Success!

Finally! I had started over on another board to start fresh and try some new methods.

What finally ended up working was flooding all the connections with brand new solder, then using a desoldering braid, soak up everything. In theory, some flux should help as well but Radio Shack closes in 30 minutes. So, this is an experiment for another day. After all, I do have 9 more boards to practice on.

Then when I could see gaps between all the pins and the board, I moved the pins away from the edges, wiggled some a bit to make sure they were free from the solder. Still there was some connections, but once I had wedged a screwdriver (didn't have any softer wedges... Popsicle stick is still drying) and pulled up the chip. Package seems to be intact. Now I just need to develop some tests to check if it wasn't destroyed by the heat and prying.

Desoldering

Desoldering ICs is a pain in the ass...

Braid is getting most of it, but there's still some that's keeping the damn CPU on the board. I've tapped some resources... So now it's time for a break to take the dog out and go to sleep.

Boards

(Three posts in one day, I must be busy! No I'm just bring myself up to speed)

I love Craigslist. I posted an ad looking for broken Nintendos. I got responses asking me if I was fixing and selling them, one that asked me to make an offer on one, some one offering up a broken DS for $30 so she could buy medication for her kid, and one generous chap who had 10 Nintendo motherboards that refused the $20 I tried giving to him when I went to go pick them up.

Here's the bounty:

Step 1: Materials

I'm not going to state all the tools I'm using... It's common electronics stuff. However, the core electronic components thus far are:

Arduino Diecimila, upgraded to an ATMega328. I bought both (from Adafruit industries) almost a year ago and have played around with it a little bit. I've been eager for a full, self initiated, project for a while. However, I hadn't really been inspired. I love electronic music and none of the sounds that I've heard come out of the Arduino on it's own have been something I've wanted. Which brings me to my next core component...

Ricoh A203, the "Mother Brain" of the original, classic, Nintendo Entertainment System (or in it's birthplace, Japan, Nintendo Famicom [Family Computer]). It's a modified MOS 6502, which was built by a bunch of former Motorola engineers that crafted the 68K processor line. The 2A03's brothers and cousins have been in many things, from the Atari 2600 to nearly Apple's entire line until the PowerPC processors. However, one thing that this special made chip has, that quite a few others don't, is a built in synthesizer. 5 channels total: 2 square waves, 1 triangle, 1 noise, and one PCM. I'm ignoring the PCM, at least for now, as I am building a synth and not a bit smashing sampler.

I may be using the crystal that is built into the Nintendo mainboard... But I don't know whether I'll need to or want to.

Which brings me to my warning: I'm going into this kind of half-assed. This is more a learning experience for me more than anything. I've already been learning a few things just from the preparations. I'm pretty sure I can pull this off one way or another. I've seen some possible challenges ahead, but then this wouldn't be interesting if there wasn't.

The start of a new project

The plan thus far:

Extract the Ricoh 2A03 from the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Hook it up to my Arduino.

Have the Arduino tell the 2A03 to make music.

And lots of steps in between.