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RETROSTUFF

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Search for:
CD-i, Modification, Philips, Repair


NVRAM+RTC SOLUTIONS FOR PHILIPS CD-I PLAYERS

CD-i, Modification, Philips, Repair, Sony


COMPONENT LISTS

CD-i, Modification, Philips


MODIFICATIONS FOR PHILIPS CD-I PLAYERS

CD-i, Disassembly, Modification, Philips, Repair


PHILIPS FW380I MINI SYSTEM REPAIR PART 1

2024-05-31 rosewood Leave a comment

The Philips FW380i Mini System landed unexpectedly on my repair table last
August. I never intended to get one of these models because the CD-i part is at
the lowest end of CD-i hardware (very similar to the Roboco mainboard of CDI450
etc.) and also the build quality of FW mini system is not something I would have
bought or used in the 90s. However, this particular CD-i mainboard was only used
for this model and has some very unique features such as a separated servo
board, a connector for communication with the FW part and even some unused
connectors for a disc changer – which unfortunately never saw the light of day.
Long story short: this model was never properly analysed, which is why it piqued
my interest.

In this article I will show you how I carried out the disassembly and basic
cleaning last year. I will follow up about diagnosis, repair and possibly
modifications at a later point. The exact model/version I’m taking apart here is
an FW380i/20 – which means that a 22ER9956/20 DVC mini cartridge was installed
at the factory.

Continue reading Philips FW380i Mini System Repair Part 1 →
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CD-iDisassemblyFW380imodsPhilipsRepair
Apple, Bandai, Disassembly, Pippin Atmark, Repair


PIPPIN ATMARK TROUBLESHOOTING AND REPAIR INFORMATION

2024-04-28 rosewood 2 Comments

A collection of technical information to assist in troubleshooting and the
repair of Pippin Atmark consoles. You can use it side by side with the
disassembly guide in my Pippin Atmark PA-82001-S Monitoring Unit article from
2019.

You will find details about the FFC of the control buttons, the Matsushita
CR-504-L optical disc drive and the VOLTEK SPEC7188B power supply unit. The
information applies to both “monitoring” and retail units.


CONTROL BUTTONS FFC

These are the control buttons on the top of the Pippin and what they look like
on the back. When you open the case of a Pippin, pay special attention to the
FFC (flexible flat cable). Otherwise you could damage the control buttons, the
FFC or even the ZIF connector on the mainboard.

Pippin Atmark control buttons Continue reading Pippin Atmark Troubleshooting and
Repair Information →
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AppleBandaiDisassemblyPippinRepair
3D Printing, Disassembly, Mega Drive, Mega-CD, Sega, Sega 32X


MSDEXP AND CLAMSHELL CASE FOR TERRAONION MEGASD

2024-01-22 rosewood 3 Comments

This is a follow-up on the Terraonion MegaSD Cartridge article from 2019. In the
past two years, I managed to find an MSDEXP adapter and a clamshell case for my
MegaSD cartridge.


MSDEXP

Thanks to Mobius Strip Tech, I was able to source an MSDEXP. I can now finally
play Mega-CD 32X games with the MegaSD.

The housing from Retro Frog is a high-quality print with a matte look. Inside
there are two connectors, some passive components and a lot of tracks:

MSDEXP outside and inside Continue reading MSDEXP and Clamshell Case for
Terraonion MegaSD →
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32X3D PrintingDisassemblyMega DriveMega-CDSega
Disassembly, NEC, PC-9821, PC-FX


NEC PC-FXGA, PC-FXGA DOS/V, AND ITS BREAKOUT BOX

2023-12-31 rosewood Leave a comment

A spontaneous article about the NEC PC-FXGA: The PC-FX Game Accelerator Board
for PC-98 and DOS/V. It emerged from the search for a replacement breakout box
for the PC-FXGA DOS/V card in the PC-FX Fan Club Discord server. The details of
the breakout box are in the second half of the article, and before that some
information and photos.

There are already many resources about PC-FX(GA) (see list at the end of this
article), so I won’t go into too much detail here. Basically, it’s a PC-FX on a
card for your PC, with a special feature. Game Accelerator means that it also
contains the 3D chip Huc6273 (Aurora) that is not present in the normal PC-FX.
There are two versions of these cards: PC-FXGA, a C-Bus card for use with NEC
PC-9800 series computers and PC-FXGA DOS/V, an ISA card for use with IBM
PC-compatible computers running DOS/V.

Continue reading NEC PC-FXGA, PC-FXGA DOS/V, and its Breakout Box →
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DisassemblyNECPC-9821PC-FX
3D Printing, Disassembly, Famicom, Modification, Nintendo, Repair


NINTENDO AV FAMICOM WITH SWITCHLESS NESRGB MAINTENANCE

2023-11-24 rosewood Leave a comment

My Nintendo AV Famicom that I equipped with a switchless NESRGB solution in 2016
is spending most of its days on a shelf as a backup console. It still needs some
maintenance, which I will cover in this article: cleaning, securing the NESRGB,
placing the LED and repairing the expansion port cover.

Last week, I just wanted to quickly test some Famicom carts and realised that
the console wasn’t outputting any picture or sound. There was still a reaction
on the TV though: black picture and a crackling sound when I switched it off.
Fearing the worst, I opened it up and saw my favourite insulation tape. However,
as I’ve learned in the past, this stuff disintegrates over the years and sticks
to everything, so now I was apparently in for not only a repair but also a
clean. I opened the console and plugged it in again. When I removed some of the
insulating tape, graphics rubbish suddenly appeared on the TV. On closer
inspection, I realised that the NESRGB board was tilted slightly backwards. It
must have come loose at some point.

Continue reading Nintendo AV Famicom With Switchless NESRGB Maintenance →
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3D PrintingDisassemblyFamicommodsNintendoRepair
CD-i, Disassembly, Philips


DVS VE-200 NVRAM BACKUP AND BATTERY REPLACEMENT

2023-03-21 rosewood 1 Comment

The DVS VE-200 CD-Interactive Player is a CD-i player manufactured by LG. Like
other CD-i players, it contains a battery-backed NVRAM and real-time clock.
In this article, I will take a look inside and show how the battery can be
replaced while making sure that the NVRAM data won’t get lost in the process.

DVS VE-200 CD-Interactive Player

The player is one of four known very similar models that make use of the
GoldStar / LG mainboard (midi-size). The other three models are: GoldStar / LG
GDI-700M, GDI-S710 and Knowlogy K2000-MSS. What makes them special in terms of
NVRAM and RTC is that they don’t have a Timekeeper or SmartWatch socket, but a
different solution:

Continue reading DVS VE-200 NVRAM Backup and Battery Replacement →
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CD-iDisassemblyPhilips
Miscellaneous


10 YEARS OF RETROSTUFF.ORG

2022-12-21 rosewood Leave a comment

10 years ago, I started this blog retrostuff.org to record what I was tinkering
with in my spare time. It was initially meant to be some sort of diary and also
include everything that I bought related to retro- and game consoles (see
category New Arrival), but that turned out to be way too much work, so I focused
on technical articles. Over the years, I had so many projects that not
everything could be properly documented and put in an article. The backlog is
huge and I’m always trying to review and improve old articles as well.

For the 10th anniversary, I took a trip down memory lane and selected one or
more articles that were important to me. Be it because they are about a
favourite device or an important discovery or milestone in research.

Continue reading 10 Years of retrostuff.org →
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Miscellaneous
CD-i, Disassembly, Philips


PHILIPS 22ER9021 AND TECNOPLUS TP520 CD-I GAMEPADS

2022-11-23 rosewood 1 Comment

Last year, I asked myself whether or not all Philips 22ER9021 CD-i Gamepads are
the same and answered with probably. Since then, I have had a look at some more
gamepads of different production dates, including an unbranded 22ER9021 and a
TecnoPlus TP520 CD-i Control Pad. Let’s revisit and elaborate on what has been
discovered last year:

 * The production number on the label contains the year and calendar week
   (example: 1A 00 9447). This applies to almost all Philips CD-i players and
   accessories. So far, only the white mice for the professional players didn’t
   follow the year code.
   A full production number has 8 or 9 digits and an additional 5-6-digit serial
   number at the end. But most accessories are only labelled with simple 8-digit
   production numbers and that’s why you find so many accessories with the very
   same data on the labels.
 * Inside, all 22ER9021 gamepads have the same PCB with these markings:
   CDI JOYPAD REV 1.2
   P/N:12290210001-03
   This is still the case after checking some more, even uncommon variants.
   Also, they all have the same Philips PCA84C122AT/071 8-bit microcontroller
   for remote control transmitters.

Continue reading Philips 22ER9021 and TecnoPlus TP520 CD-i Gamepads →
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CD-iDisassemblyPhilips
Atari, Disassembly, Portfolio


ATARI PORTFOLIO PC CARD DRIVE HPC-301

2022-10-9 rosewood 1 Comment

The PC Card Drive HPC-301 is still the only way to read and write Atari
Portfolio memory (Bee) cards on a PC. Make that an old PC with an ISA slot for
the interface card and DOS. The driver can be found here and here. In the
PofoWiki (German), there’s more information about its usage and what needs to be
considered when you have Windows 9x. For me, the DOS mode worked fine and I had
less trouble accessing the card reader after loading the driver without
parameters, e.g. DEVICE=C:\CD.SYS.

There seems to be another way to access the card drive: A software called
Portfolio RAM-Card Reader by Digital Data Deicke (now Pentagon GmbH) is
mentioned in the Atari-Home.DE forums here and here. It is reported to work even
under Windows XP via Direct I/O.

Today, we’re only going to have a look at the hardware. Just look at this
massive cable with 37-pin D-sub connectors that connects the card drive with the
interface card:

Atari Portfolio PC Card Drive HPC-301 Continue reading Atari Portfolio PC Card
Drive HPC-301 →
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AtariDisassemblyPortfolio
3D Printing, Amiga CD³², Commodore, MIDI


CD-MIDI ON AMIGA CD³² – MIDI OUT + KEYBOARD ADAPTER

2022-09-29 rosewood Leave a comment

While the Amiga CD³² can play CD-MIDI discs, it lacks a MIDI out port to hand
over the data to a MIDI playback device. I’m going to build an adapter with a
keyboard pass-through for its AUX port.

CD-MIDI (or CD+MIDI) is an extension of the Red Book Audio CD that allows MIDI
data to be stored in the subcode channels, just like CD+G and CD-Text does it
with graphics and text data. Only very few devices are known to be able to make
use of that information: CD³², CDTV and WonderMega. Even though the Green Book
describes a MIDI extension, the Philips CD-i is not among these devices, and so
far, no CD-i hardware or software that made use of MIDI has surfaced.

Compact Disc Digital Audio +Graphics +MIDI
Continue reading CD-MIDI on Amiga CD³² – MIDI Out + Keyboard Adapter →
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3D PrintingAmigaCD³²CommodoreMIDI


POSTS NAVIGATION

1 2 … 15 Next →


RECENT POSTS

 * Philips FW380i Mini System Repair Part 1
 * Pippin Atmark Troubleshooting and Repair Information
 * MSDEXP and Clamshell Case for Terraonion MegaSD
 * NEC PC-FXGA, PC-FXGA DOS/V, and its Breakout Box
 * Nintendo AV Famicom With Switchless NESRGB Maintenance


RANDOM POSTS


 * MICROSOFT SIDEWINDER STRATEGIC COMMANDER AND GAME PAD PRO
   
   Today I got a sealed new in box relict from an era where Microsoft made great
   gaming peripherals for computers. …


 * PUHUI T-962 IR REFLOW OVEN MODIFICATIONS
   
   The Puhui T-962 is a cheap IR reflow oven that has been around for many years
   (the earliest occurrence that …


 * CONNECTING A KEYBOARD TO A GAMECUBE
   
   Last year I was tempted to import an expensive and rare official ASCII /
   Sammy Keyboard Controller for the GameCube, …


 * FIRST STEPS IN OS-9 ON PHILIPS CDI605T
   
   The Philips CDI605T/20 is the last professional CD-i player with authoring /
   development capabilities. As every other CD-i player, it …


 * NINTENDO E-READER 6PIN PROTECTION COVER AND URBAN CHAMPION
   
   Today I got two additions for my Nintendo e-Reader collection: The first one
   is a small piece of plastic, known …


TAGS

 * 3D Printing
 * Apple
 * Arcade
 * Atari
 * Bandai
 * Capcom
 * Card Games
 * CD-i
 * CDI210
 * CDI220
 * CDI350
 * CDI450
 * CDI470
 * CDI490
 * CDI550
 * CDI605T
 * CDI660
 * CPS2
 * Datach
 * Disassembly
 * Dreamcast
 * e-book
 * Famicom
 * Mega-CD
 * Mega Drive
 * Miscellaneous
 * mods
 * MVS
 * NEC
 * Neo Geo
 * Neo Geo X
 * New Arrival
 * Nintendo
 * PC-FX
 * PC Engine
 * Philips
 * Pico
 * Pippin
 * PSO
 * Repair
 * Saturn
 * Sega
 * SNK
 * Sony
 * Super Famicom


RECENT COMMENTS

 * rosewood on Sony DD-1EX Data Discman Repair: “Sorry, I don’t offer a repair
   service.” May 25, 13:36
 * Ryan on Sony DD-1EX Data Discman Repair: “I own one of this model and one
   DD-20 Data Discman, and both are dead. Would you consider repairing both…”
   May 25, 09:37
 * rosewood on MSDEXP and Clamshell Case for Terraonion MegaSD: “Your best bet
   is to ask Mobius Strip Tech, also to show that there is still a demand for
   this…” Feb 19, 10:43
 * Ryan on MSDEXP and Clamshell Case for Terraonion MegaSD: “I wish more of the
   MSDEXP adapters would be made. I’ve seen one on the resale market and the
   price…” Feb 19, 01:08
 * rosewood on Cuckoo CRP-N0681F Battery Replacement: “As long as it works and
   doesn’t catch fire… Great that you got it working again and thanks for the…”
   Feb 16, 07:39


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