shmups.system11.org

Here's how!

1. Install a NESRGB component add on board.
2. Install a DPDT switch to two SNES connector pins. For example, attach the switch output to pins 1 and 4. Switch one way for red/blue output, switch the other way for PR/PB output. Y (luma) is wired to pin 7 per standard configuration. Alternatively you could switch pins 8 (chroma) and 9 (composite video).
3. Build a component output cable - (pin 7 luma; pin 1 PR; pin 4 PB; pin 11 AL; pin 12 AR). You could even use two AV cables and just swap the pins out or just buy a SNES connector and a bundled component cable and wire it right up!

Done!

Well, I do actually have another plan for that NES that would require that area of the case to be empty. It goes against the idea of that NES being "stock-like," but I'm heavily considering putting a Famicom cartridge slot on the top of the NES.

Honestly dude I probably would not offer this even if I did do paid modwork still. I actually DESPISE doing all the ports. I only do this sort of crap when I am board and this time around I wanted to make something over the top looking, basically a conversation piece when non technical friends come over. They see all the bullshit on the back and think its cool even though there are sleeker, less crowded methods available. When I was doing these as commissions I would do a single RGB port and the phono style component video jack. It looked less crowded than this and I could wire systems for whatever style of RGB cable people wanted.

Also the RGB cable on this is proprietary as the RGB port is screw on. You push the din connector in then screw it to the system. If you use say a Neo-Geo RGB cable it will be too loose. I did this for two reasons. The first is I move my personal systems so much cables tend to fray or come apart from being connected and disconnected so many times. I only have one setup so any time I took work for a friend or commissioner my stuff had to be removed. This cable will literally never come apart on me since everything is screwed and clamped into place, no crimping or gluing. Secondly the port and connector are extremely overkill and insanely high quality, they were used to match the other over the top bullshit use on the console (for instance the RCA jacks are brass with gold plating).

I normally don't do crowded builds like that, I just wanted to do something way out of the norm to mix things up a bit. Doing the same crap over and over gets a bit boring and sometimes its fun to go back to my modding roots of trying to do different looking things to make it a bit more unique looking.

Gee, is that all?

I didn't think there was any way around the component add-on board, which I remember Skips being very impressed with... but if I'm going the multi-out route I think the cable that Guspaz pointed out just seems easier. If it ever comes out, anyway!



Sounds good to me. Only thing I'd be worried about is the dust flaps.

I also have to say, I really like your idea for the different-colored LEDs for the palettes. I was thinking purple for the PlayChoice-10 palette (because I'd think of the purple skies in Super Mario Bros.), and either green or blue for the Improved palette.



I dunno, I actually want it to be a friggin' tank. There's plenty of real estate on the back and to put just the multi-out is like a pretty girl with short hair. That port-style mod really does, hand on heart, look super clean. If you say those ports are hard to do then I guess that's that, but I was under the impression that making the square hole for the multi-out was even harder. Or at least the way game-tech.us does it.

For sleek, the only way to go is the Hi-Def NES on a top loader, and I know that introduces its own can of bees.

I did not say they were harder. I said I dislike doing them. I dislike having to take the extra time to print a pattern and line the stuff up then spend the time drilling extra holes and wiring even more RCA jacks. Also I did not say I did SNES AV ports, I did din and mini din connectors wired to whatever pin out the customer asked. The few times I did SNES AV ports I put them in the area the IO kit has them in since its super easy to cut the hole there. For the most part I STRONGLY disagreed with sacking consoles for those ports and unless it was the new 3d printed ones or came directly off a FOR SURE dead SNES/Gamecube I refused outright to sack a customers SNES for it.

You could put one of Tim's RGB-YUV converters inside, but you have to pick between one or the other. There aren't enough pins for both.

OK, can anyone explain this schematic? I want to try on my av famicom.
What's the meaning of TP7, TP8, TP9 and the arrows facing down?

The TP# is just a label, just go by the descriptions in green.
Arrow down is ground

Thanks for the help. Do you recommend any specific place to use as ground?

Hi guys,

I have some problem with a NESRGB mod in a PAL NES frontloader. The RGB output looks sharp and great but I experience some issues as you can see in the video below :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LyB-bGxeNU
- Picture colors looks wrong. Some sprite colors seems good though (Check Mario sprite for example)
- Some display artifacts such as some line of bricks in SMB title in the middle of the screen

My jumper configuration is the following : J3 J4 J7 J8 are shorted

These are the tests I've done so far for investigation :
- Tried different game cartridge => same problem
- Tried different power supply => same problem
- Flash the PLD with V1.7 => same problem
- Checked continuity in mainboard side and NESRGB board side => seems ok
- Checked composite output in PPUV pin. I got this weird black and gray display :

- Removed the NESRGB board completely and put the PPU back in the mainboard => Original composite output is fine

I'm running out of ideas to find the cause of the problem. Does anyone have some advice ?

Thanks in advance.

Dumb question maybe, but this circuit requires the use of audio input and audio output a/b from NES RGB board, right?
If I am correct, I must connect the output on av multi out and cut the original audio trace, right? Where is the audio trace?

Sorry, I do not know exactly what is your problem, but the installation guide says you only need short the J3, J4 and J7 jumpers.
Maybe is a compatibility issue with the type of sync selected on NES RGB board and yout scart cable.

Tim has recently updated the NESRGB to version 1.4. Now instead of CS# only being TTL, it also supports CS# being 75 ohm (recommended).

I recently did a customer install where they use an XRGB mini with CSYNC JP21 cable (latest firmware - 2.00a). For some reason, the cable works with SNES/N64 but NOT Nintendo with NESRGB. They only get black screen and audio! AV/SVideo to CRT works great.

I don't have the system to play with, but I would guess the problem is J8 shorted (75 ohm CSYNC) instead of TTL.

Anyone else run into this sort of problem? Or got XRGB Mini to work with CSYNC 75 ohm??

What is the difference between TTL and 75 ohm?
If I want the standard CSYNC, all I have to do is leave the jumper J8 open?

Everything is 75 ohm. The only exception is for equipment that is designed for VGA / computer stuff (Extron scalers for example).

A TTL sync signal is not compatible with, and cannot be connected directly to, a 75 ohm sync input (eg, composite video input). The CS# signal on the NESRGB is not really a TTL output. It's a TTL signal with a series resistor. This way it works reasonably well with both TTL and 75 ohm input when directly connected.

Now it's like this. Hardly any difference, really.


It will work with 75 ohm sync inputs regardless whether jumper J8 is open or closed. If it's closed it will be completely impedance matched + standards compliant. If it's open it will be similar to what it was like before - close enough.

The problem is this cable will almost certainly have a resistor or something inside to adapt the TTL sync signal from the Super Nintendo to a 75 ohm sync signal level. The extra component(s), in addition to the resistor already on the will attenuate the signal too much and prevent it from working reliably. The NESRGB was designed to work with straight wire cables only.

The grey/white picture from the original video output is normal when the NESRGB is running. It look normal if no palette is selected (NESRGB is off).

Wrong colours can be caused by a bad connection on the EXT0-3 pins (14-17) between the PPU and the NESRGB. That conspicuous row of bricks on the Mario title screen is a bit strange though! Maybe there's something wrong with your NESRGB board. Please send me an email.

Thanks!

I've succeeded and modded these converters:



Now both of them are running on the single cable going to the expansion port. Everything seems OK, except that some games (Jurassic Park, Lode Runner or Flying Heroes, to name a few) doesn't recognize button pressings at all. The reason for that is probably because I should swap first converter's data channel from the expansion port's 13th pin's DATA(1) to DATA(0) taken from the first controller. Does anyone have the clue which pin of the original famicom's first controller is for data? Because I failed to find pinouts for that.

Guys, I am troubleshooting a new NESRGB install and need to confirm one thing.

Are the pins from the PPU chip on the NESRGB supposed to all have a direct connection to the legs coming out of the NESRGB board, going into the socket on the motherboard where the PPU used to sit?

I ask because I was doing continuity tests and discovered that while all the top row legs have direct connections the bottom row has quite a few legs without. Now this might very well be because those legs are bein routed into components on the board, but it could also be loose connections.

If I could get hold of a high res picture of a NESRGB board with prior to mod zi could verify myself, but the picture above is too low res.

Also, we are supposed to bridge J3 on the NESRGB board, right?

IIRC not all of the pins are connected. It's been a while since I've done an NESRGB install so I can't say with certainty.


If you're not using an external regulator, yes.

Anyone, please?

I have two RGB mods. One in an AV fami, and one in a Front loader. The Front loader has a major issue - there are diagonal lines running through everything! This is in Svideo out, for both. Same cable. I took these photos with 30 seconds of each other.

http://imgur.com/a/FcrGk

I'm hoping someone could direct me on how to trouble shoot.

Umm it's the trace that connects to the audio pins on the multiout? It's pretty obvious.

I believe that someone had a similar problem, many, many pages back. Have a browse through here and you might find it. Sorry I can't help more.

hhmmmm could this be why I get erratic behavior on my LG screens? I have a nesrgb from the 2nd batch that I replaced the SRAM , it works everywhere except the 2 LG screens I have when I connect it directly (via framemeister it's OK) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkKFgF7k3s8
Is there a way to add this "standards compliant" csync to an old board like mine?

I just had the joy of repairing an lg plasma tv. the tv isnt that old and the capacitors on the secondary power supply already blew their tops and were leaking.

from this observation, i dont think lg is using good parts in their tvs.

I rebuilt the board with panasonics and it most likely wont leak again. for the life of the tv.

perhaps your sync problems are related to other component cost cutting measures.

^ well I haven't noticed this behavior with anything else, just the nesrgb... and I use this tv daily. It's some sort of incompatibility IMHO.

Tim, I can now confirm that the XRGB mini with latest firmware (2.00a) does not work with the NESRGB 1.4 with CSYNC set to 75ohm. It works great with TTL setting. There are no resistors/caps in SCART/RGB cable for sync wire.

I think the installation instructions be updated to reflect this finding.

The early version, the one marked only NESRGB on the silkscreen with no number after it, has a bad sync separator circuit. You should use PPUV video signal for sync in this case.



It does work with the XRGB mini and all other devices with SCART/75 ohm RGB inputs. How sure are you that your cable doesn't have components inside? Did you build it yourself?

My boards have "NESRGB T.W. 2013" silkscreened so they are old... I am using LUMA as sync , is this affected as well?
Could one "upgrade" the sync seperator on these old boards or does it require a huge change? (I did replace the srams back then so this kind of soldering is no problem for me...) Maybe I can make some small board with the new sync stuff and just add it to the NESRGB like the component addon?

The cable was built by that lady on eBay. It only has 220 ohm caps on RGB lines. Cable works great with snes/n64 using sync generated by those consoles, black screen/audio only on Nesrgb. I've had multiple customers report this issue, and this is a result of my finding.

Opening J8 fixes the issue.