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[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: FS: TG16 (modded), 2 controllers, 11 games]

This lot is now sold.  Thanks to all those who were interested.

[Buy/Sell/Trade / FS: TG16 (modded), 2 controllers, 11 games]

** SOLD **

It pains me to do this, but I think the time has come for me to sell my TG16 collection.  We recently adopted two little kids which means A) I don't have time for video games anymore and B) we could use the money for other things.

The TG16 itself was modded and improved.  It was completely "recapped" with top-quality Panasonic brand capacitors, so it should last another 20+ years.  It was also modded, the default RF was removed and composite video and stereo audio jacks were added.  It also has a power light behind the TurboGrafx logo, when the system is powered on the logo glows.  Finally the system has a physical reset switch.  I posted pictures and details of this work right here on this forum (https://www.pcengine-fx.com/forums/index.php?topic=13042.msg257368).

Everything included:
System

• TG16 console with aforementioned mods and improvements
• Rear dust cover thing
• Two controllers, one of which is brand new unused
• Turbo Tap
• Power cord
• Composite video cable
• Stereo audio cable (Monster Cable brand)

Games

• Super Star Soldier (with case and sleeve)
• Bonk's Adventure (with case, manual, and sleeve)
• Bonk's Revenge (with case and sleeve)
• Blazing Lazers (with sleeve and manual)
• Neutopia (with manual and sleeve)
• Legendary Axe (with case and sleeve)
• Legendary Axe 2 (with manual and sleeve)
• Ninja Spirit (with sleeve)
• Sidearms (with manual)
• Fantasy Zone (with manual)
• Keith Courage (with manual)

Everything is in 100% perfect working order, no known issues.  Comes from a clean smoke-free home.  Asking $330 for everything, and I'll pay for the shipping (to US).  Checking the going rates on eBay (not the asking prices), this is a good price.  This hardware and software is selling for more on eBay, and that does not include the work that went into the mods.

If interested message me and I'll send pictures.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: TG16: Total capacitor replacement chart + mods]

Just curious why you didn't consider doing the Svideo mod, from what I have researched it seem to be one of the best Svideo mod, anyways the a/very mod does give a pretty good video.

I would have except I first read about the TG16 S-Video mod after I completed the A/V mod I did.  Maybe in the future I'll go back and mod it again, but for now the AV mod is pretty good.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: 4 videos of mods/repairs I did on a DUO - caps - country - LED - rca jacks]

Awesome videos, and great work.  Thanks for sharing them.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: TG16: Total capacitor replacement chart + mods]

the reset switch is a little redundant, as there is a nice reset switch built in to the controller.

Are you serious?  I guess that's what happens when you buy an old used TG16 off eBay with no manual, you don't learn things like the ability to reset using the controller.  I'm assuming it's a special key combination to reset using the controller?

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: S-video mod schematic for the schematic illiterate (For TG-16/Duo etc)]

Great diagram.  Makes me wish I hadn't already A/V modded my TG16.  If I hadn't I would have totally done this S-Video mod.  Oh well, maybe in the future I'll add it.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: TG16: Total capacitor replacement chart + mods]

I forgot to mention, even though the caps didn't need replacing in this system, I did it anyway for the sheer enjoyment.  To me I enjoy repairing and modding old systems just as much as playing them.  This was my third video game console; I've previously worked on a Sega Genesis model 1 and model 2.  Up next is a Sega CDX (all-in-one Sega Genesis and Sega CD).

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: TG16: Total capacitor replacement chart + mods]

Is this table messed up? It seems to go wrong on line c136...

Thanks for pointing that out.  I corrected the image.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Power LED mod]

The final mod was a power LED.  Again, I was shocked to discover the TG16 does not have a power light.  I've seen a lot of power light mods on the TG16, but the one I liked the most was one that illuminated the logo from the backside.  Since the logo has color in it, the best would be a white LED mounted behind it.

For this mod we need 1) a power source, 2) the LED, 3) a resistor, and 4) some wires.  Most LEDs take between 2 and 3.5 volts to light up, so we need to find a power source that is at least a volt or two above that.  Fortunately the TG16 has a 5 volt regulator (highlighted below).


I turned the system on and used my multimeter identify the 5V and ground pins.  I then soldered a wire onto each.  Here's a closeup of the voltage regulator after attaching the wires.


Next you need to solder the LED and resistor onto these wires to make one big loop (don't forget about LED polarity).  It is true the LED will run off of 5V without the resistor, so why add the resistor?  If you run an LED off of more volts than it was designed for, the LED will 1) generate more heat, 2) burn out much quicker, and 3) may even shine at a different color.  But what value resistor do we need?

To calculate the resistor value we need 3 pieces of info.  First we need to know the total volts being used to power the LED (let's call it Vt).  Second we need to know the voltage of the LED, usually called the Forward Voltage (let's call it Vf).  And finally we need to know the current in amps of the LED (let's call it I).  Using my multimeter I tested the 5 volt regulator and got a value of 5.03V, so this is my Vt value.  For my LED, I chose Digikey part number 1080-1006-ND.  According to the datasheet on this LED, it has a forward voltage of 3.2 (Vf) and a current of 20 milliamps (I).

Our total voltage is 5.03, but we only want 3.2 for the LED,   So we need to "burn off" 1.83V in the resistor (let's call that Vr).  We only need one formula, V=IR (volts equal amps * resistance).  Vr = I * R.  We know Vr and I, so the formula becomes 1.83 = .02 * R.  When you divide that out you end up with 91.5 ohms.  So you need to use a resistor close to that value.  I used a 91 ohm resistor.

Next solder it all up.  Be sure and cover the exposed LED and resistor leads with heat shrink or electrical tape to prevent shorts.  I then taped the LED onto the top of the metal RF shield around the circuit board.

The final step is to enlarge the hole for the light to illuminate the underside of the logo.  If you use a razor blade you can very easily remove the TG16 logo.  I then used both a Dremel and razor blades to cut a square hole in the case.  Be sure to leave a lip around the opening so you can glue the logo back down.  Here is a picture of the opening.  Notice the LED inside the hole.


The last thing to do is glue the logo back down.  It looks pretty cool when you turn the system on.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Reset switch mod]

The next mod I added to the system was a reset switch.  I was shocked to discover the TG16 does not have a reset switch, so I added one.  Adding a reset switch is fairly easy, all you need is the switch and two pieces of wire.  Again, here's the pinout of the back connector of the TG16.


In column 22 is a "/RST" switch.  We need to solder one wire onto this point.  The second wire gets soldered onto any ground potential point in the system.  This can be any of the large copper traces around the edge.  You connect these two wires to your switch - but you can't use any old switch.  You need what's called an "off-mom" switch.  This means the switch is off by default, but momentarily the switch is on while you press it.  But as soon as you let go, the switch goes back to off.  I used Digikey part number 509PB-ND.

Unfortunately mounting the switch required me to drill a small hole in the side of the case.  The switch works as you'd expect, press the switch and the system resets.  Here's a picture of the final product.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Audio/Video mod]

When I first got this TG16 I connected it to my TV using the RF connector on the side.  Clearly time had not been good to this system as the quality of the RF signal was horrible!  I didn't get a picture of the RF signal, but it was very snowy.  Clearly an audio/video mod was in order.  I decided to go with the standard composite video mod you see so many others do, but I did add a little twist of my own.  I didn't like the idea of drilling three holes in the case for the new connectors, so I found a way to mount the connectors without modifying the case.

The first step is to tap the video and audio signals from the back connector.  This picture shows the TG16 rear connector.


From column 1 we want "SNDR" and "SNDL" for right and left audio.  And from column 22 we want "Vid" for the composite video.  Here's a picture with the wires attached.  I soldered onto the bottom side of the board then fed them through the holes to the top side.  The orange and orange/white stripe are for audio, and the green is for the video.  The other wires were for other mods (more details later on).


As for a mounting location, I decided to remove the RF unit and use the existing holes in the side of the TG16.  Removing the RF unit is not easy.  For me to get it off I had to use a good soldering iron, solder wick, a special low temperature solder called ChipQuik, and patience.  Here's what it looks like with the RF unit removed.


Next I took a video connector (digikey part number CP-1403-ND).  I bent the front center pin aft, and I bent one side pin out flat.  Lastly I bent the video pin straight back.  When I was done the connector looked like this.


On the TG16 motherboard, I scraped some of the solder mask off where I removed the RF unit from.


Now I can place the connector onto the motherboard and solder it up.  One leg of the connector goes through the existing hole, plus the two bent pins can be soldered onto where I removed the solder mask on the circuit board.  This gives me 3 solid solder points so I doubt this connector will ever break off.


To mount the audio connector, I first needed to raise the connector up.  If I mounted it flush on the board it did not line up with the existing hole in the side of the case.  I found a hex nut that was just the perfect thickness.  I used epoxy to attach the nut to the board.


Next I used epoxy to attach the stereo audio connector (CP1-3513-ND).  I soldered up the audio and video cables.  For the video cable I soldered a 220uF/16V bi-polar cap inline, and for the audio I soldered a 10uF/16V bi-polar cap inline.  Lastly, I soldered the ground connector onto the motherboard.


When the system is put back together, this is what it looks like from the outside.  I think it has a very clean and professional appearance.


But more importantly, what does the video quality look like?  It's pretty darn sharp, especially compared to the original RF.  This picture doesn't do it justice, I was having a hard time getting good pictures of the TV screen.  But the image is sharp and crisp.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / TG16: Total capacitor replacement chart + mods]

Like most people on this forum I love retro video gaming.  But growing up I never knew anyone with a TG16.  So about a year ago I decided to pick one up off eBay.  Given that the system is 20+ years old, I decided to replace all the system capacitors as well as add some nice mods to the system, and I documented the whole process.

Before you can do anything to the TG16, you need to open it up which requires a special tool.  You need what's commonly called "4.5mm security bit" easily found on eBay.  Although the technical name is "4.6 line head screw."  I ordered mine from ifixit.com.  Once the system is open, you'll notice the metal RF shielding is soldered onto the circuit board, both top and bottom.  Removing this isn't too difficult, it just requires a soldering iron, lots of solder wick, and some patience.  After you remove the RF shielding here's what the circuit board looks like, with the 16 electrolytic capacitors marked.


A lot of people "recap" electronics, but not everyone understands why.  The electrolytic capacitor is like a battery in that it holds a small electrical charge for later use, but over time it becomes less efficient.  Several factors cause a cap to go bad; age, exposure to heat, and initial quality are the biggest.  Capacitors are rated in farads, which is a measure of how much electricity the cap can hold.  A good multimeter can measure this value for a cap.  But it turns out, capacitance is not the best measure of a cap, equivalent series resistance (ESR) is.  ESR is a measure of how freely the cap releases the charge stored within - a low ESR is better.  As the cap ages the ESR value rises which eventually will lead to the device no longer functioning.  That's why replacing caps is usually a good idea on older electronics.  Measuring ESR on caps requires a special meter.

Here is a table of all 16 caps in the TG16.  The first column is the location on the circuit board.  The second is the rating of the cap.  The next two columns are the capacitance and ESR of the original caps in the TG16.  And the last two columns are the capacitance and ESR of the new replacement caps.


When you look at this data, you'll notice the existing and new capacitance columns are very close to the actual rating.  This is why you cannot use capacitance as a measure of how good or bad a cap really is.  You'll also notice that in almost every case the ESR of the new cap is half to a third of the old value.  The only exception is the 10uf/16V caps.  I was shocked to see that 20 year old caps had a lower ESR value than a brand new top quality brand cap.  When NEC manufactured the TG16s they must have used an exceptional batch of 10uf/16V caps.  Determining a bad cap using the ESR value is not as easy as "higher than X is a bad cap."  There are charts you use, you have to look up both the capacitance and the voltage to get a range of good ESR values.  Looking at the ESR values from the old caps, they were by no means "bad" caps.  They still had lots of good life in them.  So recapping the system wasn't necessary, but it will definitely increase the longevity of this particular system.  As for replacement caps, I used Panasonic brand FC series capacitors ordered from digikey.com.  These are widely regarded as one of the best caps for this type of work.  If you recap a system with el cheapo caps from Radio Shack, you're not doing yourself a favor.  In the short run the new caps will be better.  But these cheap caps will go bad much quicker than the caps NEC used originally.

In addition to recapping the main system, I also recapped two controllers and a TurboTap.  Each controller as well as the TurboTap contained a single 10uf/35V cap.  As with the main system I measured the capacitance and ESR of both the old and new caps.  I got similar results as before, capacitance was fine both new and old, and the ESR of the new was less than half that of the original.





In the next post I'll cover the mods I did to the system.

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: Free game: Ninja Spirit]

Please sign me up.  Thanks!

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: Free game: Military Madness]

Please add me.  I've heard great things about this game.  Thanks.

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: Free game: Pac-Land]

Please add me to the list.  Thanks.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Capacitor Discusion]

I'm in the process of completely recapping my first TG16 right now.  But I've repaired a dozen or more flat panel monitors/TVs as well as 2 Sega Genesis's.  There definitely is a difference in capacitor quality, but the quality also depends on the application.  Monitors and TVs seem to stress capacitors far more than old school video game consoles.  As such, capacitor failure is much higher in monitors and TVs.  The brands I've heard great things about are Panasonic (the brand I always use), Nichicon, and United Chemi-con.  Of course, within any given manufacture are multiple "series" and knowing the correct series to use makes a big difference as well.

For Panasonic, my preference is FM, then FC, then M, and lastly FR.  FM and FC are very similar, FM has better specs and is typically cheaper, but not always available.  The other series I'll only use if neither FM or FC are available.  As a general rule to capacitors you want a low equivalent series resistance (ESR) value, which the FM and FC have.  The job of a capacitor is to hold a small charge, and then release that charge when the voltage drops.  How freely the capacitor releases this charge is the ESR value.  As capacitors age and dry out, they tend to hold onto this charge and resist giving it up.  Thus older (and crappy caps to begin with) will have a higher ESR value.  ESR is the most accurate measure of how good or bad a capacitor is.  Unfortunately, very few multimeters can measure ESR.  You typically need a special ESR meter - I have the Blue ESR meter (http://www.anatekcorp.com/blueesr.htm).

Bringing this discussion back to retro video games.  As I recapped the TG16 I measured the ESR of the original caps as well as the new caps.  The caps I took out all had higher ESR values, but none of them were so high that the capacitor would be considered "bad."  In a week or two I'm going to post pictures of my recap job and I'll include ESR values before and after the recap.

One of the big exceptions to the rule about low ESR being the best is audio capacitor use.  There's a whole special class of capacitors for audio use.  I believe one of the most respected names is Elna.  Obviously, video game consoles audio in them, so if recapping them do you need to account for that?  Well a lot of people out there have tested general purpose caps in audio applications.  Most people agree that the Panasonic FC and FM caps are the best general purpose caps for audio applications.  So if you stick with Panasonic FC/FM then you should be good to go.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: turbografx 16 Controller repair]

Whether you're buying a cable to cut the ends off of or buying the unsoldered plugs to make your own cable, you need to be careful.  The connector you're looking for is an "8-pin 270 DIN male" connector.  However, there are two different connectors of this type and only one fits the TG16.  The difference is the middle pin.  Some connectors place that pin in the very center, the other connector the center pin is slightly offset (see image).

The connector that fits the TG16 is the one with the off-center middle pin.  I searched long and hard for a place to buy these connectors.  The best price I've found is Jameco part number 15895 (http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?freeText=15895&langId=-1&storeId=10001&productId=15895&search_type=jamecoall&catalogId=10001&ddkey=http:ProductDisplay).  Only .75 each, although Jameco has a $10 minimum order.  I bought 4 or 5 of these connectors and I can confirm they fit perfectly into the TG16 controller port.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Video signal/graphics issue with TG16]

Hello, I'm pretty new to this board, but I'm glad I found it because of the wealth of knowledge here.  I don't have much experience with TG16 systems, but I have modded several Sega Genesis systems, as well as an NES and two PlayStations.  If I were in your shoes here's what I would try.

The TG16 motherboard has 5 or 6 surface mount ICs on it.  I would use a fine tip soldering iron to carefully touch and reflow the solder on each pin of all the surface mount ICs.  It would seem to me that it's possible there are one or more cracked solder joints that could be causing this.

Of course, what I'm recommending may be beyond what you're able or comfortable to do.  First it requires a special bit to open the system up.  You'll also need a good solding iron and wick to be able to remove the RF shield.  And you need a small tip for your soldering iron so you can reflow each pin without bridging to the next.  But assuming you have all this, you might give it a try.

Again, I'm by no means an expert when it comes to repairing these systems, this is just what I'd try if I were in your shoes.  Good luck!

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: Raffle: Super Star Soldier! - ends March 31 (no foolin'!)]

Please enter me in the raffle!  Several months back I bought a used TG16 on eBay.  I'm currently in the process of recapping and modding the system.  Once I'm done I am going to post the results here.  I recently finished similar work on a Sega Genesis which I posted here: http://freezerdev.blogspot.com/2012/02/project-genesis.html.

This would be a great way for me to add to my very limited TG16 game collection.  Thanks for your generosity!