Does anyone know of a basic hardware modding tutorial for TI graphing calculators? And a how-to-solder guide?

There's no good calculator hardware modding tutorial, but ask away! I for one have a decade of experience in breaking calculators, and many of the other members including at least Elfprince, BrandonW, Ultimate Dev'r, and rcfreak0 have dabbled. What model, the TI-83+, TI-83+SE, TI-84+, or TI-84+SE? What do you want to do to it?

Whoo I got mentioned [/random]

But yes, ask away. Ive mainly dabbled with the 83+ cause i dont want to ruin my 84+SE. I can help with modding, although Kerm has more experience and ive learned from his mods and trying stuff my-self. Ill be glad to help If i can.

The TI-83+ line is much much better suited to modding than the TI-84+ line for several reasons, including more room in the back of the case for mods and a ribbon-cable-connected screen to a smaller motherboard that makes reconfiguring or even removing and reattaching or replacing the whole LCD module a lot easier.

I agree with that, Ive removed about 4 screens, although they never got re-attached...
Im in the process of modding a 83+ and im glad it has "alot" of room in it

It's pretty easy with some 30-AWG wire-wrapping wire, a very fine-tipped soldering iron, and a ton of patience. Cf. the Ultimate Calculator 3 topic for an example

Hahaha ill have to go get some 30-AWG wire then soon. That topic made me lol at the cyborg screen

Feel free to send me some of the poor separated motherboards and LCDs to have a go at myself if you want.

We're getting a bit offtopic though, let's see what Raylin had in mind. Were you thinking overclocking, case modding, backlighting, externals and peripherals, what?

A cool mod I was thinking of doing but haven't actually done yet is soldering off the 2.5mm jack and replacing it with a 3.5mm jack. On the TI-84 there is enough room for it. I can never find those mini cables anywhere but the 3.5mm cables are easy to find and I have several of them plus they're way longer. It also allows you to plug in headphones normally without needing a converter. Maybe you could try that mod, its a fairly easy one for beginners.

Well, soldering tutorials should not be *that* hard to find, a Google search brings alot of results

I'm just thinking about backlighting my 84+ SE. But, I want to practice with 83+'s first.

That sounds like a fun project, and very easy to do.

Fair enough, backlighting is doable. However, it can be very tricky and fiddly even with a TI-83+, and there's a good chance of irreparably breaking one of the LCD ribbon cables while doing so.