NESRGB board available now

[frsj8112]

I've desoldered the PPU from my AV Famicom and added RGB wires preparing for the NESRGB

The PPU was actually easier to desolder from the AV Famicom then on my NTSC NES Front loader.

[kamiboy]

Whoa, even Kamiya from Platinum Games posted about it. Crazy.

Does not surprise me, Kamiya, like many Japanese retro enthusiasts, is a videophile and a hardware nut. He has a Space Harrier machine in his pad for deuce sake.

I am pretty sure I saw some tweets of his a year or two back regarding NES RGB PPU's. I think he bought one. Anyone who cares enough about image quality to invest in a RGB PPU is not going to be completely satisfied by the different palette that these sport.

This cheap, easy to obtain, glitch free RGB solution with authenthic palette colours is a dream come through for many.

[rpcbuddy]

Got an order in on the first batch. I'm looking to have my Twin Famicom or AV Famicom modded, but don't have any experience with this kind of thing. If anyone has any good suggestions on reputable modders I'd be more than glad to contact them.

[acidhammer420k]

Got an order in on the first batch. I'm looking to have my Twin Famicom or AV Famicom modded, but don't have any experience with this kind of thing. If anyone has any good suggestions on reputable modders I'd be more than glad to contact them.

Just about anyone except Drakon who can provide pictures of their nicely done work, and who has modded for others in the past, I would trust.

Pretty much anyone who would take responsibility after destroying your console

But to be more helpful to the discussion, if you have no soldering experience at all, you could easily take a few "practice runs" on some other equipment if you want to do it yourself. Go find an old stereo or two at the thrift store for $5 or less each, and replace some capacitors and other components. This is very basic soldering work and good practice since things like stereos tend to be very easy to work on, components very spaced out. Get some replacement parts and try and swap them out. If you can swap out some capacitors and have a working stereo afterwards, I think you can start to move to the NESRGB! It's a bit of a jump, but there is a first time for every modder. I went straight in the deep end and my first mod ever was a PS2. It took me half a day to finish, and I was a nervous wreck the whole time, but it worked!

If you think you're up to the challenge, it's incredibly rewarding to mod something yourself. Just get the basics down before you break open your precious Twin Fami or AV Fami. I'm very much looking forward to the next batch of these so I can get my Twin Fami RGB'd.

[ninn]

There is a big difference between soldering on some wires on a given solderpad, and desoldering a 40pin IC.

I dont think this kit can be installed by someone who is new to soldering.

Don't want to be negative - I am just recalling my first tries on desoldering such ICs: It was a major pain. ESPECIALLY because you need that chip and all his connections clean and working.

[ninn]

forgot to add:

CAN'T WAIT TO BE IN STOCK AGAIN,
will order first minute it returns!
maybe several.

[BitFaced]

It's awesome that the NES is now going to have several cheaper options for good video quality (RGB, RGB + Composite, S-Video, Component & VGA & HDMI). Good job!

[rpcbuddy]

Thanks for the responses guys If I don't end up finding anyone I'm sure learning how would be an interesting experience. Regardless, if anyone's looking for work on one of these mods feel free to PM.

[markfrizb]

Look on YouTube for beginning soldering techniques.

I'm not a fan of radio shack (often call it radio crap) but they sell a $14 desoldering iron with a suction bubble. For a beginner, this is a great tool. And hitting old solder with new before desoldering it can be helpful.

I agree with previous poster, try on some old junk first, watch some vids.... Get some practice. You may not want the NES to be your first but soldering skills is a skill worth having.

I have been soldering for 20+ years and I use the radio shack $14 desoldering iron to solder the .05 pitch surface mount parts. Those are TINY legs!

I can hardly wait for delivery of my nes rgb boards!

Drakon: dude, just keep improving your skills and lose the paint gun. No bashing here. We all having learning curves.

Peace

[rCadeGaming]

Yup the radio shack desoldering iron is decent to start. You may also want to consider the one on Jameco which is only a few dollars more. Read the previous posts here for discussion on desoldering.

Open up a cartridge (NES, SNES, Genesis, whatever, as long as its something cheap), and see if you can desolder the ROM chips. Then solder them back on and see if the game still works. This would be perfect practice for desoldering through-hole IC's.

[parodius]

Seeing the thread about Marty w/ upscaler made me think :
Tim if you're looking for another RGB challenge there are Marty owners out there which would probably be grateful if you managed to design an RGB PCB for it
There's mention of it using an MB40968V video DAC here.
And a bit more info here.
I doubt you would sell as many/as quickly as the the NESRGB though, although I'd buy a couple myself

Anybody thinking of other systems which would deserve an RGB output they don't have ?
There's the Laseractive, although PCE/MD games can be played in RGB on the original consoles (but this is true of the Marty as well with the FM-Towns computer).

[Fudoh]

PC-FX. But that's a hard sell as well. If he wanted something with the sales potential similar to the NES, he'd have to go for the Atari systems.

[parodius]

Right, I completely forgot about the PC-FX.

[RGB32E]

I have more interesting RGB / amplifier / DAC boards coming.

So that means you'll be releasing a N64 VGA kit, right? A universal solution to work with any Nintendo 64 as it contains a DAC and line doubler to output 31kHz, or 15kHz standard?

[sammargh]

viletim you said that the SNES SCART cables are incompatible but I had a question and was wondering if this were possible:

While yes, the EU/AU cable has resistors inside of them the JP actually have 220uF caps instead and the resistors were on the motherboard. If I were to remove the caps off the nesrgb board, jumped the leftover spots wouldn't the multi-out port then work with NESRGB?

If that's the case can you label which 3 would need removed? I imagine I can see it pretty clearly once I receive the board but was just wanting confirmation on this. I have a few of the JP21 cables so I'd like to just use them instead of a custom cable/port.

[Grambo]

viletim you said that the SNES SCART cables are incompatible but I had a question and was wondering if this were possible:

While yes, the EU/AU cable has resistors inside of them the JP actually have 220uF caps instead and the resistors were on the motherboard. If I were to remove the caps off the nesrgb board, jumped the leftover spots wouldn't the multi-out port then work with NESRGB?

If that's the case can you label which 3 would need removed? I imagine I can see it pretty clearly once I receive the board but was just wanting confirmation on this. I have a few of the JP21 cables so I'd like to just use them instead of a custom cable/port.

I just installed my new NESRGB into my Toaster NES with the Nintendo multi-AV connector and can confirm it's working perfectly
I'm not sure what the JP21 cables have inside them, but the SCART cables I use have the 220uF caps on R,G and B, no resistors and were listed as "US NTSC" cables; The cables use the Euro pinout and work on my 1-CHIP NTSC SNES.

Regarding modifying the NESRGB board, I just had to remove the 3 220uF SMD capacitors in line with the R, G and B outputs of the board and bridge the points. Just use a multi-meter to determine which 3 capacitors need to be removed/bridged.

Make sure to ground BOTH pins on the Nintendo multi-AV connector inside your NES. It took me a while to discover that different cables use different combinations of the 2 pins.

My NES now can use Nintendo composite, S-Video and NTSC SCART cables ( as long as they are wired like this NTSC one: http://members.optusnet.com.au/eviltim/ ... t.htm#snes )
Basically, as long as you only have ONE set of 220uF caps and no resistors between your NESRGB and display device on the RGB lines, all should be good!

Additionally, I cleaned and upgraded the thermal paste on my NES' voltage regulator. She runs pretty warm, but it seems to be stable so far while running my Everdrive.

Composite, S-Video and RGB all work perfectly on both my Framemeister and Sony PVM-8045Q.
Thanks again, viletim. This board is fantastic.

[frsj8112]

Grambo: screenshots screenshots screenshots!!!!

[sammargh]

I just installed my new NESRGB into my Toaster NES with the Nintendo multi-AV connector and can confirm it's working perfectly
I'm not sure what the JP21 cables have inside them, but the SCART cables I use have the 220uF caps on R,G and B, no resistors and were listed as "US NTSC" cables; The cables use the Euro pinout and work on my 1-CHIP NTSC SNES.

Regarding modifying the NESRGB board, I just had to remove the 3 220uF SMD capacitors in line with the R, G and B outputs of the board and bridge the points. Just use a multi-meter to determine which 3 capacitors need to be removed/bridged.

Make sure to ground BOTH pins on the Nintendo multi-AV connector inside your NES. It took me a while to discover that different cables use different combinations of the 2 pins.

My NES now can use Nintendo composite, S-Video and NTSC SCART cables ( as long as they are wired like this NTSC one: http://members.optusnet.com.au/eviltim/ ... t.htm#snes )
Basically, as long as you only have ONE set of 220uF caps and no resistors between your NESRGB and display device on the RGB lines, all should be good!

Additionally, I cleaned and upgraded the thermal paste on my NES' voltage regulator. She runs pretty warm, but it seems to be stable so far while running my Everdrive.

Composite, S-Video and RGB all work perfectly on both my Framemeister and Sony PVM-8045Q.
Thanks again, viletim. This board is fantastic.

Good to hear! The JP21 have capacitors just like the "NTSC SCART" cables that are sold. As linked you notice that the NTSC has caps while the PAL has termination resistors. The only difference in the Japanese SFC RGB cable is that it is a JP21 pinout instead of EU standard. I prefer using those cables as the few EU custom ones I bought had terrible audio interference. You can see what they look like searching for "sfc rgbケーブル" or SHVC-010. The build quality in the cables is way higher than the custom-made ones.

If someone wanted to use EU cables they would need to remove the 75 ohm resistors off of the NESRGB pcb that are in-line with the 220uF caps instead of the capacitors I believe. That is, if you're using a SNES SCART cable. The Gamecube one in EU has the capacitors like the JP21 version so you would remove the capacitors instead of the resistors if using that cable. Still haven't received my shipping notice yet on the board so pretty jealous!

I'm also waiting on my av famicom to arrive as well though so it wouldn't even matter if I had it yet

[Grambo]

Yeah, it's true that the EU SCART cables are junk. I buy them and modify them to minimize interference.
The attached SCART to BNC adapters are of excellent quality. I buy them at: http://www.retrogamingcables.co.uk/sony ... r-bnc.html






- I used the NES' voltage regulator, rather than the supplied one. I cleaned up and upgraded the thermal paste to a silver paste. It seems to be dissipating the heat well enough, even while running my Everdrive. So far, so good.
- You can see I've removed the 3 x RGB 220uF capacitors and bridged the signal.
- I've run the audio down a separate cable to reduce interference.
- I've soldered it so that my NES sticks with the composite palette. I haven't even tried the other ones; Maybe someday.





I used a Dremel and JB Weld Quick epoxy with an N64 connector; Had to cut some tin and remove a plastic standoff. Connector is rock solid and looks half decent to me! My soldering got a bit messy here I wasn't expecting to have to ground pin 5. Since this picture, I've cleaned up my rosin.






The first 2 pictures of Vice: Project Doom are of my Sony PVM-8045Q. Camera doesn't pick it up as nicely, but it looks great. The remaining 4 pictures are of my Framemeister and 50" Plasma.

[sammargh]

Wow that looks great on the framemeister. It looks like you didn't wire up +5V to the av-out port? I'm guessing the framemeister doesn't care about that? Now I'm really excited for it all to get here. Still not sure if I'm going to fully ditch my Titler though, it's my baby.

[Grambo]

Wow that looks great on the framemeister. It looks like you didn't wire up +5V to the av-out port? I'm guessing the framemeister doesn't care about that? Now I'm really excited for it all to get here. Still not sure if I'm going to fully ditch my Titler though, it's my baby.

I don't really care about the 5V since I don't have anything that uses it. The Framemeister doesn't care about 5V, nor do I have a way to hook it up since I've done some "tweaking" to it:


I go into more detail at:
http://16bitgamer.forumotion.ca/t313-19 ... amemeister

[sammargh]

Ah I came across your rackmounted xrgb mini a while back. Not sure if you ever heard about how to fix MVS but all you do is change the V_WIDTH to 33 instead of 32. For some reason the MVS syncs at 241p instead of 240p but that fixes the scanline issue.

[leonk]

Omfg!! Look at those sexy scan lines and perfect square pixels!! Nice install idea. I assume the connector you stole from the n64 can also be taken out of the snes. Good idea with removing the caps off the pcb and reusing the single cable across multiple systems!

When did you get the pcb? I was under the impression Tim isn't shipping till next week.

[Grambo]

Ah I came across your rackmounted xrgb mini a while back. Not sure if you ever heard about how to fix MVS but all you do is change the V_WIDTH to 33 instead of 32. For some reason the MVS syncs at 241p instead of 240p but that fixes the scanline issue.

I missed this... I came up with a work around since posting that picture, but this is way better. Thanks! It looks so much better now!

Omfg!! Look at those sexy scan lines and perfect square pixels!! Nice install idea. I assume the connector you stole from the n64 can also be taken out of the snes. Good idea with removing the caps off the pcb and reusing the single cable across multiple systems!

When did you get the pcb? I was under the impression Tim isn't shipping till next week.

Thanks I think it looks pretty good too. viletim's kit really does output incredibly pristine signal!
I may have gotten an early order in, same as Drakon. I wanted an early jump to share my install experience since I figured there would be others who wanted to use the Nintendo AV connector. The downside is that I don't have the greyscale upgrade, but I figure it was worth it.

[Glossectomy]

Wow, those pictures look amazing. Cant wait for mine to arrive.

Do we know the wiring for the 8pin mini din output jack?

Edit: NM found it i believe.

[viletim]

PC-FX. But that's a hard sell as well. If he wanted something with the sales potential similar to the NES, he'd have to go for the Atari systems.

I get a lot of requests for the Gameboy Advance for some reason...

So that means you'll be releasing a N64 VGA kit, right? A universal solution to work with any Nintendo 64 as it contains a DAC and line doubler to output 31kHz, or 15kHz standard?

I designed a N64 RGB board early this year. 15 kHz only, support PAL/NTSC RGB cables, fairly cheap, and works better than my old design from '07. I just need to push the button to make lots of them.

- I used the NES' voltage regulator, rather than the supplied one. I cleaned up and upgraded the thermal paste to a silver paste. It seems to be dissipating the heat well enough, even while running my Everdrive. So far, so good.

You don't need to solder wire to the regulator in that case. Putting a solder short on jumper J3 does the same thing.

Are you using an original Nintendo power supply? If you are, would you be able to measure the voltage at the regulator input? (just for my own curiosity)

Do we know the wiring for the 8pin mini din output jack?

It's in the wiring diagram for the NES installation guide. This diagram needs some work to make it less confusing...

When did you get the pcb? I was under the impression Tim isn't shipping till next week.

That's correct. He got an early one. I'll start sending out packages on Tuesday/Wednesday.

[Ed Oscuro]

I can believe the GBA requests. The LCD screens on those old systems are pretty nasty and some games (notably Circle of the Moon, from personal experience) have contrast or ghosting issues (even when played on newer handhelds).

[ccovell]

You can see what they look like searching for "sfc rgbケーブル" or SHVC-010. The build quality in the cables is way higher than the custom-made ones.

Watch out for old Nintendo SFC RGB cables... they can be quite crusty & rusty...


I've found that gold-plated 3rd-party (like Gametech or Karat) multi-system RGB cables are of higher quality overall than Nintendo's own SFC cable. Worth checking out (the cable in question is at the lower-left):

[Asbrandt]

I get a lot of requests for the Gameboy Advance for some reason...

Combination of factors, really. As mentioned, the screens. But on top of that, the Gameboy Player has both it's disk troubles and it upscales to 2x and as a result puts out 480i except for owners of the infamous Component cable.
The 480i thing is actually one of my current pet peeves that I wish I had the technical know-how (and tools) to try to tackle.

[Ed Oscuro]

Wait, do component cable owners get 240p? That is fantastic if true!

Too bad Nintendo didn't put out a player for the Wii - and also too bad that they've dropped support for the GBA and older already. If their next-gen is a handheld that streams to a TV (which seems quite likely) it might retain DS support at best. GBA is old and passe, I guess.