Fascinating chip the TOP220 and I had a read of the datasheet with the thought of using something like this in a future design and like a lot of TO220-3 packaged devices one of the pins is connected to the 'Tab' (the metal back) and this is no different and its connected to the SOURCE and it is stressed that this connection should be as solid and as short as possible for all the normal reasons and to stop EMI. This made me think that yours was flapping around in the wind, I dont know if it desoldered itself due to heat or the fact the connection was dodgy made it overheat. This also was the reason you had no heatsink compound on it as this is an important connection and must be electrically sound, this is stressed as it is the high voltage return path so personally I would have not put heatsink compound on there. I haven't read the application notes thoroughly but should the unit fail again I thought it you would like to know...cheers.
Interesting, I thought maybe cost cutting caused the lack of thermal paste. Hmmmm maybe I should remove it then and try and reinforce the heatsink to the board. My thermal paste is nonconductive as well so there is probably zero connection to the metal of the heatsink itself from the back of the TOP220 chip. Are you ok if I pin this comment? so others can see it. Don't want viewers putting on thermal paste if it is not needed and likely lead to early failure. Thanks Andy 👌👍
Assuming it's the same version of that Voltek PSU I have (likely, since mine is also 220V, although the console is the HK version) then the RC network that needs the low-impedance connection is in front of the chip and directly connected to the center pin and not the tab. The tab is also connected to the same trace, but all that end connects to is the input filter cap.
@@TrimeshSZ As I say I have a datasheet not the Sega Console, how these devices are used is not necessarily "to code" The Tab is connected to the heatsink which is soldered down the trace you talk about may be a 'Sense'...cheers.
@@Mymatevince heyyyyyyyy it's been a long long long time since I've seen one of your videos nice to know you're still making them😁 actually you were once mentioned in a news article I read
been watching your videos for ages now and this week my daughter was upset as my grandsons tv had wouldn't work and she couldn't afford a new tv. I thought sod it and had a look at it .... I found the problem, sorted it for a few quid and now he has his TV again, happy 5 year old, mummy and grandad. I probably wouldn't have looked at it before finding your channel. Cheers Stuart 😉
This bought back so many memories. My mate Mike was an expert at Sega Rally, whilst I couldn't play it for toffee. Hearing the classic "very long easy right maybe" made me chuckle. Nice fix Vince - glad to see a fantastic classic console saved from the scrap heap.
@@Mymatevince I looked at the video again its not black ink on the resistor R212 it is 100% a chip out of it you can see i right by the first number 6 of the black numbers stamped on it
@@stevetealey2804 I'll check it out, to me it looks like the top of the 6 ink stamp has hit the resistor but it's an easy console to open so I will double check as I need to go in there to look at the thermal paste again 👌👌👍👍
Definitely a nice and easy repair which is always very satisfying! But not as easy as what happened to me no later than last week. I spotted that the neighbor two houses down has put a fire resistant safe at the curb. The door is open but because it is "locked open", it is not possible to close the door without knowing the 3-digit combination. While taking it home, I realized it was fire resistant because its weighs was around 30kg/50lbs Once on the bench (i.e. kitchen table), I unscrewed the inside cover that was concealing the lock mecanism. All I had to do was to slowly spin the dial until the slot on each disc lined up, taking note of the numbers along the way. Looked up the particular model and it sells for $1500-2000CAD brand new. I sold it on Marketplace and made an easy $300 for 10 minutes of work!!! You don't run into these easy ones very often but when you do, it's such a good feeling! 🙂
Nice find. My personal best was at the recycling center some years ago. In my town i'm known for being "good at electronics". So, one employee asks me if i'm interested by an "old record player" he saved from being tossed in the metal dumpster. Turns out the record player was a Technics SL1200 MK2, very dirty but quite easy to fix. Of course the employee got rewarded with a few bottles of booze
Great job as always, you remain one of the few talented and genuine tech TH-camrs I enjoy watching. Won't name names but some of them have become caricatures of themselves in order to get more clicks and have foregone actual discovery and repair.
That was really neat seeing you discharge the power supply. I oddly know very little (in a practical sense) about electrical work. This hasn’t stopped me from DYI projects at home but it’s cool to see little tricks like that (even though I know you aren’t “teaching us”).
One of the nice things about fixing up a broken console is that, since it probably hasn’t worked in years, there will actually be less wear and tear on the rest of the components. So that sketchy disc drive that’s in all Saturn’s will probably last longer.
Really enjoy your console repairs, and I'm so pleased with the outcome - this should be a keeper! I bet you could not stop playing sega rally once you started!! I purchased my first Sega Saturn a few months ago having never owned one, and I'm really enjoying all the Sega arcade games on it - awesome underrated console 👍
that cap example is brilliant, They look so innocuous and to see the evidence of a potentially life-ending voltage in the wild is great. You may have saved some shocks here or even a life!
Awesome! I had a broken saturn and literally gave up on it 2 days ago, powers on green light but no video, sound and no disc spin up or laser movement and apart from when not centered it goes back in place when the disc tray is closed.
Nice repair. Glad to see a bit of electronic repair. I love how someone always seems to be clattering pots in the kitchen while you are trying to work 😄
The best way to fix the no power issue in the Saturn, Dreamcast and even the PlayStation. Is to just get the Pico PSU mod which is a board that allows for you to use a universal power supply, usually 12v. It’s more power efficient, reliable and your console will run cooler since there is no psu inside. But for saving on costs you cant go wrong with this.
Install a fennier ode in the Saturn and enjoy the whole Saturn library from sd card, plus there are modern power supply replacements available for Dreamcast Saturn Ps1 and ps2 If you love GameCube I recommend the Picoboot mod it’s cheap and easy to do and would make an interesting video vince Retro gaming rocks
Good advice, though my experience of working with these integrated 3-pin switching driver ICs tells me that they rarely take out other components when they fail, unlike many other more complex designs
You might want to check out these neat little push down bottles that hold and dispense a small bit of IPA in a little dish at the top for you and prevent it from evaporating, normally made for acetone for nails.
My guess at 1:10 is a bad linear voltage regulator. @ 8:40, good on you using a resistor. Shorting a capacitor can produce hundreds of thousands of amps of current which is damaging to the cap. Nice fix. Thanks Vince
Easy fix, but does make you wonder what made the original part fail so dramatically in the first place. The common mode choke and other components on the PSU's input filter looked to be in good nick, so presumably it wasn't a surge event. Maybe a design flaw in the PSU itself? Too optimistically selected component, perhaps? Good fix at any rate, and glad the laser wasn't dead on this unit :)
Thanks Maya, yes it was such a clean break. Very little burning just cracked straight through. Very strange but apparently according to Google (forums) a common failure on these. Thanks for watching 👍👍👍
PWM stands for Pulse Width Modulation. A PWM Switch is basically a MOSFET with a driver and clock integrated so it keeps turning on and off at an specific frequency and the control pin changes how much percentage of the clock time it will be ON vs OFF.
Thanks Thomas, so it seems like a winning solution rather than having to use 2 components, a MOSFET and a separate driver chip. I don't remember seeing one of these PWM switches before (unless I just haven't seen them in this 3 legged package). Maybe with the heat generated in the MOSFET it is safer to use a separate chip????
@@Mymatevince most switching power supplies uses a PWM signal to pulse DC current into a Transformer to generate voltage. In the old times they used to use various transistors and op-amps, than a 555 timer chip (basic transistor IC) and power transistors to do it, later they used separate IC and a power MOSFET. Later they integrated everything into a PWM switch, and nowadays is basically the same thing but with more internal circuitry to detect faults, voltages and be more efficient, such as over voltage protection, over temperature detection circuit etc.
@@Mymatevince These integrated SMPS driver ICs are pretty reliable for the most part, though like anything they can fail from time to time, but unlike many more complex SMPS designs, when they do fail, they rarely take out anything else at the same time, making for a much easier (though sometimes more expensive) fix
I laughed when you put the battery cover back on and lifted up the top shell and the cover fell off lol, that is best kind of fix cheap and easy repair
0:28 I use to repair car audio amplifiers over a decade ago, and would try to buy them non-working for a bargain, fix, then resell, but alas, could almost never get a bargain, and by the time you bought parts you were still into it second hand prices same as a fully working one, so was nearly a waste of time unless you wanted the amp. TH-cam “fix it style videos” weren’t really a thing back then, at least that I recall, and I never thought anyone would watch someone attempt to repair something so I never even tried to make videos like that, but it is rather entertaining. I guess what I'm getting at is, to me it seems that it has always been hard to buy non working items for a bargain, well, at least anything decent / worth repairing. Of course you can snag some deals on occasion, but the stuff I was interested in, was rarely a bargain. As always, great video and enjoy watching! 7:58 I took an old pair of multi-meter leads, strip some insulation off and solder a large resistor a crossed the leads near the meter, and then insulate it. This way I could watch the voltage drop as I was discharging. I also think I may have used a spare meter for this and set it aside after I was done discharging so I didn't have to remove the probes on my main meter, or forget and try to read voltage with it. It's been years since I've worked on anything so memory is a bit vague, but did have some probes setup just for discharging as they are easy to hold / probe the capacitors with.
@@RWL2012 Likewise, and hope you are well! Vince has some of the best fix it videos, I might not repair anything much anymore, but enjoy watching him try to sort things out.
@@621ELECTRONICS hope you're well too. yeah Vince is good. I've been testing the prototype builds of my 3-way speakers (powered by a 120w RMS per channel amplifier), with 12" woofers, 2" dome mids, 1" dome tweeters, 1.5 cu ft sealed enclosures and 500Hz/3.5KHz (12dB/oct.) crossovers with 6dB attenuation on the mids and tweeters. I think the 2" dome mids are the weak point so I've bought 4" (open-frame) cone mids to replace them, which I'll be putting in 0.09 cu ft chambers. I'm also thinking about changing the enclosures to 2.4 cu ft ported at 30Hz with 3" ports, but with plugs to seal them if/when wanted. Not that the bass is bad, but it could be better.
@@RWL2012 On another note, I hate to spam other channels, but "Mustie1" is the other I watch regularly, but his fix it's are the "will it run" of stuff with an engine. To me Vince and Mustie videos are my pace and very enjoyable to watch. I tinker with small engine stuff as well, never did any videos on that at all though. Should have seen me recently on a kids size 110cc 4 wheeler I got running, kinda sketchy to say the least, especially since it needs quite a bit repaired, and it is faster than it looks, at least to me it is. 😅
My favorite system of all time!!! Most of the games on the Saturn have never been ported elsewhere and they are locked in the system. I just got a new Fenrir ODE for about 170 Euros and love it!
If you like Astrid Lindgren she wrote a novel about taxes in 1976. Pomperipossa in Monismania Good fun! then i think it came out as 107% in taxes for a self employed 😉 do not think it is lesser today! Good fun to see another console. Thank you
Hey Vince I kinda forgot about your channel, youtube doesnt recommend you anymore :( i still remember watching your switch videos from 4 years ago! Glad to see you are still making content. I enabled notifs. Thanks for the videos!
@@countzero1136 Ah I see, lol hard to bookmark 300 channels but Ill try to check in once in a while with everyone i guess. I love most of the channels im subscribed too and I get like excited when I see a long lost channel that i watched like 3 years ago haha
Nice and easy fix..... just two points. To discharge a cap, use a light bulb. Just get a larger automotive lamp and connect exactly as you used for the resistor. Then you can see when it's discharged. The other point is don't rely on the diode scale on the meter, rather, use the lowest ohms scale. Every meter has a different "tolerance" to make it beep. It could cause false diagnostic decisions.....
Thanks Mick, I use a Sony FDR -AX43, it is a camcorder but I like it. For the audio I use a RODE VideoMic Pro+. My camcorder wouldn't be a popular choice among TH-camrs but the whole YT world seems to use a RODE mic 😂👍
@@Mymatevince Thanks for that vince. It's more for zooming in on stuff. I have the microscope bit I feel it's too overpowered for must stuff. I have it zoomed right out with a 0.5x Barlow and it's still zoomed in a lot. I've got a quite good video coming soon.. fixing a FLIR thermal camera as I didn't have one! You'll have to check it out when it's live (probably the weekend).
There is a mod on youtube somewhere for the saturn that allows you to add a chip so you can play backup's. Super easy mod with only 1 solder point to the power supply on the 5v rail.
It is a good thing that you didn't replace that 3 pin switching ic with a mosfet because you risk blowing up something else... That is not a mosfet, It is a switching ic that contains a mosfet but also contains all the other control circuitry.
Great fix 👍 I hated that most Sega games had checkpoints, takes the fun out of playing when your only concern is get to the next checkpoint. I understand it on arcades to make money if you don't make the checkpoint you need to insert another 50p to try again, that logic makes no sense on a home console from that era when once you've paid for the console and game, nobody can make anymore money from it.
I think the power supply in these overheats (not helped nowadays by expiring thermal compound). Sega were going to put a fan in but decided not to in the end. Nice one on the fix :) Yes definitely CD-ROM, even the Dreamcast is 1GB _GD-ROM_ rather than DVD. RF, composite, S-video and RGB/SCART are all supported. 25:11 Game Over Yeahhhhhhhhh!!!
Now I had to look and find your comment! Speaking of thermal compound, I once bought some cheap tubes of it on ebay to save some money, no brand, and it was nearly impossible to even squirt out of the tubes, it was like dry before ever using, so it went into the trash. 😆
Thanks RWL, maybe there are little contacts (or solder pads) on the mainboard for a fan, I presume people have already modded them with one, if not then that could be a TH-cam video!!! So RGB would give the best picture then, might look into that as it might look nice given that the RF wasn't awful 😂👍👍👍👍👍
@@Mymatevince yes, Retro Gaming Cables do a decent Saturn RGB SCART lead (PAP SAT in their website's search box). It does have some cost to it of course.
Well done, another item saved from landfill. Probably an illusion or scratch but the board looked cracked (near R103). I suspect there are millions of faulty items, but most are in skips, landfill. Now, if councils wanted to make a bit more money (than selling to recyclers) .....
I love these videos I learn so much I might of never had a chance to otherwise great videos when your trying to get things done in your own home always enjoy your videos
I recommend test (snr resistance and capacity) an change the little electrolitic cap near. This cap is normally control this switch circuit and go bad because of heat (near power resistor and transformer) they are the cause of blowing contol switch transistor or chips (depending of what use the power supply)
Great video Vince! Thoroughly enjoyed this one. You're right about us competing. The problem is we justify it with revenue too so we end up paying over the odds for things lol
Cheers Phil, completely agree. We need to set up a UK YT fixers WhatApp group to let each other know what we're bidding on...We've probably outbid each other many times at 3am in the morning 😂👍
@@Mymatevince that might not be a bad idea actually. It could give us somewhere to post leads if we see something interesting that we're not going to buy ourselves too. A few of us do that in Disord on a voice chat and it works pretty well :)
Brilliant as usual, here's a thought, repair faulty equipment for local area charity shops or just people who can't afford repairs? That way you get the gear to repair they pay for bits (or free depending on need)👍👍
10:42 The part that rattle inside may be the front piece of the blown transistor. 16:10 Bingo! In cases like this is beter to check secondary side for shorts, also it is not recommended to turn on SMPS without load, but in this case you were lucky Luke :D
Thanks technixbul, I should have looked for shorts, I could have done that from the output pins quite easily...next time hopefully I will remember 👍👍 On the load thing, is that on all SMPS or just the Saturn's one? Because often people leave in phone chargers all day with no load (no phone plugged in). I always like to unplug things when not in use, but I suspect many don't. Thanks for viewing and commenting 👌
@@Mymatevince Chargers have dummy load inside or are calculated to be able to work without load, ALL SMPS need load because they will enter in relay mode or/then worse, will blow in your face. Sometimes manufacturers put loading resistors at the output, mostly if the SMPS is ment to be turned on without the device for which is made for.
I have so many Saturn's laying around my garage. There's some from every region. I used to have an etsy shop. If you need anything saturn or dreamcast related let me know. I've got cases, supplies, main boards, everything.
There was much complaining about the Scart lead IIRC. A lot of kids were using cheap TVs, and not all of them had Scart sockets. I know mine, which I'd been using since I got my C64, didn't. IMO both the Saturn and the Playstation didn't benefit too much from a sharper image anyway, at least for 3D games. The Saturn had the horrible mesh transparency, and the Playstation had dithering. Both were blended to an extent by lower quality methods of video output.
That same component blew on my mark 1 Saturn. I re-capped the board and replaced it with the correct part and after a few hours play it blew again, I gave up and fitted a pico PSU.
FYI, that box of MOSFETs looks very familiar. I purchased some on Amazon and every single one was counterfeit. They would operate for a short time then fail. Unless you buy them from a reputable electronics's vendor, more then likely they will be counterfeit. Keep up the excellent videos!
Thanks John, these were from Amazon (UK) as well. I think I have only used one of them so far and that was in a monitor that I did a fix it video on. I use that same monitor to view my camera when filming these videos and it so far is still working nearly a year later. Cheers for the heads up though, I'll keep it in mind 👌👍👍👍
@@Mymatevince Hi Vince, I initially used the Amazon MOSFETs to repair a powered subwoofer. The fake MOSFETs would allow the sub to power on for a minute or 2 then fail. I actually opened the case on the MOSFETs to compare it to a known real one. The size of the die on the fakes was a fraction of the size of the real ones. I suspect they may work if you don't push them in something that requires high current. Cheers!
@@jrumiano Interesting!!!! Well the one I used was a bit of trial and error and guesswork as the original component couldn't be sourced (from memory). So maybe unknowingly I put a higher current one in. I have heard plenty of comments about fake components so I guess this is where CPC, RS components and the like come into play as they would have proper supply lines. Cheers for passing on your knowledge 👍👍👍
@@jrumiano I had this issue with a batch of linear voltage regulators I got off ebay a few years back - tiny dies, terrible thermal bonding to the case and so on - that's not a voltage regulator - that's a goddamn fuse :(
used to turn on a console, and shut the plug off after 1 sec it started, to cinsume all the energy in the caps. Didnt shocked myself in 10 years that way. maybe i was too careful. :D
Hi Vince, that is absolutely true what you are saying about the eBay prices regarding to faulty items....at least for popular items like consoles 🙈 Keep going! I am watching you since you were completely unfamiliar with hot air soldering! 🙂 Cheers from Germany! - Markus
@My Mate VINCE Thank you very, very much Vince! Not quite sure about my english, but I will try my best! 🙂 Very glad to have you on board! You and Steve (@StezStixFix) were my inspiration to start my own channel and share the fascination with other people! Thank you very much guys! ✌
Had to go back and check the mains voltage as I thought that might have blown the regulator if it was 120v and it had been fed with 240v. But nope, 220-240v. I guess mains surge might do that.
I had a PSU issue when I got mine form ebay. The board had snapped on the PSU and not connecting so I just used a ReSaturn to be safe. But hope you enjoy the console.
Thanks Emma, but even tax on profit goes round and round. So you buy another R2D2 on eBay (as I know you are addicted 😂) the seller has to pay tax on his profits BUT then the seller buys a football from Argos with his profit that has already been taxed, then Argos have to pay tax on that if they make a profit. Argos CEO then buys a working Rolls Royce because she isn't MMV and pays more tax on the money that she has already paid tax on, and so it goes on and on. £1 at the beginning once circulated 10 times probably makes more than £1 in tax. It's a beautiful system if you run it 👌😎 I need to Google this as I can't quite get my head around it.
@@Mymatevince It is very complex or can be. The system can break down if people dont keep proper accounts. The seller doesnt pay tax as the VAT is added on and its the buyer that is paying that VAT and the seller then gives that VAT to the taxman. If the seller had paid VAT on his original purchase then depending on his profits he may even be able to claim that back from the VAT man. Thats the way I understand it anyway, I am pretty sure someone with more knowledge will put us both right lol. Its all a bit of a scuzzy wealth transfer thing that the end user pays for with everyone taking their commission along the way.
@@Mymatevince The whole thing is an almighty government scam Vince. You pay tak when you earn money, then they tax you again when you spend it :( Not to mention that VAT at its current rate is an EU thing, so since brexit (which I voted against, by the way), you have to wonder why it wasn't scrapped. I wonder if the fact that it nets the treasury £160billion p.a. might have something to do with it....
I have a couple of these. I also have 2 spare new jvc lasers spare in boxes. Already replaced a laser in one. Love this console. Holds the most memory’s for me
Nice, Not actually seen one of these have a blown component like that yet, blown fuses n stuff but that's a handy and cheap fix, really do need to get myself one of those desolder guns *ads it to the list* Good thing these days with failing drives is you can now get ODD emulators means at least the consoles with dead drives don't have to become e-waste or parts machines.
![[LIVE] : ONE ลุมพินี 88 | คู่เอก "ป้อมเพชร vs อัสลามจอน"](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/1ZqTVVbMgbo/mqdefault.jpg)
Fascinating chip the TOP220 and I had a read of the datasheet with the thought of using something like this in a future design and like a lot of TO220-3 packaged devices one of the pins is connected to the 'Tab' (the metal back) and this is no different and its connected to the SOURCE and it is stressed that this connection should be as solid and as short as possible for all the normal reasons and to stop EMI. This made me think that yours was flapping around in the wind, I dont know if it desoldered itself due to heat or the fact the connection was dodgy made it overheat. This also was the reason you had no heatsink compound on it as this is an important connection and must be electrically sound, this is stressed as it is the high voltage return path so personally I would have not put heatsink compound on there. I haven't read the application notes thoroughly but should the unit fail again I thought it you would like to know...cheers.
Interesting, I thought maybe cost cutting caused the lack of thermal paste. Hmmmm maybe I should remove it then and try and reinforce the heatsink to the board. My thermal paste is nonconductive as well so there is probably zero connection to the metal of the heatsink itself from the back of the TOP220 chip. Are you ok if I pin this comment? so others can see it. Don't want viewers putting on thermal paste if it is not needed and likely lead to early failure. Thanks Andy 👌👍
Assuming it's the same version of that Voltek PSU I have (likely, since mine is also 220V, although the console is the HK version) then the RC network that needs the low-impedance connection is in front of the chip and directly connected to the center pin and not the tab. The tab is also connected to the same trace, but all that end connects to is the input filter cap.
@@Mymatevince No problem, there's an outside chance I'm wrong but I don't think so....cheers.
@@TrimeshSZ As I say I have a datasheet not the Sega Console, how these devices are used is not necessarily "to code" The Tab is connected to the heatsink which is soldered down the trace you talk about may be a 'Sense'...cheers.
@@Mymatevince heyyyyyyyy it's been a long long long time since I've seen one of your videos nice to know you're still making them😁 actually you were once mentioned in a news article I read
Love an honest eBay seller! They go for over £100 on CEX too, so at £45, you couldn't SA-turn that down. 👍
Maybe your best one yet Steve 😂
£45 is not bad and honset ebayer is a rare
The planets must of been in alignment to get that Saturn deal.
Right, know what I’m watching when I get to work tomorrow, this looks great ☺️☺️
"stupid game"
been watching your videos for ages now and this week my daughter was upset as my grandsons tv had wouldn't work and she couldn't afford a new tv.
I thought sod it and had a look at it ....
I found the problem, sorted it for a few quid and now he has his TV again, happy 5 year old, mummy and grandad.
I probably wouldn't have looked at it before finding your channel.
Cheers
Stuart 😉
Excellent, well done Stuart. a win all round for everyone 👍👍👍👍👍👍
This bought back so many memories. My mate Mike was an expert at Sega Rally, whilst I couldn't play it for toffee. Hearing the classic "very long easy right maybe" made me chuckle. Nice fix Vince - glad to see a fantastic classic console saved from the scrap heap.
Thanks Jon 👌👍
I could watch or listen to Vince repair just about anything, he's like the British Bob Ross of repairs.
Same
worth watcging to the end just to see you finish the level.
Where the black numbers our stamped onto the board that you took out there is a part that has got a chip missing out of it. Great fix vince well done.
Thanks Steve, if it is that resistor R212 I think it is a bit of black ink from the print below 👍👍👍
@@Mymatevince I looked at the video again its not black ink on the resistor R212 it is 100% a chip out of it you can see i right by the first number 6 of the black numbers stamped on it
@@stevetealey2804 I'll check it out, to me it looks like the top of the 6 ink stamp has hit the resistor but it's an easy console to open so I will double check as I need to go in there to look at the thermal paste again 👌👌👍👍
TronixFix sneaking in was excellent. Steve sneaking into the comments is excellenter. I love TechTube.
I missed so much faulty console videos 🤗♥️
My Mate Vince used the perfect amount of thermal paste. ❄️ And I really enjoyed that bit with the sun glasses.
😂👌👍👍
@@Mymatevince
When will the next part of fixing the Rolls Royce come out
@@promasterthegamer523 Part 29 will be out this Sunday ProMaster 👍👍
@@Mymatevince
OK cool
Definitely a nice and easy repair which is always very satisfying! But not as easy as what happened to me no later than last week. I spotted that the neighbor two houses down has put a fire resistant safe at the curb. The door is open but because it is "locked open", it is not possible to close the door without knowing the 3-digit combination. While taking it home, I realized it was fire resistant because its weighs was around 30kg/50lbs Once on the bench (i.e. kitchen table), I unscrewed the inside cover that was concealing the lock mecanism. All I had to do was to slowly spin the dial until the slot on each disc lined up, taking note of the numbers along the way. Looked up the particular model and it sells for $1500-2000CAD brand new. I sold it on Marketplace and made an easy $300 for 10 minutes of work!!! You don't run into these easy ones very often but when you do, it's such a good feeling! 🙂
Nice!!!!
Nice find. My personal best was at the recycling center some years ago. In my town i'm known for being "good at electronics". So, one employee asks me if i'm interested by an "old record player" he saved from being tossed in the metal dumpster. Turns out the record player was a Technics SL1200 MK2, very dirty but quite easy to fix. Of course the employee got rewarded with a few bottles of booze
Great job as always, you remain one of the few talented and genuine tech TH-camrs I enjoy watching. Won't name names but some of them have become caricatures of themselves in order to get more clicks and have foregone actual discovery and repair.
That was really neat seeing you discharge the power supply. I oddly know very little (in a practical sense) about electrical work. This hasn’t stopped me from DYI projects at home but it’s cool to see little tricks like that (even though I know you aren’t “teaching us”).
One of the nice things about fixing up a broken console is that, since it probably hasn’t worked in years, there will actually be less wear and tear on the rest of the components. So that sketchy disc drive that’s in all Saturn’s will probably last longer.
It’s no exaggeration to say these videos are the best part of my TH-cam week. 🥰❤️😍
Thank you so much Tin Man 👍👍👍👍
As someone who found your channel from the retro computer arena, thanks for keeping another retro console out of landfill!
Really enjoy your console repairs, and I'm so pleased with the outcome - this should be a keeper!
I bet you could not stop playing sega rally once you started!!
I purchased my first Sega Saturn a few months ago having never owned one, and I'm really enjoying all the Sega arcade games on it - awesome underrated console 👍
Nicely done! Made me miss the PS1 era Test Drive, Ridge Racer, and Gran Turismo driving sims/arcade styler racers.
I loved Gran Turismo, still play it occasionally on the PSP! Cheers Shawn 👍
Sick TronicsFix reference at 18:02!
that cap example is brilliant, They look so innocuous and to see the evidence of a potentially life-ending voltage in the wild is great.
You may have saved some shocks here or even a life!
Awesome! I had a broken saturn and literally gave up on it 2 days ago, powers on green light but no video, sound and no disc spin up or laser movement and apart from when not centered it goes back in place when the disc tray is closed.
Nice repair. Glad to see a bit of electronic repair. I love how someone always seems to be clattering pots in the kitchen while you are trying to work 😄
The best way to fix the no power issue in the Saturn, Dreamcast and even the PlayStation. Is to just get the Pico PSU mod which is a board that allows for you to use a universal power supply, usually 12v. It’s more power efficient, reliable and your console will run cooler since there is no psu inside. But for saving on costs you cant go wrong with this.
Install a fennier ode in the Saturn and enjoy the whole Saturn library from sd card, plus there are modern power supply replacements available for Dreamcast Saturn Ps1 and ps2
If you love GameCube I recommend the Picoboot mod it’s cheap and easy to do and would make an interesting video vince
Retro gaming rocks
Actually really enjoy the switching between the blue and yellow mat, makes for a nicE change of scenery. Fantastic video as always!
God I spent so much money in the arcade playing head-to-head Sega rally with my college mates. Good times. Nice fix.
A well spent youth 😂 Cheers Andy 👍
When you remove a suspected shorted part it's best to check the pads to see if the circuit is still shorted, ie, another part has failed.
Good advice, though my experience of working with these integrated 3-pin switching driver ICs tells me that they rarely take out other components when they fail, unlike many other more complex designs
You might want to check out these neat little push down bottles that hold and dispense a small bit of IPA in a little dish at the top for you and prevent it from evaporating, normally made for acetone for nails.
Yeah I recently bought one of those very cheap in One Below and it certainly makes a difference once you get used to using it
I knew it would be one tiny component that stopped the whole thing from working cos the video was gonna be half hour long. Good stuff Vince! 👍
I love seeing the old classic retro games consoles getting a new lease of life. Great video 🙂
Grossly underrated console. I have three of them but one isn't working because I suspect some of the EMI filter caps have failed.
My guess at 1:10 is a bad linear voltage regulator.
@ 8:40, good on you using a resistor. Shorting a capacitor can produce hundreds of thousands of amps of current which is damaging to the cap.
Nice fix. Thanks Vince
Thanks Tiporari 👌👍👍👍
Awesome fix Vince, on an absolutely underappreciated console! The yellow mat is looking great too
Easy fix, but does make you wonder what made the original part fail so dramatically in the first place. The common mode choke and other components on the PSU's input filter looked to be in good nick, so presumably it wasn't a surge event. Maybe a design flaw in the PSU itself? Too optimistically selected component, perhaps?
Good fix at any rate, and glad the laser wasn't dead on this unit :)
Thanks Maya, yes it was such a clean break. Very little burning just cracked straight through. Very strange but apparently according to Google (forums) a common failure on these. Thanks for watching 👍👍👍
@@Mymatevince Hopefully this repair will last at least another few decades, then :)
@@MayaPosch 😂👍 That will be a few decades longer than most of my repairs!
Cracking fix Vince =D Not a bad pickup at that price either!
Thanks Chris, I didn't realise they'd risen in price so much, on CEX they appear to have doubled in price from a couple of years ago 👍👍👍
I miss my old Saturn now. Need to pick one up again
Awesome fix Vince. I never owned a Sega Saturn and always wondered what the intro looked like. Now I want one. Great Video.
Hahaha, sorry Ben. Another dent in the wallet. Cheers for watching/commenting 👍👍👍
What a great fix and a honest ebay seller. Great!
PWM stands for Pulse Width Modulation. A PWM Switch is basically a MOSFET with a driver and clock integrated so it keeps turning on and off at an specific frequency and the control pin changes how much percentage of the clock time it will be ON vs OFF.
Thanks Thomas, so it seems like a winning solution rather than having to use 2 components, a MOSFET and a separate driver chip. I don't remember seeing one of these PWM switches before (unless I just haven't seen them in this 3 legged package). Maybe with the heat generated in the MOSFET it is safer to use a separate chip????
@@Mymatevince most switching power supplies uses a PWM signal to pulse DC current into a Transformer to generate voltage. In the old times they used to use various transistors and op-amps, than a 555 timer chip (basic transistor IC) and power transistors to do it, later they used separate IC and a power MOSFET. Later they integrated everything into a PWM switch, and nowadays is basically the same thing but with more internal circuitry to detect faults, voltages and be more efficient, such as over voltage protection, over temperature detection circuit etc.
@@thomasesr Thanks Thomas, in comparison a linear power supply seems like a joy to work on 😂👌
@@Mymatevince These integrated SMPS driver ICs are pretty reliable for the most part, though like anything they can fail from time to time, but unlike many more complex SMPS designs, when they do fail, they rarely take out anything else at the same time, making for a much easier (though sometimes more expensive) fix
I laughed when you put the battery cover back on and lifted up the top shell and the cover fell off lol, that is best kind of fix cheap and easy repair
SEGA Rally was so ahead of it’s time, the physics were spot on!
Great video Vince and a good fix although I did wince when you picked up the Saturn with the disc spinning!!!!
you too eh? :)
0:28 I use to repair car audio amplifiers over a decade ago, and would try to buy them non-working for a bargain, fix, then resell, but alas, could almost never get a bargain, and by the time you bought parts you were still into it second hand prices same as a fully working one, so was nearly a waste of time unless you wanted the amp. TH-cam “fix it style videos” weren’t really a thing back then, at least that I recall, and I never thought anyone would watch someone attempt to repair something so I never even tried to make videos like that, but it is rather entertaining. I guess what I'm getting at is, to me it seems that it has always been hard to buy non working items for a bargain, well, at least anything decent / worth repairing. Of course you can snag some deals on occasion, but the stuff I was interested in, was rarely a bargain. As always, great video and enjoy watching! 7:58 I took an old pair of multi-meter leads, strip some insulation off and solder a large resistor a crossed the leads near the meter, and then insulate it. This way I could watch the voltage drop as I was discharging. I also think I may have used a spare meter for this and set it aside after I was done discharging so I didn't have to remove the probes on my main meter, or forget and try to read voltage with it. It's been years since I've worked on anything so memory is a bit vague, but did have some probes setup just for discharging as they are easy to hold / probe the capacitors with.
fancy seeing you here :)
@@RWL2012 Likewise, and hope you are well! Vince has some of the best fix it videos, I might not repair anything much anymore, but enjoy watching him try to sort things out.
@@621ELECTRONICS hope you're well too. yeah Vince is good. I've been testing the prototype builds of my 3-way speakers (powered by a 120w RMS per channel amplifier), with 12" woofers, 2" dome mids, 1" dome tweeters, 1.5 cu ft sealed enclosures and 500Hz/3.5KHz (12dB/oct.) crossovers with 6dB attenuation on the mids and tweeters. I think the 2" dome mids are the weak point so I've bought 4" (open-frame) cone mids to replace them, which I'll be putting in 0.09 cu ft chambers. I'm also thinking about changing the enclosures to 2.4 cu ft ported at 30Hz with 3" ports, but with plugs to seal them if/when wanted. Not that the bass is bad, but it could be better.
@@RWL2012 On another note, I hate to spam other channels, but "Mustie1" is the other I watch regularly, but his fix it's are the "will it run" of stuff with an engine. To me Vince and Mustie videos are my pace and very enjoyable to watch. I tinker with small engine stuff as well, never did any videos on that at all though. Should have seen me recently on a kids size 110cc 4 wheeler I got running, kinda sketchy to say the least, especially since it needs quite a bit repaired, and it is faster than it looks, at least to me it is. 😅
@@621ELECTRONICS oh right haha, I might have to check him out :)
My favorite system of all time!!! Most of the games on the Saturn have never been ported elsewhere and they are locked in the system. I just got a new Fenrir ODE for about 170 Euros and love it!
yeah, I got a Fenrir and it's utterly transformed my Saturn!
I so miss my Saturn , and Sega Rally was the best , and I had the steering wheel as well - awesome , and what a Bargain you ended up with 👍👍
If you like Astrid Lindgren she wrote a novel about taxes in 1976.
Pomperipossa in Monismania
Good fun! then i think it came out as 107% in taxes for a self employed 😉 do not think it is lesser today!
Good fun to see another console.
Thank you
Thanks Anders, I will Google it 👌👍👍👍
Hey Vince I kinda forgot about your channel, youtube doesnt recommend you anymore :( i still remember watching your switch videos from 4 years ago! Glad to see you are still making content. I enabled notifs. Thanks for the videos!
Never rely on TH-cam reccomendations - I bookmark all my favourite channels and check them once or twice a week for new content
@@countzero1136 Ah I see, lol hard to bookmark 300 channels but Ill try to check in once in a while with everyone i guess. I love most of the channels im subscribed too and I get like excited when I see a long lost channel that i watched like 3 years ago haha
Thanks Deluxy 🙏
Nice and easy fix..... just two points. To discharge a cap, use a light bulb. Just get a larger automotive lamp and connect exactly as you used for the resistor. Then you can see when it's discharged. The other point is don't rely on the diode scale on the meter, rather, use the lowest ohms scale. Every meter has a different "tolerance" to make it beep. It could cause false diagnostic decisions.....
Nicely Done Vince! Another great job, and great repair! I was wondering what camera you use for videoing? was possibly thinking of upgrading my setup.
Thanks Mick, I use a Sony FDR -AX43, it is a camcorder but I like it. For the audio I use a RODE VideoMic Pro+. My camcorder wouldn't be a popular choice among TH-camrs but the whole YT world seems to use a RODE mic 😂👍
@@Mymatevince Thanks for that vince. It's more for zooming in on stuff. I have the microscope bit I feel it's too overpowered for must stuff. I have it zoomed right out with a 0.5x Barlow and it's still zoomed in a lot. I've got a quite good video coming soon.. fixing a FLIR thermal camera as I didn't have one! You'll have to check it out when it's live (probably the weekend).
@@BuyitFixit Interesting, I have a FLIR cam here to look at. Hopefully I will learn a thing or two 👌👍
@@Mymatevince I had trouble obtaining parts.. so I emailed the company who were not very helpful so I had to get creative!
@@Mymatevince Hi Vince, FLIR video is up.. it's a bit of a rollercoaster!
There is a mod on youtube somewhere for the saturn that allows you to add a chip so you can play backup's. Super easy mod with only 1 solder point to the power supply on the 5v rail.
Great fix Vince. I love fixing Retro systems.
Love the Sega Saturn, such an underrated and forgotten console for its time.
It is a good thing that you didn't replace that 3 pin switching ic with a mosfet because you risk blowing up something else... That is not a mosfet, It is a switching ic that contains a mosfet but also contains all the other control circuitry.
Thanks for the info DIY Master 👍👍👍
o man this brings back memorys i had a sega saturn with that game and i loved every min of it playing
Great fix 👍
I hated that most Sega games had checkpoints, takes the fun out of playing when your only concern is get to the next checkpoint.
I understand it on arcades to make money if you don't make the checkpoint you need to insert another 50p to try again, that logic makes no sense on a home console from that era when once you've paid for the console and game, nobody can make anymore money from it.
I think the power supply in these overheats (not helped nowadays by expiring thermal compound). Sega were going to put a fan in but decided not to in the end. Nice one on the fix :) Yes definitely CD-ROM, even the Dreamcast is 1GB _GD-ROM_ rather than DVD. RF, composite, S-video and RGB/SCART are all supported. 25:11 Game Over Yeahhhhhhhhh!!!
Now I had to look and find your comment! Speaking of thermal compound, I once bought some cheap tubes of it on ebay to save some money, no brand, and it was nearly impossible to even squirt out of the tubes, it was like dry before ever using, so it went into the trash. 😆
Thanks RWL, maybe there are little contacts (or solder pads) on the mainboard for a fan, I presume people have already modded them with one, if not then that could be a TH-cam video!!! So RGB would give the best picture then, might look into that as it might look nice given that the RF wasn't awful 😂👍👍👍👍👍
@@621ELECTRONICS oh no haha
@@Mymatevince yes, Retro Gaming Cables do a decent Saturn RGB SCART lead (PAP SAT in their website's search box). It does have some cost to it of course.
@@RWL2012 Thanks, I see it. Quite expensive but maybe they are home/handmade or using nice copper cables 👌👍
Well done, another item saved from landfill. Probably an illusion or scratch but the board looked cracked (near R103). I suspect there are millions of faulty items, but most are in skips, landfill. Now, if councils wanted to make a bit more money (than selling to recyclers) .....
Yes, I'd be there number one customer 👍 I'll check out the board near R103, cheers 👍👍👍
Saturn - the best retro console of all time! great shooters out of Japan
I love these videos I learn so much I might of never had a chance to otherwise great videos when your trying to get things done in your own home always enjoy your videos
I recommend test (snr resistance and capacity) an change the little electrolitic cap near. This cap is normally control this switch circuit and go bad because of heat (near power resistor and transformer) they are the cause of blowing contol switch transistor or chips (depending of what use the power supply)
Thank you Yo Yomismo 👍👍👍
Nice easy repair on this one. Bet you wish they were all that easy!
Great video Vince! Thoroughly enjoyed this one. You're right about us competing. The problem is we justify it with revenue too so we end up paying over the odds for things lol
Cheers Phil, completely agree. We need to set up a UK YT fixers WhatApp group to let each other know what we're bidding on...We've probably outbid each other many times at 3am in the morning 😂👍
@@Mymatevince that might not be a bad idea actually. It could give us somewhere to post leads if we see something interesting that we're not going to buy ourselves too. A few of us do that in Disord on a voice chat and it works pretty well :)
Brilliant as usual, here's a thought, repair faulty equipment for local area charity shops or just people who can't afford repairs? That way you get the gear to repair they pay for bits (or free depending on need)👍👍
10:42 The part that rattle inside may be the front piece of the blown transistor. 16:10 Bingo! In cases like this is beter to check secondary side for shorts, also it is not recommended to turn on SMPS without load, but in this case you were lucky Luke :D
Thanks technixbul, I should have looked for shorts, I could have done that from the output pins quite easily...next time hopefully I will remember 👍👍 On the load thing, is that on all SMPS or just the Saturn's one? Because often people leave in phone chargers all day with no load (no phone plugged in). I always like to unplug things when not in use, but I suspect many don't. Thanks for viewing and commenting 👌
@@Mymatevince Chargers have dummy load inside or are calculated to be able to work without load, ALL SMPS need load because they will enter in relay mode or/then worse, will blow in your face. Sometimes manufacturers put loading resistors at the output, mostly if the SMPS is ment to be turned on without the device for which is made for.
@@technixbul Interesting, no one has mentioned that before. Thanks again technixbul👍👍👍👍👍
Ooh, a Sega Saturn. Not every day you see repairs for these.
I have so many Saturn's laying around my garage. There's some from every region. I used to have an etsy shop. If you need anything saturn or dreamcast related let me know. I've got cases, supplies, main boards, everything.
I got the Saturn in UK launch. It came with a RGB scart cable as standard. Sega later on changed to RF unit/lead.
There was much complaining about the Scart lead IIRC. A lot of kids were using cheap TVs, and not all of them had Scart sockets. I know mine, which I'd been using since I got my C64, didn't.
IMO both the Saturn and the Playstation didn't benefit too much from a sharper image anyway, at least for 3D games. The Saturn had the horrible mesh transparency, and the Playstation had dithering. Both were blended to an extent by lower quality methods of video output.
That same component blew on my mark 1 Saturn. I re-capped the board and replaced it with the correct part and after a few hours play it blew again, I gave up and fitted a pico PSU.
I hope you have a nice Christmas this year
Thanks Victor. I you do too 👌👍
I would definitely recap that whole power supply at this point. 28 year old caps are never going to be great.
I liked Sega consoles when I was younger. It was a shame that Sega stopped making them.
The blue mat is back, yay! The yellow one hurt my eyes ;-)
But that's what shades are for :D
loved the sega saturn one of my first ever consoles i owned
FYI, that box of MOSFETs looks very familiar. I purchased some on Amazon and every single one was counterfeit. They would operate for a short time then fail. Unless you buy them from a reputable electronics's vendor, more then likely they will be counterfeit. Keep up the excellent videos!
Thanks John, these were from Amazon (UK) as well. I think I have only used one of them so far and that was in a monitor that I did a fix it video on. I use that same monitor to view my camera when filming these videos and it so far is still working nearly a year later. Cheers for the heads up though, I'll keep it in mind 👌👍👍👍
@@Mymatevince Hi Vince, I initially used the Amazon MOSFETs to repair a powered subwoofer. The fake MOSFETs would allow the sub to power on for a minute or 2 then fail. I actually opened the case on the MOSFETs to compare it to a known real one. The size of the die on the fakes was a fraction of the size of the real ones. I suspect they may work if you don't push them in something that requires high current. Cheers!
@@jrumiano Interesting!!!! Well the one I used was a bit of trial and error and guesswork as the original component couldn't be sourced (from memory). So maybe unknowingly I put a higher current one in. I have heard plenty of comments about fake components so I guess this is where CPC, RS components and the like come into play as they would have proper supply lines. Cheers for passing on your knowledge 👍👍👍
@@jrumiano I had this issue with a batch of linear voltage regulators I got off ebay a few years back - tiny dies, terrible thermal bonding to the case and so on - that's not a voltage regulator - that's a goddamn fuse :(
used to turn on a console, and shut the plug off after 1 sec it started, to cinsume all the energy in the caps. Didnt shocked myself in 10 years that way. maybe i was too careful. :D
Probably the most relaxed repair you’ve ever done! What happened to Hyper “bull in a China shop” Vince?😂
😂
A rattle inside a box is always a cliffhanger 😲😄
I really hate it when the rattle turns out to be a screw - a sure guarantee that someone has been in there before :(
There’s a resistor at the 11:15 mark that looks damaged. Obviously doesn’t affect it working but something to keep in mind.
Cheers Dan, would that be R212, if so I think that is ink from the print underneath it 👍👍👍
@@Mymatevince ah yep…. Upon closer inspection you’re absolutely right. Looked like a chipped case but it’s just ink/paint.
Hi Vince, that is absolutely true what you are saying about the eBay prices regarding to faulty items....at least for popular items like consoles 🙈 Keep going! I am watching you since you were completely unfamiliar with hot air soldering! 🙂 Cheers from Germany! - Markus
Thanks Markus. I just watched your note detecting machine fix. Nicely done...Subscribed (nice English by the way) 😎👍
@My Mate VINCE Thank you very, very much Vince! Not quite sure about my english, but I will try my best! 🙂 Very glad to have you on board! You and Steve (@StezStixFix) were my inspiration to start my own channel and share the fascination with other people! Thank you very much guys! ✌
Whenever a video is about a faulty electronic item in the UK my first guess is always moisture damage.
Had to go back and check the mains voltage as I thought that might have blown the regulator if it was 120v and it had been fed with 240v. But nope, 220-240v. I guess mains surge might do that.
Nice fix. Just for reference, the Saturn can output RGB natively.
Thanks Andre, must look pretty nice in RGB as the RF looked OK in my eyes 👌👍
@@Mymatevince yeah, it does. 😉
Yep, mine is connected in RGB via a scart cable, and it looks gorgeous
That poor mosfet, looks about like the ones on the r9 fury that poofed with the magic smoke.
I guess amazon didn't have any luminous pink soldering mat and that's you got bright yellow 🤣. Nice job!
If they sold a luminous pink mat then you know that Big Clive would have one by now :)
The superhero of repair does it again nice job
Haha, thanks Catherine 😎👍
I had a PSU issue when I got mine form ebay. The board had snapped on the PSU and not connecting so I just used a ReSaturn to be safe. But hope you enjoy the console.
Another console saved from the bin, nice video cheers
Nice fix. VAT is an end user thing really as all or most can be claimed back by each business before it reaches the end user
Thanks Emma, but even tax on profit goes round and round. So you buy another R2D2 on eBay (as I know you are addicted 😂) the seller has to pay tax on his profits BUT then the seller buys a football from Argos with his profit that has already been taxed, then Argos have to pay tax on that if they make a profit. Argos CEO then buys a working Rolls Royce because she isn't MMV and pays more tax on the money that she has already paid tax on, and so it goes on and on. £1 at the beginning once circulated 10 times probably makes more than £1 in tax. It's a beautiful system if you run it 👌😎 I need to Google this as I can't quite get my head around it.
@@Mymatevince It is very complex or can be. The system can break down if people dont keep proper accounts. The seller doesnt pay tax as the VAT is added on and its the buyer that is paying that VAT and the seller then gives that VAT to the taxman. If the seller had paid VAT on his original purchase then depending on his profits he may even be able to claim that back from the VAT man. Thats the way I understand it anyway, I am pretty sure someone with more knowledge will put us both right lol. Its all a bit of a scuzzy wealth transfer thing that the end user pays for with everyone taking their commission along the way.
@@DEmma1972 👌👍
@@Mymatevince The whole thing is an almighty government scam Vince. You pay tak when you earn money, then they tax you again when you spend it :(
Not to mention that VAT at its current rate is an EU thing, so since brexit (which I voted against, by the way), you have to wonder why it wasn't scrapped. I wonder if the fact that it nets the treasury £160billion p.a. might have something to do with it....
The graphics weren't as good as PS1 but it's exclusives we're brilliant.
I have a couple of these. I also have 2 spare new jvc lasers spare in boxes. Already replaced a laser in one. Love this console. Holds the most memory’s for me
Great fix, should have put the sunglasses in front of the camera to protect us all from the glare of the yellow mat :)
Hahahaha, why didn't I think of that. I might nick that idea in the future 🤣 Thanks Dave 👍👍👍
Brilliant system along with the Dreamcast.
Nice, Not actually seen one of these have a blown component like that yet, blown fuses n stuff but that's a handy and cheap fix, really do need to get myself one of those desolder guns *ads it to the list* Good thing these days with failing drives is you can now get ODD emulators means at least the consoles with dead drives don't have to become e-waste or parts machines.
One if the resistors near the bottom looked a little damaged as well, though I guess it can't have completely failed.
Still have my sega saturn In like new condition in the box excellent fix on the saturn 👍👍👍
18:00 gotta put the perfect amount of thermal paste on the chip
Great fix 👍
Thanks Paul. Hope you're keeping well buddy 😎👍👍👍
Nice fix I bought one working and had to replace the laser a week later. 🙃
love the John Philip Sousa at the end.☺
i loved my saturn Sega Rally and Destruction Derby were great games