/vr/ - Retro Games

>>8732965
only true for game gear, turbo duo(+PCE equivalents) and obviously the original xbox

>>8732971
some computers too, classic macs in particular are notorious for leaking caps.

>>8732984
Pretty much any computer / electronic device from the late 80s to the mid 90s is cap cancer central. It was an industry wide thing, shit sucks. On the upside, early to mid 80s tech often still works perfectly.

>>8732965
>just emulate bro

>>8732965
Oh yeah I'm sure those 35+ year old caps are perfectly fine. No reason to even suspect them. Retard.

>>8733093
>just order all the parts and spend a full day replacing every cap in the machine before you even know whether or not the problem is cap-related bro

>>8733127
>spend a full day
Why would it take anywhere near that long, even a beginner? Someone who has soldered before could probably do it in an hour with just a screwdriver and a lighter.

>>8732965
You forgot the part where you replace SMD caps with through hole because you're a solderlet who's terrified of SMD. Also, the meme overpriced recap kit you bought isn't even available as SMD.

>i get all my rub-e-cons from aliexpress

It does take time, you have to desolder them, clean the through holes, get a multimeter and see the polarity, solder them back. If you have a desoldering gun or if there's only 6 or 8 caps you can do it quickly, provided you have the right tools which most people don't and then you ruin the PCB, so don't.
Polymer caps usually hold up better but caps are the number one most common problem by a really large distance, mosfets second.

>>8733172
Lmao neither of you are even referring to any specific piece of hardware, just an imaginary amount of capacitors that either take a day or one hour.

>>8733298
I do this because through hole is just what I have.

>>8733298
>replacing caps that hide leaks with caps that hide leaks
I WILL recap my Laseractive with radial electrolytic caps and you WILL be happy

>>8733356
If only there was a way to obtain the correct parts for pennies a piece

>>8733360
Did you come up with the cope all on your own or did the youtube tell you to think that? Either way, it's a very embarrassing way to out yourself as someone with zero experience or knowledge on the subject.

it would be cheaper and more educational to just buy a meter that can do capacitance to check if any capacitors are actually failing

>>8733008
>>8732984
>>8732971
exactly, just replace all the caps
:)

>>8733019
op said bad not good

>>8733915
Uh oh, looks like you weren't as clever as you thought and outed yourself. Keep soldering through youtube sonny boy. Seethe.

>>8732971
The failure rate of the Xbox is hugely exaggerated

>>8732971
>obviously the original xbox
Not the 1.6 revision.

>>8732965
>just hold onto your failing physical media bro
>don't bother selling any of it when it's all double the price you paid for it
>no, hold onto it for another 5 ot 10 years when it becomes completely useless junk from physical decay
>oh and don't you ever think about easier, convenient and forever lasting emulation, thats for cucks and poorfags

>>8734360
WHY are you LYING on the INTERNET?!

>>8734352
It's actually hugely under exaggerated at this point. I work on original xbox consoles weekly and the impending warnings about clock capacitors is no longer a warning but an event that is currently happening. The damage is now being done and it gets worse by the day.

>>8734360
1.6 consoles are getting cap bulge for things like the cpu filter caps now, it's not a guarantee but it happens a surprising amount.

>>8733019
Fbpb

>>8734343
>no u
Top kek kid

>>8733172
How do you desolder with a screwdriver and a lighter

>>8734675
Put the flathead screwdriver on the pins and solder and heat it up with lighter
Better off just getting a cheap iron though

>>8734675
>>8733345
>>8733298
>>8733172
>>8733127

Guys, sometimes you just need to do it the right way. I say this with no intention to be an asshole, but there's only one way to do this and that's with a soldering iron for through hole, or a hot air gun for smd. It is what it is, and if you try using the wrong tool for the job to get around having to pick up a new skill or tool, you will feel very upset with yourself if you fuck it up and ruin the board. I've done it myself in years passed, and I've taken the time to learn to properly solder for projects that indeed up steering me toward my career. Do whatever you want, but at the end of the day, mangling a piece of gear because you didn't want to pick up soldering makes you a fucking pleb.

>>8734958
Based youtube parroter

I had extremely low sound on a DMG caused by a high esr coupling capacitor. Usually only power supply caps fail.

>>8735815
Maybe, but he is right.
If you're going to do it, do it with the right tools.
A starter soldering kit goes for about $/€ 10 and comes with a simple iron, solder, a stand and flux.

>>8735872
He's as wrong as the youtube he's parroting. A hot air gun is not "the right tool" for this. If you want to see the right tools go to a PCB factory and see what they use. But for recapping a console at home a $5 soldering iron works perfectly fine if you have the skill and experience to use it.

>>8737259
Nope, no lead solder won't melt with a 5$ iron, you need a proper station like a T12. You could try mixing low melt solder to the no lead solder and creating an alloy which melts at lower temps.
Just use the proper tools and stop pretending to be a tough guy bellend.

>>8734367
You forgot to add
>stop having fun!

>>8734917
>Put the flathead screwdriver on the pins and solder and heat it up with lighter
This is one of the most retarded things I have ever heard

>>8734367
you will NEVER have a collection and it kills you inside.

>>8732965
>caps
emulator go brrrrrrrrrrrr

>>8737335
>being owned by your collection is having fun
biggest cope of all time

>>8737374
>le minimalism
hang yourself

>>8737484
you first coomlector

>>8734958
t. can’t do SMD with an iron

>>8737335
If I had all that stupid garbage I'd go fucking nuts.

>just emulate lel
>Xbox

>>8734051
I mean, there was a capacitor plague in the 90s due to shitty electrolyte formula, and caps do dry out over time.
But that's not the point is it anon?

>>8737283
top kek kid. Parroting bullshit you saw on youtube only outs you as an inexperienced fool. My $5 soldering irons get more than hot enough to melt lead free solder. Which is irrelevant when working on devices that don't use it. And that whole rant about mixing stuff, just embarrassing. You're so pig ignorant you don't even know you use solder paste, not solder, for SMD. Like I said. If you want to see the right tools go to a PCB factory and see what they use. I'm sure you can even find some videos of those on your sole source of education, youtube.

>>8732965
>replace the capacitors
>it doesn't solve the problem but your console still benefits from having fresh capacitors which won't expire for many years
Oh no?

>>8737283
anon... you're fucking embarrassing yourself. Lead content in solder doesn't mean shit. Just use any standard ass rosin core solder. If you don't understand the difference in automotive soldering and electronics you shouldn't be doing it, let alone telling others how to.

>>8737830
What a load of rubbish, just use the proper tools like a competent person, you sound like a mad pajeet having to work with wonky tools.

>>8737898
Right, I'll just follow some random dumbass advice on 4chan rather than following proper tech practices. My T12 melted those lead free joints in a second with the help of ASM 559 flux, didn't burn anything, easy, fast, clean, while my 15$ soldering iron didn't melt shit.

>>8737802
yes
https://xemu.app/

>>8737802
good thing there's nothing worth playing on xbox

how hard is it to replace capacitors on an RoHS motherboard from the 2000's?

>>8737335
Original hardware + flash cart is the absolute best of both worlds. It feels exactly like the real experience, I can play any game I want and it doesn't take up shit tons of space and I don't need to be a millionaire.

>>8737998
When will this meme end?

>>8738006

no, removing the old solder can be a bitch but it's not bad

>>8737914
Seethe harder little man. You've never seen, let alone used "proper tools". Like I said, if you're going to learn from watching youtubes at least watch how actual professionals in actual production lines do it instead of some tard who learned how to do it wrong from another youtuber.

>>8737936
Yes. Following some random dumbass advice on youtube is so much better. You wouldn't know "proper tech practices" if they bit you on the ass. Absolutely hilarious how you think being so stupid to own a $15 soldering iron that doesn't work makes you someone anyone should take advice from.

>>8738006
no capacitor replacement is hard, it's just time consuming and potentially dangerous

>>8738006
It's quite difficult and expensive as you need a lot of tools, you need to source and order the new caps from a reputable store (not from China). I've worked on that motherboard, in fact I have two of them at the moment, it's quite tricky to melt the solder since the PCB will dissipate the heat and the joints are lead free. I've used a KSGER, d24 tip, 559 flux, didn't burn anything, caps didn't even get hot, took less than a second to get one out, cleaning the through holes is the hard part after you learn to desolder.
So yeah... just sell it as faulty if you've never soldered.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaK38BzEpkM

>>8738185
A KSGER can be bought for 35$ which is better than a TS100 and cheaper. No reason to use cheap irons. Just do the safety mods and get going. This guy uses a TS100.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5oZ-fbL8OE

>>8734519
Bulge just means they’re full of electricity. If you use them more, the bulge goes away.

>>8738140
When a good game gets released for xbox
so never

>>8738305
well I have 3 that I bought brand new from Newegg of which 1 I'm using that seems to work fine. Everyone says that the caps on it are shit though.

>>8738346
GunValkyrie was released 20 years ago, though

>>8738346
JSRF and Crimson Skies exist.

>>8738338
There are plenty of reasons to use a cheap soldering iron. Not the least of these is that I can achieve perfect results with them. I've been doing this for over 40 years can solder a large QFP in under a minute using a cheap iron and any half decent solder. The people lecturing about "proper tools" would piss their panties just thinking about trying to do that with their "proper tools".
But my point is that those "proper tools" aren't actually the proper tools. As I said, if you want to know what the proper tools are look at what actual professionals in PCB factories use.

>>8738356
They are, all Asrock mobos have dodgy caps, it's not a question of if, doesn't matter if they are new as the caps will deteriorate even new in box. The ones on my boards had bulgy swollen caps with corrosion on the top. Still haven't replaced the caps as I haven't sourced compatible caps but I removed all the tall ones since they were all bad.. It's not just the caps that can go bad in these boards.

>>8738210
>potentially dangerous

Only if you're looking to recap a power supply or something high voltage.

>>8738723
so if I don't have any equipment and notice one of them going bad what do I do?

>>8738754
If the caps on your boards don't have visible bad caps I wouldn't worry for now, the tall ones are the worse, some of them are from the cap hell period where they designed bad caps and will go bad no matter what.

See here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

>>8738779
how is it possible that I have 4 boards from that period that don't have bad caps?

>>8734519
Can the capacitors do permenant damage? My friend was gonna sell me his

SNES with line issue as well.

>>8737335
Okay but this is an actual concern of mine

What happens when you have bitches over and a huge stash of shit? That just seems kinda weird.


I can see a few boxes of random games tucked away, it wouldn’t explain the crt but who cares really.


But I had a roommate 5-6 years ago that turned half of our living room into a pokemon shrine. He had the entire vhs collection and all the burgerking balls on a shelf, along with all the kids books and a big stuffed pikachu. Sitting next to it, was a gigantic shelf with ~80 n64 games in high glossy repro cases. He had 8 video game systems hooked up to the television. Unsurprisingly, he was 25 dating a girl who was barely 18. He discussed getting picrel and putting it in the apartment regularly, luckily he never was able to afford/find one.


It seemed creepy and obsessive, I couldn’t imagine bringing a woman back to that place. I remember being in college and not wanting to take a woman back to my house because of this actually.


If you have some systems and games out, fine, but the entire display thing just seems weird. Maybe a shelf is fine. I can’t imagine having a huge Pokémon shrine and trying to get laid though, I’d just feel ashamed.

>>8738903
>picrel

>>8737802
>the one retro system with like 5 timeless games that can't reliably emulated
Emufags... it's over.

>>8738365
>JSRF
Worse than the original, memed up by its exclusivity
>Crimson Skies
TERMINAL VELOCITY BUT IT'S HECKIN ALT HISTORY DEISELPUNK

>>8737802
Oh no, this one system with a handful of great games can't be emulated well. Deleting all my emus and ISOs now.

>>8738903
Its simple. just wont ever have sex. Who needs 3d women when i got the same paused screens I've been beatin it to since 93 saved to my phone now.

>>8738880
SNESes with the line issue are the bad ones that you have to mod before your CPU gets fried.

>>8738831
The stuff inside the capacitors can wreck the traces on the board near them if it leaks out

>>8738903
My solution:
Acquire income
Get enough living space
Hide your power level by relugating your autism shrine to its own room
Only introduce ladies to the truth if you deem them ready

>>8737259
I meant for soldering through-board components. For SMD you use sliver glue.

>>8733008
No, that was an early 00s thing. There was a whole stink about some company having contaminated or fake caps due to industry espionage. There are articles about it online.

80s/90s consoles have cap problems simply because electrolytic caps have a finite life span, and those caps are nearing the end of their life. This is not counting specific hardware that is known to have leaky caps, like the Laseractive.

>>8734352
I have three xboxes. The clock cap went on one, the disk drive went on another, and a bunch of regular caps went on the third. I'm 3/3 on duds.

>>8734389
The Xbox I had with failing caps (obviously bloated electrolytic caps, replacing them fixed it) was a 1.6 crystal system.

>>8737624
I did my game gear with a shitty soldering iron putting through hole caps on surface mount pads and while it did suck it was doable.

did op seriously just make a thread to complain about valid advice for 20+ year old hardware because he's too retarded to do something someone with a year or less of experience can do just fine
as usual, op is a faggot, sage and kill yourself you're worthless

>>8738903
>when you have bitches over
Do you even know where you are?

>>8739805
If isn’t valid advice. Why waste the time replacing 30 capacitors if the problem is a faulty power supply.

>>8739805
If isn’t valid advice. Why waste the time replacing 30 motherboard capacitors if the problem is a faulty diode in the power supply.

Can't you tell if a capacitor is gonna fail before it fails by just a quick visual inspection to see if it's bulging? If they aren't then they're still fine though as mentioned some consoles used notoriously bad capacitors where it's probably just best to replace them instead of opening it up constantly to check if they're dying

tfw I got married THEN acquired an absurd amount of old hardware and she's very supportive of it

>>8740137
Failing electrolytics only bulge like 50% of the time in my experience and with tantalum capacitors there is no visual indication at all that they’re failing.

>>8740137
no, if any of you dickheads knew anything beyond absolute basic common phrases heard on youtube you'd know this >>8740143
Recapping some segas today, none of which had bulging caps, but many of the caps were failing and one was only leaking from the bottom, which you wouldn't know until you've removed it.
>>8740135
you'd do that if you were a retard that couldn't do basic troubleshooting, this thread is pointless.

>>8740135
It is though. It's a 99% guarantee that caps will go bad eventually. Visual inspection will catch the "right now" ones, but eventually they will all be "right now" ones.

t. old Mac enthusiast

>>8740148
you’re so fucking stupid.

>>8740149
Classic macs are an exception, their problems are almost always cap related. Same doesn’t hold true for say, an IBM XT.

>>8740161
unironically kill yourself

>>8740121
bcuz its not - not valid.

>>8740148 #
you’re so fucking stupid.

>>8740149 #
Classic macs are an exception, their problems are almost always cap related. Same doesn’t hold true for say, a C64 or an IBM XT.

this has to be some bizarre autistic bait thread, there's no way someone out there thinks like OP does

>>8740168
go back to /v/.

>>8740171
It’s shit advice. Reddit/forum boomers will recommend you replace every cap in a machine before even checking to see if a fuse is blown.

>>8740170
Macs from the late 80s-early 90s and big box Amigas are notorious for having garbage caps

>>8740213
Big box Amigas also have shit leaky batteries that destroy motherboards.

>>8739665
You best be trolling

>>8740264
What do you use? NO WIKIPEDIA!!

>>8739538
Yea, I’m saving up for a house, good idea

>>8738903
>Imagine being this insecure about your personal tastes

>>8738903
>What happens when you have bitches over and a huge stash of shit? That just seems kinda weird.

If you get a bitch to come over your house, why make your hobby sound like something to be insecure about, anon? Make it sound fun and interesting to her, tell her some nice stories. Even the cringiest shit can be interesting if the story is told in a fun and entertaining way to entice curiosity. Don't be like that to yourself

>>8741030
nice reading comprehension

>>8740580
Use for what? Trolling and larping as tween? I'd probably say I glue them down with poo poo from my butthole. How's that? Does it sound as ridiculous as yours?

>>8741030
Another concern I have about this is that these girls will steal my games and pawn them off for crack. These days I’m usually fucking strippers and whores.


But yea. Not gonna act like having a Pokémon shrine in your living room isn’t weird.

>>8741394
The last girl I had over was bipolar. I tried getting her to play Tony hawk pro skater 2 when she was having a mental breakdown. After she wouldn’t we fucked and I went to sleep. She woke me up talking to herself about how she’s being watched. I dropped her off at the nuthouse at 6 am and called into work sick the next day.

>>8732965
good luck with that anon.

>>8741585
>soldering noob's final boss

>>8737335
It's not
>QUIT HAVING FUN
it's
>OWN NOTHING AND BE HAPPY

>>8738903
Your roommate sounds cool as hell and he knows the minimum age to fuck whores at without getting thrown in the slammer.

You sound sour and must have zero passions and fuck gilfs.

>>8741569
>Another concern I have about this is that these girls will steal my games and pawn them off for crack. These days I’m usually fucking strippers and whores.
This is the only valid concern. Best advice is to treat your "home" as your work space and fuck/live in her place.

>>8741607
>yes own children's toys over housing or land continue buying children's toys and don't notice the price of housing or land rising

>>8732965
Not vidya but I have a roland xp-50 synth/keyboard and it has Leaky capacitors and doesn't work right. I'm far too lazy to replace them.

>>8741619
See

>>8741571

I actually had a gf in highschool that had a snes on a small crt in her bedroom with maybe 10 games. Her parents were comic collectors so she thought it was cool I had a video game collection and we played alot of stuff together. I dumped her after about 3 years because I was of age to see other women. I regretted the decision for years, but she’s a raging feminist cunt now from what I gather so who cares. one day I’ll meet a woman that shares this passion.

>>8741620
Why not both ? You can get a decent collection going for not that expensive. You can still find crts for cheap, I just paid $10 for a 20 inch trinitron. Don’t worry about boxes except for maybe 1 or 2 of your favorites, and don’t spend more than $100 on more than a few games. Emulate all the niche and rare stuff. Some of my favorite games are stuff like contra, balloon fight, castlevania etc. you can acquire these for cheap. Being able to burn Dreamcast/sega cd games means you don’t have to collect for that system. For something like n64 that isn’t really that great, you can get a flash cart. I can think of a few rare items I want in my collection but not many.

>>8741672
>actually had a gf in highschool that had a snes on a small crt in her bedroom with maybe 10 games. Her parents were comic collectors so she thought it was cool I had a video game collection and we played alot of stuff together. I dumped her after about 3 years because I was of age to see other women. I regretted the decision for years, but she’s a raging feminist cunt now from what I gather so who cares. one day I’ll meet a woman that shares this passion.

Damn, you could have saved her from that fate with your penis, anon.

>>8741682
I know, I know

>replacing possible faulty parts with a known and expected lifespan of 10-20 years on hardware that is 10-20 years old and costs less than $5 for the entire board is BAD ADVICE
I see OP is a trog retard who pulled some pads trying to de-solder some caps. I recommend drinking bleach, people say it's tasty.

>>8733345
>It does take time, you have to desolder them, clean the through holes, get a multimeter and see the polarity, solder them back.
Or you could not be retarded, and mark down the polarity of the existing caps before you desolder them and pay attention to the fucking markings on the cap.
>clean through holes
Stop being a retard who does shit without understanding. You are putting a cap right back in that same spot, why the fuck would you go through the effort of pulling every last scrap of solder out? You can just reuse the fucking solder if you use a wide enough tip to hit both holes and pull the cap out with pliers.
Replacing a cap takes about one minute for people who aren't playing around with equipment they don't understand.

>>8741745
Where is the best way to learn about all this shit? Specific YouTube video links??

>>8738903
And that entire post is WHY you are a virgin. You are so insecure about yourself and worried about what some stranger will think about your life that you come across as a massive weak-willed pussy. If you ever manage to get a female to come over to your house, and she had an issue with your interests, the correct response is to tell her she's walking home, not trying to hide what you are interested in out of fear it might chase off a wet hole. Women are attracted to all manner of ugly fucks just because they are confident. Being a spineless simp isn't attractive. That's why your loser roommate was dating in college and you weren't. Call him a sperg all you want, he was bringing the bitch home. You were busy saying you were too embarrassed to bring a bitch home to actually do so.

>>8741752
See former post, first of all I’m not embarrassed of my own but I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I had a Reddit tier Pokémon shrine, shit is gay as fuck. Also, I fuck around with strippers, don’t need them randomly snatching a copy of castlevania x so they can go buy some crack, that shits going in the closet when women are coming over to do drugs and ride dick, that’s just common sense. Would you leave a gold watch out if you were having a hooker over?

>>8741745
No. I can't possibly use common sense let alone knowledge gained from experience. I watched a youtube where a retarded sperg showed how to do it """right""" and now I'm an expert and must exactly ape his actions like a cargo cultist.
And I have it on good authority that cameras can only be used for making youtube videos. There's no way they could possibly be used to take pictures of a board before I start butchering it so that I refer back and see exactly where everything was.

>>8741767
Why are you fucking crusty hookers and not using a Pokemon shrine to hype up some barely-legal zoomy chick?

Some dudes will really say they just want a GF that they can share their hobbies with and also fuck so many drug addict hookers that they have to organize their storage around a fear of them stealing all their shit.

>>8741682
>because I was of age to see other women
>but she’s a raging feminist cunt
why didn't you protect her smile

>>8741743
replacing caps just for the sake of it is stupid, don't fix what's not broken.

>>8741745
>dunning–kruger effect the post
It's no wonder there's so many wrecked systems with horrible attempted repairs, just don't touch this stuff and sell it for parts.

>>8732965
Admittedly capacitors ARE a likely culprit, but yeah people that just immediately go "yeah re-cap your entire unit" are insane.
The only case where that genuinely applies is the Game Gear given that system is infamous for its shit caps

>>8742387
>The only case where that genuinely applies is the Game Gear given that system is infamous for its shit caps
As has been noted, Game Gears, Macs from 87-92, and big box Amigas are the biggest culprits for shitty caps. If you have one of those you almost certainly will have to recap them.

>>8742387
My cats looking a bit run down. Do I need to do a recap or can I just clean it with 99.999999% IPA?

>>8741767
>I fuck around with strippers, don’t need them randomly snatching a copy of castlevania x so they can go buy some crack

Anon... What is going on? You deserve better, come on man

>>8734367
>don't bother selling any of it when it's all double the price you paid for it

dont forget if its US dollars, when it was new it was the equivalent of $400 in todays valuation, and youre selling it for $300 now.

>>8734917
ah yes, the 'freebase' solder method.

>>8738057
having gone down several roads, i agree with this. you also get to use all the crazy OG controllers with it

>>8738880
line issue? do you have a pic?

>>8744386
ntab my snes does this
https://console5.com/wiki/SNES#Vertical_Line
https://www.retrorgb.com/snesverticalline.html
this is the fix apparently. my snes also has small diagonal lines

>freebase solder method.
>I fuck around with strippers
Had no idea Hunter Biden was so into retro vidy.

>>8733298
i think the hot air gun is like <$50

>>8735872
>>8737259
A 5-10$ soldering kit will probably destroy itself after a dozen uses, and the most you can do with it is connecting 2 wires with a tiny bit of solder. They are unsuitable for PCB work - you can get things done IF you have the skill, but you are more likely to damage both the iron and the PCB.
Get a half decent kit with a replaceable tip and a proper power supply that can give it a decent wattage. You don't need the super expensive Hakko sets (those are for every day usage), but something like a low-end Weller or Solomon will be extremely easy to use and reliable, so you can get to learn the craft properly and only cost $100 or so. If you want to go cheaper, all of those sets have chinese clones that cost a third too, as long as their power supply doesn't blow on first try, they'll last long enough for hobby work and they should be compatible with the same iron tips and replacement parts. The T12 looks good on paper too, but I haven't used those and I dislike how it has a full digital menu crap on it.

This is all coming from personal experience.

And use a chisel or knife tip, it'll make your life a lot easier.

>>8744662
Mate a 10 dollar iron is fine to dip your toes in the water to see if you like doing this

>>8744662
>gif

smd soldering big shit like a chip is babu shit. smd shit like resistors that border on being too small to see with the naked eye are why people hate smd.

I got a 10-€ soldering iron.

It didn't heat nearly enough and the tip broke on the first use.

>>8744662
spoiler that shit, this is a sfw-board.

>>8744624
Very dangerous, get a proper one and those are over 400 bucks.

>>8744826
Mine didn't brake and are working for years but they don't get hot enough for PCB work but are useful for other stuff, the KSGER and 559 flux combo makes everything easy, no risk of lifting pads or burning anything.

>>8744662
This. I got an Aliexpress t12 for 40 dollars. Used it for all my console mods. Works great.

>>8744662
I don't think I'll understand the obsession some people have with pontificating about things they know nothing about. I have $5 soldiering irons that have been used almost daily for several years. I do work exactly like in your pic. The $5 irons I use are hakko knockoffs. They use the same tips and heating elements as, and are interchangeable with, the originals. All this is coming from personal experience. Which, unlike you, I actually have with these things.