Technical and Repair Assistance

[UglyJoe]

The RF adapter is connected right onto the TV since I don't have cable tv, I have satelite and that's connected VIA component and HDMI on my tvs.

Hmm.  Random guess: does your TV have two tuners (one for HD and one for standard)?  If so, have you tried both?

[Justin]

The RF adapter is connected right onto the TV since I don't have cable tv, I have satelite and that's connected VIA component and HDMI on my tvs.

Hmm.  Random guess: does your TV have two tuners (one for HD and one for standard)?  If so, have you tried both?

I've tried the RF on my nes and it does indeed work on channel 3. however, nothing from the famicom.

[Justin]

I tried it on two different tv's, it's just not working between channels 01 to 100. However, I can tell that the console does turn on because there's heat in the back and near the cartridge slot.

Set the famicom on channel 1 setting on the back, then flip to channel 95. My famicom works on all TV's that I own on Channel 95.

That's weird, on the back I don't have 1 or 2. My famicom has channels 3-4. :/

[KEVMAN569]

Well I don't know what exactly it is but my T89 adapter works but has some wierd problems going on with it.  What I did was plug in my 76 in 1 game and finally got it to work.  The title screen worked perfectly and I could move the cursor around and everything.  Then I press "Page 1" and it just resets itself and goes back to the title screen again.  I don't know why it is doing this but I kinda want my converter to work because I spent a good deal of money on it.

[133MHz]

Please give more details about your setup. Have you tried other Famicom games on it? Are you using a toploader or toaster NES? Have you disabled your toaster's lockout chip? etc.

[KEVMAN569]

I'm using a toaster NES, no lock-out chip mods done.

I'll try playing Joy Mecha Fight or Zoids later on and see if those games work.

[Lovlss]

Hello all. Since this is Famicomworld I felt this was the right place to ask for some info.

Some years ago my brother bought a famicom with some games but never tested it. It disappeared and until recently I found it in the garage and it didn't work. After some testing and help I found that the voltage regulator was bad and voltage was going in but zero came out. I changed it and it works.

On to the interesting part. I noticed on all the images I googled of Famicom's none of them had more that the controller cables sticking out of the back. Mine has 2 A/V type cables coming out from under controller two. It's not an AV famicom it's a white and red original. It had to have been a mod because the plastic is cut/shaved for the cables to fit perfect.

On the inside it doesn't look at all like the mod on this site. No breadboard. The cables are soldered and possibly jumping some components on the smaller board. Audio sounds perfect but the colors on the video are off. It displays a bit dark, shading seems to be missing and I see some faint wide lines going top to bottom.

Looks pretty much the same through the AV cables as it does through the RF adapter. Any idea why it's so dark? I can't find my brothers digital camera but when I find it I will post some pictures of where these cables are soldered to. Perhaps this mod is what's making it display dark and colors wrong? I have a vid card that does composite in on my computer and a regular NES, and anything else composite, looks fine. Here are some screenshots of "Transformers Mystery of Comvoy". After youtubing some videos level 2 totally does not look right.






Any idea why shading would not be there? Def doesn't look like the screens on this page.

http://transformers.wikia.com/wiki/Transformers:_Mystery_of_Convoy

Thanks for any info. Sorry for the giant post. 

[133MHz]

If there's no circuit then the mod is picking up the weak video signal from the board and that's why it looks dark. If you build the transistor circuit that's on the site it will amplify the video signal to normal levels making it look brighter.

[Lovlss]

So that's what it is. I initially thought woah someone figured it out without doing the circuit. But if there was an easy way like that it would be all over the internet.

Now I need a picture of the smaller board, to see how it should look, to undo what they did. Using and NES RF unit doesn't seem to be working correctly. I can see it fuzzy on channel 8 but no sound just fuzz noise.

I can solder and get the parts but I can't read schematics to build the circuit. Has anyone made a video or made a picture tutorial on how to make it? The instructions on the site aren't friendly for me. 

Anyone have a good sized picture of the smaller board on the Famicom?

[Lovlss]

No one has a picture of the smaller famicom board?

I removed the cables the person had soldered and I can see the picture better than before(RF). The picture is still fuzzy so I assume some of the soldered together parts aren't the way they originally were.

I have not found a picture online. The one on this site is small and has that metal/aluminum sheidling over it. 

[ericj]

Not sure if you know how to read it, but here's a famicom schematic: http://nesdev.icequake.net/Ntd_8bit.jpg

133mhz could probably help you out with figuring out what's wrong with your famicom. It might help if you posted pics of your board, too.

[133MHz]

Did you remove every trace of the previous mod? And yeah, pictures of the board would be nice

Here's a good guide, but in Japanese. The pics should give you an idea. http://www.h3.dion.ne.jp/~kuboken/famicom/famav.html

[ericj]

Here's a pic of the small board from my famicom. Hope it helps. I assume you wanted a pic of the bottom. 

[133MHz]

The four pins (badly) marked in red should be +5V, Ground, Audio and Video (weak) in no particular order. It's up to a Famicom owner to discover which is which .

You should be able to get your signals there no matter what board revision your Famicom is. You could even remove the Famicom RF board and install a NES RF modulator box, that would leave your Famicom with US compatible power & RF output and AV out as a bonus! But that would be some kind of major surgery. My point is, you can get all the necessary signals to do the AV mod from that point without fiddling around on the main board.

[Lovlss]

Thanks for all this info guys. Unfortunately I couldn't read a schematic to save my life. I can partially follow it, because of my programming background, but soldering and following directions is about as electronics as I get. I do plan on learning more about electronics since it's rather interesting and useful to be able to fix/service your own synths, pedals and what not.

My smaller board doesn't look like yours 133mhz. The clear ribbon looking cable is on the opposite side of yours. Mine looks like the board on that Japanese site. Looking at the ribbon mine has about 7 points while yours has 4.

This NES to Famicom RF switch sounds interesting. Is there any documentation on this? I have 3 Nintendo's and one is open/apart and I could def take that one apart. Looking at the NES I see one area where there are 5 solder points in a row and when I flip the board over that looks to be the points soldered to the main nes board.

I think I can follow the regulator or test for the +5v ok, and the cheap mod I removed was audio so that would leave out video and ground...and that would leave 4 pins...I think the +5v has 2 soldered together.

I will get my brothers digi camera tomorrow and post some pics. Also by using the NES board on the famicom would stereo sound be possible like the NES mod?(separating pulse to one channel and the noise/wave/sample channel to the other?

Thanks for taking the time to help me. I didn't want to put this Famicom back into storage. I want to put it to play and get that pin adapter to use NES games on it too.