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Arcade & Retro Repairs & Mods, all new recipe, with no added MSG...

weeder

Well lately ive been talking repairs a lot and it seems to come up regularly enough, so why dont we dedicate a thread to it?

can be to ask questions, show repairs or just to give advice or whatever.

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KeRbDoG

Deleted User wrote: »

I see the GDEMU has been cloned, surprised its taken so long given the demand and waiting list for them, hardware seems the same, software probably not so much if there everdrive clones are anything to go by.

http://www.jackdiy.cn/page143?product_id=107

Bit pricey for a clone?

MrVestek

KeRbDoG wrote: »

Bit pricey for a clone?

I was thinking that.

eddhorse

Wait thats the clone one? Jeez the other one must be super expensive.

Looking a the Saturn one now too. Anyone done that yet?

Shapey Fiend

The guy who made GDEMu has a Saturn solution Rhea/Phoebe which involves a bit of soldering depending on what model of Saturn you have.

The one everybody is waiting for is the Satiator which will just plug in the back. The guy had a kid and works full time so progress slowed a bit on it in the last year. He's after getting a couple of other people involved now too. He does long blogs on Patreon that detail his progress. https://www.patreon.com/prof_abrasive

eddhorse

sugarman wrote: »

While not the neatest solution compared to GDEMU, I prefer the IDE mod.

Literally costs less than a fiver and is much faster loading times.

Do you have a link?

[Deleted User]

eddhorse wrote: »

Do you have a link?

https://fnhack.wordpress.com/2015/05/21/new-pinout/

Heres the pinout, I remember doing it a few years ago, hell of a lot of soldering required iirc

I think there's a board you can purchase now which seems to make it far easier but no experience with it.

CiDeRmAn

[Deleted User] wrote: »

https://fnhack.wordpress.com/2015/05/21/new-pinout/

Heres the pinout, I remember doing it a few years ago, hell of a lot of soldering required iirc I think there's a board you can purchase now which seems to make it far easier but no experience with it.

Is this it?

https://gametrackssite.wordpress.com/buy/

[Deleted User]

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Is this it?

https://gametrackssite.wordpress.com/buy/

Yes although the one I seen was blue pcb but essentially the same thing, I remember some compatibility issues with IDE though

o1s1n

Been working on a fix over the last few weeks some folks might be interested in.

So I recently picked up a gorgeous BVM 2016P, picture is beautiful apart from one thing. Colour impurity on the bottom left and top right corners. It's mainly impacting the red gun. Can see it here.

Degaussed it loads, didn't work unfortunately. Broke out my degaussing wand and gave it a go, nope!

So then tried the usual, moving speakers away, moving cabs away, rotating it, moving it to other parts of the room etc. It would cause a minor improvement, however when it powered off and on again the colours would come out the same. Also tried letting it sit for a couple of weeks. Fairly sure some of the boards inside or something was after becoming magnetized.

Found someone with a similar issue online, he confirmed with grantspain that placing magnets on the tube/close to the yoke can remove this issue and won't cause any damage.

Opened her up and tried playing with a couple of strong magnets (magnetic screwdriver and a torch) behind the yolk, it actually worked!

Went out and bought some fridge magnets but unfortunately they had zero impact at all, far too weak.

After a bit of messing around I noticed that the two points which seemed to fix the issue on the back of the tube already had convergence strips placed in the spots. I guess when it was factory new this solved the issue, but over time magnetism got the better of it. Beside one you have the LOPT and the other has all of the video boards.

So I tried a quick and dirty fix, I placed the magnetic torch facing the convergence strip at the top

and the magnetic screwdriver facing the one at the bottom. It totally fixed the issue!

Using magnets like this can throw off convergence, but luckily the monitor has a sub board with convergence pots so I was able to work that out.

Leaving it like that for the time being and going to actually enjoy the monitor. Long term plan will be to get some magnets the same strength as the ones in the screwdriver/torch and glue them in place.

And yes, let it be said that you feel like an absolute wizzard playing with magnets and CRTs

CiDeRmAn

And, more importantly, no one got maimed or killed along the way...
You beat fate...

Doesn't this mean that the next person on the doomed plane should be sh1tting themselves right now?

Andrew76

Nicely done, that looks spot on now. :cool:

o1s1n

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

And, more importantly, no one got maimed or killed along the way...
You beat fate...

Doesn't this mean that the next person on the doomed plane should be sh1tting themselves right now?

Hah! knowing me I probably shouldn't be working with my hand less than a few mm away from HV cables

Placing the screwdriver down the bottom was incredibly tricky as it meant working close to high voltage that was powered on. In the end I used a wooden insence holder (the ones that kind of look like a shoe horn!) to get it in place. Took a good 20 minutes of moving it around.

Andrew76 wrote: »

Nicely done, that looks spot on now. :cool:

Yep! absolutely over the moon with it

thanks again for agreeing to move it on.

[Deleted User]

KeRbDoG wrote: »

Bit pricey for a clone?

Once somebody clones the clone we'll be laughing

o1s1n

Have a box of rare earth magnets arriving tomorrow. Should be the same strength as the screwdriver/torch I have in the monitor at the moment, so lets see if I can actually get this sorted permanently.

Something else I've been thinking about doing, there are a couple of marks on the front of the screen. After close inspection, they're just on the anti glare film, don't go through to the glass fortunately.

Considering removing the film like in this video;

Anyone ever give this a go?

o1s1n

So for future reference, rare earth magnets (even small ones) are way too strong to be putting near CRTs. They fix the problem while the monitor is on, but as soon as it degausses they create their own problems.

So that's no to regular fridge ferrite magnets (both singular and stacked), no to those flexible magnetic strips and now now to rare earth.

Lashed the screwdriver and torch back inside and the purity issues are gone again, so it looks like they'll be staying there for the forseeable future!

DaveyDave

So I finally got a screwdriver to open the Dreamcast. I'm gonna grease the rail (don't know if I should grease the windy one that looks to be connected to the motor?)

I can't see much info on cleaning and greasing the rails online. I noticed the ribbon cable connected to the motor doesn't look like it's aligned. The pin markings on the cable are cooked looking compared to the motor. I wonder is it slightly loose?

Edit: Laser seems to read discs ok for now, will test it a bit more later!

o1s1n

I was messing about with the menus on the BVM last weekand came across this one with a number on it that looked like tube hours. (no 'H' beside it though)

09525

Couldn't possibly be tube hours though as it would mean it's rediculously low and almost new. (I'm constantly seeing ones with 50,000-100,000 hours on them for sale, you just don't see them this low)

Decided to leave it on for a couple of hours last week but nothing changed. So was then sure I was just being stupidly hopeful and it was something to do with the version number.

Until this evening, it changed! 09530.

It would seem this monitor actually has less than 10,000 hours on it :eek::eek::eek:

Steve X2

So I started re-doing my office/man cave this weekend(been putting it off for months). I got a load of billy bookcases and some other bits. I'm moving my retro A/V setup onto one shelf to make it a bit easier to test/play around.

Has anyone found any decent quality, but slim/small RCA cables as the ones I have for the front of the XRGB are good, but too chunky for my liking(it takes away from the look of the whole thing).
There's a few options on Amazon, but if anyone has used any angled or slim cables that they would recommended, please do share

Doge

Hehe, Steve will soon rivalling Techmoan by the looks of things!

Steve X2

Doge wrote: »

Hehe, Steve will soon rivalling Techmoan by the looks of things!

Haha, not quite. Although I do get a lot of ideas from his channel.
Things are slowly taking shape on the AV stuff. Got the small preview/mirror monitor installed in the loop this evening. It shows whatever the XRGB is showing and doesn't affect the normal output to projectors/tv. The screen is something i put together myself from some basic parts from Amazon and a 3D printed case to hold the screen and controller board. That along with a good HDMI splitter/HDCP stripper does the rest. Once I'm happy with how it all works I'll add more consoles and systems to the mix, testing as I go for interference from crappy cables etc. It's a fairly complex setup, so interference can creep in from a few directions.

o1s1n

I've a weird issue going on with my PCE.

Not sure if folks remember, but it had composite AV cables soldered directly to the PCB. I snipped them off recently as I can just tap RGB out of the exe port.

However, with the new BVM, there's no picture via RGB. The only way I can get picture is by having the PCE connected via a scart switcher and to power another console with it simultaneously.

You get both consoles images garbled together, but the PCE appears. Turn off the other console and the PCE vanishes with it.

I think it's for some reason not getting sync from the exe port and is piggybacking it from the other console when that's plugged in.

Steve X2

I took my Xecuter2 chip modded original crystal Xbox out of storage today. Before it went in it had an issue I couldn't figure out a few years back. It would power up to a black screen, no error leds and I could hear the drive spinning up inside.

So after playing around tonight it looks like I must have unlocked the internal drive at some stage and never locked it back up. So with an unlocked drive I can't get to the standard dashboard(no problem normally as why would I need it). I used a slayer mod rescue/install disc to boot from the DVD drive, locked the drive and rebooted, same problem. I disabled the mod chip and rebooted, straight into the standard dash(it didn't work before) and it was looking for the time to be reset, which i did. Rebooted with the mod chip enabled and it now goes into the modded dashboard with all the games and emulators I had setup years ago. Happy days!

Doing a full backup now over FTP of the "massive" 300GB drive in it

Something to keep in mind if anyone has the same issue.

Steve X2

I'm glad I got everything backed up last night. Looks like the drive has finally died. Pulling 300GB off it was the last straw I guess

It's funny, I just ordered the parts to replace it with an SSD or CF card last night as well.

Steve X2

sugarman wrote: »

Other than robustness due to no moving parts, it'd be a fare waste to use either as the max transfer speed of the Xbox IDE controller is 100MB/s on an upgraded 80pin ATA100 cable. The stock 40pin ATA66 cable being even worse.

I changed the IDE cable a few months ago, got a cheap IDE to Sata adapter and threw in a 2TB drive.

I've a few spare 1TB Samsung SSD's so will see how it goes. Yeah I've got the 80 pin cable ready to go.

The Last Bandit

Steve X2 wrote: »

I've a few spare 1TB Samsung SSD's so will see how it goes. Yeah I've got the 80 pin cable ready to go.

I wouldn't use a SSD drive with the XBOX tbh, I very much doubt it has TRIM support so could possibly shorten the life span of the drive depending on the amount of writing it'll be doing.

Steve X2

The Last Bandit wrote: »

I wouldn't use a SSD drive with the XBOX tbh, I very much doubt it has TRIM support so could possibly shorten the life span of the drive depending on the amount of writing it'll be doing.

Ah, the old argument

Yes I agree to an extent, but more modern SSD's have some management built into the drive rather than relying on the OS. But yes it is something to consider and research before doing it.

eddhorse

300GB

wow, i have a modded Xbox too, it has CoinOps on it, should really boot it up.

Inviere

Have to say I’m quite fond of the original Xbox. Yes the PS2 wiped the floor with it in terms of exclusives, game choice, sales, etc, but having lost interest in games during the PS2 era and not having any particular fondness of it, I feel if a game exists on both consoles, I’ll play it on the Xbox every time. The added grunt of the Xbox takes the edge off that generations graphical shortcomings imo

BGOllie

got this in france back in june. it booted up but the game wouldn't load.
I opened it up and found out the drive belt was... well, not there anymore. I replaced the belt and it's all working well now. I'm actually amazed that it was all that was wrong with it . Came with a stack of floppies. Some official, some not . But it's got Sorcery, Grafton& xunk, Short Cirtuit, Wizard, Cauldron, Captain Blood, Ikari Warriors... about 20 more. I'm set for amstrad stuff

38454777_10156601411598276_9173112372506656768_n.jpg?_nc_cat=0&oh=82b538c41325edb2fd803131af5cddb7&oe=5BC6DACA

CiDeRmAn

Anyone near me have a Famicom Disk Drive that works?
I need to test a disk, as it persists in having problems loading on my Twin, despite efforts to repair same.