I'm trying to do the vga mod on my Dreamcast but am having trouble soldering the wires on the mother board.
The solder dots on the mother board just seem to disappear leaving me no way to attach the wires.
Can anyone help cos I can see me having to get another Dreamcast at this rate.

What size wire are you using?

I would suggest using the thinnest possible solder you can buy, with the pointiest tip iron tip you can buy.

I discovered that I can not solder when I've consumed a large amount of caffeine. I don't shake, but I just seem careless and not as focused.


If you've removed the solder from the points on the board, you can try to wet your iron with some solder and let it flow back onto the board. If you have accidentally used to much, you can purchase a little squeeze bulb designed for sucking solder off.

The problem with tiny soldering (ninja soldering) is that its very easy to destroy the original contacts that the solder is attaching two. If there is no metal left for the solder to attach to, then there is no connection. I'd take a close look and see if you might have accidentally scratched off the metal contact for the solder?

thanks for the advice mate.i'll give it a go.

YOU NEED FLUX!

This.

I'd suggest 30AWG wire if possible. I've seen IDE cables used sucessfully as a ribbon in VGA mods - though if you do that I heavily suggest you use every other wire as a ground to eliminate possible crosstalk.