Technical and Repair Assistance

[Lymerion]

Hello there. I have a problem and I'm hoping I can get some help.

Bought a FDS and Famicom AV (the real kind). Knew when I was buying the FDS that it needed a belt. Disassembled it, replaced the belt and cleaned out gunk from the old dead belt. Drive spins up properly now, but won't load anything, doesn't even leave the "Now Loading" screen. Tried every disk I have, nada. Have been tinkering with the speed adjuster on the motor, but still nothing. What should I try next?

[ericj]

Try adjusting the spindle (ring part that spins the disk) in small increments, ~5 degrees, and re-test. Do this until it can read all your disks. When you take apart the disk system's drive gears and put it back together, it will probably 99% of the time be off from where it was originally.

Don't worry about aligning the screw with the indentation in the post, as that most likely won't be the correct spot for your system to read your disks.

[Lymerion]

The belt does turn, I visually confirmed this. As for the other ideas... sorry for sounding noobish, but where might I find instructions on how to do what you suggest? The only information I've been able to track down was for the belt replacement.

[thebluedino]

[UPDATE: Figured it out, I connected pins 24 and 16 but forgot to solder 16 to its hole. Works perfect and now I'm just waiting for the superglue to dry on the cart since I broke a clip opening it]
I had a question for those with repor/translation cart experience, I just completed my first repro cart, I took a famicom "Mother" cart and followed instructions on nintendo age to replace the rom chips with the eproms I had bought from gamereproductions. The game boots up just fine and will get all the way to the first battle with the lamp and then restart. it also will restart if you hold A or select prior to the first battle or attempt to do anything other than walk around the house.
Does anyone have any suggestions what might be causing this?

[amurphy245]

Right what do you guys think of this one,try to follow me as it gets confusing.

I bought a twin famicom which came provided with an unofficial power adapter,i played a couple of hours of kirby cartridge then the system just cut out on me,the power LED wasnt coming on so i assumed something blew.However when you first turn it on the LED lights up very faint for a split second.

I checked the power adapter and it gave a consistent 7.6 volts just like it should do.

I opened the twin fami up and eventually discovered that if i fiddled with the connector at the back of the disk drive it would power on+off so i assumed it was the disk drive.

Meanwhile i ordered an untested twin famicom from ebay ,ive just plugged it in to test it and it has exactly the same problem,completely dead with very faint LED showing up.

I took the disk system out of the new twin fami and put it in my original broken one and it fired up,however the LED was still faint.

SInce the belt has snapped on the new disk system i put it back,and put my original disk system into my original twin famicom (just like it was before)

Now for some reason both of them are working perfectly but still no LED's

What the hell is going on o.O im thinking its something to do with the unofficial power adapter

[ericj]

The LED on the Twin doesn't stay lit like a typical system (for instance, the NES). It only flashes on/off and is very faint like you described. I have no idea why, but that seems to be how it works. Mine does the exact same thing, but it works perfectly. Until I read this, I forgot that I had noticed it before.

[amurphy245]

Im pretty sure before i had problems the LED was permanently lit up shining brightly,you have to really strain your eyes to see it now so something has definitely gone wrong,maybe its a common problem.

[ericj]

If it bothers you, try replacing the LED. LEDs will slowly get dimmer as they age. Try checking the voltage and resistor value to yours, too, to rule that out.

I'll probably take a look into this when the disk drive belt in mine breaks, but until then, I plan on leaving mine intact.

[amurphy245]

After some further testing i realized how it works,basically the LED only comes on when your loading a disk,thats it.

By the way the LED is a funny shape so your gonna struggle finding a replacement since it needs to slot into a small hole.

So yeah everything seems to be fine but ive turned 2 dead systems into 2 working ones without even doing anything so i have no idea why they wouldnt work in the first place,im going to order an official adapter to rule that out.

[ericj]

Which model(s) do you have? I have the AN-500R.

BTW, the official ac adapter won't make any difference. As long as yours is outputting the correct voltage/mA, it should make the system function correctly. The official version will actually output something slightly different than spec since it's based off 100V. It's regulated to 5V inside anyways due to the 7805 voltage regulator. This is where you should check your voltage.

[amurphy245]

500r (red)
500b (black)

I dont want to trust any kind of dodgy chinese power adapter,im gonna get the official one and see how things go,i need one anyway considering my new twin fami doesn't have one.

Considering both had the same problem and now they are both working perfectly im thinking its the adapter.
Post Merge: June 01, 2010, 09:09:29 am
Alright i got another problem lol,this is strange.

All my disk system games work perfectly,but when i load zelda 1 up (i never played this copy before but its brand new) the title screen rolls but no matter what buttons i press i cant get to the name screen.

Also on the title screen it doesnt say "press start button" it says something in japanese the game appears to be running fine with no glitches i just cant progress after the title screen.

What on earth is this about,its like my controller is disabled,by the way its the same on both my famicoms.

[UglyJoe]

What on earth is this about,its like my controller is disabled,by the way its the same on both my famicoms.

Try flipping the disk to side B once you're at the title screen.

[amurphy245]

LOL thanks for that,i couldn't read the japanese >_>

[tankexmortis]

Can someone walk me through what I need to do to get my Genesis Model 1 power supply compatible with my Sharp Twin Famicom? I know I need to reverse the polarity, but I can't find instructions anywhere on how to do that. Any help will be appreciated.

[ericj]

Cut the wire and reconnect them reversing how they were originally connected. Or, open up the casing on the adapter & reverse where the wires are soldered. Pretty simple change.