The "Coolest" Jaguar you ever did see.

[Gummy Bear]

Check out this pointless cooling mod I did to my Jaguar!

Well, not entirely pointless.

 

Stock board.

(this is my old Jag. I forgot to take pics of my "proper" one before I stuck things on it)

 

Copper heat sinks fitted.

 

The white wires are for a 50htz/60htz switch. Anyone guess what the power feeds are for?

 

You guessed it.

 

Testing, testing.

 

A couple of switches: One for 50/60 - one for fans.

 

And there we have it! The "coolest" Jaguar. (get it: "coolest" .... sorry..)

 

Doesn't that hot-melt glue look pretty!

 

 

A Jag with PC style cooling on DSP and CPU. Nice.

 

 

A little pointless as although the DSP and CPU (especially the DSP) get hot, I've never even heard of a Jag overheating.

But still, it can't do any harm for it to run nice and cool.

 

And that's it.

Just thought I'd share as I haven't really done much since my Pro Rotary controller.

Thanks for looking.

[Pocket]

ahah, funny, but as you say a bit pointless

[Gummy Bear]

ahah, funny, but as you say a bit pointless

 

Actually, I just thought of something...

Don't silicon chips run faster the colder they are and run slower as they heat up?

 

If that's true then my Jaguar now runs 0.00000001mhz faster than a stock one! (after they've both been on for an hour)

Yeah!

Edited April 19, 2007 by Gummy Bear

[Pocket]

ahah, funny, but as you say a bit pointless

 

Actually, I just thought of something...

Don't silicon chips run faster the colder they are and run slower as they heat up?

 

If that's true then my Jaguar now runs 0.00000001mhz faster than a stock one! (after they've both been on for an hour)

Yeah!

 

[Albert]

Now you're ready to overclock it!

 

Can you hear the fans?

 

..Al

[Gorf]

Yes , Overclocking would be the next logical step...I recommend

doubling the frequency...That is of course AFTER you rewrite the

boot firmware to deal with the new video timing needed. I over

clocked a Jag once at 33 HMZ...the video was garbled but the

game seemed to function everywhere else. The video registers

need to be written to to handle the new frequency. I used hover

strike and the music played at a very fast pace. There was video

but it was rolling and scrolling all over the place due to the bad

timing. The game started fine and seemed to play fine.

[else]

Don't silicon chips run faster the colder they are and run slower as they heat up?

 

Not unless you change the oscillator. True, the transistors themselves run faster the colder they are, but faster transistor speed doesn't change the system speed.

 

But your work wasn't all for nothing. Heat kills transistors -- so you have probably increased the live expectancy of your Jaguar. Of course other things such as punch-through, electromigration, etc also kill transistors -- but still.....

Edited April 19, 2007 by else

[Gummy Bear]

Now you're ready to overclock it!

 

Can you hear the fans?

 

..Al

 

I don't think I'll be overclocking it. That is a little beyond me.

 

The fans can be heard but they are very quiet.

A little 2-tone hum, sounds quite nice actually.

[Gummy Bear]

Yes , Overclocking would be the next logical step...I recommend

doubling the frequency...That is of course AFTER you rewrite the

boot firmware to deal with the new video timing needed. I over

clocked a Jag once at 33 HMZ...the video was garbled but the

game seemed to function everywhere else. The video registers

need to be written to to handle the new frequency. I used hover

strike and the music played at a very fast pace. There was video

but it was rolling and scrolling all over the place due to the bad

timing. The game started fine and seemed to play fine.

 

That's the problem I hear people have when overclocking other systems like the Genesis, SNES and N64 as well.

I think I've done all I am going to do with this Jag.

[Gummy Bear]

Don't silicon chips run faster the colder they are and run slower as they heat up?

 

Not unless you change the oscillator. True, the transistors themselves run faster the colder they are, but faster transistor speed doesn't change the system speed.

 

But your work wasn't all for nothing. Heat kills transistors -- so you have probably increased the live expectancy of your Jaguar. Of course other things such as punch-through, electromigration, etc also kill transistors -- but still.....

 

That was actually my intention.

I've developed a habit of cooling mods for consoles and add-ons.

My Z64 (N64 "backup device") is heatsinked to the max.

My SNES V2 is heatsinked and has a case fan.

 

Just because manufacturers didn't add heatsinks and fans doesn't mean that the console can't benefit from them.

A cool console is a happy console! That's what my old man used to say.

[Zerosquare]

Yep, a bit pointless, but that's a nice work and more cooling cannot hurt

 

If someday you decide to overclock your Jag, besides video initialization reprogramming, it would be wise to raise the number of wait-states for RAM and ROM access as well to improve the stability. It's probably possible to know how far you can overclock a standard 68000 (given that it is a very common microprocessor in computers and consoles, a lot of of people must have tried it already) ; maximum clock speeds for other chips, such has bus drivers, can be found in the datasheets. The real unknowns are the GPU and the DSP ; as they're custom chips, there's no way to know how they would react, especially in the long term.

Edited April 19, 2007 by Zerosquare

[Isgoed]

Yes, very nice!

[Gummy Bear]

Yes, very nice!

 

Many thanks.

[jaguar_fan]

Nice little project. Excellent pictures!

 

I never thought about that this mod is necessary, but may make sense on the long term.

 

Good work!!

[Gummy Bear]

Nice little project. Excellent pictures!

 

I never thought about that this mod is necessary, but may make sense on the long term.

 

Good work!!

 

Thanks mate.

 

Glad you like it.

[ovalbugmann]

That's Great! Man. I really like that mod, extra cooling is always good, and will probably make your Jaguar last longer. Did you have to cut holes the top of the metal "cage" that the board was orignally in to make the fans fit? What did you use to make the copper sinks stay on the chips? I might like to try something like that, maybe you could you write up a few notes or details about wiring connections, soldering spots, & parts if you have time.

[Gummy Bear]

That's Great! Man. I really like that mod, extra cooling is always good, and will probably make your Jaguar last longer. Did you have to cut holes the top of the metal "cage" that the board was orignally in to make the fans fit? What did you use to make the copper sinks stay on the chips? I might like to try something like that, maybe you could you write up a few notes or details about wiring connections, soldering spots, & parts if you have time.

 

Thanks for the praise, mate.

 

In answer to your questions:

The top half of the RF sheild will indeed fit over the fans/heatsinks without being cut, but I didn't put it back on as it would hinder airflow.

 

The copper heatsinks that I use are Thermaltake sinks that have Sekisu thermal tape on the back of them as standard.

Nice and easy.

 

As for where I tapped the power, you can see it in the third picture but I will stick a closeup below:

 

 

You've even got the polarity which I marked on the board.

If you tap the power from these exact points, whatever you attach to it will be powered 'on' when you switch on the Jaguar (yes, my additional fan switch is pretty useless.... I have a thing about symmetry... )

 

The fans are ordinary 25mm PC fans that normally run on 12 volts.

They run just fine on 9v (though the Jag PSU isn't very accurate and actually gives 10-11v) and are obviously more quiet.

 

 

Hope that helps, mate.

[ovalbugmann]

Much Thanks for the extra info , that's not too difficult a mod, I could probably do it. As for the switch for the fans, does it work? Or do the fans just power on when the jag is powered up and the switch is useless like you said?

[Gummy Bear]

Much Thanks for the extra info , that's not too difficult a mod, I could probably do it. As for the switch for the fans, does it work? Or do the fans just power on when the jag is powered up and the switch is useless like you said?

 

Yes, the switch does work.

You can turn the fans off while leaving the Jaguar on. I don't really need to do this though as the fans are really quiet.

 

Go for it.

[atarifan49]

Gummy Bear,

 

Keep in mind if you ever want to use a Jaguar CD with that unit you will need to re-install the shielding. I got lazy one time after going inside my Jaguar console and decided to leave the shielding off. I had all kinds of weird problems pop-up on the CD unit. It was failing diagnostics quite badly.

 

Just something to keep in mind should you install a CD unit on that modded console.

 

And I wouldn't quite call that pointless--that is the life-extender mod.

 

Regards,

Glenn

[jaguar_fan]

 

Keep in mind if you ever want to use a Jaguar CD with that unit you will need to re-install the shielding. I got lazy one time after going inside my Jaguar console and decided to leave the shielding off. I had all kinds of weird problems pop-up on the CD unit. It was failing diagnostics quite badly.

 

 

 

 

Yeah, I can confirm that. It seems that the Jaguar is "throwing" a lot of emissions, or the CD device is very sensitive to emissions (or both apply).

[Gummy Bear]

Thanks for the info, fellas.

 

I haven't actually tried my CD unit on it since the mod.

I'll just stick the top of the shield back on when I have a few minutes.

 

 

Thanks again.

[Gorf]

Yep, a bit pointless, but that's a nice work and more cooling cannot hurt

 

If someday you decide to overclock your Jag, besides video initialization reprogramming, it would be wise to raise the number of wait-states for RAM and ROM access as well to improve the stability. It's probably possible to know how far you can overclock a standard 68000 (given that it is a very common microprocessor in computers and consoles, a lot of of people must have tried it already) ; maximum clock speeds for other chips, such has bus drivers, can be found in the datasheets. The real unknowns are the GPU and the DSP ; as they're custom chips, there's no way to know how they would react, especially in the long term.

 

 

Seeing that the 68k is only half the speed of the rest of the system, I used a 32 MHZ clock

knowing that the 68k in the Jaguar is good for at least 16 mhz(32 in half = 16 mhz). I did not

use a fan on the chips but instead two rubic cube sized heat sinks on each chip and a small

fan blowing on then on the table.

 

I was working at an RF manufacturing place at the time and we had all the necesary stuff to

mess with it after hours. The boss was cool with letting us play all we wanted with all the killer

logic anylizers and spectrum anilizers and audio and video anylizers and just about ever type

of test box you can think of. I would have probably moved futhre ahead but that was right

around the time Atari kicked it with the Jag.

 

[Gummy Bear]

I did not use a fan on the chips but instead two rubic cube sized heat sinks on each chip

 

No JagCD then, Gorf?

Edited April 23, 2007 by Gummy Bear

[Denymetanol]

Cool MOD Gummy Bear, one of my friends adquired two years past an 3dfx voodoo5 5500 AGP graphic card and do something similar (not than professional as you, a jaguar has a case, and a pc vga is plain and all is ON AIR... :-P ) but removed finally two fans from the main chips, the main pc case has a big fan witch sends a lot of fresh air...^o^

 

One question about 50/60hz switcher.......i heard that frequency changer MAY HARM JAGUAR if this is done with the console powered on.... in the Sega Saturn can be done ON HOT........ but seems in JAG is Dangerous?...or all is an urban legend????

 

Thanks