Problems with Japanese Saturns

mrkotfw · Post by **mrkotfw** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 2:27 am

Hello. I just recently bought an RGB cable from a member here who used a SCART cable and wired everything to a DB-9. I have two Japanese Saturns. I plugged them in and they both seem to have different results.

My Japanese Skeleton Saturn produces this.
My White Japanese Saturn produces a better picture but it has some amount of scanlines that are purplish.

My PlayStation 2 and Playstation display everything perfectly so it can't be the monitor.

Any ideas? If I'm being too vague, I can provide more info.

Franz the Stampede · Post by **Franz the Stampede** » Sun Jul 08, 2007 1:01 pm

could it be something with the japanese RGB layout vs PAL RGB layout?

CIT · Post by **CIT** » Sun Jul 08, 2007 1:14 pm

I had a similar problem as the one in the picture you posted. The lower half of the screen would momentarily flicker and distort every once in a while.

However, when I plugged the Saturn into the TV's second Scart-RGB socket everything worked fine.

Not much help I guess, but if you have more than one RGB socket, make sure you try them all.

Strider77 · Post by **Strider77** » Sun Jul 08, 2007 8:52 pm

whoever rewired your cables may have left out the grounding... it can deffinately cause an effect like that one pic... if not worse.

mrkotfw · Post by **mrkotfw** » Sun Jul 08, 2007 9:13 pm

Strider77 wrote:whoever rewired your cables may have left out the grounding... it can deffinately cause an effect like that one pic... if not worse.

There is one white wire that wasn't grounded from the European SCART cable. I don't know what that wire is for. I could try to ask him and see what he says.

CIT, I have other RGB inputs, but they have the BNC connectors.

By the way, thanks for all your suggestions! I really appreciate it.

Strider77 · Post by **Strider77** » Sun Jul 08, 2007 10:39 pm

you don't have to have ALL the grounds rewired. But if all he did was reconnect the reg, green, blue, sync, and L/R audio then it could deffinately be the lack of grounding.

It's hard for me to say though since i'm not totally sure of what you are hooking it up to.

mrkotfw · Post by **mrkotfw** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 3:20 am

I'm connecting it to a DB-9 which is connected to a 21-pin connector.

mrkotfw · Post by **mrkotfw** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 3:22 am

Strider77 wrote:you don't have to have ALL the grounds rewired. But if all he did was reconnect the reg, green, blue, sync, and L/R audio then it could deffinately be the lack of grounding.

It's hard for me to say though since i'm not totally sure of what you are hooking it up to.

Sound works perfectly, so I know that sound is grounded properly. As for video, the black wire is grounded to the same location.

Strider77 · Post by **Strider77** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 4:58 am

I only see a R, G, B, and sync connected to that monitor plug. I know that japanese rgb and scart have several wires for grounding. i have not bothered with reconnecting all of them in the past but have had problems when not connecting ANY of them before.

A good example would be the super gun I just bought. I wired it up with no ground and got that problem then I Hooked up the ground.... problem solved.

I have a buddy who wired his saturn up for a RGB monitor.... I'll ask him about it.

I hook my saturn up to an XRGB with a Japn. RGB cable with no issues.

mrkotfw · Post by **mrkotfw** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 5:25 am

Strider77 wrote:I only see a R, G, B, and sync connected to that monitor plug. I know that japanese rgb and scart have several wires for grounding. i have not bothered with reconnecting all of them in the past but have had problems when not connecting ANY of them before.

A good example would be the super gun I just bought. I wired it up with no ground and got that problem then I Hooked up the ground.... problem solved.

I have a buddy who wired his saturn up for a RGB monitor.... I'll ask him about it.

I hook my saturn up to an XRGB with a Japn. RGB cable with no issues.

Erm, I see what you mean.

mrkotfw · Post by **mrkotfw** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 8:32 pm

Everything seems to be grounded properly. I don't know what else it could be? The White JP Saturn doesn't have a CD-ROM drive inside so I obviously can't use it. It produces a nice clear screen, but it is rather dark. The picture is clear, but not that clear.

Here is what I get on my white Saturn (without an "AR 4M" inserted):

Here is what I get on my white Saturn ("AR 4M" inserted):

With or without the AR 4M cartridge inserted. Very dark. Especially on the BIOS screen.

Here is the wiring:

Strider77 · Post by **Strider77** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 10:42 pm

PM me your email address... I'll hand it over to a buddy of mine who has done this before... modded a saturn for use with an RGB monitor.

But that effect you are getting is identical to the issues i had in the past when not using a ground.

I see whats in that newer picture and it looks ok. Although that fist pic with the blue plug has no grounding connections on it, is that part of the connection also? I am guessing you are using BOTH cords together to go into the monitor?

Strider77 · Post by **Strider77** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 11:15 pm

BTW... do you know the pinout for your monitor?

mrkotfw · Post by **mrkotfw** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 11:20 pm

Strider77 wrote:PM me your email address... I'll hand it over to a buddy of mine who has done this before... modded a saturn for use with an RGB monitor.

But that effect you are getting is identical to the issues i had in the past when not using a ground.

I see whats in that newer picture and it looks ok. Although that fist pic with the blue plug has no grounding connections on it, is that part of the connection also? I am guessing you are using BOTH cords together to go into the monitor?

I haven't thought of that! I'll check.

The DB-9 connects to the RGB cable. The Blue 21-pin connector is connected to the monitor. I checked and the black wire is indeed connected to the 21-pin connector. What I don't understand is that if ground isn't connected, then my PlayStation RGB cable shouldn't of have worked.

Strider77 · Post by **Strider77** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 2:52 am

What I don't understand is that if ground isn't connected, then my PlayStation RGB cable shouldn't of have worked.

so you use that adapter with your PS1/2.... that's a good point. it could be that saturn is wanting the ground though this was the case with my emotia unit.

olny other thing I can think of is that both scart and japanese rgb have a pin that is for +5/blanking. I am not sure if the saturn uses this.

what kind of monitor are you using, the make ect.

BTW are u using a pal saturn?

mrkotfw · Post by **mrkotfw** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 4:38 am

I'm using only NTSC Japanese Saturns. The seller gave me this link before I bought the monitor.

By the way, I'm using a VGA DB-9 connector, but I'm only working with standard res (15kHZ). Since I don't have a U.S. Saturn, I can't seem to be able to test to see if its just my Saturns.

I'm going to try to use the BNC connectors sometime this week or next week. This way I'll see if I can solve this problem using another type of RGB input.

mrkotfw · Post by **mrkotfw** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 5:26 am

Okay. So I'm planning on buying a HD15 to BNC RGB cable. I just have a couple of questions.

1) My monitor has extra BNC connectors labeled "EXT SYNC" and "INT SYNC." Does that mean that I can just wire composite sync to a BNC connector and insert it into the "INT SYNC" connector?

2) I will be using this to convert the HD-15 connector to a DB-9. I'm not sure, but is there a way I can rewire it? Here is a link of the adapter.

3) Here is a pin-out of the cable that I'll be buying. What about Red/Green/Blue ground? Would I just ground that also?

4) Is there anything else I need to know? Am I missing something?

mrkotfw · Post by **mrkotfw** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 11:02 pm

GOOD NEWS EVERYONE! (Futurama? )

I just bought a 5 BNC VGA (RGB) to HD-15, and wired up an adapter for my RGB cables and it worked!

The color problem is gone!

I don't know why the "CMPTR" input didn't work, but this one did. Odd.

So yeah, the BNC (RGB) inputs work better.