Back To Basics

I will be talking about how to solder. We need to know how to solder in order to do little modifications/repairs on electrical appliances. Warning: Never attempt to repair a microwave or such appliances! I had a customer who tried to fix his own microwave and now he is 6 feet underground.

Mostly I will be discussing how to modify the PSP. The Sony PSP is a versitile gaming machine. It is a portable gaming machine that can view pictures, play music, play videos, has an intergrated web browser, and of course, play games. Since it is portable, the controls maybe too close for normal to bigger adult hands. You can add an additional D-Pad (directional Pad) or an additional analog stick if thats the case.

But first, the basics of soldering:

You need: A Low Watt Soldering Iron (15 - 25 Watt Preferably), thin solder, tweezers or small pliers, patience and a steady hand.

Soldering is the process in which two metals are joined together by means of a third metal or alloy having a relatively low melting point. (defined by wikipedia) I've used soldering for my car speakers, my game controllers, fixing phones, modding the PSP, my car and motorcycle, and for plain old fun.

Practice on spare wires from unused and UNPLUGGED wires from appliances for example unused speaker wire or from any game controller that doesn't work anymore. Plug your iron in and wait till it gets hot. BECAREFUL! You might burn your fingers while using your iron. The metal part in the wires need to be exposed so strip the tips of the plastic tubes off. Since were using two seperate wires we'll name the first wire, wire1 and the second wire, wire2. Prepare the wires by melting a little bit of solder on to the part where wire1 and wire2 will meet. In my experience, this makes things a lot easier. After preping the wires, cross wire1 and wire2 where you want to connect them. You can add more solder if you want or since they are already prepped you can just solder them by touching your iron to the point. Once the solder melts, blow on the almost connected wires to harden the solder. Once harden you should have the once two seperate wires into one connected wire. As Sacha Baron Cohen from "Borat" once said, "High Five".

Once you get used to this we'll actually start to mod a little bit.