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[Console Repair/Mod Center / Definitive PCE/Turbo RGB solutions (with csync)? -2016-]

People all across the internet have been discussing PCE/Turbo RGB for years, which has led to all kinds of variations where one mod seems to work fine for one person's equipment, but not for everyone, etc.. This makes it hard to sift through all the information now and know which methods are correct all around, and which ones aren't

Currently my only RGB modded PCE system is a PC-Engine Duo-R. It was originally a doujindance special from probably 5 years ago where one of the colors started to fail, then failed completely. As it was still years ago, I just slapped together a simple transistor amp mod similar to the one at the bottom of this link (http://www.mmmonkey.co.uk/pc-engine-rgb-mod/). I plugged it back in and it worked, so my ignorant self considered it fine. From what I've read this method has the video signals at improperly high voltages and probably other things wrong as well. I'm by no means an expert on proper analog video circuits, but I'm much better soldering and can understand the stuff in general now rather than it just seeming like the right magical mix of components gives you working RGB.

1.) So what are some proper methods for getting correctly spec'd RGB? I fully understand where to tap RGB from the system and ways to get it out of the system. What I need to know is what is in between to get the signals correctly amped/boosted/terminated/whatever. If all I need are a small number of cheap components per a signal, then I would maybe prefer that over a more expensive pre-made solution (though I am open to a good price-to-convenience ratio solution).
a.) One solution I've seen posted is this http://www.gamesx.com/grafx/pce_rgb.jpg . Looks like just a more complex version of the mmmonkey transistor amp, but I'm hoping the additional components in this one bring it to correct voltages and such. Is there anything wrong with this solution?

b.) There's this premade solution http://www.tg16pcemods.com/rgb-amp.html . It doesn't account for csync, but otherwise is everything fine about it?
c.) Any other 'proper' RGB mods?

2.) Most people seem unconcerned about tapping csync from PCE hardware since composite video based sync (CVBS) seems to work fine in most applications. Well, I recently got a professional AV switch that only works with csync and/or horizontal + vertical sync, so CVBS is out of the question for me now. I know where to tap the signal, but I don't know what needs to be done to properly amp it to the correct levels. Will the transistor method from the gamesx link above work fine? Are their reasonably priced pre-made PCE RGB solutions that account for csync as well? I'm aware I could probably use a LM1881 sync stripping solution on CVBS to get csync, but I prefer to use csync from the console if it's actually outputting it (though I would be interested in technical reasons for if a LM1881 solution is 100% as good as console native csync, if it isn't, or other caveats).

Also, whatever methods turn out to be 'correct' I'd be interested to know the technical reasons why they are correct so I can learn as well. "Well, the X resistors connected to Y bring the voltage level down to the proper Z spec" or whatever the explanation might be.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Turbo Duo game CD audio stops playing]

I re-greased the lens rails and that didn't change anything.

Next I tried changing the 102 potentiometer, but that didn't change much other than making it not load games if i turned it too far.

Afterwards I tried the 103 potentiometer and this gave the best results. Turning it counter-clockwise only made things worse. Turning it clockwise did improve things. I turned it until the high pitched noise from the laser I mentioned earlier went away.
CD audio in games was seemingly working fine then, but when trying the last track of a music CD there were small issues. I kept slowly turning it counter-clockwise back towards it's original position and eventually found a spot where CD game audio is apparently fine and so was the last track of music CDs.
However the high pitched laser noise is still present in that position. It's not really audible over the game audio. Oddly it only seems to make the noise in Super CD games (particularly Lords of Thunder). I don't know if that's normal or not but at least everything is playing fine in it so far.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: RF box removal]

I removed the RF box on my TG16 to put a s-video port there. Simply removing the RF box had no negative effects on mine.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Turbo Duo not loading game discs (but plays music CDs)]

Ok, got the new capacitors in today and replaced all the old ones after removing them and cleaning up the board. Now the Duo is booting CD games, but there are random issues with CD audio in-game.

Some games seem fine, but in Lords of Thunder sometimes the CD audio never starts playing and occasionally it just stops playing until the music changes. The CD drive seems to be making quiet but high pitched noise when Lords of Thunder is being played (I hear it some in other games, but not near as much). The disc is flawless and works fine on a Duo-R.

I assume I need to adjust one of the potentiometers on the board, but which one would be mostly likely to correspond to this cd audio issue?

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: TG-16/CD Power Adapter]

Yeah, I was attempting to use two different Turbografx CD units with a 9V 3A adapter and it wouldn't boot game or music CDs. After I gave it 12V it worked immediately. I haven't gotten a 2+ hour play session on it yet though.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Turbo Duo not loading game discs (but plays music CDs)]

The results are the same when it's all put together or when disassembled. I just did the video disassembled so people could see the laser moving.

The caps will probably be in later this week. I'll probably go ahead and start removing the old ones soon.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Turbo Duo game CD audio stops playing]

Ok, I just got a Turbo Duo in today that I knew had issues with game discs but I thought I'd touch base here for suggestions before blindly playing with the CD-ROM pots.

Hucards work fine, and music CDs boot up and play all tracks fine without any apparent struggling. The capacitors have not been replaced, but I do have some replacement ones on the way. However, the stock ones in it don't look awful currently.

So, when I attempt to load a game disc it spins up the disc and sounds pretty normal initially. After a few seconds the busy light blinks, then there's a mild "click" noise (either from the laser re-seeking or the spindle motor restarting. not sure which). After the click it goes through the initial seeking/loading, busy light blinks again, click happens again, and this cycle repeats continually until I stop it. It's sitting at the bios with "just a moment..." all while this is happening.

I recorded a video to show what it's doing with the case off and a magnet on the game disc to hold it in place. Please excuse the background noise.

(the initial click noise when the disc starts spinning is me turning on the flashlight).

I'm also using the original power brick and verified it's putting out enough voltage with a multimeter.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Turbo CD plays music CDs stand-alone, but nothing else.]

DOH!

Well, this is the first time I've ever encountered a retro system (the CD base in this case) with a 7805 regulator that can't take 9V (or maybe even lower) and work properly.

I just did a quick and dirty test. I supplied 12V to the dock (measured at 11.92v) from a PC power supply.....booted right away. Currently running Ys Book I & II with no issues.

I'll need to test both of them now thoroughly and find a proper AC adapter replacement. I'll report my findings later after testing. Let me know if anybody knows of a good priced proper AC adapter replacement.

Thanks for the help and suggestions though. I feel a little dumb now, but I'm happy that things look very promising now 

EDIT: Both setups are working fine so far. I also confirmed that a Turbo Everdrive can load the System Card 2.0 bios and games work fine.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Turbo CD plays music CDs stand-alone, but nothing else.]

Well, more troubleshooting and more confusion.

1.) The contacts on the connectors looked fine and shiny, but I decided to clean them anyway for good measure. However, before cleaning them there was a whole 2 or 3 times that I was able to get it to load to the CD player with a music CD on the System Card. However, there was no rhyme or reason to it. If it loaded up one time, without adjusting how far the connector was or anything I could turn the system off, back on, and it wouldn't make it back to the System Card CD player again. Also, the few times it did make it, it would recognize the amount of tracks on the CD, but could not play any of them (all while the stand-alone CD player functionality continued to be fine).

2.) After cleaning the connectors, nothing changed.

Now, I got a good deal on yet another untested but "worked last time it was used years ago" Turbografx CD and base so now I have 2 CD-ROMS and 2 bases. When I unpacked it today the first thing I did was test it as a stand-alone CD player. It played a music with no issues at all. I didn't have to tinker with it at all.

So next, I hooked it all up and......same exact issue. "PC" display shows up on the CD-ROM and all i get is "just a moment...". So i have two TG16s, two Turbo CD-ROMs, and two bases. I've tried various combinations of them together and the results are the same. At this point I'm extremely baffled.

===================================

One thing to note (and I don't believe it should even matter unless there's something about the Turbo CD I don't understand) is I'm not using the original AC adapter since I don't have that. I'm using a 9V 3A adapter. Now before anyone automatically deems this the culprit, I'll give some background info. Most of these retro consoles use a 7805 voltage regulator inside of them that brings the incoming AC adapter voltage down to 5V to supply to the system. The minimum voltage the 7805 can accept is 7.2V from what I've looked up. Now I've seen consoles where the AC adapters were 9V, 10V, 10.5V, and maybe other values. These also had 7805 regulators inside, so running them on the off a 9V adapter with the proper or higher amperage has never been an issue.

I opened up one of the Turbo CD base units and sure enough it also has a 7805 regulator in it, so it appears it should work fine with a 9V AC adapter as long as the amperage is high enough. Right next to the 7805 are two "C2275" components that are apparently power transistors (https://i.imgur.com/c0m1Jjt.jpg), but I don't know much about that them so I don't know if that would affect the situation. I'd be interested to hear from anyone who's an expert on the TGCD's power set up and people who have successfully used non-official AC adapters.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Turbo CD plays music CDs stand-alone, but nothing else.]

Ok, lots more troubleshooting has been done but to little affect.

1.) I replaced every single capacitor in the CD-ROM portion and absolutely nothing changed at all. It still plays audio CD's as a stand-alone CD player, but won't load game discs or music discs from the bios/system card. It also still had to "warm up" for about 15min being plugged in before plugged in, but if I opened it up and turned the gears myself it seemed work immediately after that.

2.) I took out the middle gear and gently drilled the hole a little by hand to make the hole slightly bigger. After that the tension between the gears was lessened and it was easier to turn by hand to. So far after this it hasn't needed a "warm up" period to start playing a music cd, but otherwise nothing else changed.

3.) I got a legit 2.0 System Card and it has the same results as loading the bios from the Turbo Everdrive. Any game disc or music disc just says "Just a moment..." on the screen and shows "PC" on the CD-ROM display. I even left it running for 20 or 30min and the disc was still spinning but made no progress. If i open the disc door it recognizes that, so it's not locking up.

4.) I tinkered with adjusting the potentiometers, but I couldn't find a good guide for which ones do what and what they need to be adjusted to. All I accomplished was making music CDs misbehave, then changing things back so they worked correctly again.

Any ideas?

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Turbo CD plays music CDs stand-alone, but nothing else.]

Ok, did more testing. Anytime I leave the CD-ROM unit unplugged for an hour and a half (maybe even less), it goes back to never even spinning up a disk. If i try to use it as a stand-alone CD player then when I hit play it just shows a solid 0 for the track listing on the LED display and never spins the disc.

Now if I leave it plugged in for 15min or so it will go back to spinning up discs and working as a standalone CD player. However, then when it shows something on the LED display (such as "PC" when trying to boot a game, or the track listing number of a music cd) it is flickery. The closest thing I can describe is it's somewhat like the effect you see when you record what's being displayed on a CRT screen.

This sounds like capacitors to me, but I didn't think the regular Turbo CD was known for bad caps. None of them appear to be leaking or puffy either.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Turbo CD plays music CDs stand-alone, but nothing else.]

Now the CD-ROM is magically back to not spinning discs even when used as a stand alone CD player.
EDIT: .....Now it's back to playing music CD's stand alone.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Turbo CD plays music CDs stand-alone, but nothing else.]

Ok, I got a Turbo CD in today and at first it wouldn't spin up anything when hooked to the system or trying to use it as a stand alone CD player.

I opened it up and the laser sled as at the very end of the track, so I turned the gears to move it back forward and re-greased the sled trail (whatever it's called. The part that looks like a giant long screw).

After that, I put it back together and now it plays music CDs fine as a stand-alone player (detached from the system base). It played every track of a pretty long music cd and I heard no issues while it did so. However, when I hooked it back up to the system it won't load games or music cd's (does it support playing music cd's from the bios?). When i press run the "PC" LED display lights up, the disc starts spinning, and i hear it seek some, but it continues to just sit at "Just A Moment...".

Two more details: I've tried with 2 separate TG16 systems with the same result (if that even matters). The other detail is I do not own a real system card. Now I am using a Turbo Everdrive to load the System Card 2.0 US bios. Now from what I understand, the extra RAM is built into the CD unit (or maybe it's the CD base, whichever). So, if the 2.0 card does not have any extra RAM in it then it should work from the Everdrive and I believe I've seen people say they use it for that. I tried a non-Super CD game (Last Alert). (I'm aware this same method would not work with for the System card 3.0 since it contains additional RAM onboard).

I don't think the Everdrive portion is the issue, but if you've done testing yourself to the contrary then please let me know. Otherwise, anybody have any idea what the issue is?

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: WTB: cheap Turbo CD or Duo. Working or broke]

Bump.
Still looking

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Turbo Express replacement power switch?]

Well crap. I didn't notice in time.

Oh well. I've already rigged up a switch from radioshack that looks decent. I even got to leave the internal power switch in case I ever do stumble upon the original green outer plastic piece.

[Buy/Sell/Trade / WTB: cheap Turbo CD or Duo. Working or broke]

I'm looking for a cheap Turbografx CD or Turbo Duo. As I doubt anyone will want to sell a working one for cheap, I'm also up for getting a broken one as a project to repair.

I'm also up for trading for one (or both) of them, or trading to lower the price. Here's my trade list on google docs https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0Ahe6iBkLgLwRdERNYXpXR2JiUUpuWHNVUmZicDRqWnc&output=html

For a Turbo CD I need the dock and cd unit. A system card is highly preferred to be included, but not required. The power brick would be convenient to have, but not a big deal if it isn't included. I have a TG16, so that isn't required unless you want to toss it in for next to nothing .
For a Turbo Duo the AV cable and AC adapter would be nice, but not required. Controller would be nice too, but not required.

For either I would like them to be in decent cosmetic shape (no cracks, hucard door missing, etc.). If it's broke, I'd like a few details. "It stopped powering on one day" would be more appealing than "my dog peed on it and it fell off my balcony" . I'd prefer not to get one that was previously attempted to be repaired then damaged further.

If anybody has either for sale or trade let me know.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Turbo Express replacement power switch?]

I recently got a Turbo Express that is missing the green external plastic piece of the power switch. The internal switch is still there and I can turn it on using a slim screwdriver or other thin object to push the internal switch.

Is there a good place to get a replacement for the plastic portion of the switch, or even a 3D printed version if anyone has the hardware and capability to do that.

The only other thing I can think of is removing the internal power switch and remounting it at the power switch opening, but I was hoping for something that looks a bit more professional.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Turbo CD system card integration mod?]

Since the CD system card is basically (to my knowledge) just adding more RAM and loading a ROM/bios to interact with the CD unit, is there a way to replicate this functionality internally with a mod? I know some of you may think this sounds highly impractical (and maybe it is), but sometimes it's fun to do stuff just to say it's been done.

Background: I'm thinking about getting a Turbo CD add-on for my TG16, but the US 3.0 system cards are very expensive. I know a common thing to do is do a region mod and import the JPN 3.0 system card, but I thought why not get more creative.

The Idea:
1.)The 1st and most necessary step would be to solder in the additional RAM into the system. Since the system card is used in the hucard slot, wiring this up to the hucard pins on the motherboard should be feasible. If we knew of a compatible RAM chip and the proper pinout to wire it up this, then this portion of the mod sounds theoretically feasible to me. (Maybe we could even bump it up to the arcade card level of RAM while we're at it)

2.) The 2nd step has an easy way and hard way option. The easy way would be to use a Turbo Everdrive to load the system card rom. The hard way would be putting the system card ROM into a EPROM chip or something similar and mod it into the system internally. This sounds feasible to me, but I'm unsure how you could make it ignore the system card ROM when a hucard game is inserted (like the Duo does). With the added RAM and integrating the system card rom, functionally it would make the system like a Duo with a detachable CD unit.

So does anyone with pretty in-depth TG16/PCE knowledge care to give their technical opinion on this? I'd love to mod in the additional RAM at the least. I have the soldering skills to do so, but I don't have the in-depth knowledge to know what RAM chip(s) I would need and where to wire them up.

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: IC Region Chips for TG16/PCE/DUO's $17 shipped]

PM sent. I would like one