NESRGB board available now

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travette
Posts: 10
Joined: Sat Jan 21, 2023 12:36 am

Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by travette »

travette wrote:Just coming to post here and report that I have a front loader nes with the nesrgb v4 2231 rev and have some of the bugs people are mentioning here. I first experienced the ram metastability firmware bug, and fixed this using a 100 pF capacitor between pins 13 and 20 as discussed here. I still seemed to get a pixel shift every so often when using this though. I changed to a 220 pF capacitor and this seemed to help it (especially was prevalent on metal man’s stage). Issue is not completely resolved though. Any suggestions? Should I put another capacitor in parallel to slightly up the capacitance? I’m hesitant since most people suggest maxing out at 220 pF.
Just posting an update. I stupidly kept messing with the mod and put a 330 pF capacitor in place of the 220 pF capacitor. It seems to have damaged the PPU, the sprites would display in a garbled manner. I removed the 330 pF capacitor and replaced it with a 220 pF capacitor, and the issue still remained. The issue continues even when I disable the nesrgb board and use the native component video. I proceeded to check all my work, and I don't see any shorts/obvious errors, hence why I think it's ppu damage. Anyways I guess I should have left it be. I ordered another NES and will be attempting to mod that using the same 2231 board.....
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Lopenator
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by Lopenator »

I asked Tim if we could damage the NES with a higher capacitance. He said unlikely. Worst case scenario you would get no picture.
Have you tried it with no capacitor?
travette
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Joined: Sat Jan 21, 2023 12:36 am

Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by travette »

Lopenator wrote:I asked Tim if we could damage the NES with a higher capacitance. He said unlikely. Worst case scenario you would get no picture.
Have you tried it with no capacitor?
Yea I saw that comment from him as well, hence why I tried it. Maybe PPU was already dying? I assume that's the most likely issue. I did try the board without the capacitor, and I had both the garbled textures and the palette corruption again.

Anyways I assume the rgb board is still working, so I'll try it again when I get the replacement NES.
starlightk7
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Joined: Tue Aug 23, 2022 12:09 pm

Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by starlightk7 »

It's been about a month now since I posted the last update I received from Tim re: 2231. I attempted to follow up with him again earlier this week and got no response.

At this point, it's now been 6 months since I initially ordered a batch of 5 to install in all the various console types; I invested $647AU into the product. Supposedly these mod boards to fix the 2231 issues were made 2 months ago now with the latest N64RGB batch. If that's the case, I do not understand why it is taking so long to just write a paragraph or two on how to use them and ship them out. I'm starting to lose confidence that this board actually exists and that these issues are even actually fixable. I have told Tim that if he cannot provide fixes for these issues by the time of the next restock this month, then I want an exchange for working boards. It is grossly unfair that newer customers continue to be prioritized over those of us that supported him from Day 1 on this new generation of boards.

I understand that he is a small business with limited time and resources, but I am also just a small hobbyist. Eating a $647AU loss on fundamentally flawed boards is not an acceptable loss for me. I understand that with any product like this there are going to be issues, and I have been as patient and understanding as possible for 6 months now. I had no idea when I bought these on Day 1 that Tim chose a design this time that is not firmware upgradable for the FPGAs - that has not been the case for earlier models. So I thought that any glitches that may happen on the new hardware would be resolved with a simple reflash and felt perfectly confident in supporting him on Day 1. Now I have little confidence remaining that they'll ever be able to work right, and the communication with us from Tim about what's going on is basically non-existent.
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Lopenator
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by Lopenator »

I agree with you.. I have been patiently waiting. If I'm going to be honest I kind of gave up on it. Tim mentioned the board a long time ago and we never heard anything after that. I would love an exchange if possible but that probably won't happen either.
starlightk7
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by starlightk7 »

Lopenator wrote:I agree with you.. I have been patiently waiting. If I'm going to be honest I kind of gave up on it. Tim mentioned the board a long time ago and we never heard anything after that. I would love an exchange if possible but that probably won't happen either.
I don't think an exchange is unreasonable to ask of him personally - it's not as if he'd have to eat a total loss on the boards either. He could simply replace the FPGAs with new ones with working firmware to recoup the rest of the parts, and not even have to deal with crazy mod board franken-fixes. After that they could be resold. Even in non-bulk quantities, the FPGA is only $7.68 on Mouser or Digi-key. It's just re-working a fine pitch high pin count chip like that isn't an intro-to-soldering project so it's unreasonable to expect most people in the field to have the right equipment, thus the mod board route.
Marukyu
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Joined: Tue Oct 08, 2019 3:23 pm

Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by Marukyu »

I don't think Tim has abandoned us, however I do think he should at least give some kind of update since I too am invested pretty heavily in the 1st revision of these boards. Even installed a couple for customers who are wondering when I can fix their installs. It sucks not being able to even give them a timeframe. We'll see what happens.
travette
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by travette »

travette wrote:
Lopenator wrote:I asked Tim if we could damage the NES with a higher capacitance. He said unlikely. Worst case scenario you would get no picture.
Have you tried it with no capacitor?
Yea I saw that comment from him as well, hence why I tried it. Maybe PPU was already dying? I assume that's the most likely issue. I did try the board without the capacitor, and I had both the garbled textures and the palette corruption again.

Anyways I assume the rgb board is still working, so I'll try it again when I get the replacement NES.
So I basically reinstalled the thing from scratch on another front loader NES and used the new NES PPU. I had the same palate metastability issue which I fixed with a 220 pF capacitor. Certain games seem to be more prone to the pixel shift which makes me think there's a clock issue that still needs to be resolved...I tried to up it to 250 pF and this did not seem to help. The console still works, so I'm guessing the issue I had earlier was from a bad PPU...or even just a solder joint that came loose. I rechecked my work on the first NES, but this still could have been the issue.

Anyways, the 1 pixel shift is still extremely annoying. I think might need a buffer board?
starlightk7
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by starlightk7 »

I made the difficult decision this morning to file a Paypal Buyer Protection claim to try and get an exchange or refund (with returned boards) through Paypal. I asked Paypal to compel an even exchange or the right to return for a refund given the unfixable defects and little to no communication from Tim.

I've been keenly aware that for those of us who ordered the 2231's on Day 1 like myself, the ability to file a claim with Paypal expires in about 24 hours. I don't like doing this because I understand Tim is a small business and sometimes these issues are complicated, but with no communication and repeated broken promises around the resolution of these issues, I feel that I don't have a choice unfortunately. I cannot just eat the $647AU loss on this. Respect is a 2-way street. I respect Tim as a creator a lot, and the prior versions of this mod have always been wonderful. But he also needs to respect me as a customer who invested a lot in buying his product, and he needs to stand by his product when he screws up.

We at least need regular communication on what is going on with these issues, and I don't feel that there's any real interest from Tim in fixing them given that he supposedly had a fix that was developed, with mod boards made, 2 months ago- and he just can't seem to find time to communicate with us about the how to do it. That's not acceptable and is pretty insulting as a customer. It's really unfortunate that we aren't given the time of day on these issues. For other members of the retro modding community like Krikzz - when he had a board issue with the new RGB Blaster he immediately offered a no questions asked return/refund option to anyone who was dissatisfied with the limitation or the required fix. That is true customer service right there. I was fully willing to fix the board if the fix is reasonable (that's actually what i did with RGB Blaster), but we have to have communication and direction - and there just is none. 6 months is way too long for this to drag out.

This was not a beta product. It was a 4th generation in an established product line with a decade of history of being viewed very favorably by the community. I have enjoyed a past revision of it myself in one of my consoles. There was no way as a customer to know or anticipate that there might be huge, unfixable issues, especially given that prior versions were always firmware upgradable. It is really unfortunate that the FPGA for NESRGB V4 is a one time flash model, but that was a design choice by Tim. I should not have to eat the loss for that.
elgarlic
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by elgarlic »

starlightk7 wrote:I made the difficult decision this morning to file a Paypal Buyer Protection claim to try and get an exchange or refund (with returned boards) through Paypal. I asked Paypal to compel an even exchange or the right to return for a refund given the unfixable defects and little to no communication from Tim.

I've been keenly aware that for those of us who ordered the 2231's on Day 1 like myself, the ability to file a claim with Paypal expires in about 24 hours. I don't like doing this because I understand Tim is a small business and sometimes these issues are complicated, but with no communication and repeated broken promises around the resolution of these issues, I feel that I don't have a choice unfortunately. I cannot just eat the $647AU loss on this. Respect is a 2-way street. I respect Tim as a creator a lot, and the prior versions of this mod have always been wonderful. But he also needs to respect me as a customer who invested a lot in buying his product, and he needs to stand by his product when he screws up.

We at least need regular communication on what is going on with these issues, and I don't feel that there's any real interest from Tim in fixing them given that he supposedly had a fix that was developed, with mod boards made, 2 months ago- and he just can't seem to find time to communicate with us about the how to do it. That's not acceptable and is pretty insulting as a customer. It's really unfortunate that we aren't given the time of day on these issues. For other members of the retro modding community like Krikzz - when he had a board issue with the new RGB Blaster he immediately offered a no questions asked return/refund option to anyone who was dissatisfied with the limitation or the required fix. That is true customer service right there. I was fully willing to fix the board if the fix is reasonable (that's actually what i did with RGB Blaster), but we have to have communication and direction - and there just is none. 6 months is way too long for this to drag out.

This was not a beta product. It was a 4th generation in an established product line with a decade of history of being viewed very favorably by the community. I have enjoyed a past revision of it myself in one of my consoles. There was no way as a customer to know or anticipate that there might be huge, unfixable issues, especially given that prior versions were always firmware upgradable. It is really unfortunate that the FPGA for NESRGB V4 is a one time flash model, but that was a design choice by Tim. I should not have to eat the loss for that.
I respect your decision, and agree that it's probably a difficult one to make. I also think it's worth pointing out that it being the '4th generation product' isn't as straight forward as it sounds. Like most hobbyist console products that use FPGAs, it needed to be revised due to the parts shortages/discontinuations. The core of the v4 version is therefore new in a sense. While changes to some other FPGA products have also introduced new errors, I don't think I've seen anything with such a massive count as NESRGB4. It was, as we all know, in absolutely no state to be sold and needed substantially more testing, or to have been sold from the start with a clear warning indicating which few console revisions it had been tested on thoroughly. And even then, there would have ended up being problems.

Problems arise in these types of projects. But the communication along the way really was abysmal. I have no idea what Tim has going on in his personal life. It may very well be something serious that limits the time he can spend on this that collided with many more bugs than he expected to turn up. But I think a 5 to 10 minute post, email, or website update every few weeks or even every month would have gone a long way. I hope NESRGB continues. But I don't think I'd buy another product of his unless there was rigorous testing and review of the exact revision I would receive.
starlightk7
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by starlightk7 »

elgarlic wrote:I respect your decision, and agree that it's probably a difficult one to make. I also think it's worth pointing out that it being the '4th generation product' isn't as straight forward as it sounds. Like most hobbyist console products that use FPGAs, it needed to be revised due to the parts shortages/discontinuations. The core of the v4 version is therefore new in a sense. While changes to some other FPGA products have also introduced new errors, I don't think I've seen anything with such a massive count as NESRGB4. It was, as we all know, in absolutely no state to be sold and needed substantially more testing, or to have been sold from the start with a clear warning indicating which few console revisions it had been tested on thoroughly. And even then, there would have ended up being problems.

Problems arise in these types of projects. But the communication along the way really was abysmal. I have no idea what Tim has going on in his personal life. It may very well be something serious that limits the time he can spend on this that collided with many more bugs than he expected to turn up. But I think a 5 to 10 minute post, email, or website update every few weeks or even every month would have gone a long way. I hope NESRGB continues. But I don't think I'd buy another product of his unless there was rigorous testing and review of the exact revision I would receive.
I agree wholeheartedly with your comment, and I understand the implications of the hardware rewrite as well. I was ready for bugs... what I wasn't ready for, which wasn't clear to me at all when I bought in, was the part where this generation was *not reflashable* for the fpga firmware. Back a few pages in this thread when Tim was first acknowledging these problems, several of us asked for clarity on this when he started talking about removing the resistors for the color emphasis issue. Why would we remove them if a firmware update could fix them, we wondered? So we asked for clarity and it wasn't directly answered. Months later we're talking about mod boards that were supposedly already manufactured but not distributed. It just feels like I've been mislead with false hope until I hopefully just give up and go away. And if I'd let the Paypal timer expire, that's what I'd be forced to do.

When I look at the datasheet for the new fpga chip, it *can* be configured with reloadable firmware - you just have to load it from an external memory chip instead of the internal ram. So part availability couldn't have been the only reason for choosing this design. If it had been shipped with a reloadable design, all problems to present would've been fairly easy fixes. 2231's primary issues were fixed in the 2238 firmware, which was released only a week or so into sales according to Tim. 2238's firmware fix was complicated because Tim had to dance around that fact that he could only reflash the MCU and not the FPGA. It just seems like a short sighted decision with as many hardware variations that are in the wild, and that's what disappoints me the most. These devices always need firmware tweaks in the wild, that's part of how it goes with such a wide variety of hardware revisions out there.

Still, the hope of seeing a fix and everything being OK was why I waited til the final hours, literally. If Tim was actively engaged with us right now, I'd never have filed it and would simply have waited as long as necessary, knowing he was doing his best. But like... the install guides weren't even ready when it went on sale. We waited weeks for that alone. The MCU firmware updates page still isn't directly reachable from his support site - even though 2231 shipped with broken MCU firmware for a frontloader, and that's the default configuration for his mod. The only way to reach it *still* is via a random forum post for an unrelated issue for the 2238 boards on this site. New sales got prioritized over the existing users with problems... Months with no communication or updates issue resolution... It was just one disaster after another.

So it's with great regret that I do this... I certainly did not want it to be this way. I love the product. I think its the best mod. I love the NESRGB3.0 I have, I just wish it had the palette support. So I was buying into the upgrades here. It seemed like a definitive edition to outfit the rest of my console types with.

I still hold no ill will against Tim personally. If a fix was provided, all would be forgiven in an instant. Even if I got refunded, I'd still happily come back and buy back in when he eventually sorts it out. But... it hurts as a customer. My money is just as hard earned as his is... and my time is just as valuable as his too. It's not a small amount of money. I don't want to me a "Karen" customer or anything, but, I can't just let a bill that big go either.

I've watched Krikzz redo his everdrives numerous times throughout the pandemic. Ikari just finished a new sd2snes. The PixelFX guys are using new parts too, as is MemcardPro and others. There's been the occasional bumps in things because of this, but nothing anywhere remotely like this and everything got fixed speedily. So I never expected this.
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Lopenator
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by Lopenator »

starlightk7 wrote:
elgarlic wrote:I respect your decision, and agree that it's probably a difficult one to make. I also think it's worth pointing out that it being the '4th generation product' isn't as straight forward as it sounds. Like most hobbyist console products that use FPGAs, it needed to be revised due to the parts shortages/discontinuations. The core of the v4 version is therefore new in a sense. While changes to some other FPGA products have also introduced new errors, I don't think I've seen anything with such a massive count as NESRGB4. It was, as we all know, in absolutely no state to be sold and needed substantially more testing, or to have been sold from the start with a clear warning indicating which few console revisions it had been tested on thoroughly. And even then, there would have ended up being problems.

Problems arise in these types of projects. But the communication along the way really was abysmal. I have no idea what Tim has going on in his personal life. It may very well be something serious that limits the time he can spend on this that collided with many more bugs than he expected to turn up. But I think a 5 to 10 minute post, email, or website update every few weeks or even every month would have gone a long way. I hope NESRGB continues. But I don't think I'd buy another product of his unless there was rigorous testing and review of the exact revision I would receive.
I agree wholeheartedly with your comment, and I understand the implications of the hardware rewrite as well. I was ready for bugs... what I wasn't ready for, which wasn't clear to me at all when I bought in, was the part where this generation was *not reflashable* for the fpga firmware. Back a few pages in this thread when Tim was first acknowledging these problems, several of us asked for clarity on this when he started talking about removing the resistors for the color emphasis issue. Why would we remove them if a firmware update could fix them, we wondered? So we asked for clarity and it wasn't directly answered. Months later we're talking about mod boards that were supposedly already manufactured but not distributed. It just feels like I've been mislead with false hope until I hopefully just give up and go away. And if I'd let the Paypal timer expire, that's what I'd be forced to do.

When I look at the datasheet for the new fpga chip, it *can* be configured with reloadable firmware - you just have to load it from an external memory chip instead of the internal ram. So part availability couldn't have been the only reason for choosing this design. If it had been shipped with a reloadable design, all problems to present would've been fairly easy fixes. 2231's primary issues were fixed in the 2238 firmware, which was released only a week or so into sales according to Tim. 2238's firmware fix was complicated because Tim had to dance around that fact that he could only reflash the MCU and not the FPGA. It just seems like a short sighted decision with as many hardware variations that are in the wild, and that's what disappoints me the most. These devices always need firmware tweaks in the wild, that's part of how it goes with such a wide variety of hardware revisions out there.

Still, the hope of seeing a fix and everything being OK was why I waited til the final hours, literally. If Tim was actively engaged with us right now, I'd never have filed it and would simply have waited as long as necessary, knowing he was doing his best. But like... the install guides weren't even ready when it went on sale. We waited weeks for that alone. The MCU firmware updates page still isn't directly reachable from his support site - even though 2231 shipped with broken MCU firmware for a frontloader, and that's the default configuration for his mod. The only way to reach it *still* is via a random forum post for an unrelated issue for the 2238 boards on this site. New sales got prioritized over the existing users with problems... Months with no communication or updates issue resolution... It was just one disaster after another.

So it's with great regret that I do this... I certainly did not want it to be this way. I love the product. I think its the best mod. I love the NESRGB3.0 I have, I just wish it had the palette support. So I was buying into the upgrades here. It seemed like a definitive edition to outfit the rest of my console types with.

I still hold no ill will against Tim personally. If a fix was provided, all would be forgiven in an instant. Even if I got refunded, I'd still happily come back and buy back in when he eventually sorts it out. But... it hurts as a customer. My money is just as hard earned as his is... and my time is just as valuable as his too. It's not a small amount of money. I don't want to me a "Karen" customer or anything, but, I can't just let a bill that big go either.

I've watched Krikzz redo his everdrives numerous times throughout the pandemic. Ikari just finished a new sd2snes. The PixelFX guys are using new parts too, as is MemcardPro and others. There's been the occasional bumps in things because of this, but nothing anywhere remotely like this and everything got fixed speedily. So I never expected this.
I wish I had a nesrgb v3.0. I do not care about palletes and I use the same one all the time. Unfortunately I wasn't able to purchase that revision due to financial issues. I've saved up for the next release which was 4.0 paying all my bills first and finally had some $ I could put into nesrgb 4.0. I would trade my faulty 4.0 for a 3.0 in an instant, but who wouldn't?
Nathan102
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Joined: Sat Feb 11, 2023 11:49 am

Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by Nathan102 »

I am sadly also having issues with the 4th generation of the NESRGB board. I have installed the 22.31 revision with a v2 marking on the FPGA inside my PAL front loader.

It had issues with starting unreliably (led 0 on/led 7 blinking) and came across this post and the other post dedicated to the issue. Sadly the hardware fix: cut pin 22, solder 1K resistor between pin 40 and 22 did not resolve the issue. Led 1 was now on but I got no video output from the NESRGB.

I tried the MCU firmware 2.1 upgrade next but sadly the MCU did not seem to accept the firmware. Now the firmware on the MCU seems to be wiped (it does not react to button combinations anymore).

I was really looking forward for this mod since I have heard good stories from it (especially from the v3). But this v4 revision seems to have a lot of issues, I hope Tim comes with a solution for us since I share the same frustration as the other users here.
KPackratt2k
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by KPackratt2k »

Lopenator wrote:I wish I had a nesrgb v3.0. I do not care about palletes and I use the same one all the time. Unfortunately I wasn't able to purchase that revision due to financial issues. I've saved up for the next release which was 4.0 paying all my bills first and finally had some $ I could put into nesrgb 4.0. I would trade my faulty 4.0 for a 3.0 in an instant, but who wouldn't?
Even though I've never had problems with my NESRGB 4.0, I still regret not getting the 3.0 when I had the chance because I don't know how long the one I have will last due to the problems reported here. Hopefully Tim listens and provides fixes for everyone having problems. If he's busy with personal life things, I would understand the reason for communication issues, but he could've at least told everyone that he was busy and wouldn't have time to respond until a specified time period, that certainly would've eased the pain at least a little bit. Usually he's pretty good at answering my emails (even though the last time I wrote him was before the v4.0 release), so something must be up.

I would at least be open to a free trade-in to a future revision of NESRGB (v4.1 perhaps?) once all the problems are solved. Although 2238 allegedly fixes 2231's problems, it's still not trouble-free as I've seen reports of failed installations because of a problem with the reset circuit which requires cutting a pin and isolating it to fix.
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Lopenator
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by Lopenator »

KPackratt2k wrote:
Lopenator wrote:I wish I had a nesrgb v3.0. I do not care about palletes and I use the same one all the time. Unfortunately I wasn't able to purchase that revision due to financial issues. I've saved up for the next release which was 4.0 paying all my bills first and finally had some $ I could put into nesrgb 4.0. I would trade my faulty 4.0 for a 3.0 in an instant, but who wouldn't?
Even though I've never had problems with my NESRGB 4.0, I still regret not getting the 3.0 when I had the chance because I don't know how long the one I have will last due to the problems reported here. Hopefully Tim listens and provides fixes for everyone having problems. If he's busy with personal life things, I would understand the reason for communication issues, but he could've at least told everyone that he was busy and wouldn't have time to respond until a specified time period, that certainly would've eased the pain at least a little bit. Usually he's pretty good at answering my emails (even though the last time I wrote him was before the v4.0 release), so something must be up.

I would at least be open to a free trade-in to a future revision of NESRGB (v4.1 perhaps?) once all the problems are solved. Although 2238 allegedly fixes 2231's problems, it's still not trouble-free as I've seen reports of failed installations because of a problem with the reset circuit which requires cutting a pin and isolating it to fix.
22.38 does fix 22.31 but as you said there are plenty of 22.38 bugs also. Most boards don't even boot on front loaders without a fix.
viletim
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by viletim »

I have documented the hardware mods to fix the Interrupt detection firmware bug and the Clock hardware bug on the 22.31 boards. I will send the CLOCKFIX and INTFIX boards to anybody that requests them, free of charge, just tell me your order number. Also, anybody who cannot fix the Palette RAM metastability firmware bug with a capacitor connected to pin 13, or has some other show stopping problem please contact me for a replacement NESRGB board.

https://etim.net.au/WebHelp/
Lopenator wrote:22.38 does fix 22.31 but as you said there are plenty of 22.38 bugs also. Most boards don't even boot on front loaders without a fix.
There are four bugs in 22.31, and one in 22.38, least that I am aware of. Isolating the reset signal should be a definitive fix for the 22.38 on front loader consoles.
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Lopenator
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by Lopenator »

Thanks for the correction on that. I'm not familiar with 22.38 because I have a 22.31. my apologies.
Marukyu
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by Marukyu »

Thanks for the update Tim. Hopefully this is the end of the problems for you for the foreseeable future.
travette
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by travette »

Thanks Tim, appreciate your help!
starlightk7
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by starlightk7 »

viletim wrote:I have documented the hardware mods to fix the Interrupt detection firmware bug and the Clock hardware bug on the 22.31 boards. I will send the CLOCKFIX and INTFIX boards to anybody that requests them, free of charge, just tell me your order number. Also, anybody who cannot fix the Palette RAM metastability firmware bug with a capacitor connected to pin 13, or has some other show stopping problem please contact me for a replacement NESRGB board.

https://etim.net.au/WebHelp/
Hi Tim,
Thanks for getting back to us. Is there no fix to restore the proper functionality for the color tint issue? If not, I'd rather just take you up on on the offer to exchange for a replacement board so that everything works correctly. Also, I think you should link to this help page and the MCU firmware update page directly from the errata page. It is not possible to find them without referencing this external forum's threads as far as I can tell.
viletim
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by viletim »

starlightk7 wrote:Thanks for getting back to us. Is there no fix to restore the proper functionality for the color tint issue? If not, I'd rather just take you up on on the offer to exchange for a replacement board so that everything works correctly.
No, there isn't. I don't think it's all that important. The effect is minor and isn't used very much - the NES emulators I have don't even implement it. If it's really important to you I will replace your board though.
starlightk7 wrote:Also, I think you should link to this help page and the MCU firmware update page directly from the errata page. It is not possible to find them without referencing this external forum's threads as far as I can tell.
My documentation is a mess currently - I'm working on it. I'll link this new help section to the main website and shop. I intend to add new pages to it frequently. It seems to be low resistance way to turn emails into help articles which I didn't have a good place to put previously.
elgarlic
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by elgarlic »

viletim wrote:
starlightk7 wrote:Thanks for getting back to us. Is there no fix to restore the proper functionality for the color tint issue? If not, I'd rather just take you up on on the offer to exchange for a replacement board so that everything works correctly.
No, there isn't. I don't think it's all that important. The effect is minor and isn't used very much
I'd agree if it wasn't for Final Fantasy. Random battles are frequent (to say the least), and I would say that the screen flashing is an iconic part of the battle starting.
viletim wrote: the NES emulators I have don't even implement it.
... NESticle? :P
starlightk7
Posts: 43
Joined: Tue Aug 23, 2022 12:09 pm

Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by starlightk7 »

viletim wrote: No, there isn't. I don't think it's all that important. The effect is minor and isn't used very much - the NES emulators I have don't even implement it. If it's really important to you I will replace your board though.
Thanks Tim, I'll happily accept that offer. I'll sync up with you over email.

No hard feelings from me, I'd still happily both buy and recommend your products again as things get settled. Despite these bumps with 4.x, I still love the NESRGB itself a lot and have been very happy with the 3.0 board I have. Actually bought a 2600RGB recently too and intend to order an SMSFM soon :-)

Cheers
fernan1234
Posts: 2175
Joined: Mon Aug 14, 2017 8:34 pm

Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by fernan1234 »

elgarlic wrote:I'd agree if it wasn't for Final Fantasy. Random battles are frequent (to say the least), and I would say that the screen flashing is an iconic part of the battle starting.
Yeah, and it's actually not a "minor" effect rarely used. And even if it were, when you're going out of your way to design or use a modification board just so you can get RGB out of original hardware instead of using the many accurate FPGA and software emulation options available out there, you probably do want your original hardware to behave exactly as it should in every single way (with the exception of the "improved" video output, of course).

Probably not good to set standards lower than that, and inaccurate emulators can't be a good reference obviously.
starlightk7
Posts: 43
Joined: Tue Aug 23, 2022 12:09 pm

Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by starlightk7 »

fernan1234 wrote:...when you're going out of your way to design or use a modification board just so you can get RGB out of original hardware instead of using the many accurate FPGA and software emulation options available out there, you probably do want your original hardware to behave exactly as it should in every single way
That's more or less how I feel about it, especially given i do have a working NESRGB3.0 unit too.
elgarlic wrote:I'd agree if it wasn't for Final Fantasy. Random battles are frequent (to say the least), and I would say that the screen flashing is an iconic part of the battle starting.
This is the one that would bother me the most too. I've been playing my NES cart of it for 30+ years now. I know well how it's supposed to look and it'd really bother me for it not to be correct. When that's actually one of the games I play most often, that's a deal breaker for me personally.

If I didn't have 3 decades of memories of it maybe I wouldn't care as much, but I'd probably also be playing on a mister or emulator in that case. I only want to play on the original hardware precisely because I want the exact nostalgic feelings of my childhood when I play. Back in the day because we replayed games so often, I have such strong memories of the "feel" of the game that I'm never happy playing on an emulator. Mister is markedly better, but its still just not the same to me. That's why I'd rather future proof the original experience :-)
Marukyu
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Oct 08, 2019 3:23 pm

Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by Marukyu »

Anyone gotten a response? Dunno if the orders@etim.net.au email is the correct one for inquiries like this.
starlightk7
Posts: 43
Joined: Tue Aug 23, 2022 12:09 pm

Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by starlightk7 »

Marukyu wrote:Anyone gotten a response? Dunno if the orders@etim.net.au email is the correct one for inquiries like this.
I received a response and set up my exchange. You might get a response faster if you reply to your original order confirmation email (not sure if he is using an inbox sorting rule). Otherwise, just give it a day or two.
starlightk7
Posts: 43
Joined: Tue Aug 23, 2022 12:09 pm

Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by starlightk7 »

I received my fixed boards from Tim this morning. He seems to have done what I suggested earlier in the thread and took the 2231 boards I returned to him and replaced the FPGAs with new ones that are flashed with updated firmware. So I have 2231 "V3"s now, which I assume is the firmware he will start shipping in the new batch this coming week (assuming it fixes the 2238 issue as well). I will get to installing them soon :-)
starlightk7
Posts: 43
Joined: Tue Aug 23, 2022 12:09 pm

Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by starlightk7 »

Installed one of my fixed 2231 V3 boards in my AV Famicom first. Works perfect with no issues. Will work on the Famicom Twin tonight, then OG Famicom and Frontloader later this week.

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Thanks Tim for repairing my boards :)
elephantthief
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Feb 27, 2023 7:02 pm

Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by elephantthief »

Marukyu wrote:Anyone gotten a response? Dunno if the orders@etim.net.au email is the correct one for inquiries like this.
Did you ever hear back? I would like to get mine replaced but have not heard back yet. It's only been a couple days though.
starlightk7 wrote:Installed one of my fixed 2231 V3 boards in my AV Famicom first. Works perfect with no issues. Will work on the Famicom Twin tonight, then OG Famicom and Frontloader later this week.

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Thanks Tim for repairing my boards :)
Awesome. Just curious, are you in Australia? As I'm in the US, I wonder if I would send to Tim or to the US distributor...
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