Technical and Repair Assistance

[tankexmortis]

Thanks, I'll get right on that.
Post Merge: June 01, 2010, 04:47:27 pm
Okay I did it, but now I've got a new problem. It won't fit in the system. Thought the thing had the same size plug jack as the regular Famicom. Apparently not. This is damn frustrating.

[famiac]

i burned my ac adaptor for my twin famicom in russia (i can't beleive how stupid i was, i got used to plugging it without checking in america  )   Anyone know where i can find a replacement? will using a 9v ac adaptor (not NES) fry my sharp twin fami?

[tankexmortis]

Hey guys. So I finally got my Twin Famicom running and a disk to test it with, and it's giving error 21. I opened it up and checked it out and the belt seems to be in fine shape, but I do have a replacement. I believe this is the original belt in it now. Let me know if you need more information, and thanks in advance for any help!

[ericj]

Try cleaning the drive head really well with rubbing alcohol & a q-tip. Error 21/22 are usually related to that in my experience.

[tankexmortis]

Nice, that sounds pretty easy. Thanks! Should I just go over the whole drive head mechanism or is there a specific part I need to focus on? I'm not very familiar with the pieces of the Disk System.

[ericj]

Just the read head needs cleaned. It's the shiny rectangular metal thing. 

[tankexmortis]

Well I cleaned it, managed to lose one of the damn springs, and eventually got the horrible thing together again, but now it's giving error 22 whether there's a disk in the system or not.

[ericj]

How did you lose a spring? You don't have to take anything off to clean it, just lift up the pressure arm. 

Are you sure your disk is good? Is it the sealed Nazo disk you made the video of?

The disk insertion mechanism probably isn't put back together right or one of the switches is stuck. You shouldn't be able to get an error without a disk in the drive.

[tankexmortis]

Yeah, I didn't realize that at first because I'm a moron. The game is the formerly sealed Nazo, yes. I'll take a look at exactly what it does and see what I can see. Where can I find some pictures of the disk system put together properly?

Well, one of the switches was indeed stuck, but when I fixed it it didn't seem to solve the problem. I did notice that in addition to the spring I knew I lost (one of the tiny ones on the side of the black plastic disk cover), there seems to be no partner for the larger spring next to the yellow eject button.

[ericj]

I snapped a few pics of one of my disk drives for you. The drive in the Twin is the same as the standalone units. Hope these help you get it pieced back together correctly. 

Let me know if you need to see a different part of the drive.

[tankexmortis]

Thanks! I don't see any differences other than the missing spring (that and your springs are much shinier). I wouldn't think one missing spring would generate that particular error though; it might give some kind of problems but I wouldn't think it would be that. If you wouldn't mind, could you unscrew the front of the disk drive, where you insert the disks, and take a picture of what you see there? I'm curious about the spring that seems to be missing there in mine and wondering if it somehow got out without me noticing... Seems unlikely, but it could have happened. In the meantime I'll see if I can't track down a replacement spring for the side.

UPDATE: I took some photos of the drive to see if they'd be any help.


As far as I can tell, the back looks the same as yours.


Sorry that it's upside-down. I was wondering if this switch was the problem since I unscrewed it during my confusion, but it seems to be working when the system runs.


Bit blurry, sorry. You can see the missing spring that I lost here.


Here's the front. As you can see, there seems to be a spring missing on the left, but I'm almost positive it didn't come loose while I was doing anything, and I don't think the system had ever been opened before I got it (if it had, it was either a very long time ago or the opener took extreme care not to disturb the vast quantity of dust, dead bugs, grime etc.).

The last thing I noticed is that my spare belt feels much stronger than the one in the system, I don't know how much that matters.

[ericj]

You're definitely missing a spring inside the drive. It should match the one on the right side.  I'll take a pic of the inside of mine when I get home today.

[tankexmortis]

Cool, that's what I suspected, and I wouldn't be surprised if that was causing or contributing to the problem. Would anyone on here have some junk systems I could ask for springs from? Or are there standardized spring sizes and I could just go out and buy these?

[RoryDropkick]

I recently bought Batman for FC, official cart and everything.. however turning it on it gives off a pink or blue screen. I've cleaned the cart contacts with an eraser, brasso, and also rubbing alcohol, and the board does not appear to have any broken traces anywhere...  any ideas? Sadly I'm suspecting it got killed by static electricity.

[petik1]

I know this is off topic, but does anyone know the "pinout" for famicom controllers? I need to know the ground, clock, strobe, D0, and 5V. I was thinking last night that if I cut the controllers from the very beginning, add a 25 pin D sub connector to the famicom case, then another in a project box and hook the one in the box up to the PCB of the NES satellite's reciever, then add NES male connectors to the famicom controllers and use them on the Satellite's transmitter, I could have wireless controllers! Sorta...
Also, I have an AV mod which I want to move to the project box as well. I only have mono sound now. Is there a way to get stereo, or should I just do dual mono?