D-Lite saved my Duo!

CrackTiger · 04/01/2006, 01:59 PM

After my fully modded Duo RX stopped playing CD games and I slipped into a deep depression, browsing for replacements Duo's for hundreds of dollars, D-Lite was kind enough to hook me up with a new lens which I received the other day and managed to install myself(with a little help of course).

Now it looks like my system reads CD games better than my Turbo Duo did back when it was brand new. Although I still have to do some proper testing.

But its already gone from not being able to even start DEII to playing it flawlessly.

rolins · 04/01/2006, 02:20 PM

Thats great news that you got it working again, one more Duo saved from ebay.

How much does one of those lens cost? Just in case mine starts to get hiccups.

motdelbuort · 04/01/2006, 03:32 PM

Amazing! I'd like a spare lens as well. My Duo gets jammed every time I try to play Meteor Blaster.

CrackTiger · 04/01/2006, 04:16 PM

Quote from: rolinsThats great news that you got it working again, one more Duo saved from ebay.

How much does one of those lens cost? Just in case mine starts to get hiccups.

I'd imagine that the price would depend on when/where you get one.

Mine was very reasonably priced though.

jlued686 · 04/01/2006, 05:53 PM

Quote from: CrackTigerI'd imagine that the price would depend on when/where you get one.

Mine was very reasonably priced though.

Reasonably priced as in...? At least give us a ballpark figure here! I have a Duo sitting in my closet wasting space because of this very issue. If I can get the thing replaced, it would be awesome. Having two Duos? Nice...

CrackTiger · 04/02/2006, 10:35 PM

Quote from: jlued686
Quote from: CrackTigerI'd imagine that the price would depend on when/where you get one.

Mine was very reasonably priced though.

Reasonably priced as in...? At least give us a ballpark figure here! I have a Duo sitting in my closet wasting space because of this very issue. If I can get the thing replaced, it would be awesome. Having two Duos? Nice...

You can contact D-Lite to see if he has anymore that he's interested in selling.

I don't know what kind of deal he gave me or if he really wants to part with them so I don't want to set him up with a bunch of people asking him to sell them for a certain price.

NightWolve · 04/09/2006, 02:50 AM

Hm, congrats. I've had my TurboDuo since '93 and I can't complain. I use it very little now though, mostly for testing CD-R burns I might send out to someone. I prefer the PC. The only problem I have had though is it sometimes will skip an audio track be it music cd or game. I lubricated the pole it slides on and I think that helped a bit, but it still happens, but not biggie. =\ Changing a lens though, I'm curious what that entailed.

CrackTiger · 04/09/2006, 03:03 PM

Quote from: NightWolveHm, congrats. I've had my TurboDuo since '93 and I can't complain. I use it very little now though, mostly for testing CD-R burns I might send out to someone. I prefer the PC. The only problem I have had though is it sometimes will skip an audio track be it music cd or game. I lubricated the pole it slides on and I think that helped a bit, but it still happens, but not biggie. =\ Changing a lens though, I'm curious what that entailed.

It was harder to do with my Duo, since I've got the S-Video, RCA and region switch mods. After opening the shell, these hold the left side of the system together and I only had a few inches of space to work with.

There's a wire keeping the right side together similarly, which pulls out from the pcb. Like the rest of these connections, It'd be pretty easy to do with needle nose plyers, but it was late at night and I was desperate so I worked with the tools I had(my big fingers).

After disconnecting that first connection, I imagine that the entire top shell would've been seperated if it weren't for the mods. So I had to lay the left side against my desk at a 90 degree angle as I worked on the rest.

The plastic armor for the lens which actual pokes through and you can see when you insert a disc just clicks off after the top casing is gone.

Now you're pretty much at the lens part. There are two connections, one red and one white, that you need to pull out of the lens itself. This was the hardest part for me, without the proper tools.

Then you turn the black plastic phillips-head columns at the right edge of those metal poles that the lens slides along. You can then lift the poles up and slide the lens off. I did this before removing the red & white connections since I needed all the leverage I could get. I should probably lubricate those myself since I got some of the greese on my fingers.

Installation is the same as removal.

The point that I labeled "pull this first" in the picture below might not be the actual place, but its somewhere around there and is the only thing connected when you first open up the system.

Its pretty simple once you've figured it out.

NightWolve · 04/09/2006, 03:55 PM

Oh, I didn't know you could get a S-Video feed out of a Duo. It could really use that at the bare minimum if you don't wanna go as far as a RGB mod. The composite connection to my Flat panel (its got composite, S-Video built-in) is just crap when I've had it hooked up for testing.

Is there a nice guide for doing the S-Video mod by chance? I still have the special bit for opening a Turbo Duo that I bought back when I used to have connections to Electronics parts distributors. Because I used to do mechanical failure type repairs for a friend at a resale shop for VCRs, I managed to get on the mailing list for Dalbani and MCM Electronics, so I could buy stuff as an official TV/VCR repair guy would. They had both bits for opening SNES/NES carts and the larger one for a Turbo Duo at one point. So, I bought both for like $8 or something, but I lost the SNES/NES cart one down the road. Damn if I can remember where I misplaced it...

Anyway, if that S-Video mod isn't too hard, I figure what the hell since I still use my Duo occasionally to test out how a burned CD-R will behave on original NEC hardware. Hooking it up via S-Video to my Flat panel would be much nicer.

Seldane · 04/09/2006, 04:23 PM

Sorry, NightWolve -- but you'll need an S-video encoder for that. The video chip outputs RGB, if you'd like to do that mod instead -- but I figure you won't be able to use that.

QuoteThe composite connection to my Flat panel (its got composite, S-Video built-in) is just crap when I've had it hooked up for testing.

NightWolve · 04/09/2006, 06:58 PM

Oh, forget it then. I got the impression there were leads that could be tapped to obtain it. It wouldn't be worth an encoder. Might as well go with those pricey scan doublers and its RGB output in that case.

jlued686 · 06/29/2006, 05:38 PM

That bit that says "Pull this first"...I don't have one of those. What does it do?

Anyway, I couldn't get it to work. I'm going to fuck w/it some more, but I think the Duo drive is just plain dead.