[Guardian]

Very nice. Did good.

[SpookyZalost]

been working on my next vlog update, expect one in the next few days, I've got some stuff to share

[SpookyZalost]

so my car broke saturday, then I spent most of monday repairing it with the assistance of a mechanic friend of the family.

have you ever tried to replace the starter motor on an early 2000's honda?

the intake manifold is right on top of it, and since I don't have a torque wrench with a variable torque setting I had to remove the starter without removing the manifold.

this was far from an easy task, requiring a lot of extensions to the ratchet wrench, including a flex extension bit to allow working at angles otherwise unreachable.

after about 6 hours it the task was finally done, it was a lot like trying to replace something INSIDE a rib cage without breaking the ribs first.

to give you an idea... that section there with the 4 metal tubes is the intake manifold.



I had to get behind there, and you can't get to it underneath the car, so after much working at it from both sides of the manifold I was able to maneuver it out from the manifold, sliding tubes out of the way with a lot of help from the mechanic.

so that was fun, but now my car works better than it has in a year

[brian51]

Spook, that was quite the car Repairs adventure, indeed !
But so glad you and your mechanic friend was able to get everything up and running better than ever !

[Guardian]

Sounds like surgery. Glad you got it fixed!

[SpookyZalost]

Sounds like surgery. Glad you got it fixed!

Got covered in car blood too lol

[SpookyZalost]

so I've been running into a quality control issue lately, a lot of the cables I've been getting have been sub-par, both locally and online...

due to this I've been learning how to make my own, it's surprisingly easy once you have the wiring diagrams... the hard part is getting the connectors without cables attached.

[SpookyZalost]

hey question, do you guys want me to start doing video's of some of the mod work I've done where I actually show how it's done?
I've done a couple in the past but it's been a while since I've actually done any video work, that and if I do should I do a single post with each tutorial video I post or should I make each one it's own post?

[Harry K.]

hey question, do you guys want me to start doing video's of some of the mod work I've done where I actually show how it's done?
I've done a couple in the past but it's been a while since I've actually done any video work, that and if I do should I do a single post with each tutorial video I post or should I make each one it's own post?

I'd really be interested in that! I probably wouldn't comment, or join in the conversations much because I don't know a lot. But I'd love to see the things you talk about more in depth and see how they work.

[SpookyZalost]

excellent, I was actually going to do a really cool mod soon, my sega genesis has been making a buzzing sound on some screens since I got it 20 years ago, recently there's a sound amp mod that fixes all of that and gets the best sound out of it, I was thinking of installing it as a test to see how it goes, I'll probably use that for my first video.

Edit: I've been thinking about it.. what about a video that's part review part install instructions?
I've been wanting to do proper review videos of stuff for a very long time but I couldn't really find my niche however this is something I'm really sorta passionate about so it might work.

anyway I guess we'll see how it turns out once I've posted it, the component should arrive by either saturday or possibly monday so i should have something up by the end of next week at the latest.

[SpookyZalost]

Finally have the Genesis Mega Amp 2.0, it came in the mail tonight, I've got the new solder and flux too, so this should prove interesting.

[SpookyZalost]

ok so I want to make a note here, In all my mods done so far I've not done any surface mount soldering, it was a new experience and in the process I needed to order a new mega-amp 2.0.

I plan to get a better soldering iron soon but the genesis side of things as far as removing the caps and soldering the leads is done, once the replacement board gets here I can finish the recording portion, edit the technical video which is part review part instructions and then post it to both YT and here


Edit: do you think I should get a heat gun or a soldering iron?
or maybe both?

the heat gun might be better for Surface mount stuff and would open up new oppertunities but the soldering iron upgrade would be more useful for what I'm working on right now.

[SpookyZalost]

So I ended up ordering a new soldering iron with a much higher temperature.
the one I had been using went up to 350*F this of course became a problem when I got around to surface mount soldering because the board is a massive heat sink, my new soldering iron is a Weller WLC100 40-Watt Soldering Station and has a maximum temperature of 900*F so as long as I'm careful I can probably solder anything... and potentially do artistic wood burning.



the soldering iron gets here on Wednesday and I'm expecting the Mega amp 2.0 replacement on Friday... so a week later than planned but I'm making more progress! woo!

[SpookyZalost]

Greetings organics.
Zalost the technificer here, and last night before I left for work I received my new soldering iron in the mail.
I'll be probably doing a short unboxing video and posting it here for anyone interested in it...
anyway just a very minor update, I'll be receiving the replacement Mega AMP 2.0 later today... to possibly tomorrow depending on the post office, but they've been good lately so probably later today lol.

[SpookyZalost]

Tech-log, date: D7562
Greetings Fleshlings
so here's the deal, sometime tonight or tomorrow I'm getting more parts, while I was working to fix the audio on my genesis, I noticed a host of other problems so sorry about the delay on the tech video but I've been sourcing parts.
Unfortunately the genesis I picked up was a V4 motherboard and not a V1 so while it works and gives me a functioning unit (with slightly better audio I might add), this does not fix my original model 2's audio, nor give me the parts to fix my model 2 because they replaced most of the capacitors with surface mounts stuff and the audio mod is extremely difficult on it...
That being the case I've got a unit that I've identified to be of the correct revision to have compatible parts and between the two I should have a fully working sega genesis model 2 with audio mod.

note the difference in boards:
Gen 2 V 1.8

gen 2 V4

they pretty much became more of a system on a chip as time went on and were able to make the board smaller.
this makes things far more difficult unfortunately.

this has proven to be much more of a pain in the ole exhaust port than I was expecting due to the age of the systems...
I've learned a ton of stuff though and gained a lot of knowledge and training on board level troubleshooting and parts replacement.
I'm so close! I can practically feel the buzz.

in other news I've also discovered a Geocities/Angelfire spin off called Neo Cities.
it's a free webhost intended for personal pages like what was popular way back in the day, interestingly a lot of the pages are retro video game and cyberpunk/cyberpunk anime themed

I'll link a couple of my favorites.

https://mebious.neocities.org/index.html Mebious (serial experiments lain inspired site, really cool design, very retro with that basic but awesome style that was so common back in the late 90's early 2000's.)
https://lainzine.neocities.org/ Lainzine (cyberpunk zine, can't go wrong with that, having read a couple issues I'm really digging the media.)

I may decide to design my own page at some point

oh and one last thing, if you haven't yet I highly recommend this webcomic, it's awesome!

Drugs and wires

until then, Zalost the Technoficer - Derezzing.

[SpookyZalost]

ok so minor update, I've been successful!
the one I picked up is the same rev as my first one, m2 V1.7.
and the audio mod makes a huge difference, no more buzzing on startup, and the sound is crystal clear.
I'm super stoked!
I'm grabbing some gameplay footage now for the after.
and then I'll be editing and uploading my review and tutorial.

[Guardian]

Nice find of this 'new geocities'

Can't wait for the review.

[SpookyZalost]

While I work on the full video here's just the clip showing the modding process.
enjoy