(UPDATE 19-4 )PC ENGINE Plugable amped rgb mod via exp port- complete and easy

[bigsanta]

SEE MY POST FURTHER DOWN ,IT HAS AN UPDATED AND CLEAR TUTORIAL TO FOLLOW AND ALSO UPDATED WITH A NEW WHITE MATCHING CASE

This is a method to get your pc engine/core grafx/core grafx II, to output an scart RGB amplified signal,along with left and right audio(you have the choice of using the audio inside the scart plug or you can use the gold plated red and white audio sockets on the box and hook them to your audio system) ,all this is Without having to do the internal solder method ,or having to send your console off to someone to do it for you.I can make and sell you one of these .

Please note,as you are using the expansion port/connector on the back of the console,you can't use the IFU-30 cd rom rom unit or any other devices which use the expansion port ,at the same time as using the RGB modbox.

Now with braided sleeving and neutrik phono sockets.
Updated pics


















Finally finished my external rgb mod for the PC engine which plugs into the expansion port ,and is really simple to do with those connectors which are just different versions of the ones you find plugged into your pc's reset/power/hdd led headers.They're nice and thin ,so fit perfectly into the pc engine's expansion port and the holes for the PC engine's exp port pins to fit into are also the exact width apart (2.54mm or.1 inch) and thickness.

There is a few ways of doing this ,like having the connectors come from the exp port and going to a small pcb with the amp and a female scart plug on that ,then the user can just buy a scart lead and plug straight in ,but for simplicity sake i opted to just crimp the terminals to the scart lead ,then those plug into the header sockets and into the exp port and the RGB amp is inside the scart plug .

Sorry about the huge list of imageshack links ,but with over 90 pictures   Maybe someone could tidy this up( and add a picture of the exp port and what wires i have connected to what pins) into some kind of easy to follow order and stick it on the wiki ?

Connections used in my pictures
comp sync =yellow
R=red wire
G=green wire
B=blue wire
5Vcc=orange wire
0Vss(ground)=black wire

Right audio =purple wire
Left audio = white wire

RGB amp inside the scart plug ,can use the 3 Q's (transistor) method for simplicity ,found on http://www.mmmonkey.co.uk/console/pce/amp.htm



There's also a 95% finished version of the plugable RGB mod  which works with the cd rom rom connected in the briefcace .
These mods are mainly for people who don't want to open up their consoles and poke around with a soldering iron when they're not competent using one or don't want to send their console  to someone to internally rgb mod it for them.I'll just stick to the internal mod and amp (are there any games that would benefit from each person having a seperate tv screen ,as you can use both mods ,one showing on each tv screen at the same time).

Once i'm done i'm just going to give these finished cables away .    

[NFG]

Nice work.  You could use a bit of polish on some of the photos, but it's a great little tutorial.

[imparanoic]

that's great idea

may i suggest of you offering this  " pre done/order to made" plugable rgb pce mod service as this is the first time i have seen this type of easy mod.

you can make these cables (ext pce pin to scart/japanese 21 rgb)  and send the instructions for people to plug in the necessary pins to the ext bus of pce themselves for a price as you have a niche but marketable  kit as not that many people are located close to classic console modder

you can even do it make 2 varients, one  for euro scart, the other for japanese 21 rgb (xrgb users)

[bigsanta]

Nice work.  You could use a bit of polish on some of the photos, but it's a great little tutorial.

I'm completely revamping the poor  tutorial  as we speak.And i've got some natural daylight here now,so the new pictures will look better!

[bigsanta]

that's great idea

may i suggest of you offering this  " pre done/order to made" plugable rgb pce mod service as this is the first time i have seen this type of easy mod.

you can make these cables (ext pce pin to scart/japanese 21 rgb)  and send the instructions for people to plug in the necessary pins to the ext bus of pce themselves for a price as you have a niche but marketable  kit as not that many people are located close to classic console modder

you can even do it make 2 varients, one  for euro scart, the other for japanese 21 rgb (xrgb users)

I'll leave the selling and the japanese scart pinout methods to those people who want to do all that themselves as i have no interest in that side of things .

[bigsanta]

Here's a better explanation of the method

Items needed





HT-225D Full Cycle Ratchet Crimp Tool

Ebay Item number: 120639847251
http://www.tmbelectronics.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=481&zenid=6bc4498d20ee14cbb63adfa0d0eaea28

[bigsanta]

1 x small needle about 0.5mm 1/2mm (half) thick .
This is to help you remove the crimp terminals if you make a mistake and insert one into the wrong slot of the plastic housing.





20 x 2226TG crimp terminals 24-28 AWG Ebay Item number: 320607064077
Only 8 are needed ,but if you need to practice the method of crimping with the crimp tool,more helps .

[bigsanta]

3 x crimp housing
Available from http://uk.farnell.com/multicomp/2226a-02/crimp-housing-1-row-2-way/dp/1593506?crosssellid=1593506&crosssell=true&in_merch=true&
http://www.technobotsonline.com/connectors-and-headers/cable-assembly-housings.html


1 x 2226A crimp housing 1 row 6 way (2.54mm /0.1inch wire to board housings)


1 x 2226B crimp housing 2 row 8 way

[bigsanta]

1 x 2226b crimp housing 2 row 3 way




Heat shrink http://www.technobotsonline.com/cable-and-accessories/cable-accessories/heatshrink.html
1 x 9.5cm long and 9.5mm wide



1 x 2cm long and  9.5mm wide



3 x 5.5cm long and 3.2mm wide

[bigsanta]

1 x 2 metre  length of 8 core cable 7/0.2mm
Ebay Item number: 150509337912




Strip back the  black plastic outer insulation, so each coloured cable is this length(with a pair of wire strippers that i forgot to add at the beginning)  





Now strip each coloured cable so this amount of silver wire is exposed (in mm

[bigsanta]

more

[bigsanta]

Push the crimp terminal in this way,so the side where the wire that gets pushed into the barrel is on the side of the AWG markings and push the terminal in so it is flush with the side and doesn't stick out at all.Then just close the ratchet crimp tool enough,so as to just hold the terminal when you let go of the handles.

Then just look at the pictures above which show you exactly how far to insert the stripped wire.Practice with the extra spare crimp terminals you have until it's correct.

[bigsanta]

Here's how the finished one should look.Almost perfect ,there should not be any plastic insulation in the second closed area.As you can see ,a tiny bit of red insulation has gotten squished inside the area where only the bare silver wire should go




I really should have put the heat shrink on first,then crimped the terminals.

[bigsanta]

Wires red green and black (going to Red Green and 0Vss /ground signals on pc engine /core grafx's expansion connector)




Wires yellow blue orange (Yellow going to composite sync , Blue going to blue and orange going to 5Vcc /+ 5 Volts on pc engine /core grafx's expansion connector)

[bigsanta]

After shrinking the heat shrink with a hair dryer and the terminals are now inserted into the 6 way housing.The unused terminal on the right is just there to see if it gives a more secure fit when pushed into the connector on the back of the pc engine/core grafx.It doesn't really need it,because of the extra unused slots in the housing(hence the reason for the longer than needed housings)

[bigsanta]

Orange (not red) yellow and blue .+ 5 Volts Vcc, Composite sync  and the colour blue from the console's  RGB mode

[bigsanta]

Black Red Green inserted into the 8 way 2 row housing .Note the small arrowhead on the housing ,red wire goes in here
Black is for ground ,red and green are for those colours that the console outputs in RGB mode




3 way 2 row housing (this final housing is for the left and right audio channels)

[bigsanta]

2 cm long 9.5mm wide heat shrink applied and shrunk around housing

[bigsanta]

Finished cable and don't forget to shrink that final piece where the coloured cable comes out,on the right of the picture.

[bigsanta]

more

I'm not going to show how to wire up and attach the scart plug or build the simple 3 transistor RGB amplifier ,for that,just follow the simple guides at
http://www.mmmonkey.co.uk/console/pce/amp.htm
http://www.mmmonkey.co.uk/console/pce/rgb.htm

[bigsanta]

The insertion point

[bigsanta]

Nearly finished

I just need to mark up the expansion connector to show which housings plug into which pins ,i'll knock one up with bsch.

Or if someone has a picture showing the pc engine's connector already marked with the name of the required pins ,post that?

[bigsanta]

Follow The PC Engine Exp Connector pin out below and plug in the housing as follows;




http://www.gamesx.com/misctech/pcebp.php

Blue wire (blue colour signal) TO C 23
Yellow wire (composite sync signal) TO C 22
Orange wire (+5 Volt Vcc (looks  red but it's not)) TO C 21




Black wire ( ground (Vss) TO A 21
Red wire ( red colour signal) TO A 23
Green wire (green colour signal)TO B 23


Purple  wire ( right audio signal) TO C1
Grey  wire ( left audio signal)TO A1

[Drakon]

ahh now that's a much better idea than hacking a rgb port into your console.  What type of plug does the ext port take can you pick one up easily?  It's just nicer to have a plug that fills the whole thing so it's easier to plug in/unplug.  Excellent work

[bigsanta]

They're just those ones that you'll find connected to your pc's motherboard,which connect your front reset button ,power led and a few others,but normally they are just single hole versions.Cheap as muck and as easy to find on the net and  on ebay .

http://uk.farnell.com/multicomp/2226a-02/crimp-housing-1-row-2-way/dp/1593506

My other  one ,which is for use with the cd rom rom connected,again it's a really simple thing when you see,obviously you'll have a wire that connects from A to B for all the pins of the pc engine to the female connector on the briefcase unit,but again how would you then get the needed video outputs to your tv from there,easy,you just make the 8 needed wires into y cables and feed each of those  extra wires to your cable or circuit of choice.

You still need a few extra parts that i haven't mention ,but it's so simple when you see it .

[bigsanta]

At the minute i'm updating this mod again,now the outputs come out of the console and plug into the pcb circuit inside of a little project box .Which has a header ,so the housing plugs into the header,from this ,the RGB signals get amplified ,then everything outputs to a scart socket (female)that's fixed to the inside of the project box.

So all the user has to do is plug in any scart lead they have and voila ! I could just as easily fit a 9 pin d-sub aswell,so if you have a commodore 1084 monitor ,it will plug straight in to that.(which is what i use for my retro stuff). Applause

[Jibbajaba]

It's definitely cool that you posted this, but how is it not easier to just mod the console internally? 

Chris

[imparanoic]

would it be good if some entrepreneur can pre make this mod for the rest of us at reasonable price, ie, gbp25/us$40/32 euro or slightly more

this will enable all pc engine fans ( esp one that don't live near big cities or smaller countries) to benefit from high quality rgb ( via scart tv) or xrgb2/2+/3 machine

[bigsanta]

It's definitely cool that you posted this, but how is it not easier to just mod the console internally?  

Chris

These mods are mainly for people who don't want to open up their consoles and poke around with a soldering iron when they're not competent using one or don't want to send their console in the post to some stranger to internally rgb mod it for them.

A modder can Build it and send it to the buyer with a guide showing which connector plugs into which pins on the exp port .

[bigsanta]

would it be good if some entrepreneur can pre make this mod for the rest of us at reasonable price, ie, gbp25/us$40/32 euro or slightly more

this will enable all pc engine fans ( esp one that don't live near big cities or smaller countries) to benefit from high quality rgb ( via scart tv) or xrgb2/2+/3 machine

That's exactly why i put this mod in the wild,To go fourth and multiply 

[Endymion]

This is a very cool mod for pointing out how easily PC connectors can be used with the PC Engine expansion slot and where to implement them to be sure. But it becomes less useful for anyone who has a CD-ROM unit connected.

would it be good if some entrepreneur can pre make this mod for the rest of us at reasonable price, ie, gbp25/us$40/32 euro or slightly more

this will enable all pc engine fans ( esp one that don't live near big cities or smaller countries) to benefit from high quality rgb ( via scart tv) or xrgb2/2+/3 machine

If only there were a website that collected information so that people who live out in the sticks like that could make these things work for themselves...

[bigsanta]

Here's my updated version ,basically the finalised version of how it should be sold to the user (minus the heat shrink).All the user has to do is buy any old rgb scart/ fully wired scart lead and plug it into the project box's scart socket when it arrives in the post(and follow the included faq showing what plugs in where on the expansion port)..

One rgb amplified mod box,100% external Pc engine/core grafx RGB adapter  

Now to finish the one for using it with the cd rom rom








Weak RGB source going to an amplifier circuit via that 8 way housing ,a simple 3 Q (transistor )model found on mmmonkey.co.uk ,which also has the voltage dropped at scart pin 16 to what your TV needs to switch it to RGB mode( auto switching for scart pin 8 is not connected,so you have to manually switch your TV to the AV channel).This amped output then goes to a pcb terminal block ,then wired to the female scart socket (un needed scart pins are also removed) .

[bigsanta]

This is a very cool mod for pointing out how easily PC connectors can be used with the PC Engine expansion slot and where to implement them to be sure. But it becomes less useful for anyone who has a CD-ROM unit connected.

would it be good if some entrepreneur can pre make this mod for the rest of us at reasonable price, ie, gbp25/us$40/32 euro or slightly more

this will enable all pc engine fans ( esp one that don't live near big cities or smaller countries) to benefit from high quality rgb ( via scart tv) or xrgb2/2+/3 machine

If only there were a website that collected information so that people who live out in the sticks like that could make these things work for themselves...

There's also a 99% finished version of the plugable RGB mod  which works with the cd rom rom connected in the briefcace .

All options are covered  

[bigsanta]

more

[bigsanta]

more

[Drakon]

yeah I meant is there a way to get a connector that fills out the entire ext port?  I use computer connectors for random things like cps2 kick harnesses.

[NFG]

The connector on the back of the PC Engine seems to be unique to the PCE.  Most people who hack 'em use a larger one and cut the end off.  Inelegant, but functional.

[bigsanta]

yeah I meant is there a way to get a connector that fills out the entire ext port?  I use computer connectors for random things like cps2 kick harnesses.

Don't you think we would have seen or used one if they existed instead of coming up with this? 

[bigsanta]

New box

Pictures are a bit dark as the ISO was set too low .Just need to counter sink and cover those two screws and possibly find a sticker which has the Pc engine logo on to make the box more complete and match the original white console.(finding some white sleeving would be even better )

DAS IZT GUT YAH ?

[bigsanta]

new box