News:

Upgrading to the new 2022 2.1 SMF core (years in WIP)! Mobile/Phone support by default, finally! I must port all my custom features and redo the theme however, but worth the trouble! I may still look at XenForo too.

Main Menu

Recent posts

#1
News / 2023 PCEFX News/Newsletter Res...
Last post by NightWolve - March 14, 2023, 06:43:52 PM
I plan to try doing yearly newsletters to email PCEFX members, a year-end/retro roundup review of anything newsworthy that occurs in PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 fandom. Some news from 2022-2021 will be appended and more rushed as I didn't get a chance to collect much while thinking about this idea. The hope is to keep in touch with our retro fanbase, provide relevance, see if PCEFX legacy can carry on. Wish me luck!

So the idea is this: Collect/record relevant PCE/TG-16 news as it occurs throughout the year, append it to this post, and run the email newsletter system on New Years day sending it out to existing PCEFX membership. It accomplishes 2 things: lets people know we're still alive'n'kicking and will help keep 'em informed.

P. S. Feel free to contact me for anything that can be included I may have missed to make it the most thorough PCE newsletter possible. It'd be greatly appreciated!


Quote1/1/2023 - "Billy's Bad Day" is released, a PCE homebrew fighting game that's an homage/tribute to Michael Douglas' 1993 movie "Falling Down."
https://vintagearcadeworks.com/shop/
https://youtu.be/BrsFzD-ZW94

2/4/2023 - The PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 Community mourns the loss of BT Garner @ MindRec.com who passed away due to health problems... He was a top PCE homebrew developer and founder of the OG Turbo List. Condolences to family and friends. Thanks to Nathan McLain for info. A nice tribute by esteban: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1360287888149555 (https://www.pcengine-fx.com/images/BTRIP.jpg)

3/4/2023 - krikzz began sales of Turbo Everdrive PRO which uses FPGA to let you play CD images on any base or portable NEC consoles making it the ultimate PCE flashcart on the market to date!!
https://twitter.com/krikzz/status/1632048223228510208
https://krikzz.com/our-products/cartridges/turbo-everdrive-pro.html

3/13/2023 - The SuperGrafx: That time when NEC made an amazing console with no games... (by Sharopolis)
https://youtu.be/tzreF97_tNI

X/XX/2023 -
X/XX/2023 -
X/XX/2023 -
X/XX/2023 -
X/XX/2023 -
X/XX/2023 -
X/XX/2023 -
X/XX/2023 -
#2
Console Repair/Mod Corner / Re: Dead CD Spindle Motor? Ho...
Last post by thesteve - November 12, 2022, 10:59:42 PM
Yes they are connected together
1081 is the source of the signal and 1082 listens for it
#3
Console Repair/Mod Corner / Re: Dead CD Spindle Motor? Ho...
Last post by Great Hierophant - November 07, 2022, 03:34:46 PM
According to Console5's pinouts, the CXA1801 has F Ok on pin 28 and it is also found on pin 41 of the CXA1802.  Is there any chance that the two signals would be directly connected between the two chips?
#4
Console Repair/Mod Corner / Re: Dead CD Spindle Motor? Ho...
Last post by thesteve - October 22, 2022, 12:56:10 AM
Your system is failing between position check and focus lock
#5
Console Repair/Mod Corner / Re: Dead CD Spindle Motor? Ho...
Last post by thesteve - October 22, 2022, 12:54:26 AM
Ok for starters the issue was unlikely motor related
Order of operations
Start sent from software
Check door switch
Check head position by bumping the limit switch
Mirror check (laser bobs)
At this point the laser head will trigger the F ok pin on the CXA1081 to the CXA1082
If the 1082 sees the pulse it moves to focus check (spools spindle and moves lens up into focus lock)
If focus lock is achieved it adjusts spindle speed to match data clock and begins read
#6
Console Repair/Mod Corner / Re: Dead CD Spindle Motor? Ho...
Last post by NightWolve - October 22, 2022, 12:33:54 AM
Hey Great Hierophant

I made a special blast-from-the-past screenshot in honor of your visit! ; )

GHierophantReturns.png

Look familiar ? It's my/our old PC Engine RIGG (Retro ISO Gaming Guild) forum running locally, ~20 years to the day, wow! Some day soon I hope to export/upgrade it to SMF and publish it here as read-only to make more PCE/Ys history available: pcengine-fx.com/rigg/. So that's how I remembered your old Mario avatar and just patched it in. If you use another, feel free to update. : )

As for your problem, I've forwarded it both to thesteve and Downtown Chris Brown (AKA Keith Courage)! I'll let you know if I hear anything back. We might even get a visit from Steve, just got his account working (he was our top EE, Voultar-level).
#7
Console Repair/Mod Corner / Re: Dead CD Spindle Motor? Ho...
Last post by Great Hierophant - October 21, 2022, 09:39:59 AM
So I wired in the new harness, plugged in all the cables, set the spindle to what appeared to be an appropriate height, popped in a regular CD drive, put the magnetic clamp on the CD and . . . the disc refused to spin.  I swapped back the original assembly and same result, no spinning.  I think the BA6290A may be on its last legs.  While the drive sled motor works, that seems to be less of a power draw than the spindle motor.  I can also see the laser move up and down to focus and through my camera see the laser light.

I should also mention that the HuCard portion of the console works perfectly and is RGB modded with the modern doujindance mod.  When I try to run a CD I get the typical "Please Set Disc!" message.
#8
Console Repair/Mod Corner / Dead CD Spindle Motor? How to...
Last post by Great Hierophant - October 20, 2022, 08:53:12 PM
I have acquired a recapped PC Engine Duo, but when I got it the CD spindle did not spin up sufficiently to make the disk spin and nothing could be read.  I could see the laser head moving up and down, so I thought that the motors may be bad.  I bought a new disk laser assembly : https://www.ebay.com/itm/182710804499 to replace the old one. 

When I got the new assembly today, I found two problems with it.  First, the wiring was different but the same points are present.  The second issue is much more of a problem.  Simply put, the spindle platter on which the disc sits is below the laser head assembly.  If you put a disc on the platter, half of the disc will rest on the laser assembly plastic.  I don't know how this was supposed to work with anything, but I do notice that there is a silver shaft that has room to move the platter upward on this assembly whereas on the old assembly the shaft was about as high as it could get.

I really believe that the disc shaft motor on my old assembly is not working anymore.  I applied ~3v to it and the spindle did not move where it did move on my new assembly.  The disc spindle motor and drive sled motor are powered off the came cable and BA6290A, and the drive sled works fine.  I found out how to adjust the height of the platter relative to the shaft, so I should know more once I replace the power cable from the assembly.
#9
Off-Topic / Re: What's up ya'll!
Last post by NightWolve - September 07, 2022, 10:47:11 PM
Hey MG!

Guess I've had a setback rebooting with the SMF 2.1 core, I have to redo the theme and add the basic chatbox again, so less to see here now...

Pretty much looks like the nfg forums. On the plus side, lots of Photobucket images have been permanently cached (11k+) without the watermark AND will NEVER be lost should Photobucket delete them, plus more avatars, so image recovery behind the scenes has been my focus.

See for Avatar Image Recovery: pcengine-fx.com/forums/fixavatars.php

I'm OK I guess if I can only manage to archive the good threads, PCEFX history, for random google searches. Judging by NFG and the 2018 disaster, I can't expect to recover the activity we once had, have to be realistic about the goals here.

Anyway, I keep active mostly on Twitter (/NightWolve75) if anyone wants to reach me or follow/catch-up.
#10
Off-Topic / What's up ya'll!
Last post by MotherGunner - September 05, 2022, 03:22:38 PM
Dropping in to say hi!

Hope you guys are well!