The order was for the installation of switchless region-free mod into a Sega Mega Drive 1 acquired from RetroUpgrades. Upon inspection, the customer also agreed to pay for an extra TLC service as the console was quite dirty and dusty.
The console shell was fully disassembled and thoroughly cleaned
The mod was then installed. This requires replacement of the stock clock with a new PCB, and the cuttin of some traces to allow the new PCB to control clock speed depending on the region that is selected through the reset button (hold the reset button for a fraction of a second to change region)
The mod also requires to replace the stock red LED from the top shell by a tri-colour LED that indicated which region is selected. To remove the stock LED, one needs to dig it out of the plastic and make the hole bigger to accommodate the new bigger LED. The LED is then soldered to a new small PCB which is attached with sticky pads to the console.
Finally the main PCB is connected to the new PCB through a JLC connector. The console was then put back together and tested with carts from the three main regions (PAL, NTSC US and NTSC JP). Note the different coloured LED (regions needs to be changed manually)
I also sanded the RF module which was rusty and cleaned the board.
Finally the shell was treated with plastic enhancer to give it back the shine it had lost. The console still as some scratches which did not come out with cleaning.
