Questions that do not deserve a thread

[VEGETA]

I want to do a PSNee to my PAL 1002 PS1 model and I have some arduino boards (pro mini maybe or nano)... I have the following questions:

1- can I flash the program via USB? since this will put the bootloader, I read that it is not supported.
2- do i need to solder extra wires or activate the pal software fix?

thanks

[vol.2]

forums deny registrations is simply stupid.

they are known for being very gatekept iirc. i wouldn't feel bad about it, it's not personal

i think if you really really wanted in, you could figure out what their deal is on discord or IRC or whatever they use, but imo it's definitely not worth it.

[VEGETA]

forums deny registrations is simply stupid.

they are known for being very gatekept iirc. i wouldn't feel bad about it, it's not personal

i think if you really really wanted in, you could figure out what their deal is on discord or IRC or whatever they use, but imo it's definitely not worth it.

I use IRC in Rizon server for anime fansub stuff, surprised to see retro gaming people use it. what is their channel?

it is not worth it for sure, it is just a forum.

[bobrocks95]

I also got a rejection email from them in January 2021, then I guess registered again in December and it went through. I don't remember if there was some notes section somewhere when registering but if there was I would have explicitly said my MV-1C was getting BIOS corruption screens I can't troubleshoot. OR I just forgot I had tried 11 months prior and the second registration just happened to go through.

They are very knowledgeable for specific Neo Geo questions you might have though, so I'd hope it's still possible to get in.

[ajdesmarais]

I always seem to end up back here every so many months. I've got a PVM-20M4U which undergoes partial vertical collapse after it's been warmed up for 20 minutes or so. The top third of the screen just kind of gives way and squishes down to nothing. A lot of this deflection board was recently recapped, but I just haven't used it in a while. I think there's a chip that controls vertical and horizontal deflection, and I didn't replace that, so it might be a culprit. Any ideas are much appreciated, thanks again guys.

[BazookaBen]

I always seem to end up back here every so many months. I've got a PVM-20M4U which undergoes partial vertical collapse after it's been warmed up for 20 minutes or so. The top third of the screen just kind of gives way and squishes down to nothing. A lot of this deflection board was recently recapped, but I just haven't used it in a while. I think there's a chip that controls vertical and horizontal deflection, and I didn't replace that, so it might be a culprit. Any ideas are much appreciated, thanks again guys.

I would guess you missed a cap or two somewhere. The vertical foldover seems to happen on every PVM eventually and is curable in all the instances I've seen. There are lists floating around of the most common caps to fail

[SavagePencil]

Are there any good 4K60 or 4K120 8x8 matrix switches available? With all the new scalers and my investment in a 4K TV, it seems inevitable that I’ll need to update my Extron HDMI matrix.

[ajdesmarais]

I would guess you missed a cap or two somewhere. The vertical foldover seems to happen on every PVM eventually and is curable in all the instances I've seen. There are lists floating around of the most common caps to fail

Hmmmm. I really don't think I missed a cap, but I did use some older/no-name brand ones I had lying around. I'll have to try to find one of these lists, or I guess I could just check a schematic and change everything on the vertical deflection circuit again to be sure. Thanks for the info!


EDIT: found a couple of instances of people claiming it could be an open resistor at R598. Also came across one unlucky fellow who replaced all of the above and STILL has the issue. I do have a spare deflection board to borrow parts from, luckily...

[vol.2]

I would guess you missed a cap or two somewhere. The vertical foldover seems to happen on every PVM eventually and is curable in all the instances I've seen. There are lists floating around of the most common caps to fail

Hmmmm. I really don't think I missed a cap, but I did use some older/no-name brand ones I had lying around. I'll have to try to find one of these lists, or I guess I could just check a schematic and change everything on the vertical deflection circuit again to be sure. Thanks for the info!


EDIT: found a couple of instances of people claiming it could be an open resistor at R598. Also came across one unlucky fellow who replaced all of the above and STILL has the issue. I do have a spare deflection board to borrow parts from, luckily...

There are some cheaper cap brands that are "okay" and I would generally trust them, but usually I think my time is more valuable than the extra cost of some nichicons. It all depends on how valuable and important the device is I'm working on; I would rate a 20M4U as worthy of good caps and certainly it's a big enough PITA that I would want to be sure I didn't have to do the same cap ever again.

That being said, you're going to have to open it up again now anyways, so just look at the schematic and find all the caps that are in the circuit around the V IC and test them with an LCR meter if you have one (out of circuit), if you don't have one, it's a little trickier to judge the health. You can use a cheapo component tester from ebay or amazon, and that will probably give you a decent go-no-go, but they don't always do a great job with ESR and they don't usually have theta. I agree with Bazooka that you probably missed a cap or one of the replacements wasn't good enough

However, that's not always the case. There could be a resistor, or the V IC itself could be to blame, especially if it was stressed for a long time. Often times, when a resistor fails, it overheats and leaves a black mark on the PCB, or it gets hot enough to discolor it's case or even destroy the markings. A careful scan of the PCB for darkened areas can often reveal a bad component

Another common issue is cold solder joints, which can be very tricky to catch, but you should go around all over the Vert area with a soldering iron and reflow all the joints in the whole circuit. This would also make sense with the "warming up" as cold joints can appear as the board warms and it physically shifts things

[ajdesmarais]

Another common issue is cold solder joints, which can be very tricky to catch, but you should go around all over the Vert area with a soldering iron and reflow all the joints in the whole circuit. This would also make sense with the "warming up" as cold joints can appear as the board warms and it physically shifts things

I was wondering this as well. I did the recap over a year ago and played for quite a while without incident, but the last time I used it regularly was probably back in February. The room it sits in can get pretty warm without the AC on, so maybe something broke loose in the interim? I'll assume the vertical IC(s) are clearly marked on the schematic.

I've had the deflection board on this monitor out and swapped so many times that it's all just second nature at this point, lol. Thanks for your advice!

[VEGETA]

I have a PAL PS1 1002 model with PU8 motherboard, it was modded with PIC chip but some wires were loose as seen here: https://imgur.com/a/JuOs2sX


can you guys point me to where should I connect them to play burned games??

[BazookaBen]

and the second registration just happened to go through.

So can you message a mod for me? That was my original question for anybody that had an account, lol

I mean, maybe they're being "selective" (if you can even do that with random signups). But I'm pretty sure their confirmation email system just isn't working for some reason.

[Ikaruga11]

Do GameCube games output an aspect ratio narrower than 4:3 in the framebuffer that get stretched out to 4:3 like Wii games do?

[terrorinstinct]

This may be in-depth enough to warrant its own thread, but playing it safe for now.

I have a Sharp XFlat 27F631 that's currently gathering dust because it will shut off after a few minutes and refuse to turn on for 15-30 minutes afterward, with an erratic and barely audible 'click-click' noise coming from the guts of the thing. This seems to be partially triggered by overall brightness/luminance (so in the SNES Test Program for example it typically fails during the mode-7 zoom test as the Mario picture reaches the screen edges) and is sometimes preceded by violent "wiggling" of the picture edges, so I assume the issue is the overvoltage or ripple protection triggering. The problem is this is my first CRT that's in good enough shape to rehab and I'm not sure what components could have been toasted to cause this exact failure. I've already read the CRT FAQ and have the service manual for the 27F631 as well as the similar 27F640/641, so I know enough to guess that it's probably somewhere in the low-voltage side of the power supply, but not enough to guess further than that and I'm somewhat leery of poking at power electronics while they're live without a very good idea of what to look for.

Has anyone here worked on one of these sets (or similar) and can tell me where in the nest of capacitors and coils to start testing? Part ID for the coils on the hot side of the power supply would also be appreciated, as they're just labeled "Coil" in the parts list and the part number is a Sharp SKU that doesn't exist anymore.

[ajdesmarais]

I'm having a problem with V-Phase. I have a schematic for my monitor, but how in the heck am I supposed to use it to find everything on the V-phase circuit? The one page I can find that has "V-Phase" labeled along the bottom just shows it going right to an IC with zero resistors or capacitors in the circuit. That can't be right, right?

[Steven]

I doubt that anyone here has bought any of Habit Soft's Mega Drive cartridges, but if you have, are they of good quality?

[jd213]

Has anyone here worked on one of these sets (or similar) and can tell me where in the nest of capacitors and coils to start testing? Part ID for the coils on the hot side of the power supply would also be appreciated, as they're just labeled "Coil" in the parts list and the part number is a Sharp SKU that doesn't exist anymore.

Hopefully someone else with more experience than me can chime in, but do any components look damaged? Maybe check the board for shorts or bad solder joints . To hazard a guess, might be the capacitors or transistors, and maybe check voltage regulators, if you see any. Fairly easy to check regulators by getting some hook test leads for a multimeter (I just have some cheap Chinese ones from Amazon that work fine) and hooking them on before turning on the set. Try pushing the power button while it's unplugged to discharge it first.

Not sure if inductor coils are something that fail very often (probably fine unless they look rusted), but they can be checked with a cheap TC1 tester or similar.

[lechu]

Can anyone more knowledgeable than me on power supplies and scart cables clear something up for me?

I have an American SNES and a Japanese Super Famicom. I know the Pal SNES requires a different scart cable than the NTSC one. Is this the case with NTSC US vs Japan? I currently have my US console hooked up (as I'm in North America). Any reason I wouldn't be able to swap to my Super Famicom.

Nothing wrong with my console. I just prefer the look of the Super Famicom.

[jd213]

The NTSC RGB and other video cables should be the same, yeah.

Just can't use the same AC adapters (without another adapter) since NoA decided to change it to be different or some reason.

[terrorinstinct]

Has anyone here worked on one of these sets (or similar) and can tell me where in the nest of capacitors and coils to start testing? Part ID for the coils on the hot side of the power supply would also be appreciated, as they're just labeled "Coil" in the parts list and the part number is a Sharp SKU that doesn't exist anymore.

Hopefully someone else with more experience than me can chime in, but do any components look damaged? Maybe check the board for shorts or bad solder joints . To hazard a guess, might be the capacitors or transistors, and maybe check voltage regulators, if you see any. Fairly easy to check regulators by getting some hook test leads for a multimeter (I just have some cheap Chinese ones from Amazon that work fine) and hooking them on before turning on the set. Try pushing the power button while it's unplugged to discharge it first.

Not sure if inductor coils are something that fail very often (probably fine unless they look rusted), but they can be checked with a cheap TC1 tester or similar.

I've since had the chance to pull out and examine the PCB. None of the components appear to be damaged. The "filters" are EMI inductors, Delta LFZ28V12 inductors as far as I can tell. Inductors don't fail often, and when they do they fail short which would blow the line fuse instantly. The major suspects (without doing live testing, which I dread doing atm because the PCB is in a tray directly under the CRT and I needed to unplug multiple neckboard cables to get a good look at it) are the main fliter cap C701 and the huge snap-in cap C705, just after the bridge rectifier. I'm not an expert at reading schematics by any stretch, but it looks to me like most of the other components that could fail would cause the TV to go totally dead, not just ripple itself into shutting down. The main filter cap degrading would be weird since it's metal film, but it's entirely possible that C705 is dried out and letting ripple through from the bridge rectifier. I already have an old motherboard that needs a recap, so I'll just throw the parts in the DigiKey order and see if that does the job.

[jd213]

OK, let us know how it goes. I had a bad film cap in an Olympus OEV 143, so it's certainly possible. Not too hard to take them out once you get used to desoldering.

[VEGETA]

pics: https://imgur.com/a/Cyt5WCp

measurements: https://imgur.com/a/IbU18zA

^
These are for my Dreamcast universal power supply new design, fully functional and exceeds original PSU as well as all other available models and replacements.

I put about 80$ to sell it as final selling price due to very high cost of production, the question is: do people need it? will it be selling well?

[bobrocks95]

pics: https://imgur.com/a/Cyt5WCp

measurements: https://imgur.com/a/IbU18zA

^
These are for my Dreamcast universal power supply new design, fully functional and exceeds original PSU as well as all other available models and replacements.

I put about 80$ to sell it as final selling price due to very high cost of production, the question is: do people need it? will it be selling well?

Heat readings compared to OEM would be great, I think that's the only motivator I have for replacing mine. Some may find value in it if they imported a console that doesn't support their country's power grid (I'm assuming this is universal).

You might also want to attempt to explain what makes it better than a well-built (if they exist?) PicoPSU alternative, if you have measurements on any of those. Or explaining the oscilloscope readings compared to an OEM PSU.

[VEGETA]

pics: https://imgur.com/a/Cyt5WCp

measurements: https://imgur.com/a/IbU18zA

^
These are for my Dreamcast universal power supply new design, fully functional and exceeds original PSU as well as all other available models and replacements.

I put about 80$ to sell it as final selling price due to very high cost of production, the question is: do people need it? will it be selling well?

Heat readings compared to OEM would be great, I think that's the only motivator I have for replacing mine. Some may find value in it if they imported a console that doesn't support their country's power grid (I'm assuming this is universal).

You might also want to attempt to explain what makes it better than a well-built (if they exist?) PicoPSU alternative, if you have measurements on any of those. Or explaining the oscilloscope readings compared to an OEM PSU.

Hello,
please check original PSU measurements here: https://imgur.com/a/nM9UYYK
heat is pretty much non-existent in my design. only in the very small switching regulator of 3.3v which is understandable but besides that nothing. inductors\caps\etc.. all cold, not even warm.

what makes it better is:

1- true universal input 110-220v ac compatible, no weird unverified wall adapter needed.
2- has professionally made and certified ac-dc power module which has all the safety and protection markers checked (up to medical standard).
3- full load ripple is about 25mv with zero noise (actually less since most of that is scope's noise floor), original PSU is over 90mV while other solutions may be even worse. this design has its own common-mode choke as well as the one inside the power module, thus no external noise can be coupled inside from your wiring or house. picopsu does not have common-mode choke and barely any filtering in and out. it relies on wall adapters which in turn are not made for quality. picopsu does not filter noise and ripple properly because it is not the reason or job it was intended for. it will pass whatever it gets and possibly adds more. it is made for digital PC builds not analog stuff.
someone on another forum measured picopsu ripple to be 80-120mv which is bad. didn't test it myself though but as said it requires very high quality wall adapter.
4- excellent heat management, pretty much non-existent.
5- high quality caps and lots of them (not relying on one for all performance). mixture of X7R ceramics + low ESR high quality electrolytic + very low ESR high quality solid polymers... which ensures optimal power delivery no matter the load.
6- besides the protection inside the power module (which should be enough), there is a 12v main re-settable fuse.

that is what i can think of now (verified it myself).

[terrorinstinct]

OK, let us know how it goes. I had a bad film cap in an Olympus OEV 143, so it's certainly possible. Not too hard to take them out once you get used to desoldering.

Well, I made the swap and it seems to have done the job. Desoldering was a major pain due to the fat traces in the AC power segment of the board and the direct soldered connections between the FBT and neckboard. Top corners were crushed in when testing with the 240p suite, not sure if that's because the exact values of the new caps are different or because I had to wiggle the neckboard off to get the main PCB in a good position for soldering and the yoke shifted. Untuned stations cause the OSD to jiggle like it's losing sync for a few seconds before the "no input" blue screen takes over. Oh well, I can tinker in service mode for a bit to get it back in shape.

EDIT: Service mode tinkering was mostly successful. Corner convergence is kind of bad, but it is a true flat CRT so that's perhaps to be expected. What's not expected is the significant blooming, at least 5 lines worth of bloom at 240p between a black screen and a white screen judged by the position of the service mode text. The internet says this is caused by bad B+ voltage regulation, but I'm not sure where B+ actually is on this thing, there's multiple lines on the schematic named 9V-B, 21V-B, etc. The closest thing I could find is P651, the X-ray protection testpoint that comes off of pin 2 of the flyback. That shows -13.88V for a black screen and -14.07 for a white screen. Is this within tolerance (for the voltage regulation, it's in spec for the X-ray protection circuit) or do I need to do more testing and part replacement?

[jd213]

Glad to see you're making some progress. I used to set my Hakko desoldering gun to the minimum temp, but I think this made it easier to damage traces since I'd need to leave it on longer and make multiple attempts, so a higher temp made it easier for solder to come all the way off with just one try and I haven't damaged anything yet.

I guess the service manual didn't say anything about other tolerances? Have you checked the voltage regulators? Maybe a bad resistor could be the culprit.

[terrorinstinct]

Glad to see you're making some progress. I used to set my Hakko desoldering gun to the minimum temp, but I think this made it easier to damage traces since I'd need to leave it on longer and make multiple attempts, so a higher temp made it easier for solder to come all the way off with just one try and I haven't damaged anything yet.

I just have a TS100 that maxes at 400C, no-clean flux, a cheap solder sucker and a desolder braid. It's a pain when the solder resolidifies as soon as you take the iron off, but alternating between flux, the sucker and the braid gets the job done eventually.

I guess the service manual didn't say anything about other tolerances? Have you checked the voltage regulators? Maybe a bad resistor could be the culprit.

There are waveform diagrams for various points, but (since this is of course a manualslib copy) the diagram bitmaps are sized for ants, and even if they weren't I don't have an oscilloscope. I'm not sure how to check the voltage regulators without one, especially without an idea of what part of the spaghetti mess schematic actually feeds horizontal deflection and would be affected by Vdroop from a bright electron beam. It's an instantaneous and direct relationship between beam current and picture size; I'm using a Wii as a test pattern generator for component input and I can actually see the picture edges bend inward as the "wave" in the Homebrew Channel banner animation moves up the screen. I'm not sure how a bad resistor would affect that without totally borking the TV. Here's the service manual if you want to take a look and maybe see something I'm missing.

[jd213]

You can check voltage regulators with a multimeter if you can look up the part number to see what they're supposed to be outputting, I'm not seeing any obvious ones when I looked over the service manual though.

Not sure where else would be a good place to check, maybe some of the transistors or ICs that look like they could be affected by heat. Maybe try Googling their part numbers to see if anyone mentions them failing.

[VEGETA]

I have messaged Voultar and Bob from RetroRGB about testing my PSU unit but they didn't respond yet.

I am thinking of sending one to Macho Nacho channel but don't know how. I don't know if he can measure stuff in oscilloscope too.

who do you suggest?

[hittheweights93]

I have a Matsui TVR190 CRT, inside it uses an ST STV2246H chip for handling video. According to the datasheet it can automatically decode both PAL and NTSC chroma signals when both XTAL1 and XTAL2 lines are connected to 4.43MHz and 3.58MHz crystals respectively.

On the board it already had a 4.43MHz crystal installed for PAL and a footprint for the other which I just installed. Although now that I've done this it still does not display chroma on NTSC signals and the image is now way into the overscan unlike before adding the 3.58MHz crystal.

I can provide the datasheet but it is very easily found online, am I missing something here? Based on the changes I'm certain it's attempting to use the new crystal but something is obviously wrong.