First off, the SD is for “Super Deformed.” I thought it was an apt classification for such pad hacks.
I have an obsession with taking apart my gaming hardware and trying to make it smaller :bgrin: As usual, I’m in the middle of like 8 projects, but I thought I’d post some pics/thoughts on the progress I’ve made on this one so far.
Here’s basically the smallest square you can get out of the Sega HKT-7700 without having to rebuild stuff:
The reason I moved the three electrolytic capacitors was because I wanted to achieve the lowest profile possible (they stick up pretty high and keep it from fitting into the housing I want to put it in).
Here’s a shot of the bottom (rosin core solder makes it look nasty) after tinning most of the solder points for both game control and VMU support:
Those surface mount resistors were cannibalized from portions of the PCB which were removed. The big 0 ohm resistor just connects a floating ground plane, while the two smaller resistors were used to make a voltage reference for the analog stick signals. The extra red wire just goes to ground so I can test all the digital inputs.
Here’s a shot of the SD PCB soldered directly to a VMU:
All digital inputs are still functional. In removing the op-amp section for each analog trigger, we lose the inversion of those signals, so a trigger inversion mod must be added. I tested a PNP transistor mod on the right trigger yesterday, but for optimal placement of parts, I think I’m going to switch over to an NPN setup for both analog triggers.
I’ll probably post some more detailed guide pics later w/ all the solder points and such when I feel I’ve arrived at the best part/wire placement :tup:
-ud