Guides

Guides, DIY, and How-to’s
Welcome to the guides section of our blog. This catagory is reserved for a lot of the technical things of what we love doing throughout our day to day existence. Some of these deal with some DIY projects we’ve done while others is just our own experience with certain pieces of hardware. Feel free to browse around as there may be something of interest to you.
Accuracy and update CRC.
As a kind note: Many of these guides are based around the personal experiences of those who run s-config.com and may not reflect the correct way of doing something. If you have any problems with what you are reading you can drop a comment in the article or contact us for any modifications or corrections.

AVIF and WEBP is now being hosted here.

December 18, 2023January 30, 2021 by S-Config

First there was AV1. Now there's AVIF

A while back during my video encoding sessions, I toyed with the concept of serving AV1 videos on my site. The results were not great out of respect that we could not find a great way of detecting the client's capabilities of video decoding without writing some shitty JavaScript system to snoop around and break privacy rights all the way. However, there's a branch of the Av1 system known as "AVIF" which is designed to use for still images. It boasts about getting better compression ratio's to that of even WebP images that we discussed a while back.

Why did we implement AVIF here? Read on if you want to know more.

Windows 10 build 2004 vs. The China Xbox 360 receiver.

February 3, 2025June 6, 2020 by S-Config

Windows 10 build 2004 vs. china xbox receiver.

Or should it be "Windows 10 vs. the world?!?" build 2004 edition?

Back in April 2014, we published a little blog about this cheap Chinese receiver and how we managed to get it back online. Now, back then we were completely aware there were videos on YouTube, Forums, and other sources so such an article was nothing new even back then. As end-user, we found ourselves downloading from garbage share sites that only lead to either misleading links or infected files. It was at this time we used our blogging capabilities and power to make an official tutorial along with all software sources in one place. 190k downloads later, Yeah, we call it a success.

Fast forward to May of 2020, suddenly we were getting rained upon by users who were a part of the Microsoft partner program saying that the build 2004 version of Windows 10 disables their China Receiver. Common sense would be to direct those energies towards Microsoft and maybe they would fix the issue.

It appears that's simply not the case. Read on if you wish to listen to my diatribe of corporate hate.

Drifting analogs – The return of the shield controller.

July 20, 2024May 29, 2020 by S-Config

It has landed back on my bench once again.

It pains me whenever something we fixed lands back on our bench once again. Perhaps we should've seen the warning signs the first time around. Perhaps we did not test this controller thoroughly enough. Regardless of the error in our ways, the Nvidia controller is back on my bench and this time around it's finally un-fucked while learning some things around the way.

Care to listen to my multi-thousand-word diatribe? Buckle up and keep on reading!

Nvidia Sheild TV – Controller teardown.

February 3, 2025November 28, 2019 by S-Config

One of these controllers is now on my bench.

It was bound to happen!

Considering that we have three of these Nvidia Shield TV systems that were given friends it's a no-brainer that a few of these controllers were to end up on my repair bench. This time around dealing with a very common issue. Sticky buttons. Maybe it's just coffee?!?? Maybe too much PornHub! You never know as a repair tech! We should probably wear gloves for this one!

As always everything on s-config.com is on an AS-IS basis and is designed for educational purposes. Read our FAQ for more details.. We are not responsible for any damages that occur if you carry out such a repair on your hardware.

Would you like to know more? Continue to read onward!

Linux, ADB, Raspberry Pi, Ouya? Lineage? Really?

August 2, 2024August 30, 2019 by S-Config

Linux ADB into your Ouya via the Raspberry Pi? With SSH even?!?! It's more likely than you think!

Razer finally pulled the plug on Ouya's servers on June 25 of 2019. June 25, 2013, marks the birth date of the Ouya's initial release (not bad for a console that was only designed to last for a few years). Users and preservationists have been scattering the net to find a way to keep these silver boxes running into 2019 and beyond. Of course, a lot of them have found our original Cyanogen blog entry. This article is helping people to this very day in getting rid of the Stock Ouya firmware and loading it with something that no longer requires Ouyas Authentication servers. For all of those who have come to our blog for help. Allow us to thank you for visiting this independent blog and hope that you found the answers you were looking for.

But as time progresses so does the way we think, and the way we hack our Android boxes.

Read on if you want to know more.

ArdunioDECK – a DIY OBS streaming solution on the cheap.

February 25, 2025June 23, 2019 by S-Config

OMG ArduinoDECK!

Marketing is an interesting thing; We could say that we've developed a new open-source product called "ArduinoDECK" which is a cheaper solution to the Elgato StreamDeck. Or! Better idea! We could just be honest and tell you that this is a basic boy Ardunio Pro-Micro / Leonardo / Due with a keyboard digital input program that we can learn early on in our micro-controller programming hobby.

Yeah, let us go with the second explanation.

We should throw a disclaimer because we love you. This is our first time playing with the world of Arduino. So if our code sucks or if our terminology is wrong. Drop a comment below. We'll appreciate you telling us and will correct it as best as we can. Read on if you want to know more.

Ouya overscan issues – Cyanogen, ASOP, Lineage

December 19, 2023May 26, 2019 by S-Config

Addressing overscan issues. The reason why overscan does not affect the stock Ouya is simply put they placed all of their lettering near the center of the screen for all of their actions. Leaving a large margin produces less of a need for a user to demand overscan to be fixed. Flat-panel televisions are ... Read more

Section 5: Restoring your Ouya Firmware.

June 27, 2024April 30, 2019 by S-Config

Firmware restore on the Ouya.

When playing with Android OS there needs to be an "Undo" button when it comes to the Firmware. The Ouya is no different. Perhaps as a user, you've grown tired of playing with Lineage. Perhaps you are going to sell your Ouya on eBay and you don't want any data left on the thing. Or you're trying to bring a soft-bricked Ouya back to life. Whatever the case may be this tutorial is here to help you wipe whatever is on your Ouya and bring it back to factory defaults.

This is considered "Section 5" of a long tutorial about Ouya because, like all of the previous sections, we'll be relying on the Raspberry Pi or a Linux box to perform these tasks instead of going through the sheer pain of using ADB on a Windows environment. Also, some of the beginning sections are required for those who have never used a Linux box in their life.

Without further delay, let's dive in shall we?

Section 4: Tweaking Lineage.

July 30, 2024April 30, 2019 by S-Config

Tweak the hell out of that Ouya Lineage.

This article dives into your Ouya's afterlife that now that you have loaded the Lineage OS your game console isn't necessarily customized for that some settings may need to be played with to make the experiencing a little more acceptable for general use. We can't go through every possible scenario as that would make a few-minute video turn into hours and hours of video and further drive this blogger down the path of insanity. But we hope to at least answer some of the more commonly asked questions throughout this article.

Read on if you want to know more.

Section 3 : Method 2: ADB “Push” Lineage from Raspberry Pi to Ouya.

June 27, 2024April 29, 2019 by S-Config

ADB Sideloading Lineage onto your Ouya via Raspberry Pi.

This tutorial assumes that you have already set up your base Raspberry Pi OS and that you are either operating locally on the Pi or via SSH from another PC. This tutorial uses a more traditional "Push" method that we've used in previous tutorials such as Cyanogen but updated for performing the same task underneath Lineage. This tutorial also assumes that This is our current 2019 method of flashing and programming Ouya and Android devices due to the nature of commercial OS's locking the security down on hardware devices. If you have already unlocked ADB on your commercial OS and you have the ADB bridge drivers installed you can follow along on that OS with this tutorial.

Read on if you want to learn more.