Honestly I never opened it. I have a Master System II and in fairness, the difference in game ports are negligible for the most part, so I never really looked at repairing it.

Speaking more broadly, I wouldn't mind learning how to solder - my skills have mostly been in software rather than hardware. Things like fucking about with a Raspberry Pi and their expansion boards sounds like a right laugh.

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

Soldering is super easy, don't let it intimidate you. You can be going in no time after dropping just a few bucks.

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 2 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

if the board is completely fucked, people have made reproduction boards to move the components to, too.

soldering isnt hard, it just takes common sense, a modicum of thought, and a little bit of patience and carefulness.

If you are on a extreme budget, try to find a used Weller soldering station at a pawn store/garage sale/thrift store/etc and just take some dead electronic device you have and practic desoldering and resoldering the components on it.

if you have a bit of money to spend, pick up a Hakko FX-888d station and beginners soldering project (You can get radios, various LED projects, and some lead solder etc etc, all for pretty cheap, and by the time you've done one you'll be well on your way to basic soldering skills on most non-micro components.

[–] PhobosAnomaly@feddit.uk 1 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

That's very kind of you, thank you for the crash course - some great pointers!

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago

np, good luck with it, if you try to pick it up.

Its a great skillset to have, even at a basic beginner level.. Once you get comfortable with a soldering iron, so many dead electronics suddenly can be repaired for cheap instead of replaced... You have no idea how many TVs I've saved just from the dump just with capacitor replacements alone.