August 2013

Here are the final steps of assembly and testing of my new Bob Parker Blue ESR meter from AnaTek. It can measure many capacitors for their equivalent series resistance (ESR) while they are still in the circuit! The low test voltage (below 100 mV) helps keep ordinary semiconductor junctions from... Continue reading

“Throw out your isopropyl! Pencil erasers are here!” Well, perhaps not literally, but I thought I’d demonstrate another cleaning method I’d been playing around with. This time it’s a Super Nintendo cartridge, Super Mario All-Stars, with some rather filthy contacts. Have a look at the difference between the two sides.... Continue reading

You’ve seen them before, they managed to make it into the trailer on the channel, it’s Dogs 2.0. See them in their full feature length video running around, getting pats on the head and shaking hands. Who knows, they might even sit! Continue reading

Well, my camera isn’t too good at high res slow motion, 320x240 it is! Had these left over from something that was long destroyed, so I figured I might as well blow them up with a power adapter rated for 1100 mA (1.1 A). That rating is the adapter’s available... Continue reading

Not too much has changed except I’ve started taking on bucket loads of consoles and some SNES units, not all are here. Oh dear lord, I just remembered there’s Xbox and PS2s somewhere in a box! Chaos ahead! It’s been nearly a year since the last proper collection overview, so... Continue reading

Welcome to the RetroJunkie YouTube Channel with your host Nix McRetro! Feel free to browse the selection of videos for what you are after… you know you want to! Current and archived McRetro channel links can be found on the Channels page. Channel trailers Subscribe Today! (Version 2.0) Subscribe Today!... Continue reading

Just when you get one thing working, you discover a secondary fault on another board. Here we have a look at why audio is leaking through the left channel and why we are not able to adjust the volume on that same channel. Now that both microphone amplifier boards are... Continue reading

Found that one of the Mic Amp Boards (Board 02-09) does not amplify sound. In this video, we look at why that might be and work to resolve the problem as best we can. The Mic Amp Board (01-09) from the revision 1 unit has no issues and was a... Continue reading

Some good news and some not-so-good news from the x0xb0x project! SuperNick (Nick) has finished assembling the Adafruit-era x0xb0x synthesiser, but unfortunately it isn’t producing any sound through its normal controls. Rather disappointing when the whole point of building a synthesiser is to make some music! The sequencer appears to... Continue reading

Back to the Aiwa Mega-CD CSD-GM1, and this time I’ve got an EPROM to erase, program and test. I’ve also got a Game Unit with some previous trace repairs that I’m rather keen to try out. Will it work? There’s only one way to find out! I’d been checking the... Continue reading

You don’t need no stinkin’ boombox to play Mega Drive games, just a suitable regulated 5 V power supply. My test supply was rated for 2 A on the 5 V rail, but that is the current it can provide, not current it forces into the Game Unit. So you’ve... Continue reading

Zip, zap and away! The idea here is simple: replace the soldered cartridge battery with a holder so that the next battery replacement does not require desoldering anything. SNES cartridges that use battery-backed SRAM rely on that battery to preserve their save data while the console is switched off. Just... Continue reading

The revision 2 02-01 mainboard is the only one of my two Aiwa mainboards passing power through to the Game Unit section at the moment, so I’m using it to test both Game Units. That’s right, including the one I borrowed the Mega-CD BIOS chip from and previously fitted with... Continue reading

Back to the revision 2 Aiwa mainboard, silkscreened 02-01. This is the one with some pretty serious damage and a whole collection of previous trace repairs running across the underside. At this point it’s the only one of my two CSD-GM1 mainboards passing power through to the Game Unit section,... Continue reading

Discovered I was shipped a wrong-value capacitor by Element14. Same physical size, but not the same electrical properties! Lucky I decided to use a 16 V-rated replacement or I may have never noticed. Would it have made a difference in the long term, who knows! This is the revision 1... Continue reading