RGB cable for japanese Gamecube problem

[Takosuke]

Irecently bought and expensive modified RGB Cable for my Japanese Gamecube, like those on http://www.rgbcube.co.uk


When I insert both the cables to the back of my GC and the scart into the back of my TV, the light which is on the gamecube goes out, and all I can hear is the fan. When I take out the Digital Cable and let the Analog plug only, ,it works but in composite.

The DAC and the resistor a totaly like on those pictures. I also double check to find any short circuit on this part, but all seems to be okay. I added some more electrical tape to be sure.

This is not my TV which is in fault, since I play with all my other sytems in RGB ;p

To sum up:

When I plug the Analog AV only, it works (in composite though)

When I plug the Digital AV only, it's the same problem (the CD doesn't spin, the light goes out, but I can hear the fan spinning).

Can anyone tell if i've done anything wrong, or had the same problem and found a solution?

[NFG]

Sounds like you're shorting the voltage, check your wiring.  Chances are you've got a short on the chip pin you're supposed to lift from the PCB.

[Takosuke]

Hum, It doesn't seems to have a short, since I placed electrical tape under the chip pin, and on the resistor itself :/  

[NFG]

I'd be willing to bet money there's a short SOMEWHERE.  The system is entering a kind of shutdown mode 'cause of it.

[Takosuke]

Ok

I'll try to look everywhere.

Maybe there's a simple method to find it easily ?

[NFG]

There sure is!

1. Get multimeter
2. Use multimeter
3. Party like it's 1999.

[Takosuke]

Yeah !

[Takosuke]

Hum.. after triple checking everything on the cable, I tried it with another ntsc NGC, and it works fine ;_;

Seems that my Gamecube is to blame :/
Now I need to get a gamebit, open it and find the problem, it''s going to be a pain in the *ss >_<

[RM2]

Does your Japanese Gamecube have a switch installed for playing US games?

I have read that the way some places installed these switches in Japanese systems made the system where a component cable, and hence your RGB cable, could not be used.

Can't remember where I read this now, though. Perhaps it was on this very board or its predecessor at Atarilabs.

[dj898]

I got my platinum JPN GC from lik-sang fully mod'd and it works just fine with on YUV...
I'm too lazy to switch so I leave the switch on JPN all the time and use Freeloader to load US titles which I only have few...

cheers

[Takosuke]

Yes my NGC is switched, with "the Hole method" (I first soldered the wires, but one of them broke apart a year after the modification, so I used the hole method the second time I switched my gamecube).

If anyone could confirm this info, I'd be grateful

[Takosuke]

Mon info on my case ;p

I opened my japanes modified NGC, and check everything inside.
I resolderered the wire for the switch on the motherboard (I used the bottom hole method, so I won't be bothered with problems concerning the component cable).

Now, when I plug my home made NTSC RGB cable, my ngc boots smoothly.

BUT ! (there's always a but :/)

- When I play Japnanese games with the rgb cable, I got an ugly composite image (even if both type of AV plugged )
- When I try to play an US game, I got this message on the screen and the game won't boot:

http://takohiko.free.fr/temp/DSC01050.JPG

When I play with a Svideo cable, all works perfectly (but in Svideo of course :/)

Any hints?

[NFG]

I'm not familiar with this 'hole method' but it sounds a lot like it's somehow confusing your AV ports; depending on where you connect your wires you find that plugging in or unplugging the cables are affecting the +/- voltage of the wire connected to the territory mod, which could be why you're changing region with the digital cable and not with the analogue one.

Why not just do it the right way?  (And by that I mean the way shown on gamesx.com).  We know it works, and if it fails after that then we'll know it's your fault, not the fault of the mod.  =)

[Guest_grey]

I have a US unmodified NGC that exhibits the same problem with one of those spider 8-way rgb cables.  Going to pop things open and see what I find, but this behaviour doesn't sound that unusual.

[Takosuke]

The "hole methods" can be found here:

http://www.phosphors.com/gcn/region%20switch/

I did the bottom one.

I'll eventually try the method listed on gamesx, but soldering this tiny point is really annoying ;p

Maybe the best solution is to sell my Gamecube and buy a new one :/

[NFG]

Does this quote mean anything to anyone?

NOTE: There are known issues when using component video with the hole method on a japanese system. This is due to the fact that the top hole used also runs to ground.

Why would you use the hole method, which is just as tricky as the pads, if it doesn't fucking work?  Grrr...  At least with my method there's only one tiny pad to solder, you can use any larger point for the GND.

[Takosuke]

I used you method at the begining, but one of the cable broke, and then I used the second hole method.

I didn't have the compoenet/modifed rgb cable at thaht time, so the hole method worked fine.

Now thaht I have this cable, I'm gonna re open the ngc this evening and retry your method, don't worry (and I thought the problem with the hole method + component was only with the top hole method, not the bottom one) ;p

[Takosuke]

could you please explain this image:



I thought I had to solder the two points like this (blue+green as it's a japanese ngc):

[NFG]

You can use the blue pad if you want, but it's just Ground, so I used a more accessible point rather than try to connect two wires to that tiny area.  THat page is way unclear and needs to be updated.

[Dr.Wily]

Takosuke ---> �h �h pourquoi avoir prit un GC jap alors que la version PAL a directement une sortie RVB ?

En plus, un simple cable RVB SNES fonctionne dessus alors...

[NFG]

English only, please.  You filthy foreigners can take it private if you have to use your moon language.

[Takosuke]

Takosuke ---> �h �h pourquoi avoir prit un GC jap alors que la version PAL a directement une sortie RVB ?

En plus, un simple cable RVB SNES fonctionne dessus alors...

I bought this japanese NGC the day it came out in Japan
I don't want a PAL one because I buy all my games online, since the us/japanese versions come sooner and are cheaper... And I hate boot disks in general.

Thank you Lawrence for this easy way ;p

[Takosuke]

Here we are: I soldered as it was shown on you website Lawrence, and the region switch works well (I use the normal method, with the two tiny soldering points).

But when I plug my custom rgb cable, the output image is worse than when I use a svideo cable.

It seems to be in composite, as when I only plug the Analog AV Out without the Digital AV Out, the output image stay the same.

I think I'm doomed >_<

[NFG]

It's time to suspect the cable.  To be sure, find someone else with a cube and borrow it, see if the results are the same.

[Takosuke]

Yup, the cable seems to work flawlessly on another ngc... I will cross check with another rgb cable on my gamecube to be sure :/