XRGB-mini Framemeister

[Zapf]

Why would you do all that instead of buy a cable w/ csync wired, this has already been covered. rewiring the sync in a hard to find 1chip snes is goofy compared to paying 18 for a new cable.

[ZellSF]

Why would you do all that instead of buy a cable w/ csync wired, this has already been covered. rewiring the sync in a hard to find 1chip snes is goofy compared to paying 18 for a new cable.

Are they really that hard to find?

I have a UN318770886, which I bought on the day you told me what serials to look for (thank you, btw) after asking just a few eBay sellers. Am I just very lucky?

I haven't actually checked if it is a 1chip system though...

[Zapf]

It aint as easy to find as a cable with csync wired!

[darthcloud]

It aint as easy to find as a cable with csync wired!

Just modify the cable. I have done this to all my SHVC-010 cable.

To swap the pin all you have to do is:
1. opening the case first.
2. After that you need to push down a little bit the little tab you see in the hole all around where the pin are to unlock them.
3. Plug the cable in a console so the pin are push up into the plaster connector.
4. Pull out the pin from the plastic plug. Should not require force at this point.
5. Push the little tab up on the pin again.
6. While the plastic plug still plunged in a system insert the pin where you want in the plug.
7. Pin should now be lock at the new place.
8. Put case back.
9. Done

[Konsolkongen]

Why would you do all that instead of buy a cable w/ csync wired, this has already been covered. rewiring the sync in a hard to find 1chip snes is goofy compared to paying 18 for a new cable.

Because the original Nintendo cable is of very nice quality. A shame the same can't be said about the console itself, with all these differences in picture quality In my opinion the 1CHIP doesn't look that much better than the 2CHIP because of the flickering colors
Anyway, this mod is incredibly easy, and just as easy to restore to default should one need it again.

I wasn't aware that you could change the pinout in the console-end of the cable, may be worth trying first

[Plasia]

I'm really interested in the lagtests, because the supposed lack of lag is why I purchased the mini in the first place.

If you have one, can't you just start up a game and check if the input lag is acceptable to you? Unless you just ordered it and it's still on the way.

I did, so I'm still very curious about input lag, but the best thing I can really test it with when I get it is Gradius Gaiden... Must get new Super Mario World cartridge.

I don't have a camera

[BuckoA51]

I feel sort of bad for putting this idea into everyone's head now, I'm just saying what helped for me, csync will probably not make a difference on the Frame Meister. I'd recommend Retro Console Accessories newer SNES SCART's if you want to try it, they are made to a higher standard than most 3rd party SCART cables.

[Hamburglar]

Thanks, I have bought the new SNES SCART cables from Retro Cables, and I can vouch they are as good quality as the Nintendo branded ones.

However, whether I use Nintendo SFC cables or the Retro Cables ones, I get that flickering effect Konsolkongen also sees (I have changed my mind and can say it does look "flickery" more than "smokey" or "cloudy". Again, brightening the picture makes it much harder to see, but it's still there unfortunately.

[Fudoh]

I don't see it with my SFC. Have you manually adjusted the A/D conversion level on the Mini ? If you have the flicker on light blue backgrounds changing the A/D level by 2-4 steps might be enough to fix it. The flicker might move to more magenta-ish areas though. Give it a try.

[Konsolkongen]

Your SFC is a 2CHIP, right? I don't remember seeing flickering on my old 2CHIP PAL console, but nevertheless changing the A/D setting is a good suggestion and might help reduce the flicker. I will try this later

[Hamburglar]

I don't see it with my SFC. Have you manually adjusted the A/D conversion level on the Mini ? If you have the flicker on light blue backgrounds changing the A/D level by 2-4 steps might be enough to fix it. The flicker might move to more magenta-ish areas though. Give it a try.

Raising the A/D mode a bit totally fixed it. I would have never known to do that (let alone know what A/D even is, stands for, or does).

Thank you, you freakin' genius.

[Fudoh]

glad to hear that this fixed your problem!

Didn't you have a XRGB-3 before already ? The XRGB-3 had the same setting already and it was a must, especially for 480p signals. A/D stands for analogue/digital conversion and it adjusts the sensitivity of the A/D converter chip. This is why the overall brightness gets changed as well if you move the slider.

[Konsolkongen]

It didn't really change anything for me, but then again I think I may have used GAME2 mode last time I noticed the flickering in green colors (Goof Troop title-screen). With GAME1 and Meister it's almost completely gone

[Plasia]

Anyone able to do some lagtests on 240p, 480i and 480p? Make sure to test a known lagless monitor (not some Sony Lagia) with a crt. I'd love to do it myself but don't have a splitter or a good enough camera.

[Fudoh]

Would like to see some more as well, although mine and Artemio's results were pretty much the same already.

[Hamburglar]

glad to hear that this fixed your problem!

Didn't you have a XRGB-3 before already ? The XRGB-3 had the same setting already and it was a must, especially for 480p signals. A/D stands for analogue/digital conversion and it adjusts the sensitivity of the A/D converter chip. This is why the overall brightness gets changed as well if you move the slider.

I never had an XRGB-3, no. The mini is my first foray into Micomsoft products! You are right though, when I get the flickering gone from the blue background, it shows up in other colors

snes stuff

Here's something you might find interesting.
I have three SNES model 2's and as we know the model 2's have the BA6596F. Well I opened all of them up today and I found one of them does not have the BA6596F! In fact, it has one I never heard of before:



What the....???

[alamone]

Edit: Seems that moving the AC adapter to a different plug fixed my problem
where the screen colors are all strange, as in the Youtube video below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1tjimRe ... e=youtu.be

Also I'm having the problem where the Sega Saturn shows up zoomed to 1/4 of the screen,
and also my SNES can't seem to even keep sync - keeps dropping out.
Were there solutions found to these problems?

[alamone]

Lag test video:

http://youtu.be/Cvs5gs1h0v0

[Fudoh]

Youtube reduces all videos to 30fps, so it's pretty useless to upload a lagtest video. What's your averaged result with taking a few dozen photos ?

[alamone]

Here are a few photos:

[Fudoh]

but you didn't calculate the average delay by deducting the (known) delay of the LCD display ?

[ZellSF]

Yai, I got it today, without customs looking too closely at it. It's so much smaller than I expected. Now to find a suitable power supply, but question, will a 6v supply work?

[Fudoh]

no idea, but why take the chance ? 5V is so common...

[ZellSF]

Finally got it working. PS2 seems perfect to me after setting a/d conversion level to 110.

I think I had some SNES image dropouts, but I didn't test it that much. I'm using composite video for sync, will using a pure sync cable help if that's a problem?

It fails entirely at PSP 240p (Framemeister confirms that it is indeed 240p) and 480i output, frequent random image corruption, sync issues? I don't know. I would say I need a better cable, but 480p works perfectly. It didn't seem worth it anyway. Too laggy, and image quality wasn't that good. Guess I'll try to get my PS2 to play PSX games...

[-SD-]

Any idea if the Frame Meister will ever get proper 1600 x 1200 support for 4:3 monitors?

[Fudoh]

I think it's a hardware limitation. On the XRGB-3 the scaling was done using a FGPA. Here it's done by the Marvell processor. If they could have enabled full 1200p support, they would have done it right away. But with the scanline problems on higher resolutions, 720p is my prefered output resolution anway.

[-SD-]

Ah, I did wonder if it was a limitation of the Marvell chip. I just thought it'd be nice to get a decent sized 20" 4:3 LCD so I'm at least playing the games in the proper aspect ratio, without black borders all over the place. The Dell 2007FP is the monitor I was considering.

[shadowman]

Has anyone else tried hooking up an S Video modded Atari 2600 or 7800 to the mini? I have both and the color and/or gamma is way off. The picture is rather dark and seems to be heavy on the green color. It's very noticeable on games such as Jungle Hunt (sky is green instead of light blue) and Pitfall (VERY green and the brick walls in the underground tunnels are violet instead of red). Gamma seems way to dark without maxing it out. Composite looks just as bad as S Video.

I tried the 2600 on a small 13" CRT and it looks fine. I have an Odyssey 2 and Intellivision, both composite video modded, and they look great through the Mini. Of course everything I've tried through RGB looks excellent. It's just the 2600 and 7800 the Mini doesn't seem to like for some reason.

[RGB32E]

I have done this to all my SHVC-010 cable.

To swap the pin all you have to do is:
1. opening the case first.
...

I've found step 1 to be the most challenging part of dealing with the official cables. I've thought about making a 4 flathead screw driver jig of sorts to just press and pop open the hood. Do you have any tricks or tips for opening the hoods without damaging them? I've been thinking about building a RGBS only cable for the mini using two composite AV cables, and try to fit the caps under the SNES hood!

Off-topic (sort of):
Also, according to Drakon (seems like it was just yesterday he was begging for NES RGB mod info), all PPU revs prior to the ones used in the 1-chip and mini output bad RGB that is unsalvageable. I've yet to verify this (buffer RGBS directly from a PPU2), but thought it might interest some of you out there!

http://consolemods.forumotion.ca/t102-s ... -video-mod

Component Mod for S-ENC SNES systems (only use I see is with CRTs with component and no RGB):
http://mikejmoffitt.com/wp/?p=74

[Hamburglar]

Speaking of SNES, I just modded my SNES mini so it uses csync rather than composite sync, and my XRGB Mini is giving me a very weird "rolling" effect. The image looks very wavy, with rolling lines through it. Any idea why this could be?