Messages

[Off-Topic / Re: What are you currently listening to?]

Just ripped all the music of off the Sega's Super Monkey Ball 2 for Gamecube and listening to the results.

If you guys haven't played/heard it yet, you guys must listen to it (if you're into more relaxing/electronic music). Seriously. Its amazing.

Share that goodness.

Will do...as soon as I'm done ID3-tagging all of the tracks... A bigger job than I thought! Haha

Excellent  .

Well its a little late...but better late than never, right?

http://www.mediafire.com/?zcyfufog18y1y4g
http://www.mediafire.com/?2roofjagglc2mrc

320kbps MP3, ID3 tagged (Track numbers according to what I feel is appropriate xD), and two-part RAR'd. 49 tracks in total.

Enjoy!

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: About the interface unit...]

Hey everyone, sorry I kind of disappeared for a bit. Things have been pretty busy around here...like a few household projects and trying to find a job. (Sadly, no hits yet. haha) So I haven't found much time to work on this... I'll get back to working on it as soon as things calm down a little over here!

@Charlie: Thanks for that trace! That really helps me out! I'll be sure you check it all out in the order you wrote it...and especially C141. I really didn't check any caps or resistors as I wasn't sure if the ones I were going to check were relevant or not to my problem. haha

@Keith Courage: Thats strange. Hmm...well someone else said that the RAM is stored on the IFU so perhaps thats fried... Then when it tries to boot the game and stores the executing code to RAM it becomes corrupted and locks. I'm totally pulling this out of a hat of course, but its possible.
And if Samurai Ghost ends up unable to send me an IFU, then I'd be happy to work something out with you. haha

[General Gaming / Re: Nintendo Captain Skyhawk]

A few weeks ago I bought a Captain Skyhawk cart for a $1 that was pretty dirty and beat up, but still loads fine after I cleaned the contacts.   I've never come across any NES cart that didn't load after a good cleaning. 

I have a 52-in-1 multicart that worked on and off a few years back. I cleaned with some of my cleaning stuff and a cotton swab. When I inserted it into my NES, none of the games on the "third" menu screen would load (in other words, a 1/3 of the games) and it has never worked since, even after more cleanings. So I guess this is an example of an NES cart that wouldn't load AFTER a good cleaning. LOL

But on a more related note, CPTRAVE, my copy Captain Skyhawk has worked well since day one. You must either have rotten luck or poor contacts on your NES!

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: About the interface unit...]

Yeah, I tried going across the expansion port Vin->GND pins and I'm getting readings <1v which I'm pretty sure are incorrect.

Yeah sad to say that you might have a bad IFU.
If you still have the cover for yours I might be able to give you a free IFU without a cover if you don't mind paying the shipping. Once my shipment clears customs I think I'll have a few extras in there.

Oh man, you're too generous. I really appreciate that. I'll shoot you a PM.

I figure I can just swap the entire circuit board from a new IFU into my old one. I can tell it'll be an easy task. Then it'll still have the matching serial numbers and it'll work. I also wont feel too bad pulling capacitors or whatever off of the dead board if I have to. I'll figure this out if it kills me! xD

@thesteve: It is definitely getting power from the power adapter. Also, I'd be a little surprised if it was the more complex electronics causing the problem... I figure the IFU, like most gaming related items, is designed so that at the very least the power light will still light up even if the other electronics are fried. It usually seems that the power LED is dependent from the specific electronics and if it doesn't light, it usually points to power supply issues, but I'm just assuming this from past experience with other electronics.

EDIT: If anyone thinks pictures of anything will help, I got a camera that takes pretty good micro shots and I'd be happy to put some up. :3

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: RAFFLE: $20! [ends June 22nd]]

This sounds interesting...
Sounds like a great way to kickstart my PCE collection!

Add an entry for me plox! :3

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: About the interface unit...]

Okay. Thanks guys... :/

I believe it would be the 30D2 diode you mentioned that would act in a way as the fuse. But you say yours is fine. I know this is going to sound like a stupid question, but how about the LED itself, and/or the locking power switch? Also, even without the cdrom and pc engine you should be able to test the expansion pins on the ifu to see if there's any power going to them

Yes, thats the one. (Labeled "D1" on the board) Its definitely being a proper, working diode. :/ And I've tested both... The plug where the LED's wire plugs in on the board reads zero when turned on and off. I found where the locking power switch plugs into on the board and found continuity when in the "on" position and nothing when its in the "off" position...so that works properly.
Also, people have been saying that their CD-ROM-ROM units get power when plugged in even without a PCE. Mine does absolutely nothing when plugged into the IFU. (The CD-ROM-ROM works fine when I plugged a proper AC adapter directly into it though)

Testing the expansion pins is my next course of action. I found this diagram online, http://www.gamesx.com/misctech/pcebp.php , and found exactly how this diagram is relative the position of the socket on the main board. Does anyone have any pins I should check first? If not, I'm just going to put my meter across one of the Vins to a random ground pin tomorrow when I can trust my shaky hands a bit more. lol

@SignOfZeta: Mine is also a newer "CD-ROM2 SYSTEM" (AKA non-"IFU-30", AKA IFU-30A) one.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: About the interface unit...]

*cough* *ahem* A little late now. Hahaha!
Well I'm trying to find a boxed PCE in decent shape for a decent price which is why I've been holding out... :/

@incrediblehark and Frank_fjs: Did you guys actually try this without a PCE even inserted into the IFU? I know the IFU is supposed to light when a PCE is plugged in but not turned on... But I'm following the traces on the main board from the incoming power and the negative seems to go directly to the PCE console connector in two different places and thats it. No other visible place. Maybe one of these just is a pass-thru for the power that goes through the console even when its not on. Before I delve deeper, can someone confirm that without a PCE in the IFU, the indicator on the IFU still lights? I know the question is sort of redundant, but I'm hitting a wall and I just need a complete confirmation.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: About the interface unit...]

Where is the fuse...?
I see a gigantor diode which seems to check out okay... Could that be it? If it is, then thats not the problem...  

EDIT: That 14V difference I'm talking to is now down to 5V. Makes more sense, but I don't know whats going on. haha

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: About the interface unit...]

Yeah I know...but this unit has the same serial as the CD-ROM unit so I'd like to keep them together if possible!
And also resurrecting a dead unit is just plain satisfying! ;D

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: About the interface unit...]

Just what I was afraid of.

@incrediblehark Its a Radioshack 273-1771 AC adapter which is rated at 1.5A so it should work fine. I also tried flipping polarity on the plug but it did nothing.

Since I made that first post, I've opened the unit up and poked around inside with a voltmeter. I'm getting some weird 14v difference across the positive and negative wires leaving the AV-out/AC-in combo board when the switch is in the "lock/on" position and nothing when its off... Well at least the switch works! But is that potential difference normal? Lol... My voltmeter said that AC adapter itself is putting out a solid ~9v at the tip though.

Anyway, Is there a fuse on the IFU? If not, does anyone know of any resistors or caps I should check on the board that might be blown? I'm guessing someone plugged an incorrect AC adapter into this or something. Thanks Ebay!

[Console Repair/Mod Center / About the interface unit...]

Hey guys, I have an IFU and CD-ROM-ROM unit, but no PCE yet... I don't have the original AC adapter, but I took a recommendation for a 9V Radioshack one (with an adaptaplug "Q"). I'd like to see if this at least works before I move on to purchasing a PCE.

So my question is this: should the IFU's power light light up when I move the "power-lock" lever to the on position even when there is no PCE plugged in? Because on my unit its not lighting up and that is worrying me... The plug is pretty snug so I'm worried that the generic adaptaplug is not making complete contact either (even though the person in the other thread said it should work). I matched the polarity of the plug to the diagram on the bottom of the unit too...

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Turbo Grafx/PC engine CD Gear replacement available! $12 shipped]

For people on the edge about purchasing one of these:
I ordered one of these gears about a month ago and only just found the time to install it now on my Japanese CD-ROM-ROM.
It was a fairly painless install. The guide made it sound like the laser assembly was a bigger pain in the butt to remove from the shell than it actually was. However, there was a plate I had to remove that wasn't mentioned in the guide (when removing the the grounding wire from the larger ribbon cable). It just slid out though so it wasn't a big deal. I laughed when I found that I didn't have to pull the old, threadless middle gear off, but, instead, it just broke in half and fell off the shaft when I touched it! 
After I popped in the gear and put it all together again, I tried it with a CD and found that on later tracks it would skip ahead or behind a good 20 seconds or so every 30 secs to a minute. I tried adjusting the "speed" pot as mentioned in the guide but it did nothing but make it worse (only when I turned it to the extreme ends). I tried greasing the laser's sled with some clear silicone grease...and it fixed the problem!

Overall, its taken about an hour and a half to do this mod at a normal-to-slow pace (not including the full audio CD run-thru which I'm currently doing) and its made a totally useless CD-ROM-ROM work again! I could not be more pleased!   Definitely get one of these if you've got a dead drive!
And thanks, Keith Courage!

[Off-Topic / Re: What are you currently listening to?]

Just ripped all the music of off the Sega's Super Monkey Ball 2 for Gamecube and listening to the results.

If you guys haven't played/heard it yet, you guys must listen to it (if you're into more relaxing/electronic music). Seriously. Its amazing.

Share that goodness.

Will do...as soon as I'm done ID3-tagging all of the tracks... A bigger job than I thought! Haha

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: I want to buy a shooting watch!]

I've had this alarm for years:


It has a built-in mini game thats the exact same thing as on these other "Shooting Watches" (Except they never labeled it that; I never knew that it actually had a "name"). When you get a score above like 125 or something, it unlocks a second alarm sound. Pretty cool.
Plus, the start and select buttons are rubber like a real Famicom.

If anyone is interested in a shooting watch, I think this would be a pretty cool choice if you can still buy this model somewhere (I got mine from ThinkGeek.com but apparently they don't have them anymore). Just my two cents.

[Off-Topic / Re: What are you currently listening to?]

Just ripped all the music of off the Sega's Super Monkey Ball 2 for Gamecube and listening to the results.

If you guys haven't played/heard it yet, you guys must listen to it (if you're into more relaxing/electronic music). Seriously. Its amazing.