MOD - Homemade converters

[chop5]

         Howdy. As some of you know ive been working on a easy and cheap way to play japanese hucards on american systems without the need for a commercial converter or cutting our precious systems. And having as many systems as i have modding them would be expensive and no way in hades im spending $150 plus on some kisado or old worn out converter.
So i introduce to you the chopsado 2:

I took my old slot tester that i made from the older thread and cut another PCI connector from an old pc motherboard one side the pins are to american and the other to japanese. They were to connect to a bridgeboard made from a butchered thin ribbon cable taped on a credit card here:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/jetbue7/jetsado3.jpg
and then slid into the machine. The wires are curved so it can be fit easily on the back of a tg express.
I only got it working 1 time with fuzziness. No pictures of it in action cause soon after i pulled it out of the tg express a few wires popped off the connector so i had to touch it up.
When i was fixing it and trying to get the fuzziness out it dawned on me.

Why not make a sticker region mod that fits on the hucard itself. Thin and has adhesive so that you can remove it easy and place on another hucard or just leave it on forever without damaging it. Similar to a sim card on mobile phones.
So i started to make a rough proto and sacrificed the materials used on the chopsado2 for it.

Just some folding here and there and make it nice and compact. The ribbon is double sided just have to scrape away the insulation for contacts on each side for 1 piece to redirect and rest another over it. The force of the hu connector will make them have contact when slid in.
chopsado3 is born:


I was gonna solder the wires to the ribbon at first so it would be flat against the hucard cause you can solder onto those thin metal film:

but since this is a proto and i might have to change something and short on materials i went with a tiny cut of the pci connector




as as you can see reusable:


peachboy!!!!!

Having the contacts go all the way to the edge of the card i think is a mistake and will adjust it so it barely covers the pins.

But you all get the idea. Someone should design a even thinner and smaller design and make them in china for like 25 cents a sticker.

Post your designs of home made converters here. Be creative maybe something better and easier can be made.
It can be designs on paper or a rough proto.
And remember always be careful with soldering and placing of pins. Don't want to short out your console. Triple check everything.



ps#  chopsado 1 is still being made but i ran out of materials
update june 5:
heres a pic of a chopsado#1 proto:

just a ribbon from a floppy drive. thats was the plan but with longer ribbon but i ran out of ribbon. This proto i never got to get working. the cuts on the ribbon end are too curved to make proper contact on the hucard slot and need to be cut or filed flat.  but you all get the idea

others have used the PCI connector's as you can see in this mirai converter so it can be used on an express:

[guyjin]

Not sure I'd trust my games to any of those, but definitely cool hacks! 

[Turbo D]

thats cool dude! 

[the haze]

Great photos man!

I want some chopsado stickers for sure!

[spenoza]

I think that this is quite a creative endeavor. Sure, it makes MacGuyver look like a top quality manufacturer of polished goods, but who cares as long as it works.

And now I feel like a fool for not sitting down and playing with this stuff myself. Maybe I'll have to get off my ass and get to it.

[PCEngineHell]

This is a interesting idea that could be fabricated into something sold en-masse. Basically slap on labels that cover the data area and reverse the needed pins at the same time. This should seriously be looked into by someone with the right funds,and hot ladies to model/demo said product.

[Ceti Alpha]

This is a interesting idea that could be fabricated into something sold en-masse. Basically slap on labels that cover the data area and reverse the needed pins at the same time. This should seriously be looked into by someone with the right funds,and hot ladies to model/demo said product.

haha. I think you just uncovered NEC/TTI's marketing mistake - they didn't have hot models. 

Seriously though, nice work chop. 

[SignOfZeta]

This is extraordinarily brilliant and totally ghetto at the same time. I love it.

[Nazi NecroPhile]

This is pretty cool; primitive, but cool. 

[guyjin]

Are you familiar with Hackaday.com? you might send this their way.

[spenoza]

So, I don't know if I'm using the wrong search terms or what, but apparently the thin film-style cables are not considered consumer parts of any variety, because I can't find a place to buy any. Anybody else have any thoughts?

[chop5]

Thanks guys for the kind words 

Il give a rundown on materials for the chopsado 3.

The cable has many names,foil ribbon,flat cable,flex cable or just plain ribbon cable. But i think the technical name for it is ffc (flat flexible cable) or fcc (flat conductor cable)cable. I got mines from a old cd lens.

Theres also fpc ribbon cable (flexible printed circuit) but its made of different material and i suspect even thinner. Probably what the finished chopsado 3 will be made of.
www.avx.com/docs/Catalogs/ffchist.pdf

They go by pitch,the space between the pins. The one i use was slightly off pitch to the hucards pins but when cut up in pieces of 5 it was barely noticeable.
The pitch is so small i can barely measure it. I think the hucard pins are like 0.40 mm and the ribbon i used was maybe 0.35mm. I don't have accurate measuring equipment. If someone can measure the pitch of the hucard pins that would be great.

I took 4 pieces of the ribbon i had,two pieces of 5 and two of 4.
Taped them back to back with the contacts out. This particular ribbon had plastic mountings on its ends so it can slide off easy from its cd lens and its motherboard. I used that part to connect to the piece of pci connector. The other end of was cut off so it would be just thin bare cable and i scraped off its insulation with a razor blade. I could of done that with the other end but it saved some time.


Theres only 8 pins that need redirecting on a hucard. I redirected 9 so there wouldn't be a space between them,make it even.

In this pic they look a bit raised but there not that protruding from the card. They get flatter if you press down with your finger. Like the thickness of 2 pieces of paper. I don't think it will effect the card slot at all. But i would like thinner ribbon if i can find it.
Held down with a piece of tape at the end:

Can barely even see the ribbon.

Its better to position the contacts on the pins instead of over the pins and around the card like i did at first:

The way the tg-16 slot pins are made the ribbon cant get caught between them or raised out of place.
They would get raised up on the plastic part of the connector first but the would have to really be protruding.
But just in case a small piece of tape on the end keeps then down.


The pci connector has 2 rows of pins. To redirect the ribbons contacts from the side touching the card from jap to the side touching the slot usa. Lots of kynar wire to do this.
I could have soldered directly to the ribbon cable but wanted it this way in case i changed something.

The pci connector is really unnecessary.
I will probably make one with the pieces of ribbon cable i have left with the wires soldered on the ribbon cable making it even smaller. Probably a inch high with smaller wires connecting them. Not solder on the side of the ribbon with the plastic mountings. I would cut that off and scrape off the insulation then solder onto it. Then cover the wires with a smiley face sticker or just a piece of black electrical tape.

I think thats it. Just common stuff i had laying around the house. I'm cheap. If i had to order special stuff this project would of taken forever and be costly.
I just wanna play










update,june 18

a more compact without the pc1 connection:



tried to glue it in place but glue wont hold for some reason so had to use tape again. also i need to get a thinner gauge of wire:




still not the way i want it. il scrap this one and try again. works good though

[spenoza]

Hmm... If I want 500 ft of that flexicable I'm OK. Otherwise I'm screwed short of pillaging other devices.

[chop5]

I found out the hucards pitch. its 0.05 inch or 1.27mm.
same pitch as a pci 120 pin connector bus and an old floppy drive cable.
The ffc ribbons on ebay are really small pitch and some dont give the pitch in the description but look like they might be close. il buy a few and let you all know.
A ribbon of the same pitch would be ideal so i can make it from a 2 single pieces instead of 4 like i did with mine.

[Paisa49]

I found out the hucards pitch. its 0.05 inch or 1.27mm.
same pitch as a pci 120 pin connector bus and an old floppy drive cable.
The ffc ribbons on ebay are really small pitch and some dont give the pitch in the description but look like they might be close. il buy a few and let you all know.
A ribbon of the same pitch would be ideal so i can make it from a 2 single pieces instead of 4 like i did with mine.

So, will you be able to make these converters not only functional but for sale to folks interested in purchasing? How much would you sell these things for?

[PCEngineHell]

Bump,anymore news on this?

[Keranu]

Wow, this is fascinating.

[ZereoX]

Could you post a Tutorial, With all the material and which pin need to be exchanged with which?

[Arkhan Asylum]

Yeah, I would be interested in a more step by step sorta thing, with the right details for which pins are to be switched and all.


I had an idea of taking the HuCard slot out of a broken TG16, and then you plug the game to be converted into that, some wires run along it, flipped where needed, and then reconnect them on a spare hucard (I know! trashing a HuCard! ><), so you could then stick that into the system and play away.

Or rather then trash a hucard, just use something the same size, and make solder traces where it connects to the system.

[chop5]

i will make a step by step tutorial soon,like in a few days. im still working on an alternative to using ribbon from a printer lamp. If im successful it will make this method look like crap.

[chop5]

When i finished this tutorial i realized im terrible at explaining things. basically repeating what i said in the rest of the thread. Im sorry but i think this will be of little help. The only way i can do better is if someone films me making one.
From now on chopsado3 will be just chopsado.

heres the best i can do.

First you need some ribbon. The best source is old scanners and old cd players that you put in entertainment centers. The pins on the end of the ribbon have to be as close as possible to the width of the pins on a hucard.

There are numbers and serials on the ribbons but i found them to be useless as a ribbon with the same serial can still have a different pitch. The long white ribbon you see the pic was from a old samsung dsl box and is the perfect pitch and spacing but the ribbon is a bit to thick possiblly for higher volatge. Need to use as thin as possible.

The ribbon i have chosen is from a cd player. Once the pins get passed 5 it starts to overlap over another pin on a hucard so i cut it at 5 and 4 pins. Finding a perfect spaced pitch or pins to a hucard means that the ribbon only needs to be cut in 2 pieces,front and back. I wish i had some "perfect" ribbon.

a little over 2 inches in length. I'm sure you can cut the length shorter and to your liking but im happy with 2 inches

On the end of the ribbon is a hard plastic connector that was used to hold it firmly in its device. this will be removed later. Again this is my choice you can cut the ribbon pieces from the middle and not use the ends with the plastic connectors but then you will have to scrape both ends. This is just a time saving measure for me. Yup im lazy.

The 4 pieces have a natural curve to them and you want to make sure that the curve is up against the hucard when its all completed. like a curve of a hill on a flat plain. This is hard for me to explain but you will understand when cutting. This helps so that the ribbon will stay flat against the pins and not stick out. But even if the curve was reversed it wont matter with the tape on the bottom holding the pins. This is just my preference.

Now start scraping the insulation from the 4 pieces of the ends on one side only. I scraped about half a centimeter.

Don't scrape between the pins. Ive made many mistakes here.

Now that thats done remove the plastic ends carefully:

and cut the exposed ribbon about 3 mm or to a comfortable length that you can solder on to.

Now cut 8 or 9 wires a little over an inch long. I used kynar wire from radio shack 30 awg. Its very thin. Again its my preference you can use other gauges of wire and length.


Now the pin layout is a difficult one to explain. Ive done it so many times its burned in my soul. I can wire the chopsado or a region switch in my sleep. I just remember it as numbers. the hucard slot or the hucard is from right to left,looking straight at it is 1 thru 38. you want to change pins 15 thru 17 and 19 thru 23. leave pin 18 alone. Im sure you can find the diagram that all modders use either on this site or the web. if not heres a crude pic:

For the chopsado you have the set of 4 and 5 piece of ribbon on the hucard for a total of 9 and you have the other pieces of 4 and 5 that will be reversed on top of it. It will be crystal clear when you have the pieces in front of you.

Lets start soldering the wires. I placed the 5 count ribbon with the scraped off parts facing up and soldered to the cut ends:

solder the wire to its opposite end to the 4 count ribbon.
front pic:

back pic:

you can see where i scraped away some insulation for the 18th pin. Again this is my preference. You can solder the 18th pin wire just like all the rest or have it exposed with no insulation like on here so it makes full contact with the other one or completely cut it off leaving a small gap. Do what you like.

Soldering can be difficult. I used a small piece of foil to protect the other ends when i was soldering:

My method of soldering is probably different from yours. I would place the ribbon flat and put the foil seperator and use a toothpick to apply a tiny amount of this soldering paste to the ribbon and wire:

It helps make the solder flow to exactly where i want it to. All i have to do is melt a tiny bit of solder on the iron and place over the wire and the ribbon and like magic it forms a weld thats super strong.

Once all the wires have been soldered it should look like this:


again you can solder the 18th wire of not.
the top part is the jap side and the bottom part is the usa side.

here you can see that curve a bit i mentioned earlier:


Now bend that mother! right in the middle so it reaches the other end. Make sure the scraped pins are outwards. Only the insulated ends will be back to back. Add a bit of electrical tape in between the soldering:

And use scotch tape to make the cut ribbon merge nice and together and your done.


I did this one today as some of you on the shout box heard me complaining. Total hours to make was 2. I was distracted by escape from new york and other shows on TV

I hope this explained a bit. let me know if you have any questions.

[Golgo13]

I am strangely drawn to the ghettoness of this product.

[Arkhan Asylum]

I am strangely drawn to the ghettoness of this product.

that explains your vanilla ice avatar.


WORD TO YO MOTHA!

    heh.

[chop5]

I found a scanner at the thrift with what i think is perfect ribbon. Its the same pitch and i think even thinner than what ive been using.





its a nice long piece of ribbon in it over a foot long:

you can see the model numbers and stuff if it helps any.

it was hard to get it to stand still on the scanner with a hucard to show the pitch of the pins:


But i was able to make the chopsado out of 2 pieces of ribbon instead of 4. I also did some other different things to it like solder the 8th wire without scraping both sides of the 8th pin and soldered directly to scraped off ribbon instead of exposing it. also soldered all the wires on one piece first instead of one at a time. Since its extra thin it would need more testing to see how it holds up. The length of it is for if the contacts get worn out or bent you can scrape off a little more of the insulation and cut off the frayed end with scissors. Giving the chopsado some longevity. I dont think i mentioned that before in other threads.
 


left side is usa pinout right side is jap pinout

But if it passes all the tests this model is suitable to be given to others.

to me its perfect enough to be my new sig 

[Windancer]

keep up the great work chop were all pullin for ya! 

[MissaFX]

This is really cool, it's the adapter the russians would have come up with

You need to post the pics of it taped to a hucard, those look nice too.

[drumsickness]

Man thats crazy. You've got some skills. I'd say you pwned kisado right there for the Mcguyver factor. Thats awesome. Chopsado in nice on the wire tip. props

[Windancer]

I want my chopsado! Spitoooioo! on the kisado!

[Ceti Alpha]

Yeah, this is awesome stuff. *Applause* 

[hoobs88]

Have you given any thought to making a reverse converter? So US hu cards could be played on a Japanese Duo-RX, PC Engine GT, or PC Engine LT.

[Nazi NecroPhile]

Have you given any thought to making a reverse converter? So US hu cards could be played on a Japanese Duo-RX, PC Engine GT, or PC Engine LT.

Converters work both ways - they simply reverse the order of some pins.  The chopsado^TM should work, as long as the Japanese console is modded to be region free by the grounding of pin #29.  If you're looking for a converter that wouldn't require any interior modifications, sorry, but there's no such thing.

[chop5]

yeah the pin in the pc engine still has to be grounded before a reverse chopsado can be used.

I have found out something testing the new ribbon. The new ribbon passed all the stress tests and can probably last 100 years. But all this time Ive never used it on a tg-16 because my duo's and express are my primary consoles. So i dragged out my typerwriter like case that has my tg-16 and cd attachment and was surprised that my chopsado wouldn't fit. You can see the tape jammed up in the razor thin insertion canal or whatever its called:

The duo and express have a very generous opening and can allow one or two layers of tape easy and more but the tg-16 will only allow the ribbon and no tape.

So the chopsado has to be built a little different for tg-16 owners.
First no tape can be in the insertion zone. The 2 pieces of ribbon have to be held together by glue. For this proto i used rubber cement but i think elmers glue can do. Only tape is by the solders and the tape that holds it in place. You can barely see the tape cause of the picture but look closely by momo's boot and hair, The tape on the other one is on the black area:

Not glue to hold it in place but the 2 pieces of ribbon after you soldered on the wires. Like in my sig.
And the anchoring piece of tape is no longer on the black part of the hucard but on the art. I'm afraid of the tape lifting off the paint so dull the tape a bit like run it on your shirt. Make it a bit weak but not too weak so it wont hold the chopsado in place. The small piece of tape holding down the ribbon on the pins is unaffected by the thin slot and wont get caught.
And still when you insert all of this in the hucard slot its still tight. As tight as a **** on a *** with a pickle.
So be careful not to shear off the pins on the chopsado.


I should probably use glue on all my chopsados instead of tape. I kinda like tape cause of i can always take it apart easy if i need to. But i don't think i will need to. And yes i need a manicure.

[Duo_R]

question - is there a risk that the middle pins are going to get bent slightly more and eventually cause issues with playing non chopsado games? I know that sometimes aftermarket converters or carts there are risks with that happening - such as using the old Gameshark on the Saturns made the controller port less and less likely to read the 4MB carts.

[chop5]

question - is there a risk that the middle pins are going to get bent slightly more and eventually cause issues with playing non chopsado games? I know that sometimes aftermarket converters or carts there are risks with that happening - such as using the old Gameshark on the Saturns made the controller port less and less likely to read the 4MB carts.

yeah but i believe the risk is small or non existent. the ribbon is extremely thin. the chopsado is probably thinner than a sheet of paper. But still ive always kept that in mind and the way the pins are made its possible to bend them back into shape with a needle. The tg-16 slot is very sturdy and repairs possible.

[chop5]

PCEngineHell wanted a region converter for his son and had these materials laying around. A busted hucard and slot from a busted pc engine.
I always wondered what i would do if i ever got my hands on a hucard slot.

Gentlemen behold.......the WH-1 ultimate converter!

protoMH1pic1


in action on a duo:


this project took many weeks to finish. And at first was to look similar to one of my other converters using the thin ribbon on a card and wires soldered on the pins.
But all that changed when i noticed the ribbon was out of pitch and Michael showed me a pic of this other members creation:


The pins are better aligned and would mean less solder points and less chances for something to go wrong with it.

So first i started with the hucard. I was shocked to learn that the chips are on the little black thing. i thought they went all through the card on some ultra thin like membrane:



Started to hollow out the hucard with a dremel so it can make room for the wires. Decided on using pc floppy cable for the nice order there in. Was gonna do smaller wires:

but it looked terrible.

dremeled the rest of the chip area to about half way through:



set that aside then cut a floppy ribbon to about 6 inches. removed 2 wires to make 38 then used a wire stripper on the ends.
Then removed the traces and chips:


now the hard part,soldering to the pins: mproto8.jpg, mproto9.jpg

the ribbon was painted black.

then to solder on the hucard slot: almostdone2.jpg
and glue it all together.
The gluing was a major obstacle. i tried may epoxies and glues and the ribbon would just rise up off the hucard. A different way had to be found to hold it in place and stop it from wiggling.
Drilling small holes near the top of the hucard seemed best and then weaving wires inside and out to hold the ribbon firm.
*i did not take a picture of this but you can see the wire in the top finished picture*
Does anyone have an idea how i could of held down the ribbon better?

the glue on the chip portion held good. followed the same groves that held the chip on the card with nec's original greenish glue. Pic where glue was placed and not: protoMH1pic3.jpg

Everything held strong and worked on the first try on all 3 consoles. Should last a hundred years.

if i get another slot i will mount it the floppy cable connector like this: itfits.jpg

its a perfect fit and conducts easy.

So many more ideas can be made. I think i may even be possible to alter region inside of the hucards nice and neat.

I am known in some regions as the full turbo alchemist 

[nat]

Do you have a job?

[Arkhan Asylum]

Do you have a job?

of course he does!

Makin' Macgyver'd HuCard stuff!

Im workin on a converter too... but with a board, and stuff..... >_O

[nikdog]

How's work on the reverse Chopsado coming?

[TH0R]

  wow, i'm jealous dude, that's badass...which one of these has been the easiest/best to work with?

[PCEngineHell]

Just a update on this, that Chops work on the WH-1 ultimate converter was wonderful. The thing worked great. My son used it on Bloody Wolf and Street Fighter 2 the other day, no probs. Very nice work indeed.

[chop5]

good to know PC-ENGINE HELL that one of my babies is doing ok.


I have completed what i thought would be a reverse chopsado to work on a pc engine or japanese console. Found out that the pins on the chopsado are symmetrical and will work without any wires being repositioned or turning it backwards.
So the chopsado will work on both consoles as long as you have that 1 wire soldered inside the japanese console as described here:
archive.gamesx.com/importmod/necjapmod.htm

dual use chopsado 


And for those that have one of my babies a new instruction sheet has been made:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/jetbue7/chopsadoinstr1copy.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/jetbue7/chopsadoinstr2copy.jpg

older instruction sheet



the instruction sheet is for the new models that have the piece of scotch brand double stick tape on the back to better hold on the hucard and prevent tape jams when inserting.
If you have an older chopsado model follow the instructions on the back page of the instructions to add a piece of double stick tape to the back if you want.
The new instructions also address the tarnish issue thats happening to many models and how to prevent and fix.

[chop5]

Gentlemen behold.......the solderless chopado!   





Now even more easier to make with just a piece of ribbon,double sided tape and safety scissors.

First you get a piece of ribbon about 5 inches. Scrape the edges either all the way as in this picture or short of the end so the pins are held down with some of the insulation like in the top picture. Cut out 9 pins from the rest of the excess ribbon,better to scrape first then cut it away from the rest.


scrape opposite sides

Now take a razor blade and gently cut the center about 1 and a half inches along the separations not cutting into the metal:

I left the 2 pins next to the ground pin in a single piece of 2 on the top picture,you can also do this for the others and cut them in twos instead of single pieces. Up to you.

Before you twist and bend it you have to cut the middle 3 pins of the back side only all the way to middle part.
The ground pin is cut by itself and the 2 pins next to it are a cut together in one piece.


Now twist them and bend it till the exposed pins are back to back


Now hold them together with scotch brand double sided tape in the middle and when you connect the 3 middle pins you reverse them. You can see the arrangement better in this picture as you can see where the number pattern on the ribbon is different:

Only put the tape above the exposed pin line for maximum thinness in that area.

You are done,works as good or better than any other model i have made. Almost zero chance of failure.



Cant get any better than this even if it were to be made commercially by a factory with the sticker that i first envisioned,the ribbon wouldn't get any thinner or the contacts.
So that ends it for me,8 months of working on this and Ive reached the limits on improving it.

If anyone wants one pm me and il make you one for a trade of any single loose cart game(atari thru n64,even handheld carts) or pc engine loosey common i don't have.


 

[agt_dale_cooper]

WTF do you want with old carts? "trade of any single loose cart game(atari thru n64,even handheld carts) or pc engine loosey common i don't have"
I'll send you an assortment of goodies just to be able to gaze upon this delightful bit of creativity...
PM me an address to ship to, I'll get a nice care package out...

[Arkhan Asylum]

can you post a picture of the like, schematics?

What gets flipped and all that?

[Duo_R]

Arkhan,

it's the same swapping that a region switch would flip flop. You can see a schematic here:


http://www.geocities.com/duo_r@sbcglobal.net/files/switch.install.txt

can you post a picture of the like, schematics?

What gets flipped and all that?

[Arkhan Asylum]

hey that the doc i was trying to find all day!

thanks

[PCEngineFX]

I have made this topic sticky, as well as changed the thread title for better classification.

[Tupin]

What kind of PCI slots were used in the original Chapsado? The ones I have don't fit a HuCard.

[Tupin]

How exactly do you make a solderless Chopsado? I don't understand the instructions...

[chop5]

requires vertical cuts on the ribbon down its seams and then sandwiched in place with double sided tape.
I no longer make them this way as the cuts are very hard to make. Made my eyes hurt. I know just cut the 3 ribbons on the top and solder them.

New instruction use sheet: