Messages

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: PC Engine Backlight Tube]

Your only real solutions here:

    -Track down a model or three of ancient handheld TV that uses the same screen or backlight unit.
    -Figure out the model or formal size/voltage of the tube and work with tube suppliers to find an equivalent.
    -adapt an existing LED backlighting mod for some other console. The basic technique is pretty much the same.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Favorite/best RGB amp?]

I tried the simple amp and it was so blurry it looked almost as bad as composite.

And this was with an XRGB-2.

I really wish there was a blank PCB available for the full amp because it is murder to do it on breadboard.

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Trade TurboTap for DuoTap?]

I have an extra TurboTap that I'd like to trade for a DuoTap.

Is this a fair trade? I mean, there's probably a lot more DuoTaps floating around than TurboTaps.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: My RGB Amp design schematic! Hope it helps serve many amps to come!]

I'm guessing those chips are dual op-amps of some kind?

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

No, you understand it correctly. The drive won't spin up unless the laser can see a disc. If the laser is busted, it won't spin up.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Strange audio problem w/ Duo, not caps]

The test points on the laser pot are easy to reach with multimeter probes. If you want, you can adjust your new laser to have the same setting as your old laser when you put it in, and then go from there if you're having problems.

Do you have any non-burned games? Do they do this too? It's important to have at least one non-burned game (no matter how terrible) for testing.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Ok which Duo / PC Engine controller hack would you like to see next...VOTE]

You should hack the SV-230 InterAct PC Propad. Although the built-in turbo may have to be sacrificed for the Select and Run buttons, it has the advantage of not being terribly valuable and can be found relatively easily for less (often much less) than say, an NES controller.

It's pretty hackable, I just modified one to work with my MSX and it's a fairly decent pad.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Adventures of buying a Broken PCEngine and Briefcase from ebay]

I can safely say that nobody has ever seen this problem before. Usually the reverse happens.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Adventures of buying a Broken PCEngine and Briefcase from ebay]

That's pretty odd. Are you sure the drive mechanism is clean?

Hose off the motherboard and replace the SMT capacitors with tantalums until stuff starts working.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Adventures of buying a Broken PCEngine and Briefcase from ebay]

Have the symptoms changed at all?

Make absolutely sure your CDs are good. It's always handy to have one original (as in, not burned) CD game (no matter how shitty) laying around for testing. I learned that the hard way a few months back.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Region Mod woes !@!#@$!@#$]

m the + end of the 10uF capacitor on the HuCARD port board (this part should mean nothing however.)

Every single PCE I've modded in this way is also modded for RGB with a full amp circuit. The amp is placed in between the ribbon cable. I don't use a board for that either!

Wait- are you really using the full circuit, or are you using this simpler circuit? Because that thing's becoming a nightmare to wire up even with perfboard and I'm thinking of trying the simpler one.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Adventures of buying a Broken PCEngine and Briefcase from ebay]

Why didn't you just cut up an IDE cable and use that to wire up the slot?  A zillion Ethernet cable wires can't possibly be good for keeping the noise down.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Adventures of buying a Broken PCEngine and Briefcase from ebay]

     I have a dead TG-16 drive that you might be able to salvage an intact gear from. Failing that, you could always try tracking down a CDR-35D, as the whole CD mechanism in that drive is directly exchangeable with the TG-CD's mechanism.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Bizarre Duo issues]

    Turns out I can get the game to work if I burn it on an old-school blue-bottomed CD-R. When I replaced the laser, I made sure to adjust the potentiometer so that it roughly matched the setting on the old laser (around 750-780 ohms). I'm guessing it might need a bit more adjustment.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Bizarre Duo issues]

    I have here a PC Engine Duo that plays every CD game I've thrown at it EXCEPT the 4-in-1 pack-in CD. The game will load at first, but the drive gets stuck in an endless grinding loop when it tries to play the audio track for the select menu.

    I've tried burning two copies of it(that work on my TG-CD) and still no dice. All other CD-Rs work perfectly, and the machine was recently fixed up with a brand-new CD lens. It has leaky audio capacitors that I plan to replace (left audio channel is screwed up), but that shouldn't affect gameplay like this.

    Any idea what might be happening here?

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Magical Chase BIN on Ebay]

Here's a fun thought.

It is LOT cheaper to buy a flash cart, put the Magical Chase rom onto it, saw off the gba-style connector on the end and paint it to look like the original hucard.

And at $460, that's almost five flash carts.

Collectors ruin everything.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: CDROM2 laser swap]

    One ring is normal. It's held on with a bit of glue.

    It is pretty hard to keep the mechanism from scraping, and like nat says it takes a bit of trial and error to get it to stop. Try not to overtighten the screws if you can help it.

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

Electronix says they have the KSS-220A. Maybe it's still in stock?

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

I tried the mechanism swap on another dead drive (thanks @The Old Rover!)and it works perfectly.

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: WTB: Dead TG/PCE CD drive]

bump of the month

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Please Help! TG-16 CD Doesn't Load Discs!]

   Easy fix? NOTHING about fixing these monstrosities is easy. If it was an easy fix he would have fixed it himself since he would've gotten way more money for it if it was working.

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: WTB: Dead TG/PCE CD drive]

Bump?

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: White PCE, only displays a white screen?]

    Has the machine been region modded or anything like that? A botched region mod will behave as you describe.

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: WTB: Dead TG/PCE CD drive]

Bump: Anyone? Anything?

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Can I replace a laser on my CD rom unit?]

It got moved here.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: How to solder transistor 2SC1815]

    How come nobody's made up a little PCB for these amplifiers anyway? It'd make them a lot smaller and easier to build.

    A more useful question- if you're RGB-modding an American TG-16, do you have to amplify the composite video output (assuming you're stealing it from right before it goes into the RF unit) as well as the RGB, or can you just run it out as-is?

[Buy/Sell/Trade / WTB: Dead TG/PCE CD drive]

    I'm looking for a dead Turbografx or PC Engine CD drive. It has to have a working control board (i.e. it says "PC" when you try to start a game), but other than that I'm not picky. Hell, you can just send the board.

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

    Well, swapping the mechanisms did little good. Looks like my drive PCB was fried somehow.

    It really is kind of infuriating that the 35D drive doesn't work. All the chips are identical. Maybe it has a different ROM or something? It could be as simple as a jumper setting for all we know.

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

    Well, I went and bit the bullet. It doesn't work. I'm not 100% sure why, but I think it's just incompatible. The machine will hang at the "wait a moment..." message. Oddly enough, you can still play back the audio tracks using the front panel buttons.

    The board on the inside looks slightly different, but other than that it looks totally identical to the normal TG-16 drive.

    What IS different is the model number; the PC Engine's drive model is CDR-30A. I really should've done my homework here. The only silver lining in this case would be if the entire disc mechanism can probably be transplanted from this new drive to an old dead drive without any need to mess with the laser directly. I guess I should try that next.

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

    It looks like it might actually work. It's a shame that that particular CD drive is so rare.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: TG-CD won't start when cold, + sound randomly drops out.]

    I just put the original laser back in. It's still dead. I think I must've fried something somehow.

    These CD drives are the worst. They have pointless, redundant grounding wires going everywhere and anywhere, are criminally fragile, and feel like they were built by the Keebler Elves. Even the cheapo late-80s Discmen they're supposedly based off of are much better constructed in comparison.

    That said, what would a (working) replacement drive cost?

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: TG-CD won't start when cold, + sound randomly drops out.]

    I tried it again. For a while it would power on and even spin up, but it would simply refuse to read anything. I tried adjusting the laser potentiometer a few times, but it's stopped working again.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: TG-CD won't start when cold, + sound randomly drops out.]

     Well, I tried swapping in a different laser from a busted Discman (it looked to have died from leaking batteries, so I assumed the laser was OK), and that only made things worse. The drive won't even turn on now-no LED, no laser movement, no spin-up, no nothing.

     Looks like I'll have to put the old laser back in. Hopefully I haven't messed it up completely.

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

The Discman D-12 also has a KSS-220 laser in it.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Pal-Turbografx with 60 hz ?]

    Why not just mod your machine or get a converter?

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: TG-CD won't start when cold, + sound randomly drops out.]

    Not possible. Original games are decades out of print and can cost hundreds of dollars. Either I get burned games working with this thing or it's a useless pile of malfunctioning plastic.

    What's really puzzling and infuriating is that the audio tracks play back perfectly when I play them back in CD player mode.

    Are there any special kinds of CD-Rs that might work better? Which of the pots on the CD drive motherboard should I try to adjust? Would it be a better idea to just replace the laser altogether?

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: TG-CD won't start when cold, + sound randomly drops out.]

    I have this problem too. It only happens on burned CDs, and it seems that no amount of lazer tweaking will make it go away. The problem is worse (i.e. happens sooner) with tracks that are towards the outer edge of the CD.