CD Music Modded PCE[SOLVED] Now discussing PCE Vs.CG-I/II CD music mixes in IFU

[Rosser]

Hello all sorry if there is a thread somewhere with the answer to this question if it is so feel free to direct me there

The issue is I have an already RGB modded White PCE and I just picked up a IFU and CD.rom2 but I am not getting CD music I only get the sound effects from the CD game and some super light muffled music The only way for me to get all audio is through headphones connected to the IFU directly thru the A/V ports with that everything sounds perfect.

My question is do I have to add another 8-din port on the IFU or is possible to link the left and right channel back to the expansion so I can get CD sound through the port I already have on the PCE

All sound is working properly through the mini 8 pin on the system with (hcards) except for CD music

[Keith Courage]

Simply just take the audio from the IFU and the RGB from the pc engine.

[Fidde_se]

The audio mixing from the IFU is not sent back into the original white PCE.
However the CoreGrafx and CoreGrafx II when used in the IFU are getting the mixed audio signal back.

[SignOfZeta]

That's interesting.

[Rosser]

That is interesting is there any way to reroute mixed sound back into an original PCE?

[grahf]

There surely is, but it most likely requires a few components for the mixing. Probably not worth the time or effort, since you can just mix it in the RGB cable.

[Rosser]

Yeah I just found a mini 8 pin din port that I'm going to wire next to the power plug on the IFU and I'll just pull the already mixed sound from the ports there
 
I'll set it up so I can plug the scart cable in the IFU if the PCE is docked and can use the same cable to plug directly into the system if its loose

[Rosser]

Bad picture but it worked out well it was a snug fit, I had add some distance between where the AV jack attached to mini pcb  but it worked out well luckily my CRT signal doesn't need to be amplified so that was one less headache.

I just connected the left and right audio channel to the back of the plug ports on IFU and connected the RGB lines as normal now I can get an RGB signal from the PCE loose by plugging it directly into the system  or in the IFU where I get the sound mixed with the CD music

[Fidde_se]

Even if this is solved I tried tracking the signals from both the IFU and the CoreGrafx to see which pins are sending the signals back, when looking at this also http://www.gamesx.com/misctech/pcebp.php it's not much that can, but it does, had to try it, so I wasn't lying or remembering wrong, and yes playing audio CDs on the CoreGrafx does come out of the AV, however... it's only in mono, the CD audio that is.., didn't check the ADPCM Voice channel to see if it that was in stereo, but... it's both cd channels in mono, tried a left/right test disc, my guess is that the it's probably sending in stereo and it's mixed sometime before the C358C Amp in the CoreGrafx, so the CoreGrafx are sending audio out threw the EXT, getting mixed with CD Audio+ADPCM and getting sent back amped and then threw DIN socket (that would mean the mixed cd audio would be mono before getting into the CoreGrafx...), if it is stereo when getting into the CoreGrafx it would be possible to just reroute the pins directly to the DIN socket or into the C358C Amp. going threw the pcb trying to decypher what goes where is little to much even for me and I do stuff like that for a living, so the safest and easiest way if stereo is being sent in, is to go threw gamesx list and check every suspicious pin with a par of headphones, one ear only, connect one end to ground and then other connecting to each pin with a probe while being in the IFU playing CD Audio, the higher ohm on the headphone the safer if you would connect to any important data line or video bus, but at least one of these pins will be the correct one. Then the White PCE could be sending out CD audio in either mono or stereo or a CoreGrafx could be sending out cd audio in stereo instead of mono.

Another thing that hits me when into CoreGrafx is that there is two different IFUs, well only a color difference, it's the grey plastic upper/backside,
both are IFU-30A (never seen a non A) the CD-ROM2 can often be seen with both A and non A revisions, ground connections on the inside and the outside is the difference in that case, and this is not a discoloration, it seems more that the standard dark grey IFU was made for the CoreGrafx I, nearly exactly the same color, while the more lighter grey were made with CoreGrafx II in mind, as those are very close in color and making the CoreGrafx I look a little bastard when in the lighter one, I prefer the white PCE in the briefcase myself, coolest console ever made... hands down...

[SignOfZeta]

I think the difference in IFUs is that one was sold with the CDROM2 and one without. They were sold separately for a brief period of time to avoid a certain VAT on anything that played audio. I think both would have been aimed at the CG1 since that became the standard PCE right about the same time the CDROM2 was released.

But I agree, the white one is the best.

[Rosser]

Cool stuff Fidde_se I appreciate the time you took checking it out.

 I wonder if you have an unmodded white PCE if it would play CD Music through RF. It would be pretty shitty if your TV only had RF out like a lot of mid to low range crt models had in the early 90's at least here in the states.

It cool you can found something thats not common knowledge about Core Series. I like many others thought the only difference form the Core Series and the Original Whitey was RF was replaced with AV out. 

[Fidde_se]

Well lets rewrite history again, it's a little complicated to test even it's fairly easy, the thing is that it's japanese RF... the video signal is NTSC but a different way of modulating the RF signal, but european tvs can still accept the signal even if it looks a little shit and actually lays in the FM radio frequency, but the audio on the other hand, is modulated on an even weirder way, so how to test an unmodded white PCE, well take the signal into an GT via it's TV Tuner (has to be the jap one, the tuner that is, GT or TE doesn't matter) and I can say first hand that the white PCE does send out CD Audio via the RF Output, which makes the question a little a little harder why doesn't people who mod their consoles get cd audio with their 8pin miniDIN, maybe it doesn't get send out with the EXT connector and people connect their mod there, if they would take it at the RF module they would get CD Audio, but... the audio at the RF module is mono so thats probably why people take the signal from the EXT pins that probably doesn't have CD Audio mixed in, if now someone just could find which pins send in the audio via the EXT connector.

A little thought, there would be a nasty feedback if the EXT connectors audio output would send out CD Audio as it's where the IFU takes it's signal to mix with the cda+adpcm, so if it would send it in threw the "secret" pins if would mix it again on the output, and again, and again, and again, well I think you get the picture... so if rerouting the audio to the DIN or modded miniDIN it would make it complete, but we need to find the secret pins and it might need amplification, and it might also be in mono as suspected, maybe not just the CD audio but also the ADPCM and the normal HuCard audio, as it might just be one pin sending in the signal, and one pin would mean monaural...

[Fidde_se]

Just for future reference the incoming audio channel from the IFU into the PCE is on pin B1 or Pin 24 depending on how you look at it, that's where CD-AUDIO and ADPCM gets in, both in mono.