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.

Photoshop and Thermal Label Printing

June 15, 2024October 10, 2016 by S-Config

How we use labels when printing with thermal printers around the home/office.

A while back I did an article about thermal printer repair and I want to show you how I actually use it with printing labels. In the previous article, I was mostly focused on what to look for when you're going through old equipment and how to repair some of these older but great machines, and all of the common defects that I have seen throughout the years. I still have my thermal printers and I use them for eBay. Lately, I had a reader e-mail me asking me what thermal programs do I use to print the labels that I do. Well, you're in luck. Because I want to show you how to make a terminal printer work for you. Read on.

Previously

HP ScanJet 6300c FlatBed Scanner – Disassembly and repair.

October 31, 2019October 5, 2016 by S-Config

Our ScanJet 6300c had some minor issues but we're back online.

We just want to show you some quick pictures and guide on how we fixed my Hewlett Packard (HP) ScanJet 6300c to be as good as new again. The unit is approaching 16 years of age and is no longer officially supported by HP due to a planned obsolescence model that many newer companies now adopt. (some would say that HP was the leader in making hardware useless in a matter of years.) Perhaps that's being a little too hard on a company. We scan a lot of physical copies of art sketches as you can plainly see by going to the sketches section of our site.

Li-Ion batteries in game controllers.

June 8, 2023August 8, 2016 by S-Config

Li-Ion Batteries and multiple game controllers.

Okay, I have already done a Li-Ion Batteries in a controller article just dedicated to the Xbox controller. We're pleased to report that despite the only controller in our house. That was an original launch Xbox 360 controller. That the Li-Ion Battery packs have been operational. But what about a simpler non-destructive approach to using Li-Ion batteries? Not just in Xbox controllers but in all other controllers?

Read on for a simpler solution for Lithium battery integration.

USB power station for projects

October 31, 2019May 17, 2016 by S-Config

Power station for all of my USB needs wants and desires.

This blog is about the power station that took about 3 hours of assembly and costs under $10 by the time everything is said and done. Sometimes these are called "Dumb USB" as they don't behave like a USB hub but just the basics such as power flow and that's it. As you know I play with a lot of devices that require 5dvc. Simply go through my guides and blog and you'll see that the quality of the power supply can sometimes make or break whatever project that I'm working on. Since I had a lot of parts from the many projects I have done I decided to make a USB power station for all of my charging needs. Something that can easily deliver 3amps while still maintaining the voltage at around 5vdc (I have it set for 5.10vdc to anticipate voltage drop under load and it's where a lot of cel-phone chargers sit at). More below.

Installing ADB driver for Ouya in Windows 10

June 7, 2024April 27, 2016 by S-Config

Ouya ADB driver install for windows 10 title.

I can't find the "OUYA" for unknown devices to install the ADB driver!!!

You are not going insane in finding an ADB driver to install and this is not an error to my original tutorial about how to Mod the Ouya for Cyanogen tutorial. This problem directly ties into the "NEW and Improved" way windows 10 64-bit edition handles drivers and how outright malicious Microsoft has become by fulfilling their own drivers over hardware vendors they have no business in half-ass'edly supporting.

All of the documents and screen captures that I will be providing for you are accurate as of 4/27/2016 and when I originally made the Cyanogen tutorial I wanted this process to be as simple as possible. It's turning out that Microsoft has other plans about their OS and the way it works forcing bloggers like myself to constantly made addendum entries about the same tutorials. Read on if you want to learn more about this beautiful disaster.

Ableton Push Gen 1 – Disassembly and Repair.

August 27, 2024April 17, 2016 by S-Config

My introduction to Ableton Push.

An Ableton push has landed upon our bench! It was performing reasonably well for about six months' time. With my Live lite license in hand, I loaded the Ableton Push onto my computer and got right to work. The intention is rather clear about purchasing this piece of hardware which is simply to have the ability to make my own musical assets for the videos that are done on this site. Perhaps even beyond in the lines of games if I get good enough at composition. But something went very wrong.

XBCD – Original Xbox Controllers with Win10-8

June 20, 2024April 5, 2016 by S-Config

XBCD - Getting those old controllers working again!

XBCD is an abbreviation for the "X-Box Controller Driver" Which has been around for almost as long as the Original Xbox Controllers themselves (approximately 2001-2003). As of 5/4/2017, the guide was updated to illustrate ways of installing these drivers which hopefully will answer the many questions that we get about them. This new method also no longer requires the test signing feature which also eliminates the requirement for UWD.exe which should make some of our subscribers happy.

previously

Archived – XBCD – Old instructions for Win10-8

April 24, 2025April 4, 2016 by S-Config

XBCD - Now with windows 10 love!

XBCD is an abbreviation for the "X-Box Controller Driver" Which has been around for almost as long as the Original Xbox Controllers themselves (approximately 2001-2003). It should be noted that this is the archived version of the documentary and that if you want to check out the most up-to-date version then click here to be taken to the new XBCD documentary. It corrects a few issues with policies of no longer requiring test signing and also covers some manual techniques on how to turn off driver signature enforcement in Windows 10 64 bit edition.

previously previously

Ouya Anywhere installation to Cyanogen Ouya

July 20, 2024March 19, 2016 by S-Config

Ouya Anywhere Installation Guide.

Ouya Anywhere is actually a title that was given by the Ouya fan community for the variant of "Ouya Everywhere" that was open for the beta test by devs to load onto tablets during its initial release of the Abominable Snowman patch of the OS. However, since it allowed almost any capable android box to run this program it gained slight popularity as a means of being a part of the Ouya Network without really having an Ouya or setting up a virtual box for developing things for the Ouya.

Windows XP and the china wireless Xbox 360 receiver

June 8, 2023March 17, 2016 by S-Config

China Xbox Receiver installation for windows XP title.

Here's a tutorial on how to get your Xbox 360 wireless receiver working for XP.

This tutorial will teach you how to get the Xbox 360 wireless receiver working inside of windows XP. Unlike the China drivers which make you run a setup file and have a lot of unnecessary bloats. This tutorial will be using the official Microsoft drivers with a slight modification to the INF file. This modification is necessary so that Windows XP can pick up the driver right away. Let's begin.