Sawing the old lady in half

[Oldewindmill]

(I don't know if this thread is in the right place )
I have an idea. It would take a lot of solder, a lot wire, a VERY, VERY steady hand, but could result in extreme board size reductions... (well, it would cover less area, but be thicker)
Here's my idea:
Cut a mobo in half and solder it back together with some short lengths of wire. you now have a mobo that's a bit longer but has a bendy, flexible middle.
fold it in half.
thoughts? is this idea feasible, if one had enough time, or have I yet again demonstrated my idiocy?

 

[Joeyjoe9876]

possible. but many of us don't wanna waist time doing it. you would have to know how many layers are in the board, location of hidden traces, and some other factors

 

[J.D]

This might work with a NES or NOAC and stuff like that, but doing it on a multilayered board would be a nightmare.

 

[zeturi]

This might work with a NES or NOAC and stuff like that, but doing it on a multilayered board would be a nightmare.

This. It can be done to an NES, but there's pretty much no way it'll be done to anything newer than that. Newer boards have multiple layers, meaning you have to sand down to find hidden traces to solder back together. A nightmare.

 

[XCVG]

It could theoretically be done to any board with 1 or 2 layers (SNES (but not mini), N64 and I believe Genesis) but with newer consoles you would have latency problems. Bacteria tried to do it to the N64 twice and ran into that problem.

 

[snowpenguin]

You can't do it easily on n64 unless you're a master solderer, and even then I thought there was a third layer to that board.

 

[XCVG]

You can't do it easily on n64 unless you're a master solderer, and even then I thought there was a third layer to that board.

No third layer. The problem is that cutting the traces changes the latency, and the N64 is really precisely tuned. However, you can trim it quite a bit without touching the sensitive traces.

 

[samjc3]

bacteria tried it with an n64 (or was it LoB?) and i never heard of him getting anywhere with it. there was also a little foray into doing it with a psone mobo. that never made it anywhere iether.

and i am pretty sure Tchay did it successfully on a revision 2 gamecube. however, its not really feasible on most consoles, as there are hidden layers and many tiny little traces that are a real pain in the arse to solder to.
long story short, unless you are VERY good, it aint happening on anything new.

 

[XCVG]

It was Bacteria, and he destroyed two boards before coming to the conclusion that it is impossible.

As far as I know, Tchay trimmed his GC a lot but never tried to cut it in half.

 

[βeta]

I bet it's possible, Bacteria is hardly the best solderer around.

 

[XCVG]

I bet it's possible, Bacteria is hardly the best solderer around.

As I said before, it's not soldering that's the problem. Rewiring even a little *Can'tSayThisOnTV*s up the latency of the traces enough to seriously screw up the N64. Of course, this theory could be proven totally wrong, it's not the first time it's happened.

 

[Mako321]

and this is why I believe a cart slot should be no longer than a few inches.
(which the people of BH should know but don't)

 

[Tchay]

Okay, you are all "partially" correct.

Bacteria did not have issues with soldering. The problem was the inner clocks of the N64. A single trace he relocated screwed up the speed on the system (sound was 2x as fast, video was wiped out). He explains this in his newest videos on his site. Now, I suppose someone could try to match the amperage and conductivity of that trace but that is beyond my current electronics skills.

I actually did cut a Gamecube mobo in half a while back when I was a noob. I soldered about 30 traces before deciding that it wasn't worth it. And the Gamecube may even have clock timers as well. ALSO, by cutting the board in half, you risk screwing up the common ground. Ground current flows in wierd ways. You can either have a cycling ground that goes from one end of the board to the other (assisted by shielding), or you can half ground simply connect all throughout the board. Now, I am partially talking out of my ass because I read an article about this but most of it went over my head

EDIT: and yes the cart slot should not have unnecessarily long wires BUT I am pretty sure that if the wires are thick, that won't be an issue. (once again, my arse is talking)

 

[βeta]

I have a working cart slot that is 6" long using IDE cable.

 

[samjc3]

betabump?

 

[βeta]

Sorry ._.
I read all the posts in my unread posts page back too far.