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[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Three unique problems… Three different Turbo Grafx 16 units…]

I hadn't heard back at all, but it occurred to me, if you snag a TurboBooster you can do the same thing I was going to do with my CD unit.  That is, bypass the RF unit on the systems.  I'd get one booster, then try them all out on it.  I wouldn't be surprised if two of the three turn out to be fine.  (just with bad RF units)

Cheers.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: 5 silver pots on the Turbo Duo pcb?]

I haven't yet... My next step is to transplant the entire mechanism from it into a working system.  If the mechanism all checks out, then I'll go the cap route.  I'll keep you all posted.  ;-)

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: CD-Rom2 broken]

I had a duo I was working on the other day that wouldn't spin.  It ended up being the spindle height.  I dropped it down about 1 mm and viola.  There's a bunch of things that can cause it though, and the NIB aspect makes things interesting.  Maybe it's caps?  Maybe it took a beating in shipment?  If I understand things correctly (and I may not!) the CD won't spin until the laser can see some light reflecting off the disc.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: 5 silver pots on the Turbo Duo pcb?]

Blueraven, appreciate the input.

Before I replaced the laser assembly I did try to clean up the old one.  (q-tip w/ alcohol)

With the new laser, I'm pretty sure that it's not getting focus.  I just have no idea which pots are the focus gain and focus offset and no idea how to pin down which pot is which.  There's probably some series of steps you can take on a functioning system, tweaking one pot at a time, to figure out which pot is which, but I don't have that good of an understanding of the laser pickup system overall.

Fun times.  ;-)

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: 5 silver pots on the Turbo Duo pcb?]

Bumping an ancient thread, I hope that's ok.

I have a PCE Duo I'm working on that has defied me for a while now.

The behavior is that after pushing RUN, it will spin up, and the laser will try to focus, but after a few clicks and whirs (CD spins really fast for a bit) it spins down and I get the "Please set disc" error.

I've replaced the laser assembly with a new HOP-M3, but the behavior is the same, even after playing slightly with the pot on the assembly itself.  Which leads me to believe the pots on the pcb need some adjusting.  Question is... what pot?  Which pots are for the focus, which are for the tracking, which are for the spindle, etc?  They don't seem to be labeled on the board and all I have in terms of test equipment is a simple meter.  (Man, I'd love to get a good scope, but I'm about 4 weeks away from a probable layoff.)

Taking it a step further, has anyone here done in-depth diagnosis of the possible focus/tracking/power issues specific to the duo pcb?  Or has anyone ever had access to a service manual?  I'd love to put together some step by step troubleshooting docs.  Especially since as these things age, there's going to be more and more of them in need of "love".

Cheers.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: New IC Region Mod Chips!]

So if we get to 50, we just about get 25 "free"?

That's amazing.  I wouldn't mind buying a bunch and setting them aside to do mods for folks.  Put me down for "25 or whatever it takes to get to 50."

One thing I was thinking about... how hard would it be to add LED leads so you could light up LED A for one switch position and LED B for the other switch position?  I know this could be done on the other half of a 2PDT switch, but might make things a bit cleaner overall?

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: PC Engine Hueys For Sale]

pm sent.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Three unique problems… Three different Turbo Grafx 16 units…]

Do you have cables and/or controllers for all three units?  (esp power?)

I'd be willing to trade my known good unit for your three broken ones.  I have a CD unit so I'm pretty sure the one with picture problems will work no problem. (using the video out on my cd unit)  The rest I'll attempt to repair.