Cutting Motherboard question

robfilmmaker · Post by **robfilmmaker** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 10:07 pm

I'm in the middle of constructing my saturn portable. All is going well so far, the only thing that really bugs me is the size of the motherboard. This portable will be pretty big. So I have a question for all you out there...

I had this crazy idea of cutting the motherboard in half (avoiding chips obviosly), folding the halves over eachother, and soldering the breaks in the lines together using wire. Has anyone out there tried this or knows if it will work? I know if sounds crazy and stupid, I just don't know what else to do to make it smaller.

jjhammerstein · Post by **jjhammerstein** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 10:15 pm

No one has ever made a saturn portable.
You're basically on your own.

It should work in theory, but the saturn is EXTREMELY finicky.
Keep the lines as short as possible.

hy phrend · Post by **hy phrend** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 1:04 am

If you do end up trying that... I would just make one suggestion. Make a high res scan of the board before you do it, that way when your trying to figure out which line went where, you can pull up the picture on your comp and zoom in to see more detail. I did this on my GD-Rom for my Dreamcast so I could follow some leads to figure out where they went to. It was very helpful.

Rekarp · Post by **Rekarp** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 1:27 am

Make sure its not a multi layer board.....

Twilight Wolf · Post by **Twilight Wolf** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 4:37 am

Yes, be careful of that, too. I don't think anyone has messed with a Saturn board enough to determine if there are hidden traces, or at least never documented such a thing.

Also, another piece of advice: from what I've heard, the Saturn can fry very easily, so be very careful, and be prepared to buy another Saturn, just in case something happens.

I'm a huge Saturn junkie, so seeing news of anyone making a Saturn portable excites me. Good luck!

Kyo · Post by **Kyo** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 6:40 am

a saturn portable - interesting. What you have planned sounds like a ton of work, but possible. I don't think the saturn had hidden traces, but check for blind vias, just to make sure. (you can also cut off a small part of the side to check)

Xteaph-N · Post by **Xteaph-N** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 11:26 pm

You can't do that it's a multi-layer board I believe. So if you do you will kill it.

Twilight Wolf · Post by **Twilight Wolf** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 11:42 pm

How do you know? This could be useful for me; I plan on making a Saturn portable in the future.

robfilmmaker · Post by **robfilmmaker** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 12:19 am

I appreciate all of your input. But after studying the board and thinking about it for a few weeks, I've come to my senses and realized how much of bad idea it is. I have heard many stories of how fragile the motherboard is and how easy it shorts out. Cutting the thing in half would also create a ton of work and hours in the project just to have it short out.
So i've decided to take a simpler approach to this portable. It will be ugly looking, but it will be a portable. I'll keep you all posted.

Rob

Twilight Wolf · Post by **Twilight Wolf** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 12:20 am

Sounds good! Maybe you'll be the first to come up with a complete Saturn portable. If you do, you'll be an inspiration to portabilizers everywhere.

eurddrue · Post by **eurddrue** » Sat Feb 28, 2009 10:18 pm

I recommend that if you fry a board, still wire everything up to it then after you get a new board just solder everything onto that one. That way you won't fry as many boards as segasonicfan did, he fried like 5

benheck.com Forums

Cutting Motherboard question

Cutting Motherboard question

Re: Cutting Motherboard question