So I added a new port on the Turbo Express

[Drakon]

Where do you see a 0 ohm resistor?

The green thing with what looks like "000" on it.  The sega 32x has zero ohm resistors in it and I remember them being green as well.

[turbokon]

I sent a pm to thesteve on the battery save feature. Hopefully he can chime in.

[Duo_R]

That doesn't connect to the via point even though it is close by

Where do you see a 0 ohm resistor?

The green thing with what looks like "000" on it.  The sega 32x has zero ohm resistors in it and I remember them being green as well.

[turbokon]

Where do you see a 0 ohm resistor?

The green thing with what looks like "000" on it.  The sega 32x has zero ohm resistors in it and I remember them being green as well.

It should work if you solder to the test spots as duo_r showed in his pic. Double check your connection again and the regulator voltage for 5v. It has to be at least 5v for the externally controller to work. I was using the male end of the duo controller extension to color code the wires against duo_r's diagram and it wasn't working at first for me. Then I realize that diagram is for the female end. So my connection were mirrored.

[Drakon]

yeah I just find it amusing whenever a system has a 0 ohm resistor, it's always fun to speculate what was planned to go there

[thesteve]

the 0 ohm resistors were mostly used for jumpers (some optional some not)
for instance the turbo express has a 0 ohm resistor jumping pin29 to ground
its missing in the GT

[Duo_R]

yup that is the resistor that is pictured, it's connected to pin 29. Very interesting. Steve any thoughts on disabling power save mode? If not I will try my connect to select method.

[thesteve]

i can disable easy, id want to port it to the external controller

[turbokon]

So you're saying to jump the on-board "select" button signal to the external port?

[Duo_R]

exactly, waiting for my new panel mount connector to arrive, but when it is setup when you plug in a controller, it will ground the select line when the controller port is plugged in and prevent the screen from timing out. I already confirmed this will work unless we get another method.

when controller is unplugged the system will work like normal, select won't be grounded, power save mode will kick in

So you're saying to jump the on-board "select" button signal to the external port?

[420GOAT]

now just get a cd to connect so only my express can do it all.

[turbokon]

exactly, waiting for my new panel mount connector to arrive, but when it is setup when you plug in a controller, it will ground the select line when the controller port is plugged in and prevent the screen from timing out. I already confirmed this will work unless we get another method.

when controller is unplugged the system will work like normal, select won't be grounded, power save mode will kick in

Where would tap onto the select line?? IC800 on the TE controller pcb?

[Duo_R]

No nearby one of the lines on the PCB before it hits the chip

Check out the new controller port:


/20120731163907236.th.jpg

[thesteve]

jump cc505 to 5V instead

[turbokon]

jump cc505 to 5V instead

Cool, will give this a try.

[turbokon]

I can confirm that works. Played r-type for over 10mins using a duo pad on a big screen tv.  Thanks guys. Time for me to finalize every thing and close this baby up:)

[turbokon]

Got everything close up and working. Tried to force the mini d in the socket with a plier that's why it doesn't look to clean. It went in easy after drilling the hole a little bigger.

[esteban]

Awesome.

[turbokon]

Thanks, it've have not been possible without people like thesteve, duo_r and others here.

Wonder if the switchless region mod still work with this since it require you to hold select on the turbo express controller. Sold my region modded TE recently. Will modify this TE for switchless region modded this weekend.

[Drakon]

I wish I could do casework that cleanly, my work is always ugly which is why I usually try to hide it all under the hood.

[Frank_fjs]

Very clean job there. Console modding really requires 2 separate skills, the electrical side of things and then the case work, which a lot of people seem to have trouble with.

[Drakon]

Oh yeah I suck at case stuff and don't hide it.  The internal stuff I can do.  I just don't have the patience to make stuff look pretty, life's too short to make things look pretty!

[thesteve]

with the cap jumped select is not held

[turbokon]

steve, I was talking about the switchless region mod.  Would it still work holding down the select button on the external controller?

[turbokon]

Oh yeah I suck at case stuff and don't hide it.  The internal stuff I can do.  I just don't have the patience to make stuff look pretty, life's too short to make things look pretty!

For me it has to be practical, functional and cosmetically appearling before I attempt something.

[thesteve]

no it wouldnt.
you would need to hold select on the system

[Duo_R]

I have a way to mod a panel mount port where it almost looks stock. Will post it installed later this week. Also used the stock ribbon cable, posted earlier.

Glad the hold select region mod still works!

[turbokon]

Completed the switchless region mod and can confirm it is working with the external controller mod. Now just need to do the battery mod and my turboexpress will be fully pimped out:)

[Duo_R]

Nice! Here is a pic of the new port

/20120803182743200.th.jpg

[turbokon]

Nice!! Did you use the old housing that clipped through the opening?

[Duo_R]

Yeah I used part of the old housing, and even the ribbon cable so this could quick disconnect.

[Duo_R]

Steve - this seems to fix for LCD modded systems, what about stock screen? Is there any way to keep the red connector pumping juice to the stock screen?

What is crazy is the voltage ratings I get on this port, don't think there is really another place to jump power from.

jump cc505 to 5V instead

Cool, will give this a try.

[thesteve]

it should work the same

[Duo_R]

Tried it and it doesn't might have to use the other method I tried for non modded screen. At least until I replace the screen.

[thesteve]

the switch circuit is on the controller board, i just havent traced it

[turbokon]

I was able to confirm duo_r problem that this method doesn't work with the stock lcd. The stock LCD shut off after five mins but I was still getting video output on my projection tv.

[Duo_R]

I got a method for stock screen

[Duo_R]

So Turbokon and I have found that some units that have the switchless region mod don't operate properly. The controller partially works but certain buttons or directions behave different. What is strange on units that don't work is if I hold down the Select button on the controller it's then functions normally.

What is strange - I have a switchless region mod in one of my Turbo Express systems and it works fine. On another system it doesn't, only difference between the two is how the switchless mod is installed, and has LCD mod.

Knowing that the switchelss mod connects to the select line makes me suspect this is somehow related.... very odd

[thesteve]

now i have to do 1

[Duo_R]

ok I switched the "switch" line to run and still behaves the same, I am wondering if a dodgy ribbon cable is to blame for this. hmmmmm

[thesteve]

are the built in controls or remote having  issues

[turbokon]

ok I switched the "switch" line to run and still behaves the same, I am wondering if a dodgy ribbon cable is to blame for this. hmmmmm

This is what I'm thinking.  Will test this tonight.

[turbokon]

Couldn't get one TE to work with the external controller mod. Just finished the external controller port on another TE and it's working fine. So I've done three TE's but can't get one to work. All are the same with caps swapped, LCD, switchless region mod and composite vid out. So this leads me to believe that it has something to with bad or damage traces.

[turbokon]

Another thing to note, my TE with the working controller mod works at 5.10V. The other TE I just sent back with the working controller mods didn't work at 5.10v but worked at 4.95v. Hopefully thesteve will be able to chime in as to the rhyme and reason why the external controller would works at different voltage level for different TE's.

[thesteve]

that doesnt make much sense to me either

[Duo_R]

Turbo did you try replacing the capacitor on the controller board?

[turbokon]

Yeah, all had all their caps replaced including the one on the controller board.

[Duo_R]

And swap controller boards?

[turbokon]

Yeah I did and it still didn't work.

[turbokon]

So I have successfully added an external controller port to three turboexpress system. It's seems to work best under 5v. Also I noticed that on the home consoles, the controller ports doesn't connect directly to the hu6280. Each pins of the controller port connects to a blue components and from there it goes to the CPU. They start with "FL". Any ideas what these are and their purpose?