Hacking the Xbox

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Hacking the Xbox: An Introduction to Reverse Engineering
You can tell when a component lead or a board pad is sufficiently hot by
carefully observing the way light reflects off of it. Component leads and
pads on a circuit board typically have some kind of plating on them, usually
made out of solder. This solder plating has a slightly dull sheen under
normal conditions. When made sufficiently hot, however, the sheen goes
from dull to almost perfectly reflective. To get a feel for what this looks like,
try heating up a large square pad with your soldering iron, using the
technique described above. You can usually watch the melting front
propagate across the pad as the soldering iron heats the board.
Warning
If you are using a non-temperature controlled soldering
iron, use the lowest wattage soldering iron you can to get
the job done. This will help prevent board damage, as
excess heat can cause the copper traces to delaminate
from the board.
Surface Mount Soldering
Mastering the skill of surface mount soldering requires a bit of patience,
practice, and good tools. The basic tools that are required beyond the basic
soldering kit are tweezers and a magnifying lens.
A good pair of fine-tipped tweezers is an essential soldering accessory for
surface mount components. Tweezers are required for the safe handling of
surface mount components during soldering, as small components will
rapidly heat up and become hot enough to burn your finger. Tweezers are
also necessary to hold small components in place, preventing them from
being pulled around by the surface tension of the liquid solder as it melts
and cools. The point on the tweezers should be small enough to fit in
between the pins of the finest surface-mount part that you intend to work
on. This way, you can use the tweezers to manipulate individual pins during
soldering and inspection.
There are many grades of tweezers. The grading is based on the sharpness,
quality and durability of the tips, the alignment of the tips, and the spring
action of the tweezers. High-grade tweezers are a little bit pricey, but well
worth the investment if you intend to do a lot of surface mount soldering.
Distributors that focus on production supplies, such as Future-Active
Electronics (www.future-active.com), sell a reasonable selection of
good tweezers.
The biggest challenge in surface mount soldering is being able to see what
you are working on. Your hands have the ability to easily and repeatedly
manipulate objects smaller than the naked eye can see. The ideal magnifying
solution for soldering is an optical stereoscope, like the kinds used for the
inspection of biological specimen. Unfortunately, these microscopes are very
expensive, with the better models selling for around the priceof a used car.