Hello, and Happy New Year!

DarkOnus · 12/31/2016, 07:06 PM

Hello all,
Joined a bit ago and was lurking, doing some research on upgrading and fixing my US TG-16 consoles and TurboExpress unit. Looking forward in hopefully tapping the infinite knowledge of the TG-16 guru collection here on the forums, and learn many new things!

I purchased my first US TG-16 console back in 1990, then added the CD unit and TurboExpress very soon afterwards. I was so disappointed when NEC failed to win, or at least stay in the battle against Nintendo and SEGA, and after about 5-6 years playing with the system, I thought I was putting it away for good, never to use it again, back in the mid-90's . . .

Well, I got them back out and was going to sell everything, but after playing some games again, I just couldn't find myself parting ways completely, so I've decided to upgrade and fix everything I can, probably sell all the original games and most everything else, keep at least one console (and maybe keep the TE), and then some day purchase a Turbo Everdrive to be able to still play everything!

When I pulled everything out again, my CD unit wasn't working, it would spin for a second, then stop, and my TE was playing sound so low I could only hear it if I put my ear directly against the unit itself . . . after a couple fixes done to the CD unit, it's working flawlessly again, and my TE now has sound, though I think it still needs to be louder . . . so that's still a work in progress.

I've also added an internal region mod to one of the consoles, which is working perfectly.

And lastly, I've added component/composite/audio out using Helder's BA7230LS RGB to Component v5.0A board based off of ACE's 5.0 schematics. I'll need some more help with that last one though, as I'm hoping to get better results than I am right now, even though for the most part I'm liking what I see for many games I've tried.

Anyway, thanks for allowing me to be a member, looking forward to picking your brains, and ... Happy New Year too !!!

Best Regards,
~ Craig ~

esteban · 01/01/2017, 12:52 AM

Welcome to the next level, comrade.

wildfruit · 01/01/2017, 04:40 PM

Welcome. Nice story. Happy playing.

NightWolve · 01/01/2017, 06:08 PM

Ah, interesting, you went with the IC work of Ace and the other person you mentioned. I watched Ace for awhile when he was researching RGB to YPbPr encoding for SNES years back. I was interested in this for some time.

https://www.pcengine-fx.com/forums/index.php?topic=13231.0

Our resident EE, The Steve, made his own circuit for this which eventually made it to printed boards with turbokon. The IC that Ace used likely works better than Steve's transistor design, but you can build it yourself all from RadioShack parts and it's a great learning experience.

DarkOnus · 01/02/2017, 01:14 PM

Quote from: NightWolve on 01/01/2017, 06:08 PMAh, interesting, you went with the IC work of Ace and the other person you mentioned. I watched Ace for awhile when he was researching RGB to YPbPr encoding for SNES years back. I was interested in this for some time.

https://www.pcengine-fx.com/forums/index.php?topic=13231.0

Our resident EE, The Steve, made his own circuit for this which eventually made it to printed boards with turbokon. The IC that Ace used likely works better than Steve's transistor design, but you can build it yourself all from RadioShack parts and it's a great learning experience.

Thanks for the welcoming esteban and wildfruit!

Hello NightWolve, thank you for the reply. I read through your MOD Guide thread started to mainly discuss thesteve's RGB to component design as soon as I came across this forum.

Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how one looks at it

, the reason I went with ACE's BA7230LS chip board design was because it was the first design I came across when I was looking for a solid way to get component connections for my US TG-16 consoles, and I didn't do a lot more research before jumping right in and trying it ... so I never came across thesteve's design and this forum until well after I had already ordered everything I needed to put together a few of the BA7230LS based component boards.

Therefore I haven't tried making a mod with thesteve's design just yet, though I might at some point in the future for my own benefit to compare. However, what I'm really interested in first off, and I hope a few others here would be or might be too, is discussing ACE's V5.0 BA7230LS based design specifically. I was hoping at least a few members here have some experience with building a mod using that design, and we could discuss it more thoroughly.

Since there was already your mod guide thread discussing an RGB to component mod, where I did see that ACE's schematic and BA7230LS based design was mentioned a few times, I decided to PM a couple moderators before posting in it at all. I really appreciate all the hard work ACE, thesteve, and everyone else involved has done on these mods, and out of respect, I really didn't want to intermix what may eventually end up being a lengthy discussion about ACE's design, into a thread that was set up for discussing thesteve's design. Besides, it's less cluttered and confusing when threads stay on one main topic for discussion, rather than discuss multiple areas.

So I had asked the mods if it would be OK for me to start up a new thread under the MOD discussion area specifically for ACE's design, rather than post questions and try discussing it in your thread. I haven't received a reply yet with any advice, no doubt because it's the holidays, so I'll wait a few days more, though I am anxious to learn more about others experience with ACE's design.

~ Craig ~

Bardoly · 01/03/2017, 06:38 AM

Welcome to Pcenginefx!

NecroPhile · 01/03/2017, 09:57 AM

Happy New Year and welcome aboard!

Sarumaru · 01/03/2017, 12:23 PM

Great intro. Welcome!

blueraven · 01/04/2017, 12:47 AM

Nice, welcome

Warbucks · 01/10/2017, 10:03 AM

Welcome!

Digi.k · 01/19/2017, 06:54 PM

Fantastic DIY job and welcome aboard

DarkOnus · 01/21/2017, 01:15 PM

Thanks for the welcomes everyone.

Just wish someone else besides myself and member Keith Courage was interested and could join the discussion about the BA7230LS component out board design mod, I could really use the input from others who have experience, even if it's with other component mods, the info and suggestions may still be very useful for improving that design.

Anyway, thanks for the forum to discuss this awesome family of consoles and its hand held units!!!

NecroPhile · 01/23/2017, 11:54 AM

Quote from: DarkOnus on 01/21/2017, 01:15 PMJust wish someone else besides myself and member Keith Courage was interested and could join the discussion about the BA7230LS component out board design mod, I could really use the input from others who have experience, even if it's with other component mods, the info and suggestions may still be very useful for improving that design.

I'll say your screen shots look nice, but I've no experience with such a mod at all (my systems all have stock video). I've nothing intelligent to add, but at least you know someone else is reading the thread.