NESRGB board available now

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nmalinoski
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by nmalinoski »

Danexmurder wrote:I salvaged a SNES multi-out from a bad SNES motherboard. I'm having trouble figuring out how to wire audio for it though. Since the NES is mono should I just run the audio from the audio out to both the left and right audio on the multi-out? I also decided I wanted to do a 4 position rotary switch for palette selection and toggling composite video out. Has anyone on here done something like that successfully? Thanks!
My understanding is that most TVs will assume having just the left channel connected means mono audio, so just run it to the left channel. Alternatively, you can track down an audio amp/splitter board to duplicate the audio to the right channel.
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Konsolkongen
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by Konsolkongen »

Yes, just connect the audio to both the L and R pin of the SNES socket.
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IPD
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by IPD »

What cable do I need to connect my NESRGB modded PAL NES to my TV?

I have a PAL NES (front loader) which was modded with etim's NESRGB kit a while ago, and they also added a SNES Multi out port to the NES. I was told to buy a SNES NTSC Csync cable in order to connect it to my TV (which has scart btw). Is that correct?

Would this be the correct choice: https://www.retrogamingcables.co.uk/pac ... gold-scart ? (and should I choose "csync 470Ω" or "csync pass-trhough"?)
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Digital Dragon
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by Digital Dragon »

IPD wrote:What cable do I need to connect my NESRGB modded PAL NES to my TV?

I have a PAL NES (front loader) which was modded with etim's NESRGB kit a while ago, and they also added a SNES Multi out port to the NES. I was told to buy a SNES NTSC Csync cable in order to connect it to my TV (which has scart btw). Is that correct?

Would this be the correct choice: https://www.retrogamingcables.co.uk/pac ... gold-scart ? (and should I choose "csync 470Ω" or "csync pass-trhough"?)
Well if you have any pics of the inside of the NES that'd really help. If you don't have pics, and don't want to unscrew it, then it depends. Is that cable reccomendation from the modder? If so then yes an NTSC csync cable would be best. As to wether it should be 470ohm or passthrough, if J8 was left un-jumpered you would get about 0.7Vpp with passthrough or about 0.37Vpp with the 470ohm cable. Both within the 0.3 to 0.9Vpp safe range for 75ohm tv's.

However, if J8 was jumpered, it would lower the voltage. So with both the passthrough cable and 470ohm cable you'd get less voltage. Seeing as if you lower that 0.37Vpp it may go too low with both J8 shorted and the 470ohm resistor to lower it. It may be best to avoid the 470ohm cable, and just use the passthrough.
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Syntax
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by Syntax »

FBX wrote:
The thing about Tim's version 1.4 board with the J8 jumper is he has a 470 Ohm resistor in series already on the line. So at load, it's like 700mv even with J8 open. That's in the upper range for SCART, but still well within tolerance. But if you use an RGB cable with another say 470 Ohm resistor (and still leave J8 open), that will bring it down to like 350mV or so, which is perfectly fine too. If you're using a straight cable, just close J8 and you'll be fine. Leaving it open isn't going to send actual TTL voltage to your equipment, even though Tim labels it as such.
FBX summed up the lack of danger in using the TTL signal from NESRGB last page.
An NTSC SNES cable has caps in it. You dont want caps.
A Pal one has termination resistors. You dont want that either.

Get a cable with 0 components.
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IPD
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by IPD »

Digital Dragon wrote:Well if you have any pics of the inside of the NES that'd really help.
So I think it's probably best to just unscrew it. I'll do that and take a few pics. :)
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Danexmurder
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by Danexmurder »

I'm working on wiring up my NESRGB to a salvaged SNES multi out. I'm looking on advice for the best way to actually connect to the pins. It's a pain in the ass trying to solder to them directly. I keep burning plastic. Are there any sort of pin connectors that you guys usually use for something like that? Has anyone done like a through-hole jumper board?
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evil_ash_xero
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by evil_ash_xero »

I am amazed at how many pages this product has, after being out so long.

It is a great product though.
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IPD
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by IPD »

Digital Dragon wrote: Well if you have any pics of the inside of the NES that'd really help. If you don't have pics, and don't want to unscrew it, then it depends. Is that cable reccomendation from the modder? If so then yes an NTSC csync cable would be best. As to wether it should be 470ohm or passthrough, if J8 was left un-jumpered you would get about 0.7Vpp with passthrough or about 0.37Vpp with the 470ohm cable. Both within the 0.3 to 0.9Vpp safe range for 75ohm tv's.

However, if J8 was jumpered, it would lower the voltage. So with both the passthrough cable and 470ohm cable you'd get less voltage. Seeing as if you lower that 0.37Vpp it may go too low with both J8 shorted and the 470ohm resistor to lower it. It may be best to avoid the 470ohm cable, and just use the passthrough.
Syntax wrote: FBX summed up the lack of danger in using the TTL signal from NESRGB last page.
An NTSC SNES cable has caps in it. You dont want caps.
A Pal one has termination resistors. You dont want that either.

Get a cable with 0 components.
So I've checked now. J8 was left unsoldered by the modder. So I should choose the SNES CSYNC Pass-through (TTL) cable, right?
moltomolto
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by moltomolto »

I had my NES RGB modded with Borti's IGR I/O board but it displays no image at all through my Gscartsw lite. Direct into my PVM through SCART to BNC though works great, so I'm a bit confused. What could possibly be causing this? They should be compatible from what I understand...
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FBX
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by FBX »

IPD wrote:
Digital Dragon wrote:
So I've checked now. J8 was left unsoldered by the modder. So I should choose the SNES CSYNC Pass-through (TTL) cable, right?
If you want 700mV peak-to-peak under load, which is the highest default of the NESRGB 1.4 output, yes. If that's too low voltage under load for your TTL input, you might want to consider removing or changing the 470 Ohm resistor that's on the csync trace in the NESRGB board.
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evil_ash_xero
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by evil_ash_xero »

Anyone have any idea of how many of these sold?

It's a great device.
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Danexmurder
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by Danexmurder »

It's alive! I finally got my NES RGB mod/full recap up and running. This was a big undertaking as my only previous mod was a 1chip-01 RGB bypass. I learned a LOT doing this. I had to do a lot of internet digging to get all the info I needed to do this mod. Partly because I'm a noob to all of this and partly because documentation out there isn't super great. It's definitely fine for people with a moderate understanding of electronics and soldering but it's tough on someone new to this stuff. That said it's totally possible and I had fun making mistakes and learning.

First big mistake was destroying my first NES motherboard while trying to get the ground pins on the PPU desoldered. I had my vacuum set to 450c and let it sit for a while but it still didn't get all the solder on the first pass. I didn't have desolder wick and just kept trying to vacuum it out. I eventually destroyed the through holes. Lesson learned.

Everything else went pretty smooth right up until I had to attach the palette wires. I've just been using a cheapy $15 doller soldering iron and apparently the temp regulation wasn't great. As a result I managed to lift the pad on each palette contact. Luckily I was able to salvage this area by using the through holes, and scratching the trace on Pad 1 and globbing solder all over that whole area to make a contact. It's not pretty but it's functional.

I manged to wire up the rotary switch and I think it's a great solution! It took me a minute to figure out how to wire it but it totally makes sense now. I didn't realize that "ground" was basically whatever the palette is. So after making that mental leap wiring up the switch was incredibly easy. I just needed a 1-pole 4 through switch.

I got it all together and fired it up and it works! I have noticed a bit of signal interference and I'll probably be on here asking for help on sorting that out. It was very noticeable in SMB but in a game like Mega Man 2 it wasn't as prevalent. In the photos of all the monitors you'll notice a darker band on the screen. It would sort of scroll from the top of the screen to the bottom.

I set it up to use TTL sync and I've heard that can cause interference issues. Can anyone chime in on that?

Image
Image
Image

Next up is installing the J-tag adapter and updating the firmware/palettes!
tn61
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by tn61 »

I have installed NESRGB on french NES and used it's own AV-out port. However I get checkerboards on some solid colors and I suppose using CSYNC can fix that?

My question is would it be possible to just install 8pin din-connector and desolder J8 + using CS#? or can I use CSYNC with french NES' own AV port?
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Digital Dragon
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by Digital Dragon »

tn61 wrote:I have installed NESRGB on french NES and used it's own AV-out port. However I get checkerboards on some solid colors and I suppose using CSYNC can fix that?

My question is would it be possible to just install 8pin din-connector and desolder J8 + using CS#? or can I use CSYNC with french NES' own AV port?
I wouldn't bother with J8 honestly, The csync voltage is only 0.7vp-p with it open so its fine. As to the multi out, I'm sure there must be a way to disconnect composite and wire csync to the multi out, but I'm not sure how. How did you disconnect the original 'RGB' lines?
NewYears1978
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by NewYears1978 »

Does anyone sell the 8pin cables with Audio separate? I cannot find them anywhere (except the kits..I want a premade one)

I had someone install a NESRGB board on my NES awhile back and he did it with an 8pin and the audio is on a 3.5mm port on the back of the NES separately. I still have a cable but it's getting flimsy and I was trying to find a spare.
sofakng
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by sofakng »

Quick question... is there a power LED on the NESRGB?

I've just rewired my system (to use an SNES style multi-out and dejitter board) and now I'm not getting any signal. I'm looking at the NESRGB board (v1.2) and I'm not seeing any LEDs indicating +5v power?

Also, I'm using an SNES CSYNC scart cable with the 470 Ohm resistor... do I need to short any jumpers on my NESRGB for that? (aside from obviously using CS#, but I'm using the Marqs dejitter board for csync)
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Digital Dragon
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by Digital Dragon »

sofakng wrote:Quick question... is there a power LED on the NESRGB?

I've just rewired my system (to use an SNES style multi-out and dejitter board) and now I'm not getting any signal. I'm looking at the NESRGB board (v1.2) and I'm not seeing any LEDs indicating +5v power?

Also, I'm using an SNES CSYNC scart cable with the 470 Ohm resistor... do I need to short any jumpers on my NESRGB for that? (aside from obviously using CS#, but I'm using the Marqs dejitter board for csync)
No there is no LED, you could try using a multimeter to test for power. I'd always reccomend leaving J8 unshorted especially if you're using a cable with a resistor on the sync line. Maybe try a different sync source to see if the boards working at all and see if it's the Csync thats causing a problem.
sofakng
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by sofakng »

Well, I found my problem but I think I fried something.

Here is what I'm getting regardless of having a cartridge inserted:

Image

The problem was that I had the wrong pin-out for the SNES multi-out connector. I was using the pin-out from here: http://pinouts.ru/Game/n64video_pinout.shtml

I either misunderstood or misread the pins. I thought pin 1 was in the upper-left of the female connector if you are looking into the connector, NOT from the back. Anyways, I corrected my mistake but I don't know what I killed. I think +5v was sent to the Blue wire and GND wasn't present (it was on the S-Video Y/C which weren't connected).

Anyways... any idea if I fried the NESRGB, PPU, or something else?

I tested the cable with my SNES and it works so the cable isn't fried. I also tried my OSSC and it seems OK (but my PSX seemed to show it's display mixed with the OSSC grayscale pattern... not sure exactly, but afterwards it worked fine)

Thanks for any help ...
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Danexmurder
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by Danexmurder »

I was wondering if anyone that has updated their NESRGB Palettes can chime in. I'm trying to update the palettes on my board on a windows 10 machine and it's failing out every time I try to program it with the Quartus 2 software. I'm at a loss here. The Green "ACT" light will light up when I try to send the signal but I get a (Failed) in the progress bar every time. Thanks!
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Digital Dragon
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by Digital Dragon »

Danexmurder wrote:I was wondering if anyone that has updated their NESRGB Palettes can chime in. I'm trying to update the palettes on my board on a windows 10 machine and it's failing out every time I try to program it with the Quartus 2 software. I'm at a loss here. The Green "ACT" light will light up when I try to send the signal but I get a (Failed) in the progress bar every time. Thanks!
Well not that I really knew what I was doing;

Make sure NES has power.
Use a multimeter to check all the wires you've made.
Apply slight sideways pressure to the 6 pins on the NESrgb just to make sure it's actually touching.
Follow Firebrandx's instructions from his website, it needs to be done in a certain order.

Hope this helps.
p.s. What palettes have you chosen? I went with FBX Smooth, Wavebeam, and I rewired the switch for composite video.
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FBX
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by FBX »

Danexmurder wrote:I was wondering if anyone that has updated their NESRGB Palettes can chime in. I'm trying to update the palettes on my board on a windows 10 machine and it's failing out every time I try to program it with the Quartus 2 software. I'm at a loss here. The Green "ACT" light will light up when I try to send the signal but I get a (Failed) in the progress bar every time. Thanks!
Might want to check my web site and make sure you've got everything in the right vias with a good connection, and yes, the NES needs to be powered on. I got to where it was such a messy pain in the ass that I installed a 10-line ribbon port that the Altrea USB Blasters use on my NES:

http://www.firebrandx.com/nespalette.html

-FBX
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ApolloBoy
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by ApolloBoy »

FBX wrote:and yes, the NES needs to be powered on.
If you modify your USB Blaster you can actually program the NESRGB without powering on your system. IIRC it's just adding a single wire inside to provide the 3.3V needed to program the CPLD in the NESRGB.
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FBX
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by FBX »

ApolloBoy wrote:
FBX wrote:and yes, the NES needs to be powered on.
If you modify your USB Blaster you can actually program the NESRGB without powering on your system. IIRC it's just adding a single wire inside to provide the 3.3V needed to program the CPLD in the NESRGB.
Since I have the external port now, it's not needed. I just power on the NES and it's fine to do it that way.
nmalinoski
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by nmalinoski »

Is there any chance of an all-in-one NESRGB with dejitter support (and perhaps the YPbPr board integrated)?
tzakiel
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by tzakiel »

I have one of the fake nesrgb voltage regulators mentioned here: http://etim.net.au/nesrgb/background_fault/

Which part is the correct one that I need? Can that be ordered from somewhere or how should I go about getting the right one? I’m capable of soldering it/removing it.
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Syntax
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by Syntax »

Order the correct part from a reputable source and you should be fine.
Cross reference the pics you linked to be sure its correct when it arrives.
tzakiel
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by tzakiel »

Syntax wrote:Order the correct part from a reputable source and you should be fine.
Cross reference the pics you linked to be sure its correct when it arrives.
What’s the part?
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Syntax
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by Syntax »

Ummm Tim clearly states the part number and manufacturer in the link you posted.

Hint* Look for bold text.
tzakiel
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Re: NESRGB board available now

Post by tzakiel »

Oh ok, I see it now. Does digikey or mouser sell those, I assume so.
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