Coughdrop wrote: ↑Tue Mar 25, 2025 1:03 am
Any help from Tim or anyone that knows how i might get in contact with him would be super appreciated, thanks
I think I found your email. From the 14th of February was it? I'll reply tomorrow.
Thanks for the reply! i think mine go back a bit farther than that, but i did try with a friends' mail adress later as i thought my messages were getting auto flagged as spam, so i don't quite know the date of my last mail, looking back at my emails the first one i sent was in november of 2022, the last one was the 4th of July 2023, although these mails are very long and old, as i was still scratching my head trying to figure out the problem which only resulted more problems and wear on the system, in the end i was able to figure that all out, but was unaware of the the clock desync bug til later.
A private message on here migth be easiest, in any case i'll send you one with my email adress and my order number just to be sure.
Link83 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 27, 2025 11:55 am
Hey Tim, since you are here I just had a few questions if you don't mind:-
-Have all the known NESRGB 4.X bugs been resolved on the latest V4.3 PCB revision?
-Is there any chance that the NESRGB dejitter feature could be enabled/disabled by controller input, rather than a permanent J10 jumper choice? For example perhaps the following button combos could be used?
-Start+Select+Up (hold for 4 seconds) - Enable dejitter feature.
-Start+Select+Down (hold for 4 seconds) - Disable dejitter feature.
Even if it required a system reset for the change to take affect, I still think this would be a useful feature.
-Finally is there any chance the NESRGB may ever switch back to a reflashable CPLD in the future? (Like the Altera MAX II used on the NESRGB V1 to V3 revisions) I just appreciated having the option to reflash firmware if necessary, and I was hoping chip prices may have fallen enough by now to perhaps make this possible.
Thanks for continuing NESRGB support all these years :)
All of the NESRGB V4 were in firmware, with the exception of about 20-30 boards that somehow got a fake level translator chip fitted. The different hardware revisions are all just minor changes that don't make any functional difference.
I recently finished the design of the new 2600RGB and used a Gowin Little Bee FPGA for that one. I found the tools and documentation better that the Lattice ICE40, and they are cheaper too, so I will change the FPGA in the NESRGB to a Little Bee this year. It is reprogrammable, but the programmer isn't cheap like the USB Blaster.
I could make de-jitter switchable via the controller, I don't see why not. The new 2600RGB got a fancy on screen menu to toggle features. I don't think I'll have space for that in the NESRGB, but I'm sure I can come up with something. Currently the FPGA it's all full up and I don't want to touch it. It's pretty much bug-free though, as far as I can tell.
Link83 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 27, 2025 11:55 am
Hey Tim, since you are here I just had a few questions if you don't mind:-
-Have all the known NESRGB 4.X bugs been resolved on the latest V4.3 PCB revision?
-Is there any chance that the NESRGB dejitter feature could be enabled/disabled by controller input, rather than a permanent J10 jumper choice? For example perhaps the following button combos could be used?
-Start+Select+Up (hold for 4 seconds) - Enable dejitter feature.
-Start+Select+Down (hold for 4 seconds) - Disable dejitter feature.
Even if it required a system reset for the change to take affect, I still think this would be a useful feature.
-Finally is there any chance the NESRGB may ever switch back to a reflashable CPLD in the future? (Like the Altera MAX II used on the NESRGB V1 to V3 revisions) I just appreciated having the option to reflash firmware if necessary, and I was hoping chip prices may have fallen enough by now to perhaps make this possible.
Thanks for continuing NESRGB support all these years
All of the NESRGB V4 were in firmware, with the exception of about 20-30 boards that somehow got a fake level translator chip fitted. The different hardware revisions are all just minor changes that don't make any functional difference.
I recently finished the design of the new 2600RGB and used a Gowin Little Bee FPGA for that one. I found the tools and documentation better that the Lattice ICE40, and they are cheaper too, so I will change the FPGA in the NESRGB to a Little Bee this year. It is reprogrammable, but the programmer isn't cheap like the USB Blaster.
I could make de-jitter switchable via the controller, I don't see why not. The new 2600RGB got a fancy on screen menu to toggle features. I don't think I'll have space for that in the NESRGB, but I'm sure I can come up with something. Currently the FPGA it's all full up and I don't want to touch it. It's pretty much bug-free though, as far as I can tell.
I felt very blessed to be one of the proud few who got that fake chip. LOL!
Has anyone installed a PPUDigitizer for Lumacode alongside an existing NESRGB installation? I'm not sure if they're incompatible or if my soldering of the PPUDigitizer just needs work.
I would honestly be willing to remove the NESRGB and just use the socket for a PPUDigitizer and PPU sandwich, but on top of the RGB output, the NESRGB has MUCH cleaner audio mixing than the original circuit (I also have this replacement power board that lets you swap between the two with just a switch- https://github.com/ShawMerlin/NES-Power-Module-Redesign).
Is there a separate audio circuit mod you can do for the NES?
PSA for anyone installing Lumacode into a system that already has an NESRGB installed- you do not have to disable the NESRGB circuit, but you DO have to ensure that de-jitter is disabled (J10 OPEN).
installed the NESRGB all went well. Then i shorted something outside the case when testing.
Fried the PPU and the RAM - but had spares to swap out.
The NESRGB was also shorted 5v to ground. Removed the YJ33 and short has gone - the cap the left beside J9 also seems shorted - but when i removed it the pads also had continuity.
Is this normal? I have a replacement on the way so i can test - but thought i would ask here.
Is there any schematics for the power setion of the board?
Its a v43 bought from oldskool in the last few weeks.
wickywicky wrote: ↑Tue Mar 31, 2026 8:49 am
installed the NESRGB all went well. Then i shorted something outside the case when testing.
Fried the PPU and the RAM - but had spares to swap out.
The NESRGB was also shorted 5v to ground. Removed the YJ33 and short has gone - the cap the left beside J9 also seems shorted - but when i removed it the pads also had continuity.
Is this normal? I have a replacement on the way so i can test - but thought i would ask here.
This is voltage regulator is for the +3V3A power rail. It powers only the I/O pins of the FPGA used for the video DAC. As the short on the rail persists when the regulator is removed, the FPGA must have failed.
The most significant changes in version 5 are to the video system. The video encoder IC has been removed because its power consumption is high and because nobody makes these parts in volume any more, sourcing them is becoming difficult. Generating composite video is not particularly interesting, as the console does that already. The encoder was really only being used for s-video, so I have moved that into the FPGA logic. S-video is generated the same way as the NES generates the composite video, the only difference is the luma and chroma signals are not combined at the end. This method of generating s-video does net support different palettes, but it is accurate, and you can always adjust the colour saturation on your display to suit.
The video outputs are composite video (from the PPU), s-video (just mentioned), RGB (much the same as before), and component video, which is a new addition. RGB and component video support different palettes and there are ten different palettes to choose from:
Generated NTSC, Generated PAL (from the PALLY palette generator), Nestopia YUV, Smooth V2, Digital Prime, Pixeltao CRT, Sony CXA, Fceux, Dark Power, Playchoice. These can be selected via the on-screen menu or cycled through with a controller button combo like V4.
There is a ‘load detect’ feature which can be used to determine what type of cable is attached at power on and select the video output type automatically. When a multi-out AV socket is used, it can support all four video output formats by changing the cables. The low cost component video cables with the multi-out connector (found on Ebay, Amazon, etc) are supported. There is also a way to force the video output signal via the controller.
The De-jitter feature, now renamed to Sync Fix, can be turned on and off via the menu. It has been re-written for better compatibility and now allows adjusting the position of the video output by up to +/- 15 pixels horizontally and vertically.
The S-video output is really interesting and now puts original consoles on par with what previously only the Nt Mini/Noir could do (Famicom Titler doesn't count as it encodes S-video from an RGB palette).
But I'm actually more intrigued by the audio improvements. Could this actually make original consoles, especially original Famicomconsoles, less buzzy? And I hope the "simulated stereo" options could include variable separation, down to complete doubled-mono audio (IMO in some cases slight separation is really nice, but in some cases only double mono sounds good).
I just acquired a pre-modded NES RGB(the desoldering of the PPU was a little too intimidating for me) and the original composite ports only show a Grey image, which I've come to understand is normal.
HOWEVER, I'd like to restore composite signal to it but I can not find any tutorial or diagrams on how to do it, can someone help?
from what I understand I need to run a wire from the V pad to the port and maybe cut a trace. Anyone that can point me in the right direction?
**** update ****
I just went for it and it worked. I didn't cut the trace but I did desolder it and push it through the board to break the connection
I saw this on the store page when I purchased “ I will have a full set of new installation guides for version 5 ready in the next two weeks (by the 24th of April).” but cannot find this guide. Does any one know where this was posted on the 24th?
BreakmanX wrote: ↑Wed Apr 29, 2026 4:19 pm
I saw this on the store page when I purchased “ I will have a full set of new installation guides for version 5 ready in the next two weeks (by the 24th of April).” but cannot find this guide. Does any one know where this was posted on the 24th?
Page has been updated today to say "coming very soon", just a little longer to wait I bet.
