Watchmaking exploits
Started by changing batteries on my partner's watches, which led to acquiring more tools than the job strictly required. This will inevitably expand.
Hitman's Museum of Consoles & CRTs
Where dead consoles come back to life. Restoring, modding and preserving retro gaming hardware — repair logs, teardowns and hardware notes from a hobbyist collector.
Latest posts
Childhood Walkie Talkies refurbishment
My childhood walkie-talkies, dug out so my daughter could use them for her pretend calls. A recap, some Deoxit and a clean sorted out the reliability issues.
NEC PC Engine LT Recap + LCD Bias Fix (Necromancy)
An epic of strife, perseverance and adaptation. The NEC PC Engine LT is the 1991 laptop-format PC Engine with a built-in colour LCD. Almost always dead from cap leakage. This one needed a full recap, a new voltage regulator, and an off-the-shelf voltage inverter module to replace the T500 LCD bias transformer, killed by the electrolyte. Without that, the screen stays dark.
Victor RG-M1 Wondermega Full Board Recap & Laser Clean
Full board recap on this Victor RG-M1 Wondermega (JVC's branding of the Sega Wondermega), complete with a laser sled clean. Drew blood for this one; photo evidence in the thread. Everything works; the motorised tray is just waiting on a replacement belt.
NEC PC Engine CD-ROM² Restoration: Gears, Laser & Recap
This NEC PC Engine CD-ROM² threw everything at me: 3D printed gears, a dead laser, a Discman sacrifice and a spindle height mystery, before a full recap finally brought it home. Worth every frustrating hour of it.
NEC PC Engine IFU-30 Recap: Caps, Regulator & Supercap
Capacitors, voltage regulator and the supercapacitor that keeps the save data alive on this NEC PC Engine IFU-30 interface unit. Validated with Street Fighter II and Bomberman '94.
NEC PC Engine CoreGrafx Recap, 7805 & Jailbar Fix
A quick pre-dinner recap on this NEC PC Engine CoreGrafx, plus the standard 7805 voltage regulator replacement and jailbar fix caps thrown in for good measure. Short job.
PS4 controller refurbishment for a friend
Two very grotty PS4 controllers, one of them drifting. The drift was fixed with nothing more than a thorough cleaning of the potentiometer wiper, and the rusted rumble motors came up reasonably well after an Evaporust soak.
NEC Ten no Koe 2 Archaeological Find: Hudson Soft Batteries
This NEC Ten no Koe 2 was harbouring what are probably the original Hudson Soft branded batteries, in there since the day it left the factory. No leakage, so the batteries were kept as-is; the compartment got a preventative treatment anyway in case of past leakage.
Bang & Olufsen Beovision 1: X2 Safety Cap Magic Smoke
This Bang & Olufsen Beovision 1 CRT TV had the audacity to emit smoke and then carry on displaying a perfect picture. A lengthy investigation eventually uncovered an X2 safety cap that had met a truly spectacular end. Came away with a cleaner TV and a great story.
Fujitsu FM Towns Marty Full Recap (Floppy Pending)
Thorough recap from top to bottom on this Fujitsu FM Towns Marty. The console boots and the CD-ROM side works, but the floppy drive remains undefeated. It spins but refuses to acknowledge any disk.
Sega Wondermega HWM-5010 Full Restoration (2nd Unit)
A pig to take apart and put back together, but the end result speaks for itself. Both the Mega Drive and Mega-CD sides of this Sega Wondermega HWM-5010 are fully operational.
Nintendo Super Famicom Recap & Voltage Regulator Swap
Yellowed Nintendo Super Famicom (SHVC-001) given an electrical refresh rather than a cosmetic one. Replaced the voltage regulator and recapped the board (a few SMD values were missing on the day, so some caps are left as a future task), and touched up the solder on the controller ports and power jack. Smoke tested clean with Yoshi's Island. The shell was left yellowed, no retrobrite.
Sega Game Gear Diagnostic: Power LED Only, Nothing Else
Had lunch with a couple of friends and one of them brought a Sega Game Gear along, wondering if anything could be done with it. Power LED only, nothing else.
Beware old PSP batteries (shell damage)
A swollen battery had broken the battery door's retaining clip. A new door sorted it; a good reminder to check those old aftermarket cells regularly.
Sega Game Gear Recap Redo: Ceramics to Electrolytics
Cautionary tale and full recap redo on a Sega Game Gear: do not recap Game Gears with ceramic capacitors. Replaced ceramics with proper electrolytics throughout.
PSP Gran Turismo "good condition" purchase refurb
Purchased as 'good condition', arrived cracked. The seller didn't want to know, so I fixed it myself. The listing photo had the damage in it all along; lesson learned.
Sega Mega Drive (JP) Pre-Sale Touches: Reflow & Service
Duplicate Japanese Sega Mega Drive prepped for sale. Power jack and AV connector reflowed, shell cleaned with Aerospace 303, controllers deep cleaned and reassembled. Mainboard had been recapped previously.
Zelda and Super Metroid cartridge maintenance
Battery and cap replacements on Super Metroid and Zelda, with saves backed up and restored throughout. Initially used tabbed batteries as a stopgap, then swapped to coin cell holders once they arrived.
Cartridge maintenance on a random Saturday
A few carts cleaned and serviced on a random Saturday.
Sega Mega-CD Model 1 Restoration (2nd Unit)
A second Sega Mega-CD Model 1, bought after my first died from a non-OEM laser: a full recap, deep clean, optical-drive service and joint reflow brought this one back.
Sega Dreamcast VA0 Recap, GDEMU & Mods (For a Friend)
Friend asked me to pick up a Sega Dreamcast VA0 from Japan and make it new again. Full recap, fan and optical drive lubrication, GDEMU install with the required VA0 resistor array mod (5V to 3.3V for GDEMU) and a dummy load resistor for the 12V PSU rail. Also fitted a resettable fuse and a fresh ML2032 clock battery.
Sega Master System MK-2000 Full Refurbishment
Full treatment for a Japanese Sega Master System MK-2000 belonging to a friend: new caps, 7805 voltage regulator, thermal paste, cleaned connectors and controllers. Sent on its way looking and playing like new.
OSSC classic modding and firmware experiments
Modded my classic OSSC to accept newer firmware, and experimented with a PC Engine-specific build that tries to emulate the composite colour palette on RGB.
Nintendo Super Famicom Jr. (SHVC-101) Recap & Upgrades
Full refresh on this well-kept Nintendo Super Famicom Jr. (SHVC-101): recap, 7805 voltage regulator swap, shell clean, and a Borti4938 RGB bypass board install with brightness and ghosting fix component swaps.
Nintendo AV Famicom (HVC-101) Recap, 7805 & Clean
This Nintendo AV Famicom (HVC-101) arrived with a gray screen and a catastrophically oxidised cartridge slot. A good clean fixed the boot issue; a full recap and 7805 voltage regulator replacement took care of the rest.
Nintendo Game Boy Player (DOL-017) Recap: Leaking Caps
The first time I've actually encountered genuinely leaking capacitors in Nintendo Game Boy Player (DOL-017) units. These were memorable for that alone.
The rest of the guitar lineup
Keeping the momentum from the Yamaha job: the old acoustic and the electric got the same treatment. The old one is battered, but it was a gift from an uncle to my brother and, as such, is worth more than any of the others.
Yamaha FX370C maintenance
Brought a used Yamaha FX370C up to a much better state with fret cleaning, lemon oil on the fretboard and a new set of strings. Was sceptical it would turn out well, but pleasantly surprised.
Switch Pro controller maintenance for a friend
Since I got some cheap ones for myself in Japan, a friend asked if I could import some Pro controllers for him too.
Asus PG27UQ refurbishment
My personal monitor. Skimped on maintenance for too long and ended up having to replace a fan and recap the mainboard.
WavePhoenix WaveBird receiver build
I had plenty of WaveBird controllers but only one OEM receiver, so I built a batch of loopj's open-source WavePhoenix receivers, a drop-in replacement for the GameCube WaveBird's RF dongle. Beyond the build, the threads include a full walkthrough of updating the firmware over the [WavePhoenix web updater](https://web.wavephoenix.com).
Game Boy cartridge maintenance
Fresh batteries in a couple of recently acquired Game Boy carts, saves backed up and restored using an Open Source Cartridge Reader.
BOSS MA-12AV speaker maintenance x2
Refurbished a pair of BOSS MA-12AV speakers for myself, then later did the same for a friend.
Nintendo 64 (NUS-001) Full Recap: Childhood Console
The Nintendo 64 (NUS-001) my parents bought me for my birthday as a kid, given a full recap with extra care. This one holds a special place in my heart.
Nintendo Game Boy DMG-01 Recap & Clean (2nd Unit)
Quick recap and clean on a second Nintendo Game Boy DMG-01. Less yellowed than the first and with a working screen. Still needs a replacement screen lens one day.
Nintendo Game Boy Pocket (MGB-001) Full Restoration
Thorough once-over on this Nintendo Game Boy Pocket (MGB-001): capacitors, brightness and volume pots, power button, cartridge connector and button membranes all done in one sitting.
Totoro toy with erratic motion
A Totoro with missing gear teeth and no matching replacement in any kit I could source. Two gears cut, filed and glued into one that works. Totoro snores happily again.
Sony PVM-6041Q Trinitron Restoration: Recap, Reflow & Clean
Removed copious dust from this Sony PVM-6041Q 6-inch professional video monitor, the smallest PVM in the collection. Reflowed solder joints and recapped the neck board, deflection board and PSU.
Sony PVM-14L1 Trinitron RGB Mod, Recap & Audio Fix
Helped a friend source this Sony PVM-14L1 Trinitron. RGB modded with Martin Hejnfelt's design from immerhax.com (mod PCB assembled myself), neck board reflowed and recapped, audio restored after a previous owner had disconnected the speaker.
Old cassette maintenance
Dug out some old tapes from my parents' house and cleaned them up enough to play. One of them had an album I'd recorded as a kid, a nice find.
Looking inside a Sony TC-FX66 tape deck
A working Sony TC-FX66 tape deck, picked up to complement the Victor. Documented the inside for the curious; it was remarkably clean in there.
Sharp X68000: Recap, FDD & Oscillator (No Picture Yet)
A proper exercise in stubbornness on this Sharp X68000. Two rounds of repair, a full recap, FDD surgery (one of the floppy drives had clear signs of a blown capacitor with charring on the PCB), a new oscillator, and still no picture. The X68000 remains on the 'future date' pile.
PowerDot not charging repair for a friend
A friend's PowerDot EMS device not charging. The USB port had every single pin disconnected from the board. Resoldering them was the entire fix.
Peeking inside a Victor KD-A6
A look inside the Victor KD-A6 while it's running. A lot of capacitors in there that will need attention one day.
iPod Nano and MiniDisc Walkman MZ-N920 refurbishment
Fresh batteries for both. The iPod's back cover was not designed with future battery replacements in mind.
Dabbling with MiniDisc
The MiniDisc rabbit hole starts here. A portable MZ-N920 in good shape, a deck that needed a new belt for its loading mechanism, and a Victor stereo that does cassette, MiniDisc and CD. An embarrassment of riches.
Sega Wondermega HWM-5010 Restoration (1st Unit)
Absolute labour of love on this Sega Wondermega HWM-5010 from Japan: corrosion, missing components, broken traces and a RAM package with broken legs. The Mega Drive side eventually came back to life; the Mega-CD side continues to freeze on the BIOS animation, defying everything thrown at it.
Nvidia Shield controller repair for a friend
USB port replacement on a friend's Nvidia Shield controller. Not a perfect cosmetic match but the footprint fits and the connection is now solid.
Microsoft Xbox 360 E: Recap, Reflow, HDD & Clean
The Microsoft Xbox 360 E's PSU was packed with bargain-bin caps and the board had clearly had something spilled on it. A recap, a reflow, a fresh HDD and some elbow grease on the shell later, it's a much happier machine.