Tim's N64RGB strange colors after some working days.

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mvmiranda
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Sep 04, 2018 1:44 pm

Tim's N64RGB strange colors after some working days.

Post by mvmiranda »

Hello all!
First of all, thanks for stopping by and reading my post!
It's a somewhat long one but carefully written with all of the info I have collected so far!

PICTURES BELLOW!

Some weeks ago I ordered two N64RGB boards from Tim (BTW, they are awesome!!) and installed myself. I'm pretty much experienced in doing mods and have modded other consoles since 2011 or so.

Everything was fine until last Saturday (Sep, 1st) when the colors changed, out of the blue.
The board worked for some days (like 4 or so), then, in a gaming session of approximately 2 hours, the colors changed while I was still playing.
I had no issues with sound, the game didn't freeze or anything else other than the colors changing.
I was using borti4938's alternate firmware with IGR.

I've opened everything up again and just checked... Everything seemed fine only the "output cables - R, G, B, GND and CSync" seemed a little bit pinched (it turned out they weren't), so I turned the console on and gave the cables (output and source) a good wiggle but nothing changed.
I triple checked the solder (VDC-NUS, board, cables) measured continuity (for shorts or broken cables) and nothing seems to be wrong!
I'm using a Chinese SCART cable sync on Luma and it works flawlessly on my SNES.
If I use the normal AV the colors seem to be fine!

I talked to Tim and he pointed me to an old post here where he describes how to quickly check for potential problems.
I reverted the firmware back to v.1.2, put my multimeter on continuity and did the measuring process. No pads are shorted to GND!
The values are pretty close to each other except the 3.3v which is half, basically.
Here they are:
3.3v 622
D0 1164
D1 1178
D2 1169
D3 1169
D4 1170
D5 1171
D6 1174
DS# 1175
CLK 1060
PS: The test was done with the console powered off, without any cable plugged, no game or jumper/expansion pak inserted.

Since I have a spare board I proceeded to install it.
I unsoldered everything from the N64RGB board, carefully removed it from the heatsink using a sharp long blade (nothing was scratched during the process) and soldered the new one. It worked right off the bat!

Does anyone know what it could be?
Should I try a board reflow?
Measure any specific resistor for, maybe, changing it?

These are some pictures I took. They show the issue and the same console used with AV.
Installation:
Image Image Image Image

RGB wrong collors:
Image Image

AV good collors:
Image Image

Thanks!
mvmiranda
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Sep 04, 2018 1:44 pm

Re: Tim's N64RGB strange colors after some working days.

Post by mvmiranda »

Tim sent me another email asking me to install the RGB board in another N64 mainboard, as a final test.
He said if the RGB board didn't work on that other console as well he'd consider it faulty!

I installed the RGB board in another N64 a 2000 MAV-NUS mainboard, using his pin adapter, and got the exact same results...

I gonna close this treat since Tim himself is considering the RGB board faulty! :P

Thx all!
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