My AV Famicom with rgb, s-video, composite, stereo sound with added bass

[Drakon]

I think this system is pretty much as good as a famicom/nes can possibly get.  This system outputs very clean rgb, s-video, and composite video all through the multi av port on the back.  This system has no jailbar interference at all showing up on my tv.  The audio from this system has been completely rewired into a custom circuit that makes the sound louder, makes the bass level perfect, and also mixes all the audio perfectly (including advanced audio from games with custom audio chips like castlevania 3 j).  I'm currently working on three commissions for the same type of system.  I now have all the proper tools to build these systems as safely as possible.  Here's a picture of the internals of my system:



All of this custom circuitry fits perfectly inside of the case:



For the ppu socket I use a precision socket that's fully wired (the kits I use seperate the required pins of the rgb ppu from the famicom pcb so there's no need to seperate pins of the socket on the famicom pcb).  Therefore if you ever feel like making your av famicom use the original composite ppu again all you need to do is pull out the kit and stick the composite ppu into the socket:





However if you choose to get the advanced audio mod done and would want the option to go back to the original audio I would have to wire up a seperate connector to allow you to reconnect all the original pcb traces.

Here's some screenshots comparing the s-video from my system vs composite video from a standard av famicom:

















Here's a youtube vid I uploaded showing the difference in audio quality before and after I did the advanced audio mod.  If you listen to this video using a headset you can really hear how nicely the stereo seperation works

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLGo_P-MNG4&feature=player_embedded

If you want to get in contact with me it's best to contact me through my small forum here:

http://consolemods.freeforums.org/

Hope you people enjoy this  

[guineapig64]

Wow, you did a pretty good job on the mod!  The Famicom I have right now is the original model Famicom with a modified tv connection, my Famicom originally had the RF Switch connection but it now has the audio/video connection.  My Famicom was already modified when I bought it off of eBay.

I have one little question though.  The video part shows these lines on the tv screen everytime I play either a Famicom game or a Famicom Disk System game but it's not so bad to the point that I can't see the game, I can try and make a screenshot if you want since I don't explain things so well sometimes.  Do you know what causes the lines to be showing on the screen and is it something that I could fix?

[ChuChu Flamingo]

I still see very small traces of jail bars, but it really depends upon your display.

In any case, looks great. How much would one cost to buy?


Also, where did you get that 72 to 60 pin adapter? I need one for my AV famicom..

[L___E___T]

Did you have to butcher anything to get the RGB?

[Drakon]

Wow, you did a pretty good job on the mod!  The Famicom I have right now is the original model Famicom with a modified tv connection, my Famicom originally had the RF Switch connection but it now has the audio/video connection.  My Famicom was already modified when I bought it off of eBay.

I have one little question though.  The video part shows these lines on the tv screen everytime I play either a Famicom game or a Famicom Disk System game but it's not so bad to the point that I can't see the game, I can try and make a screenshot if you want since I don't explain things so well sometimes.  Do you know what causes the lines to be showing on the screen and is it something that I could fix?

screenshot would help a bit but I'm pretty sure what you have is the common jailbar interference.  The av famicom is the only model of the nes/famicom (except maybe the titler) that has the jailbars mostly removed.  There's no known fix for this other than buying an av famicom

I still see very small traces of jail bars, but it really depends upon your display.

In any case, looks great. How much would one cost to buy?


Also, where did you get that 72 to 60 pin adapter? I need one for my AV famicom..

I charge 150$ for the labour of modding the system and installing either just the video upgrade or both the video + audio upgrades.  You also need to supply me with an av famicom and rgb ppu chip.  I currently have 1 extra rgb chip I'm willing to sell for 100$.  My rgb chip has the heatsink removed and I've tested the chip, it's fully working.  Also the custom kit I use to build this is expensive.  It's ordered from japan by proxy company.  The kit without advanced audio parts is 110$, with audio parts is 140$.  And you'd need to pay me for shipping your av famicom/rgb ppu here and back to you.

Here's where I got my nes to famicom adapter from:

http://cgi.ebay.com/NES-US-Nintendo-8-bit-Japan-Famicom-Adaptor-Adapter-/170495365678?pt=Video_Games_Accessories&hash=item27b250d22e

Did you have to butcher anything to get the RGB?

Nope.  The rgb ppu is sitting inside of a socket on the playchoice arcade board so it was very easy to safely remove.  To install the rgb ppu I desolder the original composite video ppu in the av famicom and install a precision socket into the av famicom pcb.  Switching between using the original composite ppu and the rgb one just requires you to swap the chip in the socket.  However the advanced audio mod does require cutting traces on the pcb which is fixable but it's more damaging than the video mod.

[linkzpikachu]

HOLY SHIT! THOSE COLORS LOOK ALMOST AS GOOD AS A GENESIS'!  GREAT JOB!!

[Drakon]

Here is a picture of the Famicom that I own with the modified tv connection.


Here is a screenshot showing the lines that would usually show on the tv screen, they may be a little hard to see.

your pictures aren't loading for me

[guineapig64]

Sorry about the pictures, I'm rather new to putting pictures in posts.  I have them put into links now so they should work but if they don't then you can let me know.

EDIT:  Here is the picture of my Famicom.


Here is a picture of my screenshot.

[Drakon]

Sorry about the pictures, I'm rather new to putting pictures in posts.  I have them put into links now so they should work but if they don't then you can let me know.

EDIT:  Here are the new links to my pictures.

You'll find the picture of my Famicom with the modified tv connection in this album.
http://guineapig64.imgur.com/my_video_game_collection

You'll find the picture of my Famicom screenshot in this album.
http://guineapig64.imgur.com/my_screenshots

worked this time.  That looks like it's probably just standard jailbar interference.  When I "clean composite video" modded my nes 2 I noticed that the closer the video wire is to the pcb the worse the video interference would become.  Luckily the NES 2 pcb has a piece of metal shielding over it so I just ran the video wire over top of the shielding and this made the distortion almost completely go away.

[jpx72]

Marvelous job you did there, I wish I could get my hands on one of those RGB PPUs... ;(
I would definatelly make a RGB Famicom!

[Drakon]

Marvelous job you did there, I wish I could get my hands on one of those RGB PPUs... ;(
I would definatelly make a RGB Famicom!

Well you can buy one off of me right now but you'd have to offer me more than 100$ which is what I might soon have a buyer for.  If the sale falls through I'd still sell it for no less than 100$ plus whatever it costs to ship it to you.

I do have another one that I was kind of saving for a friend so I'd need a fairly lucrative offer to let go of that one.

[Lum]

Not bad, if fancier than I'd get myself. It'll be worth it in the end. Done right this Twin Famicom's picture should get as close to my RGB mod PC Engine Duo-R as can be done.

[Drakon]

Not bad, if fancier than I'd get myself. It'll be worth it in the end. Done right this Twin Famicom's picture should get as close to my RGB mod PC Engine Duo-R as can be done.

I'm curious if hte twin famicom has the same jailbar interference as the rgb nes/famicom model 1 or if it has reduced jailbars like the rgb av famicom.  Anyway I found a way to get your fds fix on this system.  First I swapped out the "HD74LS373P" or whatever chip was in the av famicom with a "TC74HC373P".  Actually the chip only says "74HC373P" on it but it works great.  Here's some pictures of the system during the removal of the old chip and addition of the new chip:











swapping out that chip changed the powerpak from running like this:



To this:



Many thanks to acem77 on nesdev for posting this fix here:

http://nesdev.parodius.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=4016&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0&sid=fc7657cf5b6b778a74605533951e68c3

Now that I got the powerpak working on the rgb system I can play fds games.  But the fds has extended audio which is outputted on a normally unused pin on the powerpak.  So I modded my nes to famicom adapter like so:



Doing this mod to the adapter made the system go from hearing only half the sound/music in fds games to hearing all the sounds/music!  So now I have a rgb system which runs the entire fds library of games right at my fingertips.  I know it's not the real fds hardware but atleast using the powerpak means I'll have faster loading time and probably will never has a disk data go bad.  It also takes up less space too... And I must say the powerpak does a fantastic job of playing games just like the real thing.  I was so impressed I recently ordered a powerpak for myself.

[Lum]

Then FYI: Whichever modder in USA does said work, will be getting a nice PM once I hunt down an RGB PPU.

[Drakon]

Then FYI: Whichever modder in USA does said work, will be getting a nice PM once I hunt down an RGB PPU.

I live in canada  

And I have rgb ppus for sale.  100$ gets you a ppu that I've personally fully tested and can confirm is completely working.  I've also removed the heatsinks from all of my ppus (they don't need these heatsinks to run I've left them on for 5-6 hours with no issues).  Also the ppus don't fit into the av famicom if there's a heatsink attached.

Anyway..... Today I bought a usb to compact flash reader/writer.  I added some roms of my own to the powerpak.  I loaded up castlevania 3 j and compared the audio to the real cart.  The real castlevania 3 j cart has more bass and is louder than the powerpak.  I tried decreasing the resistors strengths.  Weakening the resistors indeed made the volume louder, however the weaker the resistors became the less you'd hear the extended audio  :? .  I also attached the resistors in a different configuration and the extended audio completely went away.  So I went back to the same wiring.  It's quieter than the real cart but nothing that can't be solved by turning the volume up a little bit.  Since I did so much resoldering I made the mod look a bit nicer:



When comparing the powerpak to the real cartridges I noticed that the powerpak makes video jailbar interference a little stronger but not bad enough to show up on my tv.  So the reason you see jailbars in these screenshots OnyxDomain is because they're taken from a powerpak and not a real cartridge.   I compared non extended audio carts to how the powerpak runs them....it's identical!  This is one fantastic piece of hardware.