Okay, I completed the mod and everything is good to go. It wasn't all bubblegum and angel farts though, so let me tell you how it went down so you may learn from it.
First, the picture I linked in my Twitter feed in the first post, is correct. If you remove the din connector and want to tap from the holes in the board, those are the points. If you want to save that picture for future quick ref, go right ahead. Now, onto the actual mod.
I used the old school transistor based mod for the reasons I listed above. I got everything wired up, kicked on the power and......nothing except sound. No picture at all. I looked everything over and everything seemed to be connected. I then thought perhaps I might have a bad component in my sync amp. So I disconnected the c-sync and hooked up composite video from the din and still nothing. I then worried that I may have cooked something. I made damn sure +5V was going to the right place, but even still I worried that I may have damaged the chip. So I restored everything to factory, turned it on and it worked.
At this point I was thinking my sync amp, maybe the transistor, was bad. So I opened up my Ten No Koe 2 and yanked the amp out of that one since I knew it was working. I got it all installed and it worked. Just out of curiosity, I put the amp that I thought was broken in my TNK2 and it worked. So what happened?
After thinking it over, I realized the only possibility would be that my initial connections to the chip legs were bad. I think the first time I attached the wires, I forgot to add flux and tin them up. I thought I had, but I remember at one point I got distracted answering the phone and making coffee. Therefore, I am pretty sure my initial joints were colder than a penguin's ass. Second time was a charm, so I will tell you how I did it and maybe it will help you.
I didn't want to put too much heat on the chip legs, so this is the kind of tip I used:
http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E7%99%BD%E5%85%89-%E3%81%93%E3%81%A6%E5%85%88-2C%E5%9E%8B-T18C2/dp/B004OR7UBM/ref=pd_bxgy_diy_img_yI don't remember if that is the exact one, but that is the shape. The size of the flat area on the tip I have is tiny, barely the width of the legs on the chip. I then put some flux on the legs, added a little solder to the tip and tinned the legs. I then added some more flux and put a tiny bead of solder on the tip. I then positioned the wire and very lightly slid the tip over the tinned wire. The solder on the tip, plus the solder on the wire and on the legs, combined with the flux made a nice solid connection and the dwell time was probably about one second. The entire time, even when tinning the legs of the chip, I never once applied any pressure at all. I just barely touched the tip to the surface and let it glide over the leg. I will admit, holding that tiny wire still can be a little tough. Just do few dry runs to make sure you can hold it in place and then go for it.
I hope this helps anyone thinking about trying this mod. If you have any questions, give me a yell.
Topic: Duo-R RGB mod (UPDATE) complete / impressions and advice (Read 349 times)
