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View Full Version : The death of RF...or console mods, Kamino style.



Kamino
04-23-2005, 01:09 PM
A few months ago, I was glaring frustratedly at a copy of shockwave for NES. I was told by DP's Fabombjoy to disable it, and he pointed me to his site. While on this site, I noticed a very easy Odyssey 2 a/v mod.......and it went chaotic from there. I bought about 40 bucks worth of parts and a soldering iron, and set about some mods, with a mission in mind, to eliminate RF from my game room. Here's what came out.


Odyssey 2 A/v mod.
Directions: found at
http://www.lukesandel.com/techgallery/Odyssey2-Composite
It doesn't get any easier than this one, kids. I did this one with a crappy 30W iron and some solid .20 copper wire.
Http://www.templeofinsanity.com/images/tech/odyssey2.JPG
the video is a smidge dark, but crystal clear.

Ti99 A/V Cable:
Directions: Found at http://web.infoave.net/~compdr/videocable/video.htm
Also pretty damn simple. I did this one that same day as I did the odyssey 2. The real pain to doing this mod, is getting the DIN plug end. I still have two laying around, one used and desoldered, one unused. Too easy...far too easy.
http://www.templeofinsanity.com/images/tech/ticable.JPG
Sega Genesis 50/60hz switch:
Directions found at
http://users.skynet.be/DuNe/Console/md1/md1.html
Note: As it says, cut jp4 instead of 3. When it says cut, they mean CUT. the damn thing didn't work until I went totally psycho on it and cut as hard as I possibly could. I probably went halfway through the board. Oh well. It works great. I could have gone the extra mile and done one more switch for a JP mod, but I didn't feel like mounting one. If you have a genesis 1, look at that stupid hole in the back. WTF does that hole do?! Well, now that hole is a region mod on this stack.
Http://www.templeofinsanity.com/images/tech/regionmod.JPG

Colecovision S-Video:
Directions: 2 parts. follow a1k0n's a/v mod
HERE: http://www.a1k0n.net/projects/coleco/
and then finish it off with s video here
http://www94.pair.com/jsoper/cv_svideo.html
Tip on this one:
GROUNDING IS KEY. A1k0n is an idiot and used shielded cables inside the casing for some reason. Completely unneccassary. The ground point off of the IC that would be a shielded cable's ground point, is bloody essential. This mod also works great ,even though I did put the damn jack in upside down.
http://www.templeofinsanity.com/images/tech/coleco.JPG

And now, the most fricking frustrating project ever.
I'm too damn lazy to draw the proper schematics.
each of these connections goes through a diode. The way I wired it, is I put 2 diodes next to each other, and put the 1 wire from the TI end onto the end of the diodes that does NOT have the band. It's a bridged connection on that side. On the other side, i put joystick 1 on the left side of each pair, and joystick 2 on the right side. It is VERY important to keep that straight. I'd like to smack up the idiots at 99er.net who posted bogus schematics; theirs list FIRE as going pin 6 on the ti end, to pin 6 on the atari end. WRONG. 6 is GROUND on the ti end, 4 is FIRE on the ti end.
Pin 3 on the TI end goes to Pin 1 on both atari ends. this is UP.
pin 8 on the TI end goes to pin 2 on both atari ends. this is DOWN.
Pin 4 on the TI end goes to Pin 6 on both atari ends. this is FIRE, and this is where most schematics go wrong.
pin 5 on the TI end goes to pin 3 on both atari ends. this is LEFT.
Pin 9 on the TI end goes to pin 4 on both atari ends. this is RIGHT.
Pin 6 on the TI end goes to pin 8 on both atari ends. this is GROUND.
Pin 2 on the TI end goes to pin 5 on the first atari end. This is a signal wire, and this wire does NOT get a diode.
Pin 7 on the TI end goes to pin 5 on the second atari end. this is also a signal wire and also does NOT get a diode.
And here's the pic. Ok, it looks like shit. It is shit. I bought the project box and proper ends after 2 failed attempts with genesis extensions. Unfortunately, solderless(crimp style) jacks suck to work with, and the jacks didn't work, so i crammed the genesis extenders in, wired it on that again, and somehow it worked, so I wrapped it with black duct tape and left it alone. Classy. DO NOT attempt this mod unless you enjoy sleeplessness and high blood pressure.
http://www.templeofinsanity.com/images/tech/ti99box.JPG

The 7800 S Video:
directions found here
http://home.earthlink.net/~resqsoft/7800_mod.htm

This mod went rather well...except at the end, for some damn reason, I had to bridge the output of Luma and the output of Chroma. this wire is separate from the normal outputs to the s-video jack. It works, so I don't care.
Http://www.templeofinsanity.com/images/tech/7800.JPG

And now..the crown jewel.
I left this mod for the end, because I was so bloody nervous about doing it. I was working with the system that would be the toughest and most expensive to replace...and a system I use a good amount.
I'm talking about the Sears Heavy Sixer....now with S-Video.
Directions can be found on atariage's 2600 FAQ. Build the chroma/luma circuits. It worked on the first try...making it the easiest mod I did. Really, this mod was a breeze, and it's nice to see what kaboom REALLY looks like.
Http://www.templeofinsanity.com/images/tech/2600.JPG
And that's it for my soldering iron for now, folks. I'm considering doing some frivilous mods, such as power LED colour changes...or that genesis s-video mod. But for now, I'm done. It took a good investment of time. I had some prior knowledge of electronics, but learned a whole ton more on the journey. It all paid off.....but man, am I exhausted. Too many solder fumes and too many burns. I'm glad it's over. All that is left in this room that runs on RF is 2 pong systems. To hell with those, I'll just leave them as is.
Have fun, kids...I'm off to play more Kaboom.

Sotenga
04-23-2005, 03:11 PM
Eep. That's a lot of wires. @_@

I am considerably envious at your skills. Even the simplest of manual projects like this are things that I botch up. Then, of course, there's the part of the Colecovision mod with all the diodes and the pins, which is not only well out of my league, but causes my head to explode simply by reading the instructions. :eek 2:

Great work, Kamino. You're on your way to running your very own game mod shop. :cheers:

Goodwill Hunter
04-23-2005, 04:37 PM
Very nice work K...got any pics of the insides of those consoles? I've always wondered what went into modding, but never bothered to check it out (guess I'll try a few of your links above). The system I've most wanted to add AV jacks to is my NES toploader...what would you charge to do one of those?

Again, congrats on the mods,
Rich

RockyRaccoon
04-23-2005, 04:37 PM
I could be +1 and go...

Kamino > You.

But that would just be silly! I need to drag this OUT AND OUT AND OUT for all the Meesta I could possibly aquire by making this LONGER!

Alright, No seriously. These mods seem VERY VERY Well done, I'm VERY Envious of the Colecovision S-video mod, and makes me wish I had a TV with S-Video Capabilites to attempt this mod, alas...I will be stuck with the usual A/V Mod , but still damnnnnn good!

As for the 7800..on top of the TOTALLY AWESOME MOD that now has to it, I need to steal those 7800 Joypads. *YOINK* I heard they make the 7800 more enjoyable than the 7800 "Pro Line" Controllers.

On a side note..what does the Genesis Mod do? Allow you to play PAL Games on a NTSC Genny?

And as for that ULTRA-SEXTASTIC 2600 Mod... WOW, nice gamble there putting your Heavy Sixer under the knife. Came out nice it looks and if it works, thats even 2,600 times better!

Makes me want to get into Soldier Retraining faster... in fact, I'm gonna do dig out the old Iron right now and practice, so I can show off my own workmanship soon! ;-)

~Rocky

Kejoriv
04-23-2005, 04:44 PM
Nice work. Tomorrow, I am going to try to mod my colecovision and 2600 to eliminate the rf. I have doubles of those systems, so I wont be that pissed if I mess it up. I got them for cheap also.

Kamino
04-23-2005, 05:28 PM
Rich; I'll send you a pm regarding this matter. I'm hoping maybe we can work out a trade of sorts on this.
I didn't get any pics of the insides, because of the 2 foot focusing rule on digital cameras. IT would most likely have come out rather blurry.
rocky; heh, yeah I just happen to have a real good source on those 7800 controllers. ;)
There really wasn't a HUGE risk involved in the heavy sixer, actually. Soldering the wires to the TIA chip can't do much to the system unless you are a total idiot and confuse pin 1(ground) with pin 20(power), or short something. I was just bloody careful. I didn't even have to drill the hole for the s-video jack; the rubber ring around the RF cord that I tore out was JUST the right size for the jack to go in...
Kejoriv - good luck. If you get stuck, have questions, or would like fries with that, feel free to PM me. I have a feeling i will never be able to directly repay the debt i owe to those who advised me during these mods(mainly fabombjoy), so I will instead turn around and offer to be the question man to the next guy.