I also removed dust in my PC with a dust can for the first time in 5 years. There was dust everywhere. The CPU was caked in it, the can got most of it but I had to get in physically as well because of how bad it was. Disgusting.

You can wickedly burn yourself while trying to do a precise solder!

soldering is a skill i can't get

>>1735
I'm quite clumsy, but anyone can learn with practice. There are practice kits you can buy to learn the basics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG7yW9FigJA
There's probably videos on how to solder anything you may need to.

The solder is attracted to heat, so it goes where the heat goes for the most part. If it doesn't, flux helps it move where you want it.
I just used a solder wick with some flux and sucked up all the solder from the switch by heating up the wick while pressing it on the solder points for an appropriate duration and pulled the switch out. Then I put in a new switch and heated up the pins and applied a tiny bit of solder evenly by pushing a bit of solder tin from a roll onto the heated pins+motherboard.

Soldering is something I've been meaning to get into one of these days, but it's also not something I'd do very often and I wouldn't really use much. By the time something has a problem I'm overdue for an upgrade so I just buy the new thing that's out. Circuit board stuff kind of freaks me out

>>1737
This shab is playing with fire

I found a use for the soldering iron. I want to use a CRT TV for my consoles, but despite living in Europe some of my consoles are NTSC. Many of the local PAL CRTs most likely do not accept NTSC signal on composite, but I could use RGB on SCART. Not all consoles natively display RGB.

SNES has a lot of peculiarities on the chip affecting video quality, but it does output RGB by default on both NTSC/PAL with the correct(!) cable as long as it's not the Mini which does require a mod. I have an NTSC-J regular one. No idea which chip, don't care.
https://www.retrorgb.com/snes.html

My Gamecube is PAL. It supports RGB natively unlike NTSC. I need a different cable than the N64/GC cablefor this one. If I can't find any options I might have to make my own cable, but I found both NTSC and PAL cables on Aliexpress. Hopefully they're not erronously marked as such, one was even marked EU NTSC which... Well... One marked PAL had a comment from someone saying it had capacitors instead of the resistors required for PAL and could not be used. I might have to modify my own cable if whoever I order from in the end send me one like that.
https://www.retrorgb.com/gamecubeoutput.html

N64 doesn't support RGB by default, but it should be a doable mod for anyone with a bit of practice already and the tools that make it easy (the right tools are half the job, as we say). Just need to check which N64 you have first because apparently not all of the chips are compatible.
https://www.retrorgb.com/n64.html
My N64 already has a HDMI mod installed though, I'm a bit scared to combine both mods as the HDMI modchip was quite expensive (pre-installed from used marketplace), but seeing as they're different outputs it should probably be fine. I saw some video of someone else having both mods after a bit of looking around so I'll give it a go.
A HDMI modded N64 can display both HDMI and Composite at the same time, kind of neat if one wants to play on console and record to a computer at the same time.

Fortunately since my N64 is also NTSC, I can use the same cable for the N64 and the SNES. Using an NTSC scart cable on a PAL N64/SNES/GC is apparently bad because of some voltage difference on the csync pin. Whatever that means, I won't try it. It is a bit scary having both an NTSC and a PAL cable for different machines. I need to label them properly so I don't mix them up.

TV signals sure were a lot harder to deal with in the old times. I used to have a Chinese decoder for this kind of stuff, but I'd rather avoid using one if I can.

>>1739
This is a pain in the ass, there's so many different sync options. I will get back to this cable hell when I mod the N64.

>>1733
You should invest in small air compressor instead of buying canned air. The air compressor is useful for a lot of things other than cleaning dust out of stuff. But it's also the best tool for that purpose.

>>1763
Should have added: They make some nice small ones now that are good to keep in your car with an inverter to power it. But for home use I suggest splurging on one of the ones with a large tank and wheels. It should last you a life time so the $200 is well spent. I've got a few myself. One is very large and I've had it for probably $30 years now. I have a really old one with an exposed belt from the 1930s-60s or somewhere in there. Could never be sold today because it would have to be covered in warning labels. But it does the job well enough.

The reason you want the large tank is because it can store more air. That way the motor isn't forced to run all of the time.

If you just need it for cleaning out electronics one of the small ones might be better suited. But those things take forever to pump up a tire with.

The reason they're so useful is because you can use them to forced compressed air into things like fuel lines, AC drain lines and other hard to reach places. Usually you can force out any kind of blockage with the air alone. They're way better than using canned air for cleaning components because there is more force and you don't have to worry about spraying cold crap all over whatever you're working on if it's in a hard to reach place. Plus people won't accuse you of being a huffing addict. I had a roommate years ago that would still canned air from the case I kept around and huff it. No idea why he thought it was a fun high but he was pretty addicted.

Of course I'm not that bright either. I use to hold the cans upside down and freeze my hand with them to see how long I could endure the pain. Not recommended but nothing bad ever happened from doing that stupid shit.

Anyway, you can pick up used air compressors pretty cheap. Check out estate sales and yard sales. Usually when an old mechanic or working man passes away his wife is looking to off load a lot of tools like that. Everyone should own one. If you have a car or anything else with tires it's a really useful thing to keep around.

I ended up buying an expensive cable that works for both NTSC and PAL. Hopefully that wasn't a waste of money, but it works great on all my consoles despite region differences. The N64 rgb mod was incredibly easy. Thank god for the wizards who invent this stuff. Took longer to take apart the console than to solder it on. If I hadn't done this my poor N64 would still be in black and white.

I probably won't solder anything again until my keyboard or mouse breaks again. Using a Pinecil V2, tiny and works pretty well. I dread the day I may have to recap the CRT. There's probably over 100 capacitors inside that thing. Kinda dangerous too if you don't know what you're doing.