixesStuff]

Funny you should say that but I am actually looking to buy one in the next 30 minutes!

[@Junkman444]

fatigue the caps off with small rotations (grip and rotate small amounts back and forth) until the leads give up on the caps. Patience is key.

[@DubiousEngineering]

How much would it have cost for all this kit when it first came out? Looks like thousands... a games machine and laser disk combo unit!

[@TheRetroCollective]

$970 US for the base unit, $600 per add on PAC, $120 per Laser Disc games (1993 prices). So with inflation that's about $1700 or £1350 for just the base unit and £800 per PAC. You would have bought one for each room Howard :D

[@DubiousEngineering]

One more comment, a little superglue and accelerator can be used to fix your PTH bodge cap in place reducing the risk of vibrations causing metal fatigue...

[@DubiousEngineering]

RetroManCave Crikey! ... this is a very high-end piece of kit! ... Love it! Great success guys!

[@vix_in_japan]

Wow that was hard work! Love the soundtrack on this episode too, would love to know the artist :)

[@TheRetroCollective]

Thanks Vicky, safely home from SWAG I presume? I'll add the music to the description when I'm in The Cave next, glad you enjoyed it

[@vix_in_japan]

@@TheRetroCollective Thank you most appreciated! Yes got home today around 3ish which was good, it was great fun! But the staying up and chatting until 4am in the morning at the pub we were staying at was painful to get up in the morning from! Bit of a wet drive back for you last night I'm sure!

[@TheRetroCollective]

Ouch! Yes and an unseated Kickstart ROM this morning but A1500 is happy now. I think perhaps after 8 hours of use it got a little hot or I knocked it when flashing the Gotek. Happy Amiga now though!

[@vix_in_japan]

Oh no@@TheRetroCollective at least you figured out what was causing it to get a bit upset! Hopefully that's the last of it misbehaving :)

[@TheRetroCollective]

@@vix_in_japan Music is now listed!

[@thelegendtl]

Does anyone know what type of laser this uses and knows how to replace the laser? I’m planning to get one and it says it doesn’t read discs.

[@wnddrake]

A small preheater would have made that job a lot easier. The massive ground plane floods were sapping all the heat.

[@TheRetroCollective]

Mark has one incoming, I'm waiting for his review before commiting.

[@QsTechService1]

Big Laser disk Are classics That's a lot of capacitors 😬 Good video 👍

[@tekk9995]

Such a great channel

[@TheRetroCollective]

Thanks Ned!

[@tekk9995]

Just call me TeKK ;) You should cover the Vampire cards for the Amiga one day tbh. Again, keep up the great work.

[@TheRetroCollective]

@@tekk9995 I'm trying to get hold of one!

[@tekk9995]

Great. Heard that there are some cards for the 500 out or being produced again. Not sure though. And then there is the V4 ofcourse which does not need original Amiga hardware. And they are working on an A1200 version as well.

[@josephnealeUKscratchcards]

Awesome video as always

[@willwarden2603]

They make a small head for that heat gun you know. That might help so you’re applying heat to both sides at the same time. Your method works though snip it carefully lift off the plastic base

[@pvc988]

When you said 'leaky capacitors' I thought that they are electrically leaky not actually leaking out their electrolyte.

[@desther7975]

I have a similar combo keyboard-trackpad device that I'm using on my TV PC, which I use for video viewing and console emulation.

[@heberdua]

Awesome video! Love it !

[@worldofretrogameplay6963]

From an American cave dweller, I salute you for a job done well!

[@TheRetroCollective]

I salute you back 07 thank you!

[@darrenjkendall]

Great video enough said.

[@DoRC]

Scrubbing the pad with solder wick is begging to rip a pad off. It's really best to dab the wick and iron. Keep working down the wick. Each little spot of the wick slows its wicking almost as soon as you can see the solder in the wick. I just keep moving to fresh spots on the wick to keep it drawing the solder in and scrubbing isn't ever needed.

[@Coletanm]

would love to see more gameplay in the future

[@TheRetroCollective]

Me too! I'm collecting some Laserdisc games to cover. You'll find me trying stuff out at twitch.tv/theretromancave and when I find something interesting I'll make a video on it

[@Mutato-]

I have a question. I have one of the Laseractive with sega cart but it's been sitting on shelf for many years now. Would the cap have leaked by just sitting with no power?

[@thequake2009]

This kinda looks like a retro concept of a modern day Xbox One or nextgen type of console :)

[@heidirichter]

Regarding the grainy video, to be fair, back in the day, using a CRT connected often via RF or composite video, the grain wasn't often as visible, as the image on the screen was often not as well defined as what we're used to now on on crystal clear screens. I remember back in the day, there was a HUGE difference is visible quality when a Playstation 1 was connected to my trusty old Commodore 1084S via composite, compared to what we saw from exactly the same machine connected to a normal TV of the time - it was much sharper on the 1084, and even the 1084S composite video would be rubbish compared to what we take for granted these days.

[@Rik_D]

So when do we get RMC - Karaoke edition?

[@TheRetroCollective]

You really really don't want to hear that 😂

[@MontieMongoose]

That is a good Rick Roll. The long game really does pay off.

[@LeftoverBeefcake]

Damn, I was hoping for "Retro Man Cave - The Broadway Musical" in the near future. :P

[@FinalBaton]

DID I JUST GET RICKROLLED????

[@TheRetroCollective]

It was all I could do to share my own pain of being RickRolled, pass it on to you guys

[@FinalBaton]

@@TheRetroCollective ;) it is a perfectly reasonable move Neil. Superb video as usual, you are so thorough with your recaps/repairs, that's one of the things I love about this great channel

[@phillstevenson4931]

Question I know the model1 sega cds and the sega cdx use rechargeable batteries, does the laser active? I haven't opened mine up yet if it you should really be using an lir not a cr battery

[@hotlavatube]

I used to have a simple Pioneer laserdisc player. It was pretty sweet. One day I put in a rented laserdisc that had sticky label residue. After the movie, I ejected the disc... and some little gear thing game out stuck to the residue. The player still seemed to work okay after that, so I don't know what that part did or how critical it was.

[@TheRetroCollective]

Haha we'll just pretend this never happened and movies magically continued to work

[@22hannit]

Looks like a marathon session redoing all they caps. How many hours in total so far been spent recapping the laser disc and add-on pack?

[@zxkim8136]

Nice one boys 😁😁😁 Kim 😁😁😁

[@StripsChicken]

Maybe the mainboard solder points were so stubborn is due to the use of silver solder? That stuff is hard to rework!