Questions that do not deserve a thread

[mimylovesjapan]

Ok. I did some tests with other consoles.
SNES is working, but the signal is bad, then adds some flickers.
DC syncronize only 1 second befor losing the signal.
Others aren't even syncronize.

Then, the problem doesn't come from my RGBHV to VGA cable, nor from the Extron, as it works with SNES. Using the H wire works well.

The problem seems to be some losing signal, because of quality of signal or weakness. The culprid seems to be the chinese adapter I use to do Scart to BNC -> https://ja.aliexpress.com/item/1005004625835608.html
There is no problem when I connect the consoles to the adapter to the PVM directly, but it seems that Extron ask for a better Csync signal.

Any suggestion to get a clean and powerful Csync from my consoles to the Extron ?

[tomsawyer]

I know this is some sort of a convergence issue but it is different than the convergence problems that i've had before (re the tone of the colours): https://imgur.com/a/FQAelPj Anybody have any idea what to do about it? Btw it's a pvm-1454qm so i'll have to open it up to adjust the convergence.

[diamondtron]

I've recently picked up an Extron MVX dsub matrix mostly by happenstance and am now integrating it into my setup. I'm wondering if anyone knows if I should not be outputting the TTL sync RGB from the Extron MVX into the following devices:

XRGB-3 (dsub input)
XPC-4 (dvi-i input)
XSELECT-D4 (dsub input)
Lumagen VisionHDQ (dvi-i input)

Yes I know this gear is pretty outdated haha. Appreciate any help

[lechu]

Really random question:

Does anyone know where to get a reasonably affordable desoldering station in Canada? I've tried looking for the more "budget friendly" ZD-915s, but they're always going for $300+ before shipping/taxes. I'm not doing anything crazy like an NESRGB, just replacing smaller parts here and there, so I don't want to invest in something like a Hakko.

[vol.2]

Really random question:

Does anyone know where to get a reasonably affordable desoldering station in Canada? I've tried looking for the more "budget friendly" ZD-915s, but they're always going for $300+ before shipping/taxes. I'm not doing anything crazy like an NESRGB, just replacing smaller parts here and there, so I don't want to invest in something like a Hakko.

I think you basically can either bite the bullet and get the Hakko, or just pick whichever cheapo Chinese model gets the best reviews on your chosen marketplace. There really isn't a cheat code for this one. The Hakko is great, and it's much cheaper than the professional models which cost 3 times or more.

Main difference I think you will find between them is that the Hakko will heat up instantly, and it will maintain it's heat setting extremely accurately. This is helpful if you are ever desoldering something on a big ground plane or binding posts. With a cheaper unit, you will end up holding the iron on the parts a lot longer, potentially damaging parts, traces and vias. The Hakko heats it up instantly and you're out of there.

If you're just removing a thing once in awhile, and it's never a big part or attached to a ground plane or an RF can (like the RF can on an NES), then either get the cheapo ones, or just let it go and use solder braid.

I didn't bother getting a desoldering gun until I was doing so much rework that I needed it. If you need it, you will probably want a decent one.

[DejahThoris]

Really random question:

Does anyone know where to get a reasonably affordable desoldering station in Canada? I've tried looking for the more "budget friendly" ZD-915s, but they're always going for $300+ before shipping/taxes. I'm not doing anything crazy like an NESRGB, just replacing smaller parts here and there, so I don't want to invest in something like a Hakko.

You're honestly better off just sucking it up and buying a Hakko if you're looking at 300+ anyway. Better to spend the same money on a quality one than some China thing. If you want to bide your time you can buy REALLY nice things from government surplus auctions and the like for well cheaper than those. But it does require some waiting.

NESRGB doesn't need any particular desoldering gun. Pre-heating the PCB will get it to a point where even cheapo desoldering setups will deal with it no issue.

[vol.2]

NESRGB doesn't need any particular desoldering gun. Pre-heating the PCB will get it to a point where even cheapo desoldering setups will deal with it no issue.

I did mine before I had the Hakko. I just used solder braid. The important thing is to make sure you have freed the PPU legs by wiggling them back and forth before you attempt to rip it out of the PCB.

[vol.2]

On Retrotink webpage, Mike says "This includes Genesis/32X and some PSOne models that have issues related to their noisy composite output producing an incorrectly colored or black and white image."

Does anyone know about this "noisy composite output" on PSOnes? If so, is there any known fixes?

My instinct is that this just relates to the crappy surface mount caps in the color outputs that always go bad, but maybe it's a design flaw?

[Konsolkongen]

The fix is to use RGB cables instead of composite

[vol.2]

The fix is to use RGB cables instead of composite

Hahaha. Yeah, I have RGB cables. I was asking because I use my PSOne sometimes with composite only TVs. It's so small and convenient.

[Konsolkongen]

There’s not much you can do easily to improve the quality of the composite output. The signal is generated by the RGB encoder chip, that converts RGB into composite and s-video.

You could replace this chip and circuit with a better one, but that wouldn’t be worth the hassle IMO. Especially if you already use the consoles with composite occasionally and think its fine as is.

[vol.2]

You could replace this chip and circuit with a better one, but that wouldn’t be worth the hassle IMO. Especially if you already use the consoles with composite occasionally and think its fine as is.

It's okay, but I can definitely notice that the color is blown out and oversaturated, even after replacing all the SMD caps. Looking at the schematics, it's all generated by a monolithic video output IC. I can't replace just the composite. For any improvement to be made, I'd have to do it with discrete components. I could actually just use a CXA2075M on the RGB lines and reroute the YV and V signals and that would be super clean, but I don't wonder if I could just throw a filter in there and call it a day. I just don't know off hand how to characterize the quality of the video against what it should be, and I'd need to do that before I could design a proper output stage.

[VEGETA]

anyone have experience of this type of crt:

https://zenmarket.jp/ar/auction.aspx?it ... 1169029524

it is FMT-DP532 which supports 15 and 31 khz in rgb.

[vol.2]

anyone have experience of this type of crt:

https://zenmarket.jp/ar/auction.aspx?it ... 1169029524

it is FMT-DP532 which supports 15 and 31 khz in rgb.

That is somewhat rare FM Towns computer monitor. It had to be multisync because a lot of Japanese PC games from the time would actually shift graphics modes in mid game for menu screens and stuff. Very cool monitor.

[VEGETA]

anyone have experience of this type of crt:

https://zenmarket.jp/ar/auction.aspx?it ... 1169029524

it is FMT-DP532 which supports 15 and 31 khz in rgb.

That is somewhat rare FM Towns computer monitor. It had to be multisync because a lot of Japanese PC games from the time would actually shift graphics modes in mid game for menu screens and stuff. Very cool monitor.

so you think it is good quality?

I do have 29" sony trinitron having component input (converted from rgb scart which is the output of all my consoles). I wanted to add another monitor which is multisync so i can play some dreamcast games or even 240p games but on a bit sharper monitor. possibly make a new youtube channel similar to scanline arcade.

besides PVMs, these are the only monitors available.

compared to pvms or regular trinitron, how do they measure?

[vol.2]

anyone have experience of this type of crt:

https://zenmarket.jp/ar/auction.aspx?it ... 1169029524

it is FMT-DP532 which supports 15 and 31 khz in rgb.

That is somewhat rare FM Towns computer monitor. It had to be multisync because a lot of Japanese PC games from the time would actually shift graphics modes in mid game for menu screens and stuff. Very cool monitor.

so you think it is good quality?

I'm sure they are good monitors. They are multiformat PC monitors, so they should be pretty sharp and good build quality, but it's pretty small compared to a PVM or consumer TV from the time.

I think the early Towns monitors did 15kHz and 24kHz. I'm not sure if there were any that did 15kHz and 31kHz because the FM Towns II was 31kHz only. So I guess double check that is the case. User SuperDeadite is kind of the forum FM Towns expert, so they would know for sure.

[sky-13]

Extremely off topic but did a bunch of WTB threads get deleted?

[vol.2]

Extremely off topic but did a bunch of WTB threads get deleted?

I have no idea, but this is actually the hardware technical part of the forum, not a catch-all for off-topic questions in general.

There's an Off-Topic section. And there's also just the WTB forum which might make the most sense. You might just consider DMing a mod if you're concerned about something specific.

[sky-13]

Extremely off topic but did a bunch of WTB threads get deleted?

I have no idea, but this is actually the hardware technical part of the forum, not a catch-all for off-topic questions in general.

There's an Off-Topic section. And there's also just the WTB forum which might make the most sense. You might just consider DMing a mod if you're concerned about something specific.

I figured this wasn’t the place to ask but I didn’t want to make a whole thread for such a small question. There doesn’t seem to be anything on this in the off-topic/general part of the site.

[vol.2]

I figured this wasn’t the place to ask but I didn’t want to make a whole thread for such a small question. There doesn’t seem to be anything on this in the off-topic/general part of the site.

Well, you can always make a similar thread in the general off topic. As it stands, no one is going to be expecting to find a question about forum moderation in a thread about electronics.

[sky-13]

I figured this wasn’t the place to ask but I didn’t want to make a whole thread for such a small question. There doesn’t seem to be anything on this in the off-topic/general part of the site.

Well, you can always make a similar thread in the general off topic. As it stands, no one is going to be expecting to find a question about forum moderation in a thread about electronics.

Good point. Thank you for the responses.

[bobrocks95]

Has anyone ever done any in-depth testing on different XInput wrapper programs? I just use Steam Input these days, but there are tons of other options like XOutput, X360CE, DS4Windows, etc. I wonder if Steam Input is adding an unnecessary amount of lag with its huge amount of configuration options.

[vol.2]

Has anyone ever done any in-depth testing on different XInput wrapper programs? I just use Steam Input these days, but there are tons of other options like XOutput, X360CE, DS4Windows, etc. I wonder if Steam Input is adding an unnecessary amount of lag with its huge amount of configuration options.

I think you can probably find videos about the various options on YouTube, but I've never seen a catch-all comparison or anything like that.

AFAIK, Xpadder is a great option and it's known for being very low latency to the point it isn't perceivable.

[SGGG2]

Finally ordered a GD EMU and RGC Component cables for my Dreamcast, but it looks like heat can be an issue. Is it possible to remove the 12v voltage regulator and still retain RGB/VGA functionality, or do I need to do the resistor mod instead?

[vol.2]

Finally ordered a GD EMU and RGC Component cables for my Dreamcast, but it looks like heat can be an issue. Is it possible to remove the 12v voltage regulator and still retain RGB/VGA functionality, or do I need to do the resistor mod instead?

I think most people report that NTSC-U consoles don't seem to have issues, but I (personally) would just go in there and remove the 12V regulator. It's probably just got a 7812 or a clone IC you can pull and it's done. I think that would be a lot less work than doing those resistors on the PCB, and it would be a more "correct" thing to do.

I suppose they invented the resistor mod to preserve the 12V rail for if you wanted to set thing back to normal, but you can put the IC in a plastic bag with a note and tape it to the inside of the console for someone to find in the future.

Be careful inside the PSU. Don't do anything with it plugged in, and be aware that the big caps can store a charge after it's unplugged, so don't touch the bottom of the PCB unless you go through and discharge all the caps with a resistor first.

https://consolemods.org/wiki/Dreamcast: ... _Regulator

[Bassa-Bassa]

I'm thinking if an RGB Trinitron set with an FE-2 chassis and 15k hours is worth picking. The only thing refraining my decision is an IKR error saved in NVRAM, as per error table display. Seems to work fine, though. Could that be relevant or is it usual behavior with sets this old?

[BuckoA51]

A customer contacted me recently to ask about recapping/triple bypassing his Japanese Megadrive Model 1. He sent screenshots and the jailbars are worse than I've ever seen.

Is this really just regular old Megadrive jailbars or does this look like a damaged VDP? I don't want to take his money for recapping/modding if that's not going to tackle the underlying problem. Has anyone ever seen Megadrive jailbars this bad?

cursed-megadrive by videogameperfection, on Flickr

[vol.2]

A customer contacted me recently to ask about recapping/triple bypassing his Japanese Megadrive Model 1. He sent screenshots and the jailbars are worse than I've ever seen.

Is this really just regular old Megadrive jailbars or does this look like a damaged VDP? I don't want to take his money for recapping/modding if that's not going to tackle the underlying problem. Has anyone ever seen Megadrive jailbars this bad?

cursed-megadrive by videogameperfection, on Flickr

Given that MD jailbars are typically more subtle than that, I think it makes sense for you to question it. My first instinct would be that somehow the screenshots the customer sent are being exaggerated by something in the signal path, either by a capture device settings or whatever they used. I would first request more screenshots from a different source like a pic of it running on a CRT if possible, or a photo taken of the system directly connected to a flat screen TV. Just to rule out that possibility.

Maybe someone else here has seen this kind of thing on MD before, but I haven't.

[jd213]

It looks similar to how the jailbars from my VA1 JP MD look when dispalyed through a Retro-Access Dsub cable into the analog input of an Aliexpress iPad3 screen.

[Konsolkongen]

That does look pretty crazy, but not totally unlike how my unmodified MD1 VA0 looked in Sonic.
https://imgur.com/Y8HZLdw
https://imgur.com/7gE2xyj

Lifting the subcarrier pin on the VDP massively cleaned this up.
https://imgur.com/n00tO5S
https://imgur.com/8mSooss