Topics

[Console Repair/Mod Center / TGCD Mechanism Replacement (KSS-220A)]

I saw a bunch of posts recently about the TGCD repair attempts.  (This is for you Charlie.  ;-)

It reminded me that a year or so ago I'd promised to post pics of a repair I did where I replaced the entire mechanism:

Sorry about the size of 'em...










If I remember correctly, it went more or less like this:

- File, dremmel, etc, the inside of the top of the case, making room for the different shape of the KSS-220A.
- Secure the KSS-220A in place with screws.  (Had to pre-drill some new holes if I remember right.)
- Reverse the polarity to the mechanism motor.  Heh, it was working in reverse of what it needed to.
- Make room on the board for the mechanism motor.  As you can see in the pics, it's in a much different place than it is on the mechanism in the TGCD.  This took a bit of work.
     - Had to remove the line-out and power-in jacks. (thus, this unit would never be used outside of the TG base again...)
     - Had to move a lot of the caps, you can see I used some small wires and some small metal pins to extend them away from where the base of the motor needed to sit.
- Made some slight adjustments to the pots, nothing major tho.


I don't still have the unit.  After a bunch of testing I put it up on ebay where I made ~$20 for ~10 hrs work.  ;-)

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Street Fighter II w/ Converter & 2 Avenue Pad 6's & Tap -- Mod'd for TurboGrafx]

A sweet package, sure to make a Street Fighter / Turbografx fan happy.

It's at $49, with a few days left.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230477218438

[Buy/Sell/Trade / WTB - Double Dragon II]

Anyone have a copy of Double Dragon II laying around they're willing to part with?

Got one coming from Opethian.  Awesome.  I can't wait to play.   

[Off-Topic / Pouper NES]

Whaohoaly crap!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280475699456

I was just looking for a snes today and stumbled upon that beauty!

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Kattare's WTB / WTT / WTS Thread]

For Sale / Trade:

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZkattareQQhtZ-1

Pricing for the community is whatever is posted with 10% off.  Shipping will be $1.00 cheaper too.  Do not check out on there.  Just PM me.

Just listed a region-modded (plays us cards instead of jp cards) Duo-R, starting at $99: 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230477034904

If someone here gets it and they want a region switch added, I'll add a region switch to it for $40.



I originally didn't really care about the manuals, as I mostly just wanted to have the games to play, but I'm pretty close to having all of 'em, so might as well try to get the rest...

Manuals:

Bonk's Revenge - $8 (need case and manual)
Bonk 3 - Bonk's Big Adventure - $20 (need the HuCard manual, not the CD one)
Hit the Ice - $5
Order of the Griffon - $10
Soldier Blade - $15
Somer Assault - $10


Needed to complete my collection:  (and roughly what I'm willing to pay for a Good to Very Good w/ Manual copy)

HuCards:

Magical Chase - $500 (wow, paid a lot more than $500 for it...)

CD's:

Bonk 3 - Bonk's Big Adventure - $300
Dynastic Hero - $600
Hudson Music Collection - $30
Jack Nicklaus Turbo Golf - $30
Turbo Duo Kiosk Demo - $300
Super Air Zonk - $300
Syd Mead's Terraforming - $100
Local Girls of Hawaii - $100
Bikini Girls - $100
Hawaiian Island Girls - $100

If you have any of this stuff, don't let my numbers dissuade you from contacting me and making an offer.  Some days I feel richer than others.  ;-)

I'm also willing to perform hardware mods, repairs, etc, in trade.

[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 / 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 / Just put up a few things on eBay...]

Purple Barney Region Converter http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330348999562
PC Engine Duo w/ Region Switch http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330349991932
TurboGrafx w/ RCA Composite Video Mod http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330350014947

Friendly full disclosure -- The consoles are repaired units, the Duo needed cap replacements and the TG had a mobo crack inside from whatever damage caused the dents in the top and the crack in the front.  Both work fine now and have been play tested by my kiddos.  ;-)

I have a bunch more stuff up there too, but the pricing is a little high to adjust for the ebay fees... lemme know if you see something interesting and we'll work something out that doesn't involve feeding the ebay beast.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Repair Guide (ish) ... Laser Power Issues? Replace Caps]

I got a new pc engine duo from Japan today.  I always get so excited when a new one comes in.  Don't ask me why.  ;-)

In any case, this one came with a copy of Golden Axe, which was 50% of why I picked this particular one out of the many on Ebay at the time.  So I go straight to it, hook it all up, put in Golden Axe and it loads up after a slight delay and goes into the intro.  Yay, I'm stoked.  This is the first time I've seen Golden Axe on the duo.  I got sick of the intro (I don't grok Japanese) and push 'RUN'.  Boom, I'm back at the CD Load screen.  WTF?  A few more tries, and it looks like every time it's about to load the game's title screen, it just craps out and reloads.  So... I'm pissed.  This particular unit was sold as a functional one.  (Partial refund time.)

I lost interest in the unit right away tho, (put it in the fix pile) and took the Golden Axe CD to another duo that I know works.  (I'd played a few CD-R's on it already.)  Holy Crapola, this duo wouldn't even load the intro... so now I'm thinking it's the CD.  Just to be sure I drop it into a "never fails" duo-rx and it loads right up, goes to the title screen as it should, and plays right off.  After playing for about 30 mins...  (You know, cuz I love Golden Axe... and... DAMMIT, this version SUCKS. :-(  I am so bummed.

Right, so after playing about 30 mins my itch comes back to fiddle with the two duo's that wouldn't play it.  So far I've only had time to look at one of them. (The second one, that wouldn't even load the disc at all.)  But here was my procedure to get it working:

1) Inspect board for corroded contacts on the caps.  Several of the larger 22uf ones looked bad so...
2) Replaced out ALL of the larger 22uf caps on the board.  (there seem to be two sizes of the 22 uf ones.)
3) Test unit.  No change.  (dammit.)
4) No more contacts or caps look corroded, so I went with the old standby common failures... the 47uf and 100uf...
5) 47uf first... replaced them all... test unit.  No change.  (dammit.)
6) 100uf... replaced them all... test unit... I'll be damned.  It reads fine, plays fine.  Sweetness.

So here's the thing.  Having been through a few of these now, (4 or 5?) and having fiddled with lasers and their power pot and all the adjustments on the other 5 pots and everything else... I really believe now that the caps failing is one of the most common causes of laser issues.  I think that as the 100uf caps fail the laser must not get enough juice anymore or something.  Tweaking the pot on the laser probably compensates for that somewhat, and may be an easier tweak, but really doesn't address the core issue nor is it a long term fix, as the caps ARE going to fail... sometime.

As to why that duo would read CD-R's and not Golden Axe... who knows... Golden Axe was actually the first game I've thrown at it that it wouldn't play... but now all those caps are swapped out, everything loads faster, it's pretty much on par with my duo-rx.  I'm happy, I've got a new repair procedure that is actually less guessing than it used to be.  Here it is so far... (and yeah, it's gonna evolve...)

- Power Issues?
  1) Clean AC Plugs and Unit Socket with solvent.  (once got a broken duo for $40 and this was ALL IT NEEDED)
  2) Check / Replace Fuse
  3) Check / Replace VR  (part # anyone?)

- Audio Issues?
  1) Reseat / Resolder DIN-5 (I pretty much do this every time... just one of those things that needs to be done because it's under so much stress.)
  2) Replace Audio Related Caps (very well documented elsewhere on this board)
  3) Replace Audio Related IC's.  (never got this far personally...)

- Video Issues?
  1) Reseat / Resolder DIN-5
  2) Try A Different Game.  ;-)

- CD Reading Issues
  1) Clean Lens
  2) Check Spindle Height (sometimes these get knocked down pretty good in shipping.)
    -) (Added 07/09/09) If it's too low, and disc's are grinding on the chassis, you can try putting a spacer of some kind (thin washer?) under the disc.
    -) (Added 07/09/09) If it's too high (> 1mm above the chassis in my experience) you can try GENTLY tapping it down with a small hammer.
  3) Check Spindle Balance (if the disk spins 'wobbly' the unit won't read it on the outside tracks.) (UPDATED 07/09/09)
    -) You can find the high point in the wobble by snagging a disc you don't care about...
    -) and a sharpie or pencil and holding it above the disc while the disc spins...
    -) slowly lower it until it leaves some marks... now you know where you need to GENTLY bend the platform down to try to achieve balance.
  4) Swap Laser (I have several on hand that are known good, so this is an easy elimination step.)
  5) Replace 100 uf, 47 uf, and the larger 22uf caps, in that order.
  6) Adjust the 6 pots.  (UPDATED 07/09/09)
    -) For me at this stage this is just a very careful guess and check.  Mark their original positions BEFORE YOU TOUCH THEM!
    -) There are 5 on the board.
    -) And one on the laser assembly.
      -) Two of the pins connect into the same trace on the board.
      -) Measure across one of those and the third pin.
      -) Readings known to work are 550 ohms to 760 ohms.

  (Added 07/09/09) Note: I now have four disc's I use to test nearly all usage scenarios.  I test in this order:
    A) A music disc.  (paying special attention to the last couple of tracks.)
    B) A regular TurboDuo game... usually Fighting Street for me.
    C) Golden Axe... it's known to not like being read.
    D) A Turbo Duo Demo Disc CD-R.  The intro on this includes a brutal cross-disc seek that kills all but the most finely tuned Duo.

I'm sure some of you are wondering what I'm doing with them after I've got 'em up and running.  I'm sorta ashamed to say, I've been dabbling in Ebay.  On the other hand, I figure my time is worth something -and- I need the cash -and- after leaving my shop every one of these units is worthy of sitting on my own video game rack, so hey, someone's actually getting a good deal.  I'm way jealous of these dudes that get like $500 for their units.  I have no idea how they do it.  I list mine in the $200 - $250 range (depending on what I paid for it and what parts went into it.) and I still only get buyers every here and there.

Anyway, back to the repair guide bit... Anyone have anything to add?

I'll work on the original unit that got me started this evening sooner or later and I'll post a followup to let everyone know if it was the 100uf caps again.  ;-)