Who'd like to bring the VCI-100 SE Arcade Upgrade Kits Back?

[marc.elektro]

Hey guys,

So I'm thinking of buying a VCI-100 and upgrading it myself through the DIY route. I heard they used to offer upgrade kits with a video and all that but people weren't doing a good job so they stopped selling them. Am I the only one who'd like to see those things back in the store? I thought I'd start a poll.

So the question is... Would you like DJTT to bring back those VCI Arcade Upgrade kits?



(To the DJTT team, I'm not trying to be a douche here, I'm just seeing if I'm the only one who'd like to get one of those. If a lot of people want them then this could also show you that they're still in demand and might be good from a business perspective)

[fullenglishpint]

I've always been tempted by the arcade mod but never had the stones to go for it, a kit might help!

[Halukar]

i bought the arcade buttons and diodes separately, and with little soldering experience i had no difficulty making it work.

they don't have them because people were buying them, doing the mods, and selling them as genuine DJTT modded vci's.... at least this is what zach told me, that and people were having some problems, and wanted their money back....

but in all honesty i bought a circular metal file, tore off the old overlay, used goo gone to get rid of the remainder of the glue, took like 2 hours to trace the holes (you should make them smaller than the overlay, i made this mistake o_O), and the rest is easily followed by the youtube video on modding.

Note that i did buy an ESD (electrostatic discharge) mat, because the diodes are sensitive to that sort of stuff, for soldering those, but as long as the band on the diode is facing towards the arcade button, it's pretty straight forward and easy!

[marc.elektro]

Yes it might seem like a risk but I'd say it would be really fun to go the DIY route and learn a thing or two about the VCI-100. I hear they decided not to offer the kits anymore because people were doing such a bad job of it, but I think offering the kits with a disclaimer should make more sense for those who want to try it out.

[marc.elektro]

i bought the arcade buttons and diodes separately, and with little soldering experience i had no difficulty making it work.

Any chance you could tell us where you got the items needed? If this thread doesn't work out I might just do the research myself and create a list with links for it.

As for making a vci just to sell it as a "DJTT Mod" seems like false advertising and would definitely get someone in trouble somewhere. I don't see any problem in a DIYer selling their mod later on down the road but I think someone claiming theirs was modded by DJTT is just misleading and would probably not be approved by the buy/sell board moderators anyway.

[Halukar]

Any chance you could tell us where you got the items needed? If this thread doesn't work out I might just do the research myself and create a list with links for it.

As for making a vci just to sell it as a "DJTT Mod" seems like false advertising and would definitely get someone in trouble somewhere. I don't see any problem in a DIYer selling their mod later on down the road but I think someone claiming theirs was modded by DJTT is just misleading and would probably not be approved by the buy/sell board moderators anyway.

Well, i got the overlay and buttons from DJTT of course, i think it cost me around $75 bucks in total to ship them up to me. I sent Zach at the DJTT store a message about the diodes and you can pick them up here http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/...tor/1N914/?qs=, they're super cheap, i would buy a few extra just incase something goes wrong with one of them.

For the extra wire for the grounds i actually took a dead xlr from my cable bag and stripped it, but if you don't have that luxury, look for any 22 gauge wire, as it's the same as what they used for the cabling inside the vci-100.

Any soldering iron works, I actually used a shitty battery powered one, and regret it, because for what i saved taking it from work to use i could have bought one for myself for the price that i spent on the batteries!

Make sure you have non lead based solder, it's better for connections (i don't think you can actually get the lead stuff anymore BTW)

Once i got the buttons and the overlay i loaded up the youtube video that DJTT posted about DIY modding, and instead of sending the case to a machinist (being too poor to spend $65 bucks and waiting two days for them to get it done), i went to Home Depot and picked up a metal file like this http://www.homedepot.ca/webapp/wcs/s...k=P_PartNumber and some goo gone from office depot http://www.officedepot.com/a/product...Goo-Gone-8-Oz/ to remove the glue from the old overlay that i had on it.

Most of my time was actually spent scraping the old overlay and glue off of the case (two years of curing really made some trouble for me), but if you haven't put an overlay on yours then it's as simple as putting your new overlay on top of the case, taping it down so it is lined up with the rest of the buttons and marking them out with a permanent marker (the goo gone gets rid of this too).

After all of that it took me two hours to make the holes (though i don't think i did a great job, the buttons stay put)

Once all of that was finished i laid out my ESD mat (i can't find the one i bought online, but from my local computer shop it cost me about $23 CAN) and followed the DJTT video!

The only thing they don't really say on there is which way to put the diodes on, and it's as simple as looking at them, seeing whether or not there is a black or white stripe going around it, and putting the end with the stripe pointed towards the arcade button!

[marc.elektro]

That's awesome! Thanks for the info. However that link to the diode doesn't work (but I'm sure I can dig up the required diode's part number on the forums somewhere.

How much would you say you spent in total? Did you buy the VCI-100SE then mod it or was it the normal VCI-100?

[Halukar]

That's awesome! Thanks for the info. However that link to the diode doesn't work (but I'm sure I can dig up the required diode's part number on the forums somewhere.

How much would you say you spent in total? Did you buy the VCI-100SE then mod it or was it the normal VCI-100?

It was actually a regular old vci-100.... bought it at mother's music in canada for about $700 0_o.... i think it was only about a year and a half old at the time.

afterwards i bought the firmware kit, and custom overlay for $60, then the arcade buttons and new overlay for $75ish, the solder and soldering gun were free, the file was about $15, the diodes were actually only like .08 cents (plus ten bucks shipping), the antistatic mat was $23 and the goo gone was about $10 bucks!

so in all reality i think i paid under $200 bucks for all of the modding stuff, but i did run the risk of royally F***ing up my controller :P

If you just send a message to orders@djtechtools.com, zach is more than happy enough to send info about the diodes.

[RileySmiley]

Hey, if you guys find the diodes you should let me know. I wanted to do this too