Solder time!

I have a dream... that by selling off some of my SCART TVs on eBay (each with a pre-made VGA to SCART cable), other arcade game lovers will have the opportunity to experience the same thrill that I've gotten from playing MAME on an authentic looking CRT screen.

So, with that dream in mind, I set about soldering up some VGA to SCART cables this week. I had some cheap SCART cables that I bought on eBay in 2011 lying around and also some components I bought from a local electronics store waiting, ready-to-go...

Man, what a time consuming exercise! The concept is simple enough but wrangling all those fine pins, cables and components proves tricky in practice. Nevertheless, I soldered on and managed to get 3 cables finished, complete with 3.5mm audio jacks.

Hopefully the next batch will be much faster now that I've worked out some techniques and gotten hold of some better tools (especially a decent vice with rubber grips! That thing makes soldering SO much easier).

SCART workbench

Next post I'll show off some of the finished articles...