NESRGB board available now

[Kyle]

Cannot wait to grab one of the boards and SCART cable. Anyone know of a good modder in North America/US?

Jason from http://game-tech.us/

[Greerdom]

Jason from http://game-tech.us/

Thanks!

[sammargh]

Got my AV Famicom today in the mail and was poking around at it to see what all would be required to wire up the board. This should make for an extremely clean & easy job to hookup. Only thing is you have to remove the 220uF caps off the NESRGB board of RGB out will not work.

For those wanting to see the process of wiring up the multi-av out on an AV Famicom I made a handy guide:




Seems pretty painless to install, L & R audio are already wired together as are both ground pins. Conveniently there is a huge pad for +5V directly off the regulator so pretty stoked about this, should be able to make the mod extremely clean. All the pins for RGB/S-Video are open so you can solder directly to the pins here. Since audio is already wired up you do not need to wire them from the NESRGB board. Only composite/s-video/rgb/+5V & GND (pins 1-10)

Also viletim if you want that pic for your AV Famicom guide feel free to use it. I can also take pics after the mod if you would like.

[markfrizb]

Remove 220uf caps off the RGBNES board?

[BitFaced]

So... Is the universal PPU guy pissed because you got your product out before him?

[ApolloBoy]

So... Is the universal PPU guy pissed because you got your product out before him?

Why would he be? The Universal PPU fills a slightly different market since it's designed to work with PlayChoice-10 and Vs. boards in addition to NES/Fami consoles. It's not like a competition, geez.

[sammargh]

Remove 220uf caps off the RGBNES board?

It's only necessary if you want to use the SNES-type cables for RGB output. On viletim's board he has both 75 ohm termination resistors & 220uF caps. All the NTSC SCART cables have 220uF caps inside of them so either they need to be taken off the NESRGB board or off the cable. If you don't the picture will be much darker over RGB vs other outputs.

[antron]

So... Is the universal PPU guy pissed because you got your product out before him?

Why would he be? The Universal PPU fills a slightly different market since it's designed to work with PlayChoice-10 and Vs. boards in addition to NES/Fami consoles. It's not like a competition, geez.

I would say they fulfill very different markets. Remaking the PPU is like making a lagless emulator. It may be fast but is it right?

[markfrizb]

Remove 220uf caps off the RGBNES board?

It's only necessary if you want to use the SNES-type cables for RGB output. On viletim's board he has both 75 ohm termination resistors & 220uF caps. All the NTSC SCART cables have 220uF caps inside of them so either they need to be taken off the NESRGB board or off the cable. If you don't the picture will be much darker over RGB vs other outputs.

I didn't realize that the nesrgb board had the 220uf caps on it.

So using Viletims scart cable he made....doesn't it have 220uf caps too?

So an install will require the removal of the caps on at least 1 pcb (the nesrgb or the Scart cable)?

I thought his design didn't require caps at all.
Now I'm confused....

Was this cap removal in the installation tutorial?

[antron]

So using Viletims scart cable he made....doesn't it have 220uf caps too?

no.

it has a charge pump to get 12V from 5V. This is only to inform a SCART TV to use RGB in a standard aspect ratio. I feel a little guilty buying one, as none of my SCART input devices are actually TVs.

(PM sent to mufunyo about buying the pump)

[bobrocks95]

So is anybody who's getting this in planning on putting it in a regular Famicom? I know viletim is putting out a guide at some point, but is there anybody who could document their experience and tell us how difficult it may be?

[Artemio]

So is anybody who's getting this in planning on putting it in a regular Famicom? I know viletim is putting out a guide at some point, but is there anybody who could document their experience and tell us how difficult it may be?

I will when I get it. PPU is already desoldered and waiting

[bobrocks95]

I will when I get it. PPU is already desoldered and waiting

I look forward to it then! I'd really like to try and do this myself since I think it would be fun, and after spending $100 on the board I don't want to shell out another $100+ to get someone else to mod it for me. That's all banking on how feasible the project seems though!

[adimifus]

I look forward to it then! I'd really like to try and do this myself since I think it would be fun, and after spending $100 on the board I don't want to shell out another $100+ to get someone else to mod it for me. That's all banking on how feasible the project seems though!

The most difficult thing, really, (in my experience, at least) is desoldering the ppu from the motherboard. I don't have proper tools to do this, so I screwed up a trace in the process. The nice thing about the NES motherboard is there are plenty of spots along the traces to solder repair wires to.

[viletim]

I have posted all the orders. Now working on producing the next batch...

For those wanting to see the process of wiring up the multi-av out on an AV Famicom I made a handy guide

The original composite video signal will work fine as a sync source. You should only need to connect the R/G/B signals, I think.

So is anybody who's getting this in planning on putting it in a regular Famicom? I know viletim is putting out a guide at some point, but is there anybody who could document their experience and tell us how difficult it may be?

This is a job for tomorrow evening... I suggest waiting for the guide before doing any preparation.

[lettuce]

Great news!, will need to pick up 2 of your scart cables when back in stock

[mufunyo]

it has a charge pump to get 12V from 5V. This is only to inform a SCART TV to use RGB in a standard aspect ratio. I feel a little guilty buying one, as none of my SCART input devices are actually TVs.

In that case, are you willing to desolder the charge pump PCB from your cable to sell it to me? viletim said he isn't planning to sell it separately, and I'd like to make my own multi-AV euro SCART cable from a JRGB21 cable.

The original composite video signal will work fine as a sync source. You should only need to connect the R/G/B signals, I think.

Are you sure about that? I would imagine the picture to be slightly shifted to the right, unless you're certain there's not even a couple of microseconds of lag. Sync off the NESRGB board would need to be perfectly aligned with unprocessed sync from the PPU. That said, you probably wouldn't notice even if the picture was shifted a couple of pixels to the right.

[sammargh]

I look forward to it then! I'd really like to try and do this myself since I think it would be fun, and after spending $100 on the board I don't want to shell out another $100+ to get someone else to mod it for me. That's all banking on how feasible the project seems though!

The most difficult thing, really, (in my experience, at least) is desoldering the ppu from the motherboard. I don't have proper tools to do this, so I screwed up a trace in the process. The nice thing about the NES motherboard is there are plenty of spots along the traces to solder repair wires to.

I removed the PPU in my AV Famicom last night and after getting pissed at my solder sucker picked this up at Radio Shack
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... Id=2062731

$15 and turned it into a 5 minute job I was able to do while talking on the phone with my mother. Sure it's Radio Shack garbage that wont' last but I very rarely remove ICs that I can't just cut out so I'm indifferent. Just have to make sure you re-flow the existing solder with some fresh solder to make sure it will melt fully.

The original composite video signal will work fine as a sync source. You should only need to connect the R/G/B signals, I think.

Yeah but if I'm understanding how this device works then composite will be in black & white unless I rewire it to the pcb? While I mostly want RGB I also want to be sure that s-video and composite are available on the system.

[Asbrandt]

Fair number of folks prefer to use clean sync when possible, since some screens don't get along with using video for sync.
Since the NESRGB provides clean sync, might aswell make use of it, right?

[sammargh]

Looking at the OEM RGB cable you have to have CSYNC wired up or at least jumped from composite. There's no pin at all where composite video is located within the AV connector.

[antron]

Fair number of folks prefer to use clean sync when possible, since some screens don't get along with using video for sync.
Since the NESRGB provides clean sync, might aswell make use of it, right?

looking at the NESRGB block diagram, C-sync is generated from the PPU C-Video (the PPU is king of timing in this product, which is why it rocks). But then true raw sync is impossible. I think he generated C-sync for those connecting directly to an arcade monitor, so you don't need an extra sync stripper. But even if you did strip sync yourself, it would be the same as the one provided.

Tim, please let us know if you are doing something fancy in your comparator circuit that makes your c-sync better than what an lm1881 would give from c-vid.

[Asbrandt]

Oh yeah I didn't mean to imply that it was "true" csync, just that the work of a sync stripper is already done, no extra parts needed.

[BuckoA51]

Mine finally shipped I seem to be having terrible luck with every courier I use at the moment though, so no telling when I might get it. Still hoping to offer a fitting service for the UK if possible through my site.

[bobrocks95]

This is a job for tomorrow evening... I suggest waiting for the guide before doing any preparation.

I'm far from jumping the gun this early on, I'm just excited and didn't know what your ETA with the Famicom guide was. Since you're clearly on top of it there won't be much waiting!

[keropi]

@viletim:

any chance you can tell us about this 5v->12v "pump" inside the scart cable?
this can be VERY useful to systems like the sms and md that don't have 12v and default to 16:9 on tv sets...

also, any plans for a 2nd, 3rd etc batch of rgb boards?

TIA!

[Sargon]

Can anyone explain the pros and cons of this new RGB board vs. the Playchoice PPU mod? Is there any benefit whatsoever to using the Playchoice PPU mod or has the RGB board made that mod obsolete?

[jdubs]

Can anyone explain the pros and cons of this new RGB board vs. the Playchoice PPU mod? Is there any benefit whatsoever to using the Playchoice PPU mod or has the RGB board made that mod obsolete?

Have you read any of this thread???

-Jim

[bobrocks95]

@viletim:

any chance you can tell us about this 5v->12v "pump" inside the scart cable?
this can be VERY useful to systems like the sms and md that don't have 12v and default to 16:9 on tv sets...

also, any plans for a 2nd, 3rd etc batch of rgb boards?

TIA!

He's already said a second batch is in the works now that the first set of orders have all been shipped.

Can anyone explain the pros and cons of this new RGB board vs. the Playchoice PPU mod? Is there any benefit whatsoever to using the Playchoice PPU mod or has the RGB board made that mod obsolete?

1) You don't have to rip a PPU out of a Playchoice-10 and make it worthless
2) There are no palette issues
3) It's a lot cheaper

So yeah, the Playchoice PPU mod is completely dead thanks to this, unless demand just can't be met by viletim for some reason.

[RetroSwim]

Can't wait to see the install guide for the regular Famicom!

My NESRGB is taunting me from its spot on my workbench....

[mi213]

any chance you can tell us about this 5v->12v "pump" inside the scart cable?
this can be VERY useful to systems like the sms and md that don't have 12v and default to 16:9 on tv sets...

Pin 8:
0.0 - 2.0V = TV Mode
4.5 - 7.0V = AV 16:9
9.5 - 12.0V = AV 4:3

I think it is a LT1173 DC-DC converter or so.