Messages

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: How Would You Rate the Laseractive as an LD player?]

I'd heard that it was great composite too, but that definitely hasn't been my experience.  Maybe it's my monitor?  I'm using a 21" philips LCD.  I have an old commodore 1702 around here somewhere, maybe I should give it a whirl on that...

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: How Would You Rate the Laseractive as an LD player?]

Sorry about the dual tray ambiguity.  It DOES have a separate CD/LD tray setup.  It DOES NOT have the feature later models did that would let you put disc 1 in one tray and disc 2 in another tray so you could watch an entire two disc movie uninterrupted.  As you mentioned, that would have cost an arm and a leg at that time.

Audio/Video-quality wise, I don't have any other LD units to compare it to.  If I'm comparing a TG w/ Booster, TG-CD, or Duo, all the stand-alone consoles have better picture and audio IMHO.  I think the path is just too long inside the LA between the output of the chips in the PAC and the output of the video on the back of the LA.  Interference and other artifacts get introduced.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: How Would You Rate the Laseractive as an LD player?]

feature-wise it kinda sucks too... no auto-flip and no dual tray... if I remember right, the control had a bunch of features missing too, like you could grab a remote off another pioneer unit from the same timeframe and get a bunch more functions.  I have two here, both work fine, but it's taken some love to keep them in working order.

the issues with the tray and disc loading I think stem primarily from age, as the mechanism is driven by a rubber band, and the rubber degrades with age... Pioneer actually still sells replacement bands tho on their website. (and if I remember right, the shipping is really expensive!)

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Turbografx-16 with bad video]

You could probably replace the RF box, but you're way better off doing one of the following, as they all make for a much improved picture:

- do a composite or RGB video mod
- attach a turbo booster or turbo booster plus (gives you composite out)
- attach a TG-CD (gives you composite out - added benefit of many more great games to play!)

Cheers

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: PC Engine Duo Video problems with video]

Are you saying that with the Arcade Card you can play Super CD's without the issue?

My understanding is that the Arcade Card Pro includes the system software + a bunch of extra RAM, and by popping it in, you're bypassing the use of the onboard system software and RAM, so that'd point at an issue with the onboard system RAM?

Good to know you can use the Arcade Card to still play!

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Modding and Repair Services]

Skunkkey, what's wrong with it?  I've done a few mechanism replacements on the TG-CD, which is pretty much the same as a PCE-CD...

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: A kattare success story! A Turbo Duo brought back to life!]

Hey there!  Just found this.  ;-)  Thanks a ton for the glowing review.  ;-)

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Information about the TG-CD's 11VDC power supply.]

Or... I coulda just seconded what Charlie said.  ;-)

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Information about the TG-CD's 11VDC power supply.]

The folks here talking about measuring 15v on the TGCD power supply, is that while the power supply is operating the TGCD?  My understanding is that the voltage gets pulled down somewhat when a load is put on the older AC adapters?  To really test it you'll need to either strip a chunk of the cable or have the cover off the unit so you have somewhere to attach the leads while running the TGCD unit.

The newer switching adapters (which are a LOT smaller and a generally more efficient) are better at keeping the voltage constant across a changing load.

For what it's worth, I've swapped out all of my adapters on all of my older consoles for newer switching type adapters.  I was getting sick of having to plug and unplug the power adapters every time I wanted to play because those old ones still drain a ton of power just being plugged in!  Multiply that effect out across the 10 or so consoles I have setup in my gaming setup and it adds up fast.  I have one of those kill-a-watt pass-thru devices that lets you measure usage, and I think I made a 30 watt dent in my usage, just sitting idle.

I think the switching supply I use for the TGCD is a 12v 1.5a unit.  There's one here on ebay for $10: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370247013208  ... I think I've had to replace the tips on about 1/3 of the ones I've purchased.

The other thing to keep in mind is that when you're talking about power delivery... the 11v 1.5a adapter is able to provide 16.5W (V x A = W) ... so you need to remember that whatever you replace it with should be able to provide at least 16.5W.  A 12v 1.5a adapter is no problem at 18W, but a 9v 1.5a adapter is not going to cut it at only 13.5W.  Maybe the TGCD can get by 99% of the time on 13.5W, but I'd hate to be in the middle of an intense game only the have my unit glitch out on me because I've stumbled upon that 1% of the time it needed all 16W.  ;-)  So if you're going to use a 9v adapter, better make it a 1.85A or 2A version.  ;-)

Cheers.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Need help with Turbo Duo repair/region mod]

Hey man, thanks a ton for weighing in.  Very insightful and useful.

To be clear, I wasn't saying 1 in 4 is completely dead, just 1 in 4 needs a new laser to get reliability up to where I expect it.  I'm not even saying all the ones I replace are dead.  Probably 50% of the ones I replace still read some CD's ok, just not all.

Another thing that really caught my attention was your mention of taking a seemingly dead laser and putting it into a Duo-R(x) and having it work ok.

Got me to thinking... what do you think the main difference is between the Duo and Duo-R units that they can (usually) read things so much more reliably?  Of course the ultimate question being... is there a mod that could be done to a Duo to bring laser reading abilities up to Duo-R specs?

Just seems like only 1 in 10 Duo's read a CD-R, but 9 in 10 Duo-R's read 'em fine.  Something's different and it's more than just age.

And... all these lasers I'm replacing... if they'll work in a Duo-R... I may be tossing out perfectly usable units!  heh.  *goes digging thru the trash*

You mentioned buying hundreds of those mod boards... you have any left you might like to offload?  I don't think I'll ever get into the hundreds... At one point I thought I might, but I'm having second thoughts after having a few ebay/paypal issues.  Right now I'd like to get 10-20 or so so I can work through my existing stock.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Laundry List of Sources for Optical Unit used by TG-CD and PCE CD-ROM²]

there's only one type of mechanism in the tgcd, the one with the worm gear.

the other mechanism you're seeing is from the kss-220a where the laser and mechanism are packaged together.  the laser is a direct swap, but the mechanism is not.

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: Multiplatform/DVD/BluRay Trades WANT: PCE shmups]

Hey there, glad you like it!

My kiddos are loving the Mickey game too, fun times.  ;-)  Thanks a ton for the trade!

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Need help with Turbo Duo repair/region mod]

Final comment:  Did any of the posts here actually help solve the original issue?

I'm here for the entertainment.

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: Multiplatform/DVD/BluRay Trades WANT: PCE shmups]

I have a copy of L-Dis (

that I'd be willing to trade for the Mickey Mania Sega CD.  My 5 yr old LOVES Mickey.  ;-)

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: TurboGrafx CD gear keeps jamming - WTF?]

Ace, pressure and angle to get the plastic layer off is going to vary from cable to cable.  I usually have the knife at an angle such that the edge of the knife cannot dig in... IE:

 /  knife blade     >>> knife stroke >>>
----------- cable

or:

 \  knife blade     <<< knife stroke <<<
----------- cable

or at worst, 90 deg:

 |  knife blade     >>> knife stroke >>>
----------- cable

If you cut into the cable with the blade, you could easily cut through the conductor.

Dunno if that helps or not... best of luck.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Need help with Turbo Duo repair/region mod]

Necro, ahh, yea, I've tried that place for the switches... maybe even twice accidentally.

Let me make this as clear as I possibly can: $60 for a region mod is fair, as are the prices of the other services listed (I alluded to the former in my last post, but you apparently missed it).  As I've stated twice before, I failed to see the logic in charging $60 for a switchable region mod while simultaneously charging $50 to upgrade a permanent region mod to a switchable region mod.  If there are other circumstances (such as condition or whatever), you've passed up two opportunities to explain.

I think I'm beginning to understand.

"upgrading" a permanent region mod ($50) is easier than a switch mod from scratch ($60) because I would have already clipped and tinned all of the card slot pins I need access to, plus the ribbon cable (8 wires) in the permanent mod gets removed and re-used as the crossover piece in the switchable region mod.

Cheers.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Need help with Turbo Duo repair/region mod]

Necro, I really was interested in your switch source.  Can you please post the URL?  Most places I found them I placed orders, then found out later that they really didn't have any in stock.  Note also, if I have to order more than 10 of them to get the $3.50 price... then that doesn't really help much.  I don't need 1000 of them.  ;-)  I think the ones I have were around $9/ea if you count shipping.

Zeta, I appreciate your input on this thread.

To be honest, when I made my initial post I was expecting to see more modders post their prices and for this fellow to have a few different folks to choose from.  I really did not expect to see someone knocking down a service offering just because they didn't agree with the price.  (especially from someone not even looking for the service...)

It's unfortunate, because this is the second or third time I've seen this happen here.  A while back some guy came on and posted about his new repair website and this exact thing happened.  2-1 the posts were people complaining about the prices instead of encouraging the guy in his new endeavor.

Regarding my pricing for the DUO-R's on ebay... You can all see what they go for out of Japan.  So you're wondering why mine cost more?

Say you see one for $150, which seems to be the norm for Hit-Japan. ($150)
Shipping from JP is ~$65 - $70. ($215)
1 in 4 needs a laser, ~$30 averaged to $7.50 per unit ($222.50)
All need cleaned up, connections reflowed...  Case, control pads, vid/power/pad jacks, internals, etc.  I frequently have to use Deoxit, canned air, etc. Many pads I get need dis-assembled and cleaned up.  ~1 hr labor + supplies ~$30 ($252.50)
Then there's the actual region mod.  Call it $25 for parts + labor.  ($277.50)
All need a game or two, I usually include one CD game and one HuCard game.  ~$20 ($297.50)
Putting together an ebay listing w/ photos, description, etc, takes time.  $15 labor ($312.50)
Ebay takes their cut for the listing + final value fees ~$18 ($330.50)
Paypal takes their cut for the transaction ~$11 ($341.50)
Then I have to pack it up and take it to the post office.  $15 labor ($356.50)

Damn... I'm overestimating what I'm getting for labor, cuz I was using an actual recent sale on ebay that should have cost $356.50 when I actually sold it for $329.95.  heh.  damnit.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Need help with Turbo Duo repair/region mod]

Wait, what?

Based on some of his ebay listings, I'd guess that he means $300 for a Duo-R permanently modded for US region use (which is utterly retarded) and $350 for one switchable between both regions ($50 to install a $2 switch?!?).

I'll agree with you that for the PC Engine enthusiast a Duo-R set to a permanent US region would seem pretty useless.  But there are lots of folks out there that are perfectly happy with their US Duo and US Games and just want a system that is more reliable and can maybe read CD-R's. 

If you could kindly show me where to get an 8P2T switch for $2, I'd be much obliged.

And then show me how to snap my fingers and have it magically appear inside the Duo, with all 40 (edit: it's actually 50) soldering points connected in all the right spots with nice neat ribbon cables, that'd be nice too - Cuz my time is apparently worth nothing?  For someone with over 5400 posts NecroPhile, I'm really surprised at your response.

I was also pretty open about the fact that there may be other folks on here that charge less.  I just have (in the back of my brain somewhere) a minimum amount of $/hr I'm willing to do hobby work for, and I stick to it.  I certainly wouldn't fault someone else for it, as long as they're open and up front about it.

Cheers.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Need help with Turbo Duo repair/region mod]

Hi there,

    I've been repairing quite a few of these lately.  Below is the pricing (parts + labor) I'd charge.  You may find others on here that will charge less.  There's quite a few good modders here.

Diagnosis: $free

If it needs a laser: $50
If it has leaking capacitors: $30 (just the usual audio ones and a couple others)
If you want to future-proof the capacitors: $80 (replace all of them, not likely necessary, but many here would recommend it.)
If you want a push-button region mod: $60
If you want a blue access light: $10
If you want a blue power light: $10

Return Shipping: $10



If you want a region-mod'd (plays US cards, plays CD-R's) DUO-R: $300
Or a DUO-R with a region switch: $350

The DUO-R's are the white japanese units that were re-designed and seem to be a bit more reliable.  Most of the ones I've come across read CD-R's pretty well to boot.  On the DUO-R's I recess the region switch inside the card slot area, under the hinged lid.  Works great, and unit still looks normal.

Cheers.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: TurboGrafx CD gear keeps jamming - WTF?]

Ace, you can repair your ribbon cable.  It's tricky, but can be done.  It's just really thin copper in there, so what you want to do is take a hobby knife and scrape away some of the coating on either side of the break, then tin it, and solder on a bridge wire.  Same deal as you'd do to fix a broken pcb.  Your sticking gears... it sounds like you need to give them a bath in detergent, then rinse 'em really good and start with some fresh lithium grease.

Ace & Zeta, the kss-220a unit you find on ebay is mechanism + laser + ribbon cables, however, only the laser & ribbon is directly swappable into the TGCD/CDROM2.  The mechanism is a different beast, and it takes a lot of work to get it swapped in.  You have to hack/dremmel/etc the plastic case, move several (6?) caps on the pcb, and completely remove the rear power and line out jacks to make room for the kss-220a tracking motor.  You also have to swap the polarity on the tracking motor feed.  I've done it twice now, but it's not pleasant.  Next time I do it I'll have to write up a howto.

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: LaserActive w/ PAC-N1 w/ Region Switch]

Heh, I just keep thinking of stuff...

You can still get an original remote direct from Pioneer for ~$50.

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: LaserActive w/ PAC-N1 w/ Region Switch]

I mis-spoke about how many other PAC-N10's there are out there.  I should clarify that I was referring to stand-alone semi-reasonably priced ones.  ;-)

Another auction where you can get a pac-n10 right now:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110437932365 Package on sale right now for only $3,399.99.

And here's one with a pac-n1:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250509595240 Package is mostly JP and only $2,999.00

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: LaserActive w/ PAC-N1 w/ Region Switch]

Sure, I don't mind explaining my reasoning.  Most of it is based on ebay sales I've taken note of over the last couple of months.  Unfortunately ebay doesn't go back very far when you do completed listings searches, so you'll have to take my word for some of it...

It's fairly common to see the CLD-A100 w/ Sega PAC for $200 - $400, depending on what all it comes with in terms of laserdiscs and games.

I consider my Sega PAC to be worth an above average amount because it has had over 50 caps swapped out of it.  The Sega PAC's have the same issues the Turbo Duo and PC Engine Duo's do with caps, except it's not limited to just audio issues... So here's a Sega PAC that should have a significantly improved shelf life.

The NEC PAC-N10 (US PAC) I've seen once in the last several months using several saved searches.  (Seems like mid-june?)  It went north of $700.  My suspicion is that it sells for so much because:

    (a) It's very rare:
        - Nobody bought them back in the day... they were just too expensive for a niche system.
        - With the caps issues, half of the ones that were bought are now going to be trashed by most people.
    (b) You can't just buy the PAC-N1 (JP) version and use a region converter.
        - 98% of the region converters don't fit.  (don't have a long-enough tongue)
        - Even if they did, since it's a JP unit, the region unlock mod has to be done.

Thus I consider my PAC-N1/PAC-N10 combo to be worth at least as much as a PAC-N10, if not more since to play both JP and US HuCards you'd essentially need both a PAC-N1 (~$400) AND a PAC-N10. (~$700+)

And... beyond all of that... if you're worried that I'm trying to get rich quick or something... If I calculate out the $$/hr I would be making repairing, modding and flipping these things... it comes out to less than $20/hr.  IE... if it wasn't a fun hobby for me, I would be much better served putting in the extra hours at work, where I can charge more than quadruple that for my time.  ;-)

Hope that helps.

Edit: Adding the following snippit just for fun, from the original 1993 press release announcing the CLD-A100:

-----
Product Availability

The LaserActive player and control packs will be available in
October 1993 at the following suggested retail prices:

CLD-A100        $970

PAC-S10         $600

PAC-N10         $600

PAC-K1          $350


LaserActive software will retail for $120 per title.
-----

Amazing they ever sold any!

[Buy/Sell/Trade / LaserActive w/ PAC-N1 w/ Region Switch]

I have it up on ebay here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330366136208

Pretty sweet setup with the region switch mod.  I have it up for $1299.95 + shipping.  If anyone here wants it I'll sell it to a forum member for $1199 with free shipping plus an opportunity to choose different games.

Cheers.

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: WTB/WTT: Turbo Game Boxes and misc stuff]

pm'd

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: PCE Super Cd-ROM 2 Sound Issues.. and more!]

Sounds like a cap leaked and is causing a short somewhere.  When you swapped the caps, did you clean up all of the leakage on the board?  The chemicals that leak out are conductive.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Cleaning the button PCB, button II sometimes doesnt work at first]

DeoxIT Contact Cleaner would probably be a good bet for those contacts.

Personally, I use a very fine grit sandpaper, then a squirt of the DeoxIT Gold product.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: No ADPCM sound on Turbo Duo- Let's solve this problem!!!]

Charlie, LOL, your explanation there is awesome.  Appreciate the link!

To be clearer, I have a pile of Duo's here, and this particular one would have made it's way to the bottom of the pile to be looked at "ages from now" if this thread hadn't piqued my interest.  ;-)

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: Time to Part with my Collection *Some Prices Changed*]

I ordered a bunch of stuff too, got it quick and in great shape.  This fellow is awesome.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: PCE CDROM2/TG-16 gear theory]

I've seen a total of 4 of the CD units is all, and three of them I bought knowing they were broken, so this may not be entirely accurate, but my experience getting these things on ebay and from forum members has been such:

1 worked out of the box, no problems.  Will not read CDR's.

1 already had the gear broken.  The entire mechanism though was seized solid.  Couldn't spin anything.

2 had a good gears, but the mechanism was seized.  I lubed everywhere I could and slid the gear on the motor up so I would know the motor wasn't causing the resistance.  Kept lubing, wiggling, lubing, wiggling, trying to get the thing to turn just a little bit, but when it finally did... the good gear crumbled and broke.

My theory is that the original lube must eventually get gummy and cause a seize up.  Which then in combination with the aging plastic in that one gear causes it to be under higher stress and eventually break.

If you have a working unit in your possession I would highly recommend keeping it well lubed.

In the meantime, I've been working on streamlining replacing the entire mechanism with a kss-220a.  The one I've done already took 6 hours, I'd like to cut it down to 2 or less.  ;-)

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: No ADPCM sound on Turbo Duo- Let's solve this problem!!!]

Hmmm... I should have played with it more before posting.  I lifted 4 of the pins on the 4558 (IC503) and was going to start working on the other 4 when I realized that it was horribly gunky underneath the thing.  So I just bent it up, cleaned out underneath it, bent it back down and resoldered the 4 pins.  adcpm seems to work pretty good now, around 80%.  Not sure where I'm losing the 20%, but I think I'm about just about gtg with this repair.

Gotta hand it to you guys... I wouldn't have known to look at IC503 without this thread... It woulda been ages before I would have thought to look at the back of the board for leakage that had seeped through.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: No ADPCM sound on Turbo Duo- Let's solve this problem!!!]

I have a unit here with a similar issue.  Had only the blips and beeps type audio, no redbook and no adcpm.  Replaced all the leaky caps, and that brought back the redbook 100% and the adcpm to about 20% volume.  With no more caps to replace, I flipped the board over and found a ton of leakage on the other side of the board right in and around U503.  So replacing U503... you think that would bring the adcpm to 100%?

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: TurboGrafx CD gear keeps jamming - WTF?]

The grease in there has probably aged and become gummy... maybe you can clean it all out and re-grease it all?

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: broken p-47 hucard]

I have a final lap twin like that... no amount of contact cleaning, etc, would resurrect it...

static shock or something got it.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: My Duo won't spin it.]

It tries to spin the disc now, but the disc is actually slipping on the spindle; it powers up the CD motor four times, each time the disc making a grinding noise against the spindle, and the discs also develop scratch marks on the clear plastic area just outside of the hole. Gives me a "PLEASE SET DISC" error at this point. My guess is that something is making the motor spin faster than it's supposed to? The behavior doesn't change when I tweak the laser's potentiometer, so I'm leaving that alone for now. By the way, all of this is being done with the casing off, my finger holding the CD door button.

Did you pull the magnet out of the lid of the duo and place it on top of the disc when you were running it without the top off?  It's required to prevent slippage.

It's not too hard to get out of the lid.  There's a release near the back, you hit the release, then spin the bracket out, the magnet just sits inside the bracket.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: My Duo won't spin it.]

Check out this thread:

https://www.pcengine-fx.com/forums/index.php?topic=3586.0

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: fullnelson's other Turbografx CD system. ;-)]

I relisted it after an ebay rep removed the violation for me... retarded, they wouldn't pull the game_squad listings with the same converter in 'em, so they had to give on mine.  heh.

Guess the power seller status carries some weight there.  They can get away with anything, but in this case it buys me an out.  ;-)

Listing here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330359427116

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: TG-CD with carrying case in box and 3.0 system card]

that's a pretty sweet setup.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: My Duo won't spin it.]

Occurred to me too... have you checked for leaky caps?  I had one unit in particular where replacing the caps fixed CD reading issues.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: My Duo won't spin it.]

If you hit run with no cd on the spindle, does the laser show red while moving up and down?

If it does, the laser would seem to be alive and is probably just needing a focus adjustment to get it to spin the disc.

This is especially common when a hop-m3 has been replaced.  there's a pretty good variation from one to another it would seem.

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: fullnelson's other Turbografx CD system. ;-)]

Man... what gets me is that it's 99% community driven... Someone has to report it... so what knuckleheaded jerk is reporting this stuff?

My guess is it's the game_squad dude.  He's the only seller left with region converters in his listings: 230341792238 and 350241000129

... and I could totally see him seeing me as a threat... my stuff is 1/2 to 1/3 the cost of his.

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: fullnelson's other Turbografx CD system. ;-)]

Doh!  Gonna have to fix that.  Thanks!

Double Doh.  Ebay pulled it for violating copyright infringement policy!

Guess region converters aren't allowed?  But they don't say that.  They say it has a mod chip in it... bastards.  I wonder who reported it.  I had down near the bottom that I would include a Kisado Style region converter + JP System 3.0 Card + Street Fighter II for an extra $175.

How does a region converter allow copyright infringement exactly?  Cripes.

[Buy/Sell/Trade / fullnelson's other Turbografx CD system. ;-)]

UPDATED RELISTED URL: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330359427116

Here's the repaired one that used to be fullnelson's, starting the package at $99.95:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330358676305

I fixed it up with a kss-220a laser + mechanism.  It'll never have the dreaded TG-CD gear issue with this revised mechanism.

Cheers.

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: WTB: Loose/Beat up US HuCard Games]

I have Bonk's Adventure, Ninja Spirit, and Alien Crush all loose.  Will sell all 3 for $35 + $5 shipping.  PM if interested.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: TG-CD: Total capacitor replacement chart + useful info]

Were you able to look at the suspect gear on that unit you had and verify that it was not yellowed with age?  If not, it may be worth a shot.  It just makes me nervous I guess... So much $$ for one little gear.  heh.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Lords of Tunder demo disc?]

I don't see the "gate of thunder" demo disc in their list anywhere.

My inclination is that that would be what they're referring to.

There are videos of it up on youtube.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: The differences in Duo consoles.]

TheClash, yeah, I got a LA the other day.  I bought it so I could repair/mod the PAC's.  The LA I have won't read CD-R's, but everything else works great.  I've already repaired a Sega PAC that I picked up on ebay for $20.  (took hours tho!  thing has like 80 caps in it!)  If you have two non working LA's, I'd be willing to repair one in exchange for the parts from the other.  Lemme know if that sounds interesting.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: The differences in Duo consoles.]

Hey override... ya forgot the LaserActive w/ NEC PAC-N10.  ;-)

I just got a PAC-N1 in the other day... gonna region mod it... have a nice push button switch on the front.  It'll be sweet for someone, as these things can't take any of the usual region converters.  ;-)

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: TG-CD: Total capacitor replacement chart + useful info]

Override, I've looked at those before.  I didn't want to take the chance that they were manufactured at the same time and thus have the same gear issue.

I'm starting to lean toward the molding gear.  I successfully dropped an entire kss-220a apparatus into a TG-CD that I just got it from fullnelson the other day.  I had to:

- move 5 caps
- remove the line out jack
- remove the external power jack (yup, it'll never work stand-alone again... big whoop.)
- cut/dremmel/file the crap out of the chassis
- cut/dremmel/file the crap out of the kss-220a
- reverse the leads to the tracking motor

All that is cool and whatnot, but it took freakin' 6 hours...  6 hrs I'm willing to do once, but not 2 more times.  (2x jap briefcase units I need to repair)

Final product works great... unreliably reads CD-R's... probably some tweaking of the pots would get that going, but it's reliable with regular games so I'm gonna leave it be.

Maybe the second time won't take so long I guess... and the kss-220a is only $30.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: TG-CD: Total capacitor replacement chart + useful info]

That's true... I have a unit here with a broken gear as well.  The gear is all yellowed and the gear tooth broke in my hands when I was just trying to turn it to lubricate it... heh.  depressing.  If someone were able to make a mold, that'd be a one-time cost.

In the meantime, I've been working with a KSS-220A apparatus.  So far I've had some luck dropping in the entire apparatus as a replacement.  Obviously it doesn't fit in the case, but that's my only hangup.  I already got it to play music with the lid off, so I don't think there are any compatibility issues.