Flattening the MV-1B Motherboard, a guide.

Finch

Hardened Shock Trooper
10 Year Member
Joined
Jul 14, 2009
Posts
431
Yay the MV-1B, the conveniently small but awkwardly arranged motherboard. In a quest to flatten a MV-1fz (It's a pain in the ass) I was able to very effectively flatten a MV-1B board, here's how I did it.

First off, the MV-1B and MV-1Fz use totally different plugs to connect the 2 boards, none of this guide works for the MV-1Fz, the plugs won't even physically fit on the 1fz, it's a whole other problem.

What you will need:
2x - TX25-100P-LT-H1E Plugs
Heat Gun
Solder
Soldering iron
Air can/air compressor/vacuum cleaner
aluminum foil (optional)

The JAE TX25-100p-LT-H1E plugs are the right angle versions of the vertical plugs on the main board of the MV-1B. What you need to do is de-solder the original vertical plugs, and replace them with the new right angle plugs. This would be absolutely miserable to do with a soldering iron, so I HIGHLY suggest a heatgun for this. I used a special SMD soldering heatgun that has a very small nozzle and low airflow, but any heatgun should work fine. If you are using a SMD focused heatgun you probably don't need to protect any of the rest of the board, if you are using a larger one, some aluminum foil or if you have it, heat protective tape, should be used to shield some of the other components.

To de-solder the plugs, place the board upside down on the edge of a table so the solder side of the board is facing up, and the plug is hanging off the bottom. If the little metal flanges on either side of the board are still locking the plug into the board, bend them with some needle nosed pliers so they are no longer locked.

You'll need some way to gently tug the plug once the solder is melted from the heat-gun. I clamped some locking surgical forceps to the plug, but anything that will allow you to gently wiggle and remove the plug once the solder is melted without actually touching the hot plug is necessary. Also check the pins and make sure none of them have been bent over in a way that will make the plug harder to remove, if any have, try to straighten them now.

Protect the rest of the board if necessary and start heating the solder. If you are using a small accurate heat gun, make sure to keep it moving back and fourth across the whole length of the plug pins to make sure the board heats evenly, don't rush it, just let everything slowly heat up until the solder is liquid. You should be able to see once it begins to melt, or if there is any weight hanging off the plug, it might move slightly. Once the solder is well melted gentle wiggle the plug and carefully pull it out. DONT YANK IT, if some of the solder one a pin isn't totally melted you could pull up a trace, and be in a world of annoyance trying to fix it. With proper heat the plug should come out very easily.

After you have removed the plug, the solder will immediately close up all the holes making it impossible to fit in the new plug. The best way to remove the excess solder from the holes is to keep the board in the same position as you did for de-soldering the plug, melt the solder with the heat-gun until it's liquid again, and run the nozzle of a strong vacuum cleaner right under the board and it will suck all the solder right out of the holes. Alternatively you can a compressed air duster can, or are compressor to blow the solder out....but it makes a big mess, can splash solder onto other components possibly shorting them out, or worse, into your eyes. I personally did the air-can method, and wish I hadn't, but it did work surprisingly well. If you use compressed air, you might want to put some foil to protect other components, especially closely spaced legs on the IC's. You don't want a stray drop of solder to short those. All in all, the vacuum is probably a better idea.

Once you have the plugs removed from the main board you will want to take some sandpaper, dremel, or small file and remove the little jagged teeth on the edge of the PCB. They look like stamp edges from there the two boards were cut from the same sheet and broken apart, these little teeth will stop the 2 boards from plugging together properly, and need to be removed. You don't need to grind off anymore than the little teeth, so it should be very easy and quick.

After you've removed the teeth you will need to remove the little locking flanges from the new plugs. The locking flanges do not line up with the holes on the MV-1B, so it's easier to remove them. If you grip them with pliers you can simply pull them out, don't cut them, just pull them out, but make sure you don't bend any of the pins on the plugs when you do, because I did, and it sucked to bend them all back into place.

After the flanges are removed place the new plugs into the newly vacuumed holes on the board and solder them in. Make extra sure every pin is in place, and if they are, also make sure the plastic part of the plug is nice and flat against the board. Solder a few of the outer pins to lock it in place, then proceed to solder the rest.

Afterwards your all done! enjoy your new flattened MV-1B!

NOTE: While pretty convenient, these plugs do have some wiggle to them, so I would suggest supporting the board, especially the smaller cartridge slot section, as well as you can. The small sub board can easily be drilled in the 2 corners by the plugs without harming any traces, and would allow you to bolt it down on all 4 corners, this would be the recommended way of securing it unless you come up with something more elaborate.

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DaisyAge

Galford's Armourer
Joined
Jun 10, 2018
Posts
457
We finally got a leg up on the Chinese CMVS makers! Haha. Also, it looks like you could potentially drill 2 more mounting holes in the cartridge PCB near the connectors without damaging anything. This would give you optimal wiggle support and possibly stop any of the issues you were having earlier. Can you confirm that the new holes would only go through the grounding?
EDIT: aw snap just saw the note at the bottom lol
 
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wyo

King of Spammers
10 Year Member
Joined
May 22, 2013
Posts
10,109
Nice work and good write up. Thanks for posting.
 

ack

Ninja Combat Warrior
15 Year Member
Joined
Apr 9, 2009
Posts
538
Great stuff, thanks for sharing.
 
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