Qoob Pro installed, Panasonic Q 99% done...

I have an old notebook computer that I use mainly for my Gameboy flashcard that required a parallel port to program the card with. Now, I can use it to flash a Qoob Pro with!

I started off with flashing my own Gamecube with the computer, updating, at least, the secondary launcher (Swiss for Gamecube). Other than the fact that the case I got it sucks, everything worked as it was back in the day.

I disassembled my Gamecube to use the USB connector to program the other Qoob Pro that I was installing. Flashed it, no problem. Now the real test: to see if my connections were good enough.

I opened up the Q just on one side so I could access the harness for the Qoob. Hooked up the harness to the Qoob, and tested it out.

...it booted the Qoob BIOS!

I did some testing with backups and US retail discs, and all booted up nicely. No glitching, no read errors, nothing!

I had to open up the Q one more time to get the Qoob secured inside the case. Pretty much an expert at opening this beast now.

The only reason I call this 99% complete is because of the disc drive belt. As soon as that can be replaced, this thing can be considered 100%. For the time being, though, all I'm using is an old gift card to slide in and pull the tray out a bit.

No pics because of what a behemoth this thing was. But it really does look better now.

Panasonic Q: DONE! sort of...

Yeah, I haven't slept yet since the last blog post...albeit it was just about 4 or so hours since that.

I took another look at the Panasonic Q, just wondering what the heck was going on with it. I swapped the LCD board on the top (functions the DVD portion of the console) from the nice looking one to the hashed one. That seemed to work.

Swapped just the main boards from the cases. Tried again, now it didn't work again (the front function buttons was the problem before, but after the swap, both the top and front buttons weren't working).

...

So I left the top as is and tried the front case from the hashed one.

Boom! That worked! All the functions worked in that combination.

So I swapped the boards on the front panel as well. Got it all to a point where I could test it.

BOOM! Worked again...except for the drive. It wouldn't open up even if the LCD shows it now.

...

A bit of searching lead to a solution that the little drive belt is bad. Opening it back up again, I could tell that the belt was really old. I tried swapping it with the other belt. Still got the same results, but not as bad as the older belt was. I'm gonna leave it like that for the time being.

Since I had the case opened up again, I decided to swap out the fans as well. Something I learned about the Q; Press the DVD/CD button on the top to start the Q in DVD mode, press the Game button to start it in Gamecube mode. The fan doesn't start in DVD mode, but does in Gamecube mode. Anyway, the fan was really loud, so I swapped it out with the other one. That one worked much quieter.

There was also talk about having a Qoob Pro installed in it. I already had the wires installed where they're supposed to go, but I haven't tested the Qoob just yet. I'm gonna have to play around with my Cube to check a different OS for it, then possibly flash it to the drive.

Almost the end of the year...

Yeah, I skipped a whole month of posts...I REALLY don't like the holidays.

Anyway....

PRGE GETs!

Day 1 GETs: 3 Famicom Pulse Label cartridges (Donkey Kong Jr., Donkey Kong 3, and Mario Bros.), Super Street Fighter 2 for Super Famicom, and Super Mario Galaxy 2 for Wii (Sans the manual).

Day 2 GETs: Soul Calibur 2 for Xbox, Capcom Fighting Evolution for PS2, Gunbuster 2 for PC Engine CD, and Dead or Alive 5 for PS3.

Forum Raffle GET: Savage Reign for Neo Geo MVS.

Random Goodwill find #1: Jigglypuff Amiibo.

#2: Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

#3: Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island

Currently for repair work, I'm working on a Panasonic Q, "trying" to make the parts I have for it to work as one complete unit.

I also got word that the PC Engine Duo I worked on stopped working. Hopefully I can get to that soonish.

Add to that an SNES that has a problem and a 2DS that doesn't power on.

Currently, though, I'm having problems with my eye. It just plain hurts and it's being more sensitive to light that it usually is. 

I've got my work cut out for me. 

Lack of updates...

Yeah, about that...

October is usually a busy time around here,  with my birthday and my son's birthday/Halloween and all. Hopefully by this weekend, I'll have stuff to post up, including my lackluster GETs at PRGE this year and do far.

Stay tuned...

Wow, don't I feel silly...

The saga continues with the Neo CD power supply. I posted in a Want To Buy (WTB) for a Neo CD or something equivalent. A Neo Geo guru (I usually refer to him as Sifu) had one that, I thought, was a Neo CD power supply, but it ended up being a different one (an HP sdd018-n1000). It had the same connector that I needed for the Neo CD and the same voltage output as the other power supplies that I've tried using. The only difference was the amperage going to 12V and 5V. I didn't think they made much of a difference, but apparently, it does.

In the meantime waiting for the adapter, I managed to find another power supply with the same style connector that the Neo CD uses. I cut off the part I needed and got rid of the rest.

I tried splicing into the old hard drive power supply that I've been trying to get to work with the connector I pilfered. Alas, after much hacking and prodding, I couldn't get it to work. The power light would come on, but no image or sound on the screen.

A few days later, I got the adapter in the mail. I immediately tried it out when I got it.

...didn't work...

Kinda frustrated at this point, I PM'd Sifu to see if he knew what was going on. We figured that it was 2 connections that were different: 5V and ground. Both of those were switched. I wish I was able to break into the main part of the power supply itself, but it was sealed shut.

I ended up, per advice, cutting the cable and rewiring the 2 different connections. I just did a quick cut and splice to get things tested, using electrical tape to cover the wires. Took it to my game area to test it.

...it finally worked...

After ALL that, it finally worked. I don't know if I'm gonna try and get the other adapter to work, but for now, I'm done and happy that this finally got resolved.

Specs on the adapter
HP sdd018-n1000
12V 1.0A (top left of the connector, looking at it)(red wire when opened)
5V 1.2A (top right of the connector, looking at it)(white wire when opened)
Ground (bottom of the connector, looking at it)(bare wire when opened)

5V and Ground need to be switched (Ground to top right connector, 5V to bottom connector)

Yay 3D Printing!...

I've been wanting to repair my Virtual Boy for some time now. Not the console itself, but the stand for it. There's a little clip that keeps it in place while playing it. That clip, since I bought it off a friend many moons ago, has been broken.

Many attempts to fix it with super glue yields this same result...and I hate it. 

I lived with just having the VB pointing downwards so the front part of the stand that has the hook still in tact takes the grunt of the weight. So, not only do I strain my eyes playing the VB, I also strain my neck. 

Not fun.

Cue a Google search for stand replacements or fixes got me THIS LINK; a possible 3D printed version of of said crappy clip. That got me exited. The 3D file was there, but I didn't have a 3D printer.

I knew a friend of mine had a 3D printer, but after reaching out to him, his printer doesn't do the type of plastic I need for this particular application (his uses PLA, he recommended ABS for what I need). He then pointed me to 3D HUBS. This had a bunch of local 3D print shops in the area that could do the job for me. 

Overly excited, I sent my file in, chose a shop near me to have it printed. The shop owner used a non-high resolution print for the file I sent him. 

The pic he sent me when the job was done looked kinda janky, but I figure for $10, I'll make do with it. 

This was several days ago. I was only able to pick it up today on my day off. I'll have to say that it looked better up in person than in the pic. So I took it home and went to work replacing the part right away.

With a little hobby knife finesse and a bit of patience:

The print, like I mentioned, was pretty much quick and dirty, but if I had my way to redo it, I'd probably would've had it done in higher print resolution.

All in all, I'm happy with how this turned out. It's also exiting that there's a local shop that I can send 3D print files to with great communication.

Power supply E-FAIL...

So, I tried doing the power supply hack like I mentioned in my last post. I had it all set up and ready to test.

...nope...

Didn't work. I tried 2 different power supplies. Both didn't work (one actually screeched at me).

So, wat do?

I asked a local FB group I'm a part of for help. There was a guy that I dealt with before with the Atari 5200 that was willing to help me out. After getting lost several times, I was able to get there and test it out with his adapter.

Lo and behold. It worked.

...

So, on goes the hunt for a proper adapter.

In the meantime, I'm trying to wrap my head around why the hack worked for couple of people but not working for me. Here's to hoping that I can figure it out.

Yay, cheap stuff on eBay!...

On September 17th, I won an auction for a Neo Geo CD. It was for the console only, so no controllers or cables or the power supply.

I've contemplated looking online for an adapter for it, but they fetch a pretty high price tag. Not willing to pay about the same amount I bought the console for.

Enter power supply hacks for the Neo CD. I came up to THIS POST. The OP used an adapter that had a Molex style connector used in PC drives. (LINK). I do have that type of adapter, but I was thinking for future mounting of the connector, making it look stock.

I then remembered an old IDE external drive that I had. The power supply had roughly the same amperage as the above mentioned one, but a different connector.

...yeah...

So, what to do?

Well, the enclosure stopped working, so I just raided the PCB for the connector. In the process of desoldering the connector, I broke off one of the legs. Not a real problem; I took the connector apart and see that I can just solder a bit of wire to it. Doesn't matter since it's a ground pin, and if I need to, I can get another connector online or just mod the connector later.

The Neo CD did arrive today, but no one was home to accept delivery. So I just have to take a trip to the post office tomorrow to pick it up. I'll do a quick solder to the power points on the drive and test it out. If it works (the listing said it was tested and working), then I'm gonna permanently mod the connector.

Stay tuned...even if I post the results later than tomorrow.

Aaaand, I'm Back!

Fresh install of Win 10 x64. Already got stuff loaded back on. Chrome behaving properly. Universal Media Server working right.

Ready to go!

...now to get some other mod projects going.

Killing my computer...

The short of it: I installed a program for streaming from PC to device. It did something to my computer that hijacked my browsers (Chrome and IE), and there's no official way to change it.

Backing everything up now, and gonna install Windows 10 (for giggles). Anything I missed from the backup can be easily downloaded again.

I hate that...

Tackle and tested the 5200, snags included...

Tonight, I decided to tackle the Atari 5200. Mainly, the adapter issue. Sure, I could just use the PC Engine Duo's adapter and call it good, but I really didn't want to (under powering under 1.5 VDC is fine, just didn't want to over work the adapter).

So, I ordered a connector that works with an adapter that I had bought for another project but didn't work.

Same dimensions as a Sega Genesis Model 1 adapter (2.1 mm inner diameter, 5.5 mm outer diameter). Fits the 12 VDC adapter that I had.

I did a quick wiring to the power points on the board and tested it. Stunning results, even through RF!

To make room for the new power jack, I desoldered the original power connector.

Removed. Fuzzy picture warning.

Old jack removed. No love loss.

All was going good, until I needed to mount the new jack...

I had the intent of using the original hole for the stock power jack. As you can see, it didn't fare out so well.

I marked it with where the connections should be (positive to the center of the jack, negative to the outer part). 

I intend on getting back to this project. What's left to do is a video mod and probably some plastic patching like I've been doing to all the unused holes in my projects. I may invest in a mod board for it so I can get S-Video as well. 

Anyway, I know it works with the adapter, so that's good. I'm gonna have to figure out the controller thing as well. It did come with 3 controllers: 2 that was in good condition and 1 that had the joystick rubber torn. Ironically, the one with the tear it in worked, the other 2 not so much. I'm gonna tear into it later as well.

I also made a decision on the 2 joysticks that I worked on the other day. I decided that the Neo Geo stick isn't worth saving anymore. I'm gonna strip it down and use the parts in the other stick which, in turn, I'm gonna make into a multi console stick. 

More to come soon, I guess. 

Joystick done...sort of...

My daughter wasn't feeling well, so I took the day off to take care of her. Not really good to send her to daycare and get the other kids sick just because my wife or myself couldn't take the time off. She was at the tail end of a stomach bug (she's been throwing up most of the night prior), so all it was to get some food in her (soup, bread, crackers, rice, that kind of thing) and let her chill.

Since she was preoccupied with a combination of Netflix and telling her to read something so she doesn't lose reading comprehension before entering the second grade, I decided to finish up some of the projects that I've been getting lazy on working on.

First of, painting the recently patched items: The Genesis case and the Joystick case.

Here is, at least, the Genesis. Patched, sanded, and cleaned, ready for a hit of paint. Also got the Joystick case ready to go: bit of fine sanding, washing, and hit it with paint.

It was really quick, so I let them dry for about 4 hours or so.

I wanted the Joystick done more than anything, so I did that first.

Wiring all cleaned, not like that mess from a while back. 

Look! No alligator clips! I bought proper terminal connectors to make this look clean(er).

I got some countersink screws to replace the pan head ones that were there. It made it look cleaner from the top. Problem was...well, see where the one screw is missing? Well...

I over tightened that one. In turn, it caused the case to re-crack. Also, the screws I got were too long, so it was hitting the joystick terminals. I'm gonna have to trim that down sometime soon.

I was kinda upset with it at this point, but eh, it still worked. You can see where I attempted to match the paint up, but that didn't work. I may have to strip it all down again and start over from scratch. I may just go matte black all over...or maybe go another color...soon.

I mulled it over on how disgusted I was with myself for breaking my patch job. So I decided to, yet again, work on another stick. Remember that stick I stripped down from a while back? Well...

I put it to some use. I have it wired for Neo Geo control. And yes, I tested it and it works perfect!

Back during my first attempt at making a CMVS, I made a connector that didn't work so well. I opened it up tonight to rewire everything in that connector to *sorta* follow the Neo Geo wiring convention. Then wired the top row of buttons along with everything else to said connections. Tested it with a quick sesh of Fatal Fury Special to find everything working. 

As a note, the cable that I used had only 12 wires, including the shielding that I used for ground. That problem I noted with the "D" button was eliminated because I figured that I could just jump the 2 pins that is listed as registering "D" would work just fine, which it did.

I still have hopes and aspirations to convert this controller into a multi console controller. I am going to switch out the buttons currently in there to more arcade style ones...possibly change out the joysick as well.

Pic of that crazy project...

Or at least part of it.

It doesn't show, but there are casters under there, as well as the cardboard backing. These are just some of the older gen games that I had that needed to be shelved, this doesn't include the Wii/PS3/360 games, as well as the other games I keep in disc binders.

LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY...

There's a bunch of wild forest fires going on around OR and WA. Air quality has been bleh to downright horrible for the past couple of days. My asthma got jacked up from me getting sick on/after our camping trip and the smoke from the fires floating through Portland.

Needless to say, I got real lazy...well, lazy to finish up my Genesis and joystick projects.

The Genesis is ready to go. All that's left is painting the patch up I did. The joystick needs one more finishing sanding, then a quick spray of paint. Then when all the painting is done, it's soldering, testing, and closing up.

Almost there.

I did manage to clean up my garage/gaming area. I got the last of my shelving up, so now I have places to put things. There's a few more things I'll have to look for until I can fully utilize the space. But, for now, it' got a little more manageable...just little things here and there.

Since space it tight now, and I didn't want to invest in any more shelving, I took my old particle board shelf that looks like this (the one on the left of this borrowed pic):

Added a thick, cardboard slip sheet to the "back":

Then, added some RILL casters from IKEA:

And BOOM! We have a rolling shelf. It's still a bit of a mess in there, but I should have pics available soon.

I'm gonna set a goal to at least get the joystick done by the end of the week.

Quick mod and PS3 update...

I did get my PS3 back from repairs. Works like a champ! I'd like to meet the guy who did this and learn some tricks of the trade to diagnose and fix newer consoles. That would be great.

Also, recalling a Previous Post from earlier this year, I got around to quick fixing that 2600 Jr. that has been staring at me while I browse the internet or blog.

Simply put, cart slot nubs were missing, had to replace them somehow.

In the current Genesis project, I replaced the screws that I was using with countersunk ones, just so the finished look at the S-Video connector looked clean. I've used those screws to "fix" the nub situation.

They were initially cut uneven. That's because they were too long and I figured that they'd be inside the console and no one would see them.

I may take my rotary tool's cutting wheel to both screws to get them even or just go get shorter screws. 

I also came across a schematic (well, sort of) to mod this Jr. for A/V...but I may just plunk $40 to get the proper mod board...I dunno still.

Revived NES and Genesis modding...

Been SOOOOOOO lazy about finishing up the VA7 Genesis. I have all the wires soldered to the board, just need to wire up the Luma amp, Chroma and Composite amps, get them on connectors, then attempt the Jap/US region mod.

Then I realized that I took the RF module out. So, if I wanna try to sell this thing, I need to plug up that hole with Plasticweld, sand it, and paint it to make it look decent.

...ugh...

Then, there's the joystick that I need to complete, but I need to get terminals for the buttons...not to mention the crack that needs to be addressed.

...double ugh...

My brain has been all over the place lately, so I needed to decompress. I've been cleaning up my garage (aka, mini game area), getting rid of junk here and there. I found an NES that I found sitting in a parking lot. I never got around to testing it since acquiring it about...wow, it's been almost 10 years.

I used the parts that I took out of the NES that now has the BLW in it and set it up. I was missing several screws and the case had a screw post broken, so I worked with what I had.

Other than the power LED isn't working, it looks like everything works fine. Just gotta clean up the case for later...maybe I might paint it...or case mod it...Whatever, it's a spare, spare, SPARE NES.

Dat Joystick...

Quick update. I took apart that joystick that I posted pics of a while back and probably gonna start working on it sometime this week. I may have to whip out the rotary tool to get some of the old super glue off from the surface, then go at it with the plastic epoxy that I like using so much.

Parts are now flowing in for the M1 Genesis. Just waiting on the switches now.

I did work a deal on the Atari 5200 that I mentioned last week. I was waiting for some games to come in. I used my PC Engine Duo's power adapter to test it. Other than some power connector issues (easily solved by resoldering connections...or just replacing the connector with one that fits a Genesis adapter), everything worked perfect.

Really can't wait until I'm able to clean and mod that sucker. It's really needing it.

Game Gear Brightness Dial transplant...

Once upon a time, I found a Sega Game Gear. It was in really bad condition. but it still turned on. I tried changing the caps on it, but it still didn't work.

Luck had it that another one was found, so guts were swapped and store credit was given. I was able to get a picture, finally. Alas, a lot of light shadows.

I happened to find another one, really cheap. It did work, but the brightness dial had broken, so I was left with a bright screen and no images.

Tonight, I tried to remove the brightness dial from the older one and transplant it to the one with the broken dial in it.

The one on the right is the older one. You can see the capacitors swapped out and the brightness dial already removed and transplanted to the other one on the left.

Both were the same board revision. As you can see, the dial that was removed was broken completely off. 

The caps were not changed on the newer(ish) one, so I was still getting some ghosting. Not sure if I wanna go through the hassle of swapping them out again, or just letting them be.

PS3...dead....

It died suddenly the other day.

Really sad. This is the one that I LITERALLY bought one week after my wife and I got married 8 years ago. If not for that nostalgia, I'm sad that our PS3/Blu-ray/Media Streamer is dead after all this time.

I guess I COULD use the 360, but...meh.

I went to a place on the other side of town that do repairs. Why I didn't do it? I don't have the proper equipment to test and repair that sucker. I didn't want to take a chance of damaging my backwards compatible PS3 any further than it already is.

I bought a second, refurbished Chromecast for the living room, and I also just bought an HDMI switcher that also has optical, coax, and 3.5" audio out. Can't wait for my Wii U audio to be streamed through the 5.1 soundbar in nice, non-boomy all-around sound.

Well, more when things happen. I'm about to swap the contrast adjustment dials on my Game Gears later tonight, gonna see which one has a better looking display, then consolize the other one.

What an E-Fail...

I was gonna TRY and finish up the Genesis mod over the course of the weekend, but I didn't have some components.

E-FAIL!

I just ordered them (resistors and switches) from eBay...yeah, I do that sometimes.

So, for now, I'm sidelining the project and moving on to something else...maybe cleaning the 5200 I just got or reflowing the PS3...I dunno.

Got back from a little vacation...

Took a road trip to Yellowstone National Park last week. It was a great trip, other than the altitude of Yellowstone itself, for this asthmatic, was kinda intolerable.

I also learned that Sunday that a great figure in the gaming world passed away. The President of Nintendo Japan, Satoru Iwata.

Really sad indeed.

I took a moment to change my Facebook picture to the Balloon Fight character, one of the games he created, yet goes unaccredited.

...


In more modding news, I've finally decided to get going on finishing up the Genesis that I raided parts from before. I'm thinking of adding a region switch to switch from US and Japan modes. I did get started on it before we left on vacation, but realized that I didn't have some parts.

I also managed to work a deal for a Atari 5200. I've been doing some research on it, and it seems that there are 2 different versions of it, and I may be getting the bad one. I've looked around for mods for it, and it seems that I found one that will work just fine.

More when I manage to get it.

BLW, FTW!

You may recall THIS POST with the Kickstarter for the NES cartridge replacement.

Well...

It finally came!

Close up of all it's glory!

Needless to say, I was WAY eager to install this tonight.

I decided to install it in my modified NES toaster. The one that I installed the "stereo" mod to it.

Although I did pull the connectors on it, I was kinda happy to see this one's connector swapped out.

Not really getting rid of it since it still works fine. But still...PEACE OUT, OLD JANKEY CONNECTOR! That sucker was on there tight for some reason, too. It was harder to remove than I remember.

Blinking Light Win (BLW) installed with the new "No Push Down" tray. So prettty.

Even though I did the region free mod to it, I still followed the installation directions and power cycled the NES. I really don't have any problematic games to test on it, but the initial game I tried worked without any problems. 

Bad news though is that I won't be able to use the Game Genie with the BLW installed. No biggie though, since I do have a stock one for backup that works fine as well. 

Really can't wait until ArcadeWorks has this readily available for purchase. I may want to pick up another one for backup.

Next (non-commissioned) project...O...M...G!

A while ago, I bought this AES Neo Geo joystick from NG.com.

Yes, I did note it's condition, but according to the sale thread, it worked fine and had arcade controller parts (Sanwa buttons, at least). I had hopes and aspirations to fix that huge, ugly crack in it.

Which, with the flash on my cellphone camera, looks like there's another hairline crack under the "A" button. Whatever. I'll just fix the crack and prime and paint the bad boy, call it good. I was also hoping to swap out the pan head screws holding the joystick for some countersunk ones.

I wanted to assess the damage throughout the case. So I opened it up to see how the installation was done.

I was not prepared for what I saw.

o_O!?! Where do I even start on this one?

Electrical tape on either soldered joints or just twisted together connections. Not to mention the ugly nest of wires there.

This is what actually did it for me. Alligator clips to the buttons. ALLIGATOR CLIPS FOR WHAT SHOULD BE A PERMANENT CONNECTION! I laughed so hard at how sorry this looked.

Other than the alligator clips, these untrimmed, poorly soldered connections are possibly why I was having difficulty pulling off special moves in King of Fighters '94.

This was actually a HUGE surprise opening it up. I was half-expecting a semi-decent mod job in there. Boy, was I wrong. 

Knowing what it looks like now, I may have to tackle this sooner than later. Otherwise, I'll feel bad for using it for so long with this condition. 

Sad.

Delivery and Final Testing for the Duo-R...

Finally arranged a day and time (impromptu, really) to finally deliver the PCE Duo-R.

The only thing I really wanted him to test (since he had the tech) was the RGB output from the Nintendo Multi-out. He had a Nintendo specific SCART cable handy as well as a Framemeister.

So after he got it set up, I crossed my fingers...

I know. It's a horrible angle, and the fact that I have shaky hands doesn't help, but this it the images coming from the Framemeister to his 50" plasma.

Don't mind the banding, but this is one from the front. Colors look exquisite!

More testing with HuCards and various CD games, including one that had it's own special RAM card. All tests through RGB worked perfectly! 

I'm SO glad everything worked and everything is exemplary to him. Gives me a more boost of confidence in my modding skills. 

But I think this one serves it the best.

Gettin' PAID!

This truly was a great experience for me with modding. We've already lined up some more to do. Gotta do some research on what he wanted done, but I'm confident that I can do it. 

Till next time!