@@dxprog I thought the part where you etched the PCB was particularly interesting. I've done similar mods and designed circuits myself but only ever on perfboard. I've seen some tutorials on the method you used but avoided it because it seems so unreliable. Looks like that was your experience too!
Wow, this is awesome. Now I'm even more excited to continue my education, as well as getting to play some games on my very own Famicom arriving soon hopefully
Wow that was close! I already had the nes power adapter connected to my famicom, but came here first to search a composite mod because I don't have a rf cable. Thanks man, you safe my Famicom!
Really want to see how to make a separate USB power set up for the famicom. This can help many people out there not having to deal with overpriced or poorly made replacement power adapters.
Actually I think I might know how to do it. Looking at various MB configs though there is at least 2 different versions prior to the AV Famicom. 1 with and 1 without the ribbon cable connecting the RF and Power board to the MB.
It'd actually be pretty simple to just splice a barrel jack to the power wires of a USB cable. It almost seems too obvious to work, but I think I'm gonna give it a try!
@@dxprog awesome! Actually I believe there is a USB A to barrel adapter. But honestly it'd be better to be USB Micro B. Hope you'll make a vid of it. I have a great mod idea I'm trying to piece together as well.
@@dxprog I wanted to get talk to you about the board you used and pick your brain on the board you made. If you can toss me an email on Gmail. My address is ohgami.ichiro there.
Ive decided to mod mine too. I thought I was going mad for deciding to use USB power, but it will free up the space inside the case for other things and reduce the power draw. I only have european tvs, and while somehow my tv will get the colour, it can't get sound. So I'm going to AV mod it, then in the extra space try and install a HDMI converter. My thinking is where the famicom needs long video leads due to short controllers, converting it to digital in the famicom is the best way of preserving the signal quality. Nice job with etching the board. I'll probably go with perf board because im lazy.
Excellent question that I'm not qualified to answer, but will try :). After some googly research, seems the cap is doing a few things: - filtering out line noise (which was my primary assumption) - providing some extra power to drive the speaker as the waveform changes. I mostly found this in regards to car audio and bass, so maybe take with a grain of salt... - providing some protection to the CPU from current spikes while messing about with the audio cables I'm sure a 17μF cap would work, but would likely change the sound output. How and would it be perceptible, I couldn't say. If anybody actually knows, would love for you to chime in to understand this better myself!
I would say the capacitor helps regulate the flow of power in order for it to remain constant. If there is less than optimal power, the capacitor's stored power kicks in. If there is more than needed power, it stores it for later use. Using a greater capacity capacitor would only store more power, but be careful, when you switch that machine off, that power has to go somewhere (hence why capacitor's are connected to ground).
Hello, great questions! It's been a hot minute since this video and my PCB layout is a hot mess... 1) Honestly couldn't tell you what the value the transistor is. Pretty sure I just pulled some generic PNP BJT from a pack of generic transistors I got at Fry's... 2) Gonna try to describe this as best I can using the PCB traces. Ground is the copper fill, 5V goes into the switch, audio connects through the capacitor, and video connects through the transistor. That's probably not super useful, but the best I can get you with a project this old. Good luck :)
Yup, the Famicom (and NES) is a 5V machine. The USB connector was just a convenient way to meet that without dipping into power regulation circuitry. Though, I've seen enough bigclive to know relying on others to provide USB voltages in a clean fashion is far from a guarantee...
Sorry for the delayed response. Threw everything up in a GitHub repository (correcting a few mistakes that made it into this video): github.com/dxprog/FamicomPowerBoard
Tl;DR - no and no without a lot of extra gear Power: the UK's mains power is 240VAC/50Hz versus Japan (and the US)'s 120VAC/60Hz. You need quite a lot of kit to correctly convert one to the other, but it can be done. Techmoan has a pretty good video on that subject: th-cam.com/video/_dgO0HdPMds/w-d-xo.html Video: the Famicom generates an NTSC signal which won't play nice with the UK's PAL standard. I don't even know what a Mega Drive RF adapter would do to that signal... Again, though, you could get gear to convert the NTSC signal to something UK friendlier. Hope that answers your question!
Thanks Matt. I was hoping for a simple solution. I recently saw a Famicom, with the same mod you did in this video, sell on Ebay for over £120! I decided to sacrifice quality and buy a new Famiclone instead.
I don't know if you still need info but for my famicom I just use a DC power plug that has the correct voltage and amperage and has a UK plug and it will work. Video is harder as UK tvs don't go to the same frequency needed, the only option I had was to get it modded.
Hi Matt - great video/guide - I am having a hard time converting the schematic.sch file - Do you have a pdf version? I am looking for schematic in a more consumable format without the need to for circuit design software. Thanks in advance
There are some breadboard style circuit boards that are the same size, and that are not as thick as breadboards. You have to solder all collections, so it should work, right? I mean, as long as I follow your schematics and put everything in place and don't short anything out? Printing or making your own circuit boards is prohibitively expensive in South America, but getting those parts isn't, and neither is getting a bunch of the boards I told you about. Plus the schematic is not that complicated.
Thanks! I don't recall how long this one took to pull together, but I was definitely working on it for a few months off and on. Most of that was procrastination >_>
Absolutely criminal that this only has 613 views, this is brilliant stuff. Keep up the good work!
Thanks! Actually going to be posting a new NES/FC related video in a week or two, so stay tuned :)
@@dxprog I thought the part where you etched the PCB was particularly interesting. I've done similar mods and designed circuits myself but only ever on perfboard. I've seen some tutorials on the method you used but avoided it because it seems so unreliable. Looks like that was your experience too!
Brilliant stuff! Love the detail you go into with the schematic.
Wow, this is awesome. Now I'm even more excited to continue my education, as well as getting to play some games on my very own Famicom arriving soon hopefully
Wow that was close! I already had the nes power adapter connected to my famicom, but came here first to search a composite mod because I don't have a rf cable. Thanks man, you safe my Famicom!
What is transistor number?
Really want to see how to make a separate USB power set up for the famicom. This can help many people out there not having to deal with overpriced or poorly made replacement power adapters.
Actually I think I might know how to do it. Looking at various MB configs though there is at least 2 different versions prior to the AV Famicom. 1 with and 1 without the ribbon cable connecting the RF and Power board to the MB.
It'd actually be pretty simple to just splice a barrel jack to the power wires of a USB cable. It almost seems too obvious to work, but I think I'm gonna give it a try!
@@dxprog awesome! Actually I believe there is a USB A to barrel adapter. But honestly it'd be better to be USB Micro B. Hope you'll make a vid of it. I have a great mod idea I'm trying to piece together as well.
@@dxprog I wanted to get talk to you about the board you used and pick your brain on the board you made. If you can toss me an email on Gmail. My address is ohgami.ichiro there.
BC556 Bipolar Transistor is the one used?
For the marrying to the board, do you solder to the 3 vcc pins, one to snd, then one to pin 21?
glad that you told me about that dc ac power thing... bought a famicom not to long ago and was really goin to think about doing that
Ive decided to mod mine too. I thought I was going mad for deciding to use USB power, but it will free up the space inside the case for other things and reduce the power draw.
I only have european tvs, and while somehow my tv will get the colour, it can't get sound. So I'm going to AV mod it, then in the extra space try and install a HDMI converter. My thinking is where the famicom needs long video leads due to short controllers, converting it to digital in the famicom is the best way of preserving the signal quality.
Nice job with etching the board. I'll probably go with perf board because im lazy.
What is the 1μF capacitor for? Can I also use, for example, a 17μF capacitor?
Excellent question that I'm not qualified to answer, but will try :). After some googly research, seems the cap is doing a few things:
- filtering out line noise (which was my primary assumption)
- providing some extra power to drive the speaker as the waveform changes. I mostly found this in regards to car audio and bass, so maybe take with a grain of salt...
- providing some protection to the CPU from current spikes while messing about with the audio cables
I'm sure a 17μF cap would work, but would likely change the sound output. How and would it be perceptible, I couldn't say.
If anybody actually knows, would love for you to chime in to understand this better myself!
I would say the capacitor helps regulate the flow of power in order for it to remain constant. If there is less than optimal power, the capacitor's stored power kicks in. If there is more than needed power, it stores it for later use. Using a greater capacity capacitor would only store more power, but be careful, when you switch that machine off, that power has to go somewhere (hence why capacitor's are connected to ground).
Great video! A couple questions: What is the value of the transistor and what would the labels be for the wires on your PCB?
Hello, great questions! It's been a hot minute since this video and my PCB layout is a hot mess...
1) Honestly couldn't tell you what the value the transistor is. Pretty sure I just pulled some generic PNP BJT from a pack of generic transistors I got at Fry's...
2) Gonna try to describe this as best I can using the PCB traces. Ground is the copper fill, 5V goes into the switch, audio connects through the capacitor, and video connects through the transistor.
That's probably not super useful, but the best I can get you with a project this old. Good luck :)
can you power famicon with 5 volt dc? what is the usb for besides it?
Yup, the Famicom (and NES) is a 5V machine. The USB connector was just a convenient way to meet that without dipping into power regulation circuitry. Though, I've seen enough bigclive to know relying on others to provide USB voltages in a clean fashion is far from a guarantee...
You bro will this work for LIKO KL 235 clone? :D It has 5 wires cable to RF board
Can I have your usb power supply circuit diagram,thanks for your help
Sorry for the delayed response. Threw everything up in a GitHub repository (correcting a few mistakes that made it into this video): github.com/dxprog/FamicomPowerBoard
The barrel jack's polarity is switched on the famicom, center is negative and the outside is positive. So you probably would have popped it anyway 🤣
It's a wonder that machine still works at all 🤦♂️
So awesome! ...and the Zelda sound effects LOL! my god I would LOVE this for my Atari 2600 Heavy 6'er. Any ideas?
Dude! You deserve way more subs!
Would a Japan to UK plug socket adapter and a Sega Megadrive av/rf cable work as an alternative?
Tl;DR - no and no without a lot of extra gear
Power: the UK's mains power is 240VAC/50Hz versus Japan (and the US)'s 120VAC/60Hz. You need quite a lot of kit to correctly convert one to the other, but it can be done. Techmoan has a pretty good video on that subject: th-cam.com/video/_dgO0HdPMds/w-d-xo.html
Video: the Famicom generates an NTSC signal which won't play nice with the UK's PAL standard. I don't even know what a Mega Drive RF adapter would do to that signal... Again, though, you could get gear to convert the NTSC signal to something UK friendlier.
Hope that answers your question!
Thanks Matt. I was hoping for a simple solution.
I recently saw a Famicom, with the same mod you did in this video, sell on Ebay for over £120!
I decided to sacrifice quality and buy a new Famiclone instead.
I don't know if you still need info but for my famicom I just use a DC power plug that has the correct voltage and amperage and has a UK plug and it will work. Video is harder as UK tvs don't go to the same frequency needed, the only option I had was to get it modded.
what song is background song ??????
WHICH ONE? THERE'S, LIKE... TEN!
Matt Hackmann ffffffffffff the elevator music bruh
HANDY DANDY NOTEBOOK!
Hi Matt - great video/guide - I am having a hard time converting the schematic.sch file - Do you have a pdf version? I am looking for schematic in a more consumable format without the need to for circuit design software. Thanks in advance
There are some breadboard style circuit boards that are the same size, and that are not as thick as breadboards. You have to solder all collections, so it should work, right? I mean, as long as I follow your schematics and put everything in place and don't short anything out?
Printing or making your own circuit boards is prohibitively expensive in South America, but getting those parts isn't, and neither is getting a bunch of the boards I told you about. Plus the schematic is not that complicated.
Should work out fine. The only issue I could potentially see is fit. The famicom doesn't have just oodles of breathing room.
Was this or is this something to buy?
This is a great mod! Well done! How long did it take you do this whole video?
Thanks! I don't recall how long this one took to pull together, but I was definitely working on it for a few months off and on. Most of that was procrastination >_>
@@dxprog I know that game very well my self😁
Thanks very cool video
Absolutely love this content
niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice. good job
haha the beginning :D
support all 8bit guys! add oil.
A very good video and channel, why does it has so fwe subscribers and views?
Хорошее начало, но дальнейший вандализм😣🤦♀️. Чювак ну так трудно было🤔 развести под разъём, типа как у с-видео😭