How to mod a 21 pin Saturn
- Thread starter mal
- Start date
No comments on my findings... ? GAH
Wahoo! I did it! The blue cable broke off of my board, I was thinking i was screwed, i have never soldered before, but i successfully linked A and B with a bit of solder, then i was getting the one red sphere and one small green cube, pushed my chip in all the way, WORKS LIKE A CHARM! Thanks so much guys, this place rules.
I´ve read this all thread since the beginning, and I'll try to give my contribution to it.
I have a model 2, with a 32pin IC, a 21 pin ribbon cable and it's a MK802 00A - 50 Made in China.
My cd board is an Assy CD Unit SAT JVC EXL P608, tha same that nim and mal have in their white japanese saturns. Now the problem was that my saturn is a pal console, the same case as reported by Shakey Jake33 in page 23 of this thread.
I can confirm what these users have said before, that the A+B method doesn't work with this type of CD Board.I had to solder the clock wire to the 14th pin of the 32 pin IC only then it works! With the A+B method all I got was the cd player menu and two green cubes,both with original and backups.
By the way the cd board doesn't have the syncronization crystal as shown in the pics by nim in page 16.
I hope i've helped someone in this situation and just say that this thread was VERY VERY helpful!!! 😀
I have a model 2, with a 32pin IC, a 21 pin ribbon cable and it's a MK802 00A - 50 Made in China.
My cd board is an Assy CD Unit SAT JVC EXL P608, tha same that nim and mal have in their white japanese saturns. Now the problem was that my saturn is a pal console, the same case as reported by Shakey Jake33 in page 23 of this thread.
I can confirm what these users have said before, that the A+B method doesn't work with this type of CD Board.I had to solder the clock wire to the 14th pin of the 32 pin IC only then it works! With the A+B method all I got was the cd player menu and two green cubes,both with original and backups.
By the way the cd board doesn't have the syncronization crystal as shown in the pics by nim in page 16.
I hope i've helped someone in this situation and just say that this thread was VERY VERY helpful!!! 😀
Hey guys.. more info.
I bought some mod chips, these chips look different to the ones I had before, they look better quality.
The board colour is a dark blue and you can see more detail on the back of the board, like tracks and such, whereas the chips I had before were badly corroded, these chips all look fine.
I tried the AB method with 0014 bridge and then I tried AB with 0019 solder bridge and couldnt get it to work on my SANYO PC TRAP Saturn. I get the boot up animation, then it goes into CD player and plays track 2 of the bootleg game and then it displays the two green cubes.
I tried soldering to the 71st leg of the IC in the middle at the bottom of the underside of the Sanyo CD board and attached this to "A" - tried with both 0014 and 0019 solder bridges and wouldnt even spin the damn disc.
Ive now soldered the IC leg back into place and my conclusion is that this particular Sanyo CD drive saturn of mine is unmoddable
So now im just going to have it for playing originals.. but I have two more Saturns that I region and 50/60hz modded, so I'll try a chip in one of these later today and let you know my findings..!
BTW I can sell mod chips if anyone is interested? Send me a pm or email or msn chat - millionmilesaway85(AT)hotmail(DOT)com
I bought some mod chips, these chips look different to the ones I had before, they look better quality.
The board colour is a dark blue and you can see more detail on the back of the board, like tracks and such, whereas the chips I had before were badly corroded, these chips all look fine.
I tried the AB method with 0014 bridge and then I tried AB with 0019 solder bridge and couldnt get it to work on my SANYO PC TRAP Saturn. I get the boot up animation, then it goes into CD player and plays track 2 of the bootleg game and then it displays the two green cubes.
I tried soldering to the 71st leg of the IC in the middle at the bottom of the underside of the Sanyo CD board and attached this to "A" - tried with both 0014 and 0019 solder bridges and wouldnt even spin the damn disc.
Ive now soldered the IC leg back into place and my conclusion is that this particular Sanyo CD drive saturn of mine is unmoddable
So now im just going to have it for playing originals.. but I have two more Saturns that I region and 50/60hz modded, so I'll try a chip in one of these later today and let you know my findings..!
BTW I can sell mod chips if anyone is interested? Send me a pm or email or msn chat - millionmilesaway85(AT)hotmail(DOT)com
Ok I fitted the mod chip into a 32 pin saturn.
Used A-B method.
Used 0019 solder bridge.
Tried backup and it was a no-go.. then I started to think... is the backup working? Did it burn right?
I take my original Snatcher (NTSC-J) and I read the image using BlindWrite. Then I burn the image using BlindWrite.
I try this in the Saturn and it works perfect :cheers
I now think that the reason the Sanyo didnt work, was just because the bootleg I was using wasnt burned correctly, so if im feeling fiesty, I'll have another go at it later on!!
Used A-B method.
Used 0019 solder bridge.
Tried backup and it was a no-go.. then I started to think... is the backup working? Did it burn right?
I take my original Snatcher (NTSC-J) and I read the image using BlindWrite. Then I burn the image using BlindWrite.
I try this in the Saturn and it works perfect :cheers
I now think that the reason the Sanyo didnt work, was just because the bootleg I was using wasnt burned correctly, so if im feeling fiesty, I'll have another go at it later on!!
OK, it seems Radiant Silvergun was copied correctly, but the person who put this ISO on a torrent had decided to patch it to US region.. 
So of course, it wasnt working because I had my Saturn switched to JP.. so this means that the Sanyo Saturn will probably work with one of my mod chips!
So of course, it wasnt working because I had my Saturn switched to JP.. so this means that the Sanyo Saturn will probably work with one of my mod chips!
Ok ive tried the mod chip in the Sanyo Saturn again, and it just displays "checking disc format" with the A-B method..
I guess I need to try the IC leg again.. but I dont really want to :flamethrower:
😱wned
I guess I need to try the IC leg again.. but I dont really want to :flamethrower:
😱wned
Ok I soldered it all back in place.. and the disc still doesnt spin etc.. so it looks like its "umoddable" (Sanyo Saturn) so ive given up now (DAMN im persistent!)
I actually broke the solder pad off the 71st leg of the Sanyo chip 😱wned
So then I thought, well, it wont work without this signal will it, so I had to attach the leg via a wire to the nearest solder point which is marked for the 8mhz oscillator... and it works now
But seems is totally umoddable :looney
I actually broke the solder pad off the 71st leg of the Sanyo chip 😱wned
So then I thought, well, it wont work without this signal will it, so I had to attach the leg via a wire to the nearest solder point which is marked for the 8mhz oscillator... and it works now
But seems is totally umoddable :looney
lordofduct
Established Member
:looney
yep you got that one right.
yep you got that one right.
Hey, I just got another Saturn (you don't want to know what happened to the first one), and it is the 20-pin with round buttons. If I understand correctly, it is the model that is the easiest to mod, and the one that people have been most successful with so far. Since mods allow you to play backup copies of games, I was wondering if the system will be damaged from reading CD-R discs all the time. I understand that its quite a possibility because I have a friend that had a modded PSX that didn't hold up long against the backups, but the difference with that is he was using an Action Replay that simply connected to the back of the console and used a spring in the cd door to fool the system into thinking it was always closed; the Saturn mod is soldered to the interior, and it does not require a spring to work. Is the laser damaged from reading burned discs, or does everything work as it would on the original copies of the games?? Thank you greatly for your time and help.
first off, understand that *ALL* lasers will eventually die. several factors contribute to this and may speed up the process.
next, understand that burnt games will *NEVER* equal the quality of an actual pressed game, and therfore, the laser has the VERY real potential of dying sooner. The fact that Burnt CDs work at all is pretty damn near a miracle.
also keep in mind that different types of media exist from different manufacturers, and that quality/reflectivity varies between them...sometimes, even between different media from the same company. Poor quality media makes the laser work harder to read the discs, and therefore will cause the laser to burn out sooner. Also, for some lasers, the speed you burn at is also a factor
lastly, using a swap trick is harder on a laser than using a mod board
so here's what you can take from this:
1. Your laser will die.
2. Your laser will die sooner if you use backups.
3. Your laser will die even sooner if you use poor quality backups.
4. Your laser will die even sooner than that if you use poor quality backups, burnt too fast, with a swap trick.
HOWEVER
none of this stopped me from using backups.
Thanks for the help. I always burn CD-R's at the lowest possible speed, so I guess the only other precaution I can take is to buy high quality discs... What kind of discs would you recommend, and what is the longest time a console has lasted you running on burnt games? I haven't purchased a mod board yet, but I plan to in the near future. So far I've only looked at Jandaman and Racketboy, but I don't know much about them. Thanks again.
Whenever possible, use Taiyo Yuden discs. Fujifilm discs made in Japan are manufactured by Taiyo Yuden, so those tend to be a good choice. i've had a number of them go bad on me recently, though, so buyer beware.
Verbatims are also pretty decent. I stuck with TDKs for some of my play copies and Fujifilms for my master backups.
My PSOne has a laser that's crapping out....took it about 2 or 3 years, and since it moved a lot, that probably contributed as well.
my saturn is still going strong...however i've got 10 or so of them, and at least 6 laser replacements, so i'm not worried.
I had a PS2 who's brand new laser died within 1 week of use. my current ps2 has been modded for almost 1 year and no problems yet.
dreamcast runs like a champ, last i plugged it in.
Thanks 🙂
Amon
Staff member
Okay I am having trouble modding my saturn. I have a model 2 US 32 pin with 21 pin cable. I bought my cable from racketboy. racketboy.blogspot.com Anyways I managed to get it to boot with animation as well as "read" cds as audio cds though no audio is playing. Half of the time there is a red ball on the right or its the regular green cube. I have tried changing the solder bridge from 014 to 019 to switch from the older saturns to the new ones... What do i need to do to fix it?
First off, I want to thank everyone in this community who have done a great job of keeping this underrated console alive. I also want to thank the people who've offered help on installing modchips.
I just modded my friend's Saturn successfully. Well, atleast that's what I thought at the time of originally posting this. His Saturn is a round button/21 pin, with a 64 pin IC. The chip he gave me was one he got from lik-sang that had been sitting around for the past 3 years. It appears to be identical to the one sold on racketboy's site.
I did the A+B method and put the chip in the reverse way (with the cable being twisted) and it worked.
For 2 hours or so I played all sorts of games, originals and CD-Rs. Everything ran fine. But I noticed something peculiar everytime I shut off the machine - right after the power light would go off, it would briefly come back on and the video on the TV would flash, during that brief second. This led me to do a test of endurance, where I'd keep the console on as long as possible to see if something was wrong.
I popped in a burn of Sonic Jam... After all, the 3D Sphere levels when you combine S&K and Sonic 1 are quite addicting, so I found it to be the ideal game to keep the machine running with. About 2 hours in however, the console just rebooted automatically.
The system still works and the chip still works. Did the machine just get really hot or something since I've been running it on the carpet for 2 hours straight? Or is this relevant to the peculiar thing I described 2 paragraphs ago? Please tell me it's the former 🙂
And here are the other questions I had originally posted.
1) What can cause a chip to go bad? Is it just a natural thing, can the A+B deal provoke it, or what? I'm going to mod my other friend's Saturn later on, and I don't want either of these guys to blame me if their machine fails to load games (if infact, it's the chip to blame and not the soldering job)
2) The other guy's Saturn: I don't have it on my hands yet, but from what he tells me it's from September '96 and has round buttons. I read that this is one of the easiest to do models because there is a 32-pin chip inside as opposed to a 64-pin. I am going to get the modchip from racketboy.
Will I have to put the modchip in the reverse way (with the cable being twisted) like I did with the 64-pin Saturn I just modded?
3) Finally, is it true that slower burns are better for the laser? Or is there not much difference between burning at 1x and burning at 40x?
Much thanks for the help.
I just modded my friend's Saturn successfully. Well, atleast that's what I thought at the time of originally posting this. His Saturn is a round button/21 pin, with a 64 pin IC. The chip he gave me was one he got from lik-sang that had been sitting around for the past 3 years. It appears to be identical to the one sold on racketboy's site.
I did the A+B method and put the chip in the reverse way (with the cable being twisted) and it worked.
For 2 hours or so I played all sorts of games, originals and CD-Rs. Everything ran fine. But I noticed something peculiar everytime I shut off the machine - right after the power light would go off, it would briefly come back on and the video on the TV would flash, during that brief second. This led me to do a test of endurance, where I'd keep the console on as long as possible to see if something was wrong.
I popped in a burn of Sonic Jam... After all, the 3D Sphere levels when you combine S&K and Sonic 1 are quite addicting, so I found it to be the ideal game to keep the machine running with. About 2 hours in however, the console just rebooted automatically.
The system still works and the chip still works. Did the machine just get really hot or something since I've been running it on the carpet for 2 hours straight? Or is this relevant to the peculiar thing I described 2 paragraphs ago? Please tell me it's the former 🙂
And here are the other questions I had originally posted.
1) What can cause a chip to go bad? Is it just a natural thing, can the A+B deal provoke it, or what? I'm going to mod my other friend's Saturn later on, and I don't want either of these guys to blame me if their machine fails to load games (if infact, it's the chip to blame and not the soldering job)
2) The other guy's Saturn: I don't have it on my hands yet, but from what he tells me it's from September '96 and has round buttons. I read that this is one of the easiest to do models because there is a 32-pin chip inside as opposed to a 64-pin. I am going to get the modchip from racketboy.
Will I have to put the modchip in the reverse way (with the cable being twisted) like I did with the 64-pin Saturn I just modded?
3) Finally, is it true that slower burns are better for the laser? Or is there not much difference between burning at 1x and burning at 40x?
Much thanks for the help.
I've got a 64-pin saturn, MK-<(however many 0's>A saturn, from malaysia. I got a mod from racketboy, because I didn't have a soddering Iron (yet) I decided to tet the mod. I pushed the signal wire through the "B" via, and poked the power wire into the power connection, and started it up. the first time, I didn't have it connected to a TV, so i'll never know how it went (I don't know if it accelerated to 2x speed). I plug in a tv cable, and try again... and the disc doesn't spin (this was with the top off, I WAS hoding the swwich) and the disc doesn't spin... so head over to page 2 of this thread where mal was testing errors, and found mine was that the mod wasn't getting power. I find the power wire snapped off (the wire is just long enough to reach). SO I electrical tape it on, but it doesn't stay well enough on the mod end, so after a lot of trial and error, I get the wire to stay long enough to get a grip on it with my free hand, then after a few tries and re stickings, I get the disk to spin. It goes the the "Your backup worked" screen (licenced by SEGA), then I get either som japanese or a distorted image.
So I think it works, I just need an iron 🙂
defiled - Just take it off the carpet, thats a heating problem for sure 😛 and the 32-pin saturns don't have a twist in the cable, the cmponent side should face in.
Edit: made it a bit clearer what I ment about the power wire
So I think it works, I just need an iron 🙂
defiled - Just take it off the carpet, thats a heating problem for sure 😛 and the 32-pin saturns don't have a twist in the cable, the cmponent side should face in.
Edit: made it a bit clearer what I ment about the power wire
