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What dumb little tech repair have you done recently that felt good anyways?


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This qualify as small?  Old, my GBC with the TFT I put in over a year ago.  New, Friday/Saturday worked on 3 of these.  This is mine that I'm keeping on the right.  I got it about a week and a half before hand locally complete in the box so it gave me the need to make it better for personal use.  I had 2 other beat up purples, now one is ruby translucent red, the other a purplish-blue sapphire.  The keeper was kept glass lens+LCD aside stock, the others new shell, buttons, glass lens, the works.  It's something fun I enjoy doing when I can get the handhelds, a bit of a hobby to refresh DMG, GBP and Colors primarily and then sell them to someone who will put them to good use.

 

The old one is at its brightness, the one of the right is at the lowest, as it gets so bright up the 8 levels it has it was blowing out the camera. :D

gbc-ap-ips2.jpg

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I recently, with suggestions and help from others on FB groups I'm a member of was able to find a way to get HDRetrovision cables working on a 32x that I had previously modded with s-video. If you aren't familiar, the mod requires removing a resistor that ties the luma output from the 32x encoder to the rest of the composite circuitry. However, leaving this intact causes interference with the s-video output making it unusable in s-video. The only solution is remove or otherwise cut the luma output to the composite. Doing that kills composite of course and the HDRetrovision cables require that in order to operate and generate the signal.

 

The solution was to add some components to convert the c-sync off the genesis input side to the composite output pin on the 32x. You don't have composite video, but you at least have the signal that the HDretrovision cables are looking for to operate. You can't use C-sync as it is since it isn't in a way that the HDR cables will see properly. You end up with dropping out video and it totally hoses up the s-video output doing it too if you just try to run c-sync to the composite output.

 

Anyway, It was good to get that working in a very decent manner for my client since they required s-video and the HDR cables to both be used at the same time from the 32x.

 

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I'd be curious to see how it could be done to perhaps use like a retrotink2x cable with a PC Engine to take its signal into that, and pop it out the backs digital port to an HDMI jack on my TV.  I've heard someone had done this before with good result, probably I'd guess using the one Genesis can use.

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If the retrotink cable can take unamplified RGB signal all you really need is a connector taking the RGB signal from the back connector; it mean either modding a Tennokoe or an IFU 30 and picking the signal from there. If the retrotink cables need a "TV level" signal, you'd need to build a pre-amp, there are one-chip solutions for that, too.

tennokoe-bank-2-rgb.jpg

Both Teenokoe and IFU-30 would have enough room to even put an HDMI out directly on them, but you could also choose to make a RGB output using the DIN output of the Megadrive (which would require your a separate stereo output) or using the connector for a console with direct stereo out.

Edited by CatPix
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Finally got around to fixing the 'I' key on the 1200XL.  The plunger had snapped off, leaving half of itself inside the keycap and losing the top spring in the process.  Tore down the keyboard, replaced the plunger, drilled and picked the broken part out of the keycap, and reassembled the lot.

 

Going to have to open it up again to do the mylar, but at least my OCD attention to detail is now satisfied.

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I don’t think I mentioned this back when I first did this, but I soldered a cut up RCA cable to a few pins on the monochrome 80 column output pins on my C128. I don’t have no proper cables nor monitor so I had to do this the messy way. It was a bit tricky doing this with the hot air soldering station, but it works. Now I have 80 column output on my 128. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Fixed a rubbing ABS sensor wire on the Jeep that was tripping the ABS light when it made contact with the steering knuckle.  Now to find somewhere that can replace the dead TPMS sensor battery for less than an arm and a leg.  If that happens, I'll have zero warning lights while running!

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  • 2 months later...

Not so much a repair as something I've wanted to do for a long, long time: the 600XL got upgraded to Rev. C BASIC.  That machine being socketed, it took less than 10 minutes to do.

 

There's another Rev. C chip sitting around here waiting to go into the 800XL, but as that will require desoldering and I have neither 24-pin sockets or anything that can be cut down to fit (there are larger ones floating around, but they're earmarked for other projects), I'll tackle that when Mouser sends me stuff.

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  • 4 weeks later...

This hardly counts as a repair, but I replaced the Raspberry Pi I was using as a file server for Open PS2 Loader with a portable travel router.  The router offers a couple of benefits over the Pi:

  1. The router can be powered from one of the the PS2 USB ports, so no additional AC adapter required
  2. The router is safer to shut down than the Pi, which requires shutting down from the command line or installing a switch (although I've never had a problem with just unplugging the Pi AC adapter to shut it off, there's a chance it could cause problems)

Nice little solution to play your ISOs from storage!  Especially if, like me, your PS2 optical drive doesn't work well anymore.

 

---

 

By the way, here is the router I'm using:

 

https://www.tp-link.com/us/home-networking/wifi-router/tl-wr902ac/

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  • 2 weeks later...

I fixed the USB door on my 360. It quit springing back ages ago- if I flicked it just right, it would look shut, but it was a pain to do that every time I used the ports. Found a YouTube video showing how to re-secure the spring with just a twist tie. Easy peasy, looks SO much better now! 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I swapped the board from my Krikzz Joyzz MD/GEN wireless pad into an official 6-pad controller shell.

 

Although the Joyzz gamepad is pretty awesome, it does feel a bit cheaper than an official gamepad.  Luckily, the board fits ALMOST perfectly.  I ended up having to carve away some plastic from the rear shell (center post, and some plastic from the well on one side, and a tiny sliver of plastic from the bracing tab on the bottom), but it fits perfectly.  Other than a tiny rectangular space below the USB charging port. you wouldn't know anything was swapped!  Looks and feels great.

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  • 10 months later...

Botched a socket and 74F08 installation in the 800XL, which is currently down until I have the time to look into it again.  Slightly annoying, as it's my only A8 with more than 64K of RAM, but I'll live ;-)

 

On the plus side, this debacle did lead to the discovery that the 64K 600XL that I thought had one installed didn't, so took care of that as part of the while-I'm-in-there process.  This gets all of the daily-driver XLs up to the same spec in that regard, which makes up somewhat for ignoring the don't-fix-it-if-it-ain't-broke mantra on the 800XL :-D

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