Thanks for watching! Any 3D prints I sell will appear at www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TheRetroManCave - and the STL file is here: www.dropbox.com/s/4acri8gy4oplzsg/PCE%20RGB%20v16.stl?dl=0 - I'll get around to putting it up on Thingiverse proper some time soon. I hope you've enjoyed the series! Neil - RMC
Regarding your 3D printer and the recent video you made about it, all I can say is that I hope you're pleased with yourself! I had no real interest in 3D printing until then but after watching it and reading up on them I was inspired to buy one for myself! It should be dispatched next week and hopefully I'll receive it soon afterwards. Thank you very much :-)
Don't worry about what people are saying. You're not one of these people gutting an NES to turn it into a DVD player, or destroying a C64 to turn it into a "musical instrument." You're making it more playable. That's the whole point.
15:30 Neil, try finding a ferrite ring to put on the amp's RGB output or the audio running to the port you installed. the amplified video signal maybe whats at play and is just aggravated by the cheap cable.
@@mrfrog8502 That's still smart though, I was thinking something along those lines, decoupling caps and whatnot. But my solution doesn't work either because it'll destroy the signal. I hope a better cable will indeed solve the issue! Otherwise there might still be something to do inside the machine, perhaps the mod is affecting the stability of the supply or something (but I doubt it, they didn't seem to cheap out on caps). Or just put an audio jack as Neil said.
I had a really bad RGB SCART cable for a PAL snes, and I tried several things. One thing that worked miracles was to just get some wire and solder it between the ground connections on both sides of the cable. I did check the cable and the ground wire was really thin and well below spec. Didn't fix everything (though I think the rest of the problems are caused by the console), but it made a huge difference. Still, without knowing the underlying issue with the cable it's hard to say. The cable I modded this way had far bigger problems than some audio buzz. (really bad video interference, for one.)
That's what I was thinking, it seems far more likely you'd be getting cross-contamination among all those long unshielded cables added as part of the mod rather than the external cable.
@@RMCRetro I'd recommend picking up some internal guitar wiring cable. it comes with the shield and conductor already arranged in one jacket and is optimized to be flexible and get smooshed around the tight corners inside a guitar body cavity without breaking or shorting, perfect for mods like this.
@@RMCRetro Hi Neil. I have had similar issues when producing music in my laptop and playing the sound through powered speakers. At the musical stores they recommend an active or passive DI Box. Not expensive so worth a try. www.sweetwater.com/insync/di-boxes/
It isn't an issue if the wires internally are separated somewhat. I would suspect some noise is normal from the system anyhow, and his cable is exaggerating it. You can always take some steel netting and separate the internal cables a little with it and ground it. Dont even need to do them all, just the one or both audio cables. And no soldering needed.
I had the exact problem with an RGB Scart cable I bought for my Amiga 500. IT turned out that the cable was overall shielded, but the wires for R G B L R and Sync were not shielded from each other. In my work as a TV engineer I used to come across unshielded scart cables all the time. A simple zero cost fix would be to pull apart one of those VGA cables that you probably have laying about if you didn't just throw it away when you unpacked your monitor. Cut the blue plugs off the end and use it to make up a new cable, there should be enough cables. (R)(G)(B)(Hsync)(Vsync) should be all shielded, I'd use the Hsync and Vsync for audio then run the Csync down one of the DDC wires. You could also change your RGB mod to include the composite video feed instead of the Csync, it will work just as well but means you can use a different cable to give the old skool Comp video + audio.
3D printers really make these sort of repairs so much easier. I am looking forward to getting a 3D printer later in the year. 350c is a good soldering temp usually :)
This has turned out super nice, pots on the laser cd is something I've experienced myself years ago on older portable drives or to make them compatible with cd-r, so nice they put them in a reachable space!
CD Wallets! I have two 500CD wallets. I put all my discs in there so I’m not pulling cases out of the shelf constantly and wearing them down. I replace all my jewel cases and buy old new stock of Xbox, PS2, and any other weird case and replace those as well. It’s a great way to preserve the cases.
This was a great little series to add to your already excellent library of videos. The PC Engine really is an underrated/lesser-spoken system that deserves more attention as some of the games are genuinely a few of the most enjoyable I have played from the era.
Lesser spoken because if you had one, it was a grey import. I used to look at the ads in third party console mags and wanted one, but I was a nipper and it was before pocket money age.
The slide in panels you made are perfect other than being white rather than grey there is also plenty of space left on the plastic for even twin Din with HDMI ports connected to that RGB to make it full modern CRT/HD compatible with an RGB output over both ports.
I must be one of the few. Personally I like it when someone takes old hardware and mods it to work better, use newer hardware. And if a mod means a change to the case, but I enjoy using it more, then not too concerned what others would think. Having said that, impressed with the trapdoor you’ve made. All looks very nice. Like how you’ve shown the wiring - sure be very helpful to someone... I’ve been experimenting with the Windows XP Pro SP3 CD today. Made a few useful tweaks to it! :D. It’s got some interesting bonuses...
The PC Engine. Oh I enjoyed Blazing Lazers on it back in the days, still do as well. Very nice RGB mod and very nice first 3D print project. That face plate looks very great.
Really nice RBG mod. I've been looking for a non-destructive IFU RGB mod for years and your solution looks fantastic. Hopefully someone might do a run of those plastic side plates - the only improvement would be to match the original colour. Glad to see another person discover this fantastic system, it really is one of the greatest consoles ever made. My all time favourite for sure.
Nice video Don't let people push you into how you mod your console! Do what you want drill holes and stick ports and switches where ever you want even paint it if you want
to correct the buzz, try using shielded cable for your internal rgb wires, and put an aluminium plate over the top of your mini signal amp (and check youve not situated it too close to any power wires/tracks.
Yep - the 'buzz' seems its a PCE thing even just using an AV Adaptor Module - not a problem on most TV's but on a set that is inherently quiet, when the volume is up the buzz is more noticeable - but part of the charm also :-)
That buzzing on the sound seems to be a common thing on those Philips monitors, had the same problem on my old one, also my Commodore 1084S monitor does the same and it's got exactly the same moulded back on as that Philips CM8833, so they must have shared the same manufacture.
Old CD drives were hit and miss with CD-R discs because of how much darker the disks are (and thus the signal comes back too low from the laser) - so nice fix! As for your audio buzz, also consider where inside the case you are running the wires, since they are not shielded inside the dock either. It would have been nice to see you create a JST plug for the audio instead of tagging onto the posts. That would have been an even cleaner mod. Lots of good kits on Amazon for that sort of thing.
Awesome! Doubly so as I had that same Phillips monitor for my Acorn Archimedes A3000 for many many years until my brother fried the audio board by plugging a video component lead into the audio socket. Absolutely awesome picture on that monitor!
Really enjoyed this series, and very happy to see you'll get to enjoy such a great system. The audio buzz is definitely from crosstalk. A high quality cable with shielding between the video and audio lines should fix it up for you.
I'd try using shielded audio wire, tiny coax, inside the unit to your DIN jack, before replacing the entire cable. Or, you could just disconnect the audio wires from the DIN jack inside the unit to see if the buzz goes away, that would confirm the interference is coming from inside the unit.
That’s definitely interference from a video signal. In the UK, your ground loops would sound like 50hz but that’s a 60hz buzz with a lot of harmonics. It might be inherent to the boards or something.
You'll find that unless you can burn CDs with the audio track exactly in the place the pc engine expects it to be, your audio will be late, early or non-existent. Also unshielded cables are a no-go. 😁
For anyone getting RFI (interference) when using C51 for 5V & R102 for GND, use the pin next to CSYNC for 5V, & the next pin to that for GND on the IFU expansion port. This fixed the RFI & gave me a crystal clear image. Also using Otaku's RGB amp by the way (very good).
To reduce the buzz you might want to reduce the length of the rat's nest of wires in the case. The longer they run, the more interference they can pick up.
I'm no expert on consoles at all. Famously in my mind they're all a Nintendo. I've kind of felt they were anonymous boxes and there wasn't the same enjoyment as there was with microcomputers. However this series has changed my mind a bit. I like the whole infrastructure of it all together in the case with peripherals etc. Thanks Neil, great series!
yeah, gamecubes and dreamcasts are the same way with recordable/rewritable media, sometimes you need to adjust the output power of the laser. Little tiny pots on the lasers to make them work with such medias.
Brilliant that's all I can say. Never had a PC Engine if pos Neil if you have time I would not mind seeing a comparison video where we can compare PC Engine games with other systems of the time like Mega Drive or Snes or Neo Geo. I know the PC ENGINE was an 8bit machine but I think it could give the Amiga a run for its money in some games titles like Outrun,Rtype, or even Power Drift, Space Hairrer but no matter what loved to get hold of one thanks for the video I really enjoyed series.
Very well done - nice job. Its probably down to the wiring used in the connection to the rgb amp - and the audio connections. I have made a few of pce rgb amp circuits from scratch on prototyping boards and only a few have not had that background sound 'buzz' like you show. Tbh, sometimes it seems also much worse dependent on which TV you use as some TV's seem to have quieter sound level output and increasing volume also increases buzz. Think its just maybe a PCEngine thing lol.
Like others have said, a ferrite choke on the new power wires you added might be the answer. The power wires in that large nest of wires you tucked under there being so close to new and existing components might be causing interference.
Should have put the rgb amp in the pc engine itself. The ifu dock creates video interference, especially when running cd games. Using the regular composite signal for sync actually helps to alleviate some of the interference if mounted in the ifu dock compared to using True c-sync. If the rgb amp was in the system itself then true c-sync can be used instead with no interference. A better scart cable will also help with the audio buzz.
@@d2factotum Yeah, that and plugging it in helps. Yes and its no lie that it is 100% true that is something my boss didn't know ... when he said 'how does this work?' and it wasn't even plugged in.... doh! ;-)
Even playing via emulation, the PC-Engine was an extremely pleasant surprise. The arcade conversions are excellently done with respects to the hardware, and the original titles are well made. Have you got a scope Neil? Maybe check if you have a ripple on your PSU as regards to the hum if the cable / separate audio jacks don't solve the problem. Great vid as always.
i mentioned before if you tap of from the digital audio you get the loud buzzing you need to tap it from the analog audio i left the audio jacks in and taped of the back of the circuit think it has some extra filtering caps on there, also even with perfect shielding a lot of pc engine game buz on bright screens is the just the hardware and the way the games were programmed take rastan 2 as an example you can patch it to cut the noise down it was something to do with the game code.
I RGB modded my Atari 2600 with a popular kit from TFW8b and got bad horizontal noise bars on the screen. The solution for me was not the mod cabling shielding but a cheap PSU I was using. I replaced the PSU with an old original linear supply and problem solved. 👍
I like to do a suggestion about the writing speed. I have been burning CD from the time that they are so expensive that it hurt in you stomach if one would fail :P. I have written a lot of CD and DVD but one thing I wil never forget how writing speed will effect the quality of the copy. After years I made a rule: take lowest of the maximum write speed of the burner or the optical media and divide that in half. So wen de burner is 52x and the media is 40x, I take the cd divide it in half so I burn it at 20x. If the burner is 40x and the media is 52x I take the burner speed and burn it at 20x speed. My take on this idea is, both burner and media are having a sweet spot or a optimal working condition. It is not very logical if this is happening at the highest or the lowest speed. But beside that in my experience the middel of the road speed have always been the less problematic copy's. I hope it helps you out. Tried to DM you this trough Discord, but I was blocked :P
MagicTrashman recently make a 3D printed piece to fit a mini-DIN socket into an Interface Unit or Turbo-CD dock. I looked on Thingiverse and saw several others you could have used. Heck, even if they are all for mini-DIN, you could've printed one of those and then drilled it out. Just saying you didn't have to do all that work since it's already been modeled repeatedly and shared openly. :)
re the trouble burning with the CDRs... some newer media actually have a minimum burn speed. ;) glad you figured out with the adjustable pots, but that could be why you had trouble with the other media
Neil, great work! I am so happy I found your channel, I am hooked! I never thought I'd be interested in seeing the chips, solder, and all the rest. I was strictly a heavy gamer who built his own pc's to save some 'do rae mi' (dough = money). Anyway, I am going to take some classes to learn what all this stuff is, i don't even really know what a capacitors is made from and how it works... Can I ask why the composite output on the PC-engine was no good? I know its not hdmi or even S-Video, but I thought it was decent enough?
I picked up a PC Engine Duo RX. It was listed as faulty. Paid £140 for it. Checked the power supply, had the right values. Flipped the powerswitch aaaaand it was working just fine. Only downside was I didn't get any RX controller with it (they go for about £70+ each). Not sure if I'm going to keep it or not. Getting the controllers is a lot of money imo and they might not even work. Replacement parts isn't something I have found yet like the rubber pads that go under the dpad and buttons.
I’ve not seen an original CM8833 since school, back when my IT teacher failed me in computer studies for losing my course work. The winker. BTW your audio buzz is down to your cable Neilster. 👍
At 13:55 you mention that you adjusted one of the pots to adjust the laser voltage. Can you add a little detail as to which of the pots shown you did actually adjust ? Thank you!
One thing I would recommend is replacing the cables you have done the mod with good quality cable I got some from a comperny that went bust it was labelled as coaxial but it wasn't aeriel was alot thinner, its about 6mm for the outer sleeve but the inner sleeve is about 1mm but it is fully shielded and works amazingly, I used it on internally moding a CRT TV, I used cheap cables initially used cheap non insulatied cable but it suffered with extreme signal noise but using this shield cable it completely removed it the name of the cable is van Damme Pro grade classic XKE
Thanks for putting the 'magic Taiyo Yuden discs' and 'only use God's purest Plextors at the holiest, slowest burning speeds' nonsense to rest and clearly demonstrating the true solution. Many of us have known for years that these tactics are largely ineffective leftovers from the early 90s when CD recorders were first introduced and the quality of media really did vary wildly but are completely irrelevant when using hardware and media that has been manufactured since. I'm sure none of this will prevent people from continuing to spread these rumors, of course.
With your audio, try using a audio isolator on your output could be a ground isolation issue. If it continues to do so, it could be possible that your bus data lines audio (data sent via ram/cpu frequency transfer is hopping over to your audio channels by close proximity of a data signal crosstalk.
The buzz could have been caused by the 5V line to the RGB connector, was that 5V line decoupled? Also, you might want to use a shielded cable for the audio lead inside the interface unit, then attach the shield of that to a good ground point.
Why solder the power and other wires to the back of the pin connector, couldn't you have made a plug up to fit it like the original. Great video by the way.
09:25 to me it looks like 2 of the capacitors on the main board need changing as they look domed. The large cap near the orange plug adaptor and the medium sized cap leaning against the heatsink.
I believe that is just an optical illusion due to the curved line on all of the caps. In the next shot, you can see it from the top down and it has that exaggerated curve, but looks otherwise un-domed
You don’t need a slower burner, you need to adjust the laser. There is an intensity pot on the laser itself and that needs to be tweaked to handle the lower reflectivity of cdr. This burning speed myth is as bad and prevalent as blowing in NES carts.
Thanks for watching! Any 3D prints I sell will appear at www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TheRetroManCave - and the STL file is here: www.dropbox.com/s/4acri8gy4oplzsg/PCE%20RGB%20v16.stl?dl=0 - I'll get around to putting it up on Thingiverse proper some time soon. I hope you've enjoyed the series! Neil - RMC
Keep up the entertaining and informative videos
RetroManCave hey i have a cd case over here and its santa claus
Regarding your 3D printer and the recent video you made about it, all I can say is that I hope you're pleased with yourself! I had no real interest in 3D printing until then but after watching it and reading up on them I was inspired to buy one for myself! It should be dispatched next week and hopefully I'll receive it soon afterwards. Thank you very much :-)
Excellent work, man!
Enjoyed every episode! Any chance you could share the name of the music track for the end credits?
Don't worry about what people are saying. You're not one of these people gutting an NES to turn it into a DVD player, or destroying a C64 to turn it into a "musical instrument." You're making it more playable. That's the whole point.
15:30 Neil, try finding a ferrite ring to put on the amp's RGB output or the audio running to the port you installed. the amplified video signal maybe whats at play and is just aggravated by the cheap cable.
This trick won't work here as ferrite ring doesn't attenuate low frequencies (50 Hz vertical sync).
@@mrfrog8502 That's still smart though, I was thinking something along those lines, decoupling caps and whatnot. But my solution doesn't work either because it'll destroy the signal. I hope a better cable will indeed solve the issue! Otherwise there might still be something to do inside the machine, perhaps the mod is affecting the stability of the supply or something (but I doubt it, they didn't seem to cheap out on caps). Or just put an audio jack as Neil said.
I had a really bad RGB SCART cable for a PAL snes, and I tried several things.
One thing that worked miracles was to just get some wire and solder it between the ground connections on both sides of the cable.
I did check the cable and the ground wire was really thin and well below spec.
Didn't fix everything (though I think the rest of the problems are caused by the console), but it made a huge difference.
Still, without knowing the underlying issue with the cable it's hard to say.
The cable I modded this way had far bigger problems than some audio buzz.
(really bad video interference, for one.)
The Interface unit is known for the audio buzz when RGB modded because of how tightly packed all of the components are
Is it Taiyo Yuden? Those were the best of the best back in the day...
Finally watched to the end. YES!
The long mode cables inside had no shielding at all, could they be picking up interference from the PCB they are smooshed up against?
That's what I was thinking, it seems far more likely you'd be getting cross-contamination among all those long unshielded cables added as part of the mod rather than the external cable.
Quite possible, a little wrapping around that to offer some shielding would be a quick and easy thing to try
@@RMCRetro I'd recommend picking up some internal guitar wiring cable. it comes with the shield and conductor already arranged in one jacket and is optimized to be flexible and get smooshed around the tight corners inside a guitar body cavity without breaking or shorting, perfect for mods like this.
@@RMCRetro Hi Neil. I have had similar issues when producing music in my laptop and playing the sound through powered speakers. At the musical stores they recommend an active or passive DI Box. Not expensive so worth a try. www.sweetwater.com/insync/di-boxes/
It isn't an issue if the wires internally are separated somewhat. I would suspect some noise is normal from the system anyhow, and his cable is exaggerating it. You can always take some steel netting and separate the internal cables a little with it and ground it. Dont even need to do them all, just the one or both audio cables. And no soldering needed.
I had the exact problem with an RGB Scart cable I bought for my Amiga 500. IT turned out that the cable was overall shielded, but the wires for R G B L R and Sync were not shielded from each other. In my work as a TV engineer I used to come across unshielded scart cables all the time. A simple zero cost fix would be to pull apart one of those VGA cables that you probably have laying about if you didn't just throw it away when you unpacked your monitor. Cut the blue plugs off the end and use it to make up a new cable, there should be enough cables. (R)(G)(B)(Hsync)(Vsync) should be all shielded, I'd use the Hsync and Vsync for audio then run the Csync down one of the DDC wires. You could also change your RGB mod to include the composite video feed instead of the Csync, it will work just as well but means you can use a different cable to give the old skool Comp video + audio.
Cant get over how great these restoration projects are
I don't think I've ever seen a TH-camr so gleefully embracing software piracy. It's refreshing!
I can confirm I have now purchase every single original title through legitimate channels, officer.
@@RMCRetro 😁
3D printers really make these sort of repairs so much easier. I am looking forward to getting a 3D printer later in the year.
350c is a good soldering temp usually :)
Great work getting one of my favorite consoles up and running. The PC Engine was a great machine, wish it had done better outside of Japan.
I would absolutely love a lengthy compilation of your raw soldering footage set to the ambient music tracks you use. The ultimate relaxation video!
This has turned out super nice, pots on the laser cd is something I've experienced myself years ago on older portable drives or to make them compatible with cd-r, so nice they put them in a reachable space!
I love the pleasure you seem to get from saying CD rom rom ❤️
Picture quality looked awesome on that Phillips monitor. I had one many years ago with my amiga
CD Wallets! I have two 500CD wallets. I put all my discs in there so I’m not pulling cases out of the shelf constantly and wearing them down. I replace all my jewel cases and buy old new stock of Xbox, PS2, and any other weird case and replace those as well. It’s a great way to preserve the cases.
This was a great little series to add to your already excellent library of videos. The PC Engine really is an underrated/lesser-spoken system that deserves more attention as some of the games are genuinely a few of the most enjoyable I have played from the era.
Lesser spoken because if you had one, it was a grey import. I used to look at the ads in third party console mags and wanted one, but I was a nipper and it was before pocket money age.
The slide in panels you made are perfect other than being white rather than grey there is also plenty of space left on the plastic for even twin Din with HDMI ports connected to that RGB to make it full modern CRT/HD compatible with an RGB output over both ports.
I must be one of the few. Personally I like it when someone takes old hardware and mods it to work better, use newer hardware. And if a mod means a change to the case, but I enjoy using it more, then not too concerned what others would think.
Having said that, impressed with the trapdoor you’ve made. All looks very nice. Like how you’ve shown the wiring - sure be very helpful to someone...
I’ve been experimenting with the Windows XP Pro SP3 CD today. Made a few useful tweaks to it! :D. It’s got some interesting bonuses...
The PC Engine. Oh I enjoyed Blazing Lazers on it back in the days, still do as well.
Very nice RGB mod and very nice first 3D print project. That face plate looks very great.
Really nice RBG mod. I've been looking for a non-destructive IFU RGB mod for years and your solution looks fantastic. Hopefully someone might do a run of those plastic side plates - the only improvement would be to match the original colour. Glad to see another person discover this fantastic system, it really is one of the greatest consoles ever made. My all time favourite for sure.
Fantastic work Neil. I’m in awe of your micro soldering skills!
Nice video
Don't let people push you into how you mod your console!
Do what you want drill holes and stick ports and switches where ever you want even paint it if you want
Excellent job as always, Neil! The PC-Engine really packs a punch considering its size. I'll definitely be ordering the Mini console!
Last Linja 2... I spent my childhood waiting for the next level to load.
I really like the 3D printed part instead of drilling a hole in a case. It honors the original hardware and looks better.
to correct the buzz, try using shielded cable for your internal rgb wires, and put an aluminium plate over the top of your mini signal amp (and check youve not situated it too close to any power wires/tracks.
I've never had a PC Engine not buzz and I've owned at least one from brand new. Wouldn't worry about it.
Yep - the 'buzz' seems its a PCE thing even just using an AV Adaptor Module - not a problem on most TV's but on a set that is inherently quiet, when the volume is up the buzz is more noticeable - but part of the charm also :-)
That buzzing on the sound seems to be a common thing on those Philips monitors, had the same problem on my old one, also my Commodore 1084S monitor does the same and it's got exactly the same moulded back on as that Philips CM8833, so they must have shared the same manufacture.
Wow! What dedication to the original hardware. I hope Monster Joysticks sends you a white and red PC Engine kit!
14:45 I had the exact same buz with my PC Engine back in the early 90's.
Thanks Chongtak.... happy to hear it's....authentic buzz!
What a breath of fresh air- of a video
Excellent work Neil , always thought this system was underrated and ahead of its time , nice to see one up and running 👍
Old CD drives were hit and miss with CD-R discs because of how much darker the disks are (and thus the signal comes back too low from the laser) - so nice fix!
As for your audio buzz, also consider where inside the case you are running the wires, since they are not shielded inside the dock either.
It would have been nice to see you create a JST plug for the audio instead of tagging onto the posts. That would have been an even cleaner mod. Lots of good kits on Amazon for that sort of thing.
Another great episode. Many thanks Neil! That Philips monitor brings back memories from my A500 days, although I only had a TV unfortunately.
Nice one Neil . The audio buzz fix either cable upgrade or l and r split definatley requires another video regardless of how short it may be. 🤟🤟🤟
Bloody superb series Neil. Thanks particularly for the detail on soldering in this episode. That's actually going to be really helpful.
that RGB mod looks so factory great job
Awesome! Doubly so as I had that same Phillips monitor for my Acorn Archimedes A3000 for many many years until my brother fried the audio board by plugging a video component lead into the audio socket. Absolutely awesome picture on that monitor!
Awesome little machine, well done restoring it to full glory!
Such a satisfying video + project Neil, the PC Engine looks so good with its ROM ROM docked alongside - great work and thanks!
so knowledgeable and informative cheers looking forward to adding a cd rom and interface down the line..
Nice looking PowerBook in the corner 👌🏻
Really enjoyed this series, and very happy to see you'll get to enjoy such a great system. The audio buzz is definitely from crosstalk. A high quality cable with shielding between the video and audio lines should fix it up for you.
Great work mate love the way it looks on that old pc monitor😲👍
In reference to the buzzing: Congratulations! You've turned your PC-Engine into a Vectrex.
Thanks for doing this. This PC Engine series has been great and I've really enjoyed watching it.
11:03 Whoa that's crisp! Good job Neil! :-)
the music on this channel is a good bonus!
Wish you used that gorgeous trinitron CRT
Great video! I got rid of the buzzing problem in my Duo-R via a complete recapping. Maybe you need to recap the CD unit?
Some of those, especially that short green on on the board, looked like they were bulging
I'd try using shielded audio wire, tiny coax, inside the unit to your DIN jack, before replacing the entire cable. Or, you could just disconnect the audio wires from the DIN jack inside the unit to see if the buzz goes away, that would confirm the interference is coming from inside the unit.
That’s definitely interference from a video signal. In the UK, your ground loops would sound like 50hz but that’s a 60hz buzz with a lot of harmonics. It might be inherent to the boards or something.
Your print and design look great. Great for a first time design. Keep it up.
Thanks Chad
Haha, that huge Fusion Step pipeline for a simple part ... 100% like my first steps in that thing :D
You'll find that unless you can burn CDs with the audio track exactly in the place the pc engine expects it to be, your audio will be late, early or non-existent.
Also unshielded cables are a no-go. 😁
For anyone getting RFI (interference) when using C51 for 5V & R102 for GND, use the pin next to CSYNC for 5V, & the next pin to that for GND on the IFU expansion port. This fixed the RFI & gave me a crystal clear image. Also using Otaku's RGB amp by the way (very good).
To reduce the buzz you might want to reduce the length of the rat's nest of wires in the case. The longer they run, the more interference they can pick up.
TaiyoYuden media is great. Made in Japan, marketed under the brand “That’s” great CD and DVD media.
Too bad it's gone now. It's all I used to use.
I'm no expert on consoles at all. Famously in my mind they're all a Nintendo. I've kind of felt they were anonymous boxes and there wasn't the same enjoyment as there was with microcomputers. However this series has changed my mind a bit. I like the whole infrastructure of it all together in the case with peripherals etc. Thanks Neil, great series!
Nice video, and I love your monitor❤️ that was exactly the one I had as a child. Good gaming memories!
yeah, gamecubes and dreamcasts are the same way with recordable/rewritable media, sometimes you need to adjust the output power of the laser. Little tiny pots on the lasers to make them work with such medias.
The audio buzz comes most likley from the inside because you didn't use shelded audio cables there as there where in the original output cable
Brilliant that's all I can say. Never had a PC Engine if pos Neil if you have time I would not mind seeing a comparison video where we can compare PC Engine games with other systems of the time like Mega Drive or Snes or Neo Geo. I know the PC ENGINE was an 8bit machine but I think it could give the Amiga a run for its money in some games titles like Outrun,Rtype, or even Power Drift, Space Hairrer but no matter what loved to get hold of one thanks for the video I really enjoyed series.
Great! I really need to get one myself , and also catch-up with the 2 other earlier 2 episodes ! Amazing videos as always!
Always impressive work. Makes me jealous of that PC Engine rig!
Very well done - nice job. Its probably down to the wiring used in the connection to the rgb amp - and the audio connections. I have made a few of pce rgb amp circuits from scratch on prototyping boards and only a few have not had that background sound 'buzz' like you show. Tbh, sometimes it seems also much worse dependent on which TV you use as some TV's seem to have quieter sound level output and increasing volume also increases buzz. Think its just maybe a PCEngine thing lol.
Like others have said, a ferrite choke on the new power wires you added might be the answer. The power wires in that large nest of wires you tucked under there being so close to new and existing components might be causing interference.
I used to have one of those Phillips monitors, I had trouble giving it away.
Should have put the rgb amp in the pc engine itself. The ifu dock creates video interference, especially when running cd games. Using the regular composite signal for sync actually helps to alleviate some of the interference if mounted in the ifu dock compared to using True c-sync. If the rgb amp was in the system itself then true c-sync can be used instead with no interference. A better scart cable will also help with the audio buzz.
Thanks Neil, great episode once again.
That turned up a lot better than mine. White screen, recapped, but seems to be beyond my abilities. For now... :)
Fantastic work Neil! I wouldn't even know where to begin with a soldering iron :)
Well, not holding it by the hot end would be a good start. :-)
@@d2factotum Yeah, that and plugging it in helps.
Yes and its no lie that it is 100% true that is something my boss didn't know ... when he said 'how does this work?' and it wasn't even plugged in.... doh! ;-)
Even playing via emulation, the PC-Engine was an extremely pleasant surprise. The arcade conversions are excellently done with respects to the hardware, and the original titles are well made. Have you got a scope Neil? Maybe check if you have a ripple on your PSU as regards to the hum if the cable / separate audio jacks don't solve the problem.
Great vid as always.
i mentioned before if you tap of from the digital audio you get the loud buzzing you need to tap it from the analog audio i left the audio jacks in and taped of the back of the circuit think it has some extra filtering caps on there, also even with perfect shielding a lot of pc engine game buz on bright screens is the just the hardware and the way the games were programmed take rastan 2 as an example you can patch it to cut the noise down it was something to do with the game code.
A brilliant series. You are a born presenter.
Block comments that say "Wanna be friends?" it's a hacker bot.
I love your content and I want your channel to remain safe.
Already done, thanks for looking out for me!
I RGB modded my Atari 2600 with a popular kit from TFW8b and got bad horizontal noise bars on the screen. The solution for me was not the mod cabling shielding but a cheap PSU I was using. I replaced the PSU with an old original linear supply and problem solved. 👍
I like to do a suggestion about the writing speed. I have been burning CD from the time that they are so expensive that it hurt in you stomach if one would fail :P. I have written a lot of CD and DVD but one thing I wil never forget how writing speed will effect the quality of the copy. After years I made a rule: take lowest of the maximum write speed of the burner or the optical media and divide that in half. So wen de burner is 52x and the media is 40x, I take the cd divide it in half so I burn it at 20x. If the burner is 40x and the media is 52x I take the burner speed and burn it at 20x speed. My take on this idea is, both burner and media are having a sweet spot or a optimal working condition. It is not very logical if this is happening at the highest or the lowest speed. But beside that in my experience the middel of the road speed have always been the less problematic copy's. I hope it helps you out. Tried to DM you this trough Discord, but I was blocked :P
MagicTrashman recently make a 3D printed piece to fit a mini-DIN socket into an Interface Unit or Turbo-CD dock. I looked on Thingiverse and saw several others you could have used. Heck, even if they are all for mini-DIN, you could've printed one of those and then drilled it out. Just saying you didn't have to do all that work since it's already been modeled repeatedly and shared openly. :)
I remember the days of beer mat cd’s and drives that couldn’t read the discs, I used verbatim discs way back when (jewel cased boxes of 100)
re the trouble burning with the CDRs... some newer media actually have a minimum burn speed. ;) glad you figured out with the adjustable pots, but that could be why you had trouble with the other media
I have some recommendations for PC-Engine CD: Choujikuu Yousai Macross 2036, Gate of Thunder, Ginga Fukei Densetsu - Sapphire, Image Fight 2, Psychic Storm, Seirei Senshi Spriggan.
Neil, great work! I am so happy I found your channel, I am hooked! I never thought I'd be interested in seeing the chips, solder, and all the rest. I was strictly a heavy gamer who built his own pc's to save some 'do rae mi' (dough = money). Anyway, I am going to take some classes to learn what all this stuff is, i don't even really know what a capacitors is made from and how it works... Can I ask why the composite output on the PC-engine was no good? I know its not hdmi or even S-Video, but I thought it was decent enough?
I picked up a PC Engine Duo RX. It was listed as faulty. Paid £140 for it. Checked the power supply, had the right values. Flipped the powerswitch aaaaand it was working just fine. Only downside was I didn't get any RX controller with it (they go for about £70+ each). Not sure if I'm going to keep it or not. Getting the controllers is a lot of money imo and they might not even work. Replacement parts isn't something I have found yet like the rubber pads that go under the dpad and buttons.
I’ve not seen an original CM8833 since school, back when my IT teacher failed me in computer studies for losing my course work. The winker. BTW your audio buzz is down to your cable Neilster. 👍
Fusion360 is a lot of fun once you get to grips with it
I impressed to fantastic output jack panel made by 3D printed. Reasonable mod.
At 13:55 you mention that you adjusted one of the pots to adjust the laser voltage. Can you add a little detail as to which of the pots shown you did actually adjust ? Thank you!
One thing I would recommend is replacing the cables you have done the mod with good quality cable I got some from a comperny that went bust it was labelled as coaxial but it wasn't aeriel was alot thinner, its about 6mm for the outer sleeve but the inner sleeve is about 1mm but it is fully shielded and works amazingly, I used it on internally moding a CRT TV, I used cheap cables initially used cheap non insulatied cable but it suffered with extreme signal noise but using this shield cable it completely removed it the name of the cable is van Damme Pro grade classic XKE
Wonderful system, love what you did here. Keep it up sir!
Thanks for putting the 'magic Taiyo Yuden discs' and 'only use God's purest Plextors at the holiest, slowest burning speeds' nonsense to rest and clearly demonstrating the true solution. Many of us have known for years that these tactics are largely ineffective leftovers from the early 90s when CD recorders were first introduced and the quality of media really did vary wildly but are completely irrelevant when using hardware and media that has been manufactured since. I'm sure none of this will prevent people from continuing to spread these rumors, of course.
With your audio, try using a audio isolator on your output could be a ground isolation issue. If it continues to do so, it could be possible that your bus data lines audio (data sent via ram/cpu frequency transfer is hopping over to your audio channels by close proximity of a data signal crosstalk.
great vid and equally great seductive background tunes.. always a pleasure to listen to.
The buzz could have been caused by the 5V line to the RGB connector, was that 5V line decoupled? Also, you might want to use a shielded cable for the audio lead inside the interface unit, then attach the shield of that to a good ground point.
The king of consoles
Why solder the power and other wires to the back of the pin connector, couldn't you have made a plug up to fit it like the original. Great video by the way.
09:25 to me it looks like 2 of the capacitors on the main board need changing as they look domed. The large cap near the orange plug adaptor and the medium sized cap leaning against the heatsink.
I believe that is just an optical illusion due to the curved line on all of the caps. In the next shot, you can see it from the top down and it has that exaggerated curve, but looks otherwise un-domed
You don’t need a slower burner, you need to adjust the laser. There is an intensity pot on the laser itself and that needs to be tweaked to handle the lower reflectivity of cdr. This burning speed myth is as bad and prevalent as blowing in NES carts.
.... didnt he do that? :-)
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