Do These Console Mods to Your Sega Saturn!

The FRAM mod was giving me a lot of trouble because my board looks nothing like the boards in ALL the FRAM mod video and guide I've seen. On top of that my chip is epoxied/glued on. So I ended up having to figure out where to find my SRAM chip, how to get the epoxied chip off, where to find the 5V source for pin 28 and where to find GND point for pin 22. So I want to give some advices to those running into the similar issue I've ran into. - On finding the SRAM chip: Sega used many difference sources for their SRAM chips and had many board revision so using a specific SRAM chip model and a specific location isn't the best advice imo. Here's what I did: look on the board for a 28 pin chip (14 on both side) and look for the marking "IC8" on the board next to this chip. THAT's the SRAM chip. Presumably you already have the FRAM chip at this point, compare that chip to your SRAM chip...they are similar in size and has the same pin layout. - For the first time, I've clipped the legs off to remove a IC chip off a circuit board BECAUSE: 1. I don't want to risk ripping any contact pad off; 2. The SRAM chip is useless to me anyways and even if I fail I wasn't planning to reuse this chip. I'm glad because this is where I quickly realize the chip is glued to the board. I like how almost every video of FRAM chip mod don't have to deal with this. Key is to cut the point on the pin closest to the body of the chip. NOTE: I don't know what's the best way to remove the chip with epoxy underneath it but this is how I did it: - When I realized there's epoxy on the SRAM chip. First thing I did is to clear the broken pin and solder off the traces. Since I'm gonna use force to remove the chip, I don't want to risk any chances of ripping the traces off the pad. That's why it's important to cut the pin close to the body of the chip. Then I busted out a heat gun. I'm not the best with hot rework station so clipping the SRAM chip pins was a way for me to avoid using heat but funny how that turned out. If you weren't originally planning to cut the chip off because you don't want to ruin it (I get it, I also have a habit of trying my best not to destroy components I remove from the board.)...my advice at this point is to just cut it off...it's not worth saving and risk damaging the board. - I used kapton tape to cover the area around the SRAM chip. There are bunch of tiny SMD components next to the chips so I just don't want to risk accidentally knocking one of the them off. Again I find it funny how the area around everyone's else SRAM chip has so much less SMD components...LOL. Mine has a bunch of resistors literally right next the the SRAM pins. Again this fact that came into play to the decision for me to cut the chip off. There are just so many small pieces around the chip, I don't want to risk accidentally knocking it off while removing the SRAM chip. - I used a heat gun on low heat setting and introduce heat around that area and use a metal spudger tool (it's stronger and doesn't melt under heat) to poke from the bottom of the chip every like 10 second or so. I was planning to increase temp if necessary. So it's introduce heat, 10 sec, move heat gun away, poke the bottom with a metal spudger, see if it moves, move heat gun back and repeat. I did not use flux since I know I'm not working with solder here (I removed them earlier). I did add some isopropyl alcohol to see if it does anything but honestly HEAT is the main source to help me remove the chip. It took me less than a minute or a minute (I didn't time myself) and I was on lower setting of my heat gun the entire time. Be patient, I know you could be a little on the edge at this point but don't do anything risky. I was totally bummed out when I realized I had to remove the glued chip so I get it. You can try to remove a bit of the epoxy if you think there's too much (I did by heating it up a bit and trying to scrap it off with broken toothpick) however I don't recommend trying too hard remove it off completely because those leftover epoxy are super hard, don't get in the way of you installing your FRAM chip, and won't be seen after you install the FRAM chip...so why risk it if you don't have to. - If you're more comfortable and have a rework station, that's probably easier. I used a heat gun so it could be done even if you don't have the equipment. In low setting too so I have a feeling you might be able to do it with a hair dryer. - To find the 5V and ground point - the easiest way is just reference what other used. However you might run into the same problem I had. My board doesn't have these 5V or ground point you've showed me. So my REAL advice is to use a multimeter (it necessary tool for most board work, get one if you don't have it) to probe for your own sources. It's extremely simple, all you need is to know how to use "continuity" mode on your multimeter. - For ground source, the edge of the board are usually grounded (this is the part of the board where the metal shield touches), so you can use those dot scatter across the edges of the board as a reference grounding point. Now probe around the FRAM chip to see which grounding point makes the most sense for you to solder a wire to and connect it to pin 22. I decided to keep it short and picked the closest source to me, a ground point of an SMD component. - As of the 5V source, the IC8 chip (RAM chip) are usually next to the IC7 (bios chip). In fact, my board only has the IC7 chip next to the IC8 on the bottom of the board. There are no other chip even close to IC8. This is why I suggest looking for the IC7 for a reference 5V point because of all board variants I've seen...there's always an IC7 chip nearby the IC8 chip. ConsoleUnleashed guide has a VA1 board variant with a chip right of SRAM chip, which they decided to pull the 5V source from but I took a look at my board and was like "Great...that chip is not even there." One of the corner pin (pin 21) of the bios chip is VCC and that's pulling 5V. Look at the board for IC7, find pin 1 which usually contact point with the arrow, VCC is the corner diagonal to that point. I realize this board doesn't have the arrow. Looking at IC7 on 8:33 which is right underneath the tweezer and viewing from the chip with the half circle cutout on the left, pin 1 is on the lower left and pin 21 is the upper right. I use a multimeter and probe for a point closer to pin 28 of the FRAM chip using VCC of IC7 as a reference point. I actually did not use the closest point here, I found a point that's a clear spot meant of an SMD component but wasn't populated. It was a totally open location and there wasn't any components around it so it's comfortable point for me to solder my wire to. If my board has CE111 of this board with thick unpopulated pads to solder to, it would've been nice but I'm left with either small SMD point or thin leg of IC7...sigh...lol... These are my advices to anyone else doing the FRAM chip. Hope this save the time of anyone planning, attempting, or having trouble with the FRAM mod.

Great video. Smart putting the timer in the corner when doing the hot air work. I think a lot of people have misconceptions on how quickly hot air work can be done.

I'm so glad you taped that, I've seen so many people juice other components when doing similar mods or repairs and it kills me lol

00:16 “I just don’t see the appeal of buying used discs for old consoles.” It’s the nostalgia for many of us retro game collectors. It can be a much more powerful experience to have an old console on your shelf, open a disc/cartridge case, pull out the physical media, clip it into place, and watch as the console actually uses the original technology to load the game onto your television; verses just having 100’s of games listed on a screen via digital interface from an SD card. Scratches on a CD 💿 aren’t really an issue either. My local gaming store will buff and polish CD’s for a few bucks each. I have 30 year old discs that play fine

nicely done, I enjoy soldering done well

I have also made custom case and disc art work to :) great video btw

I've wanted an Fram mod for a while, but had to sell all my soldering gear. One of these days I'll get around to it.

Nicely done.

Loving the content

Some handy mods!

Good work!

Best tutorial ever.

I have a MODE but def need to do the fram mod

Have you setup the Beta Wifi webserver for it? I am having issues with getting it to see the network and compiling the Webserver on the windows PC. if you know how to do this can you please make a tutorial? You would be the only one on Youtube with it.

Doesnt the Fenrir make the FRAM mod obsolete? Since you can back up the saves to the sd.......

I printed my own Saturn sd mount what screws did you use to put yours together? I love the video too I FRAM modded my Saturn too its well worth it :)

It's typically best not to rely on digital only solutions. It's always best to have a hard copy. Purchasing used games online is usually not a problem. I have never received anything scratched that badly. One of my saturns has a ODE, but I still want a disk backup. You can even go so far as to burn ISOs on a BD-ROM and store it in a save place. I'm just saying I try not to but all me eggs in one basket, so to speak.

Can you test a game with the Fram mod. Try a pro action replay codes and see if they work. Once I did the mod, my codes no longer work. Probably because the memory chip is different

tape down ribbon cable of FFC to prevent static-like audio.

I have the full rom set of Sega Saturn I've been buring them little by little. I did the flash cart hack the ode are extremely hard 2 find