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Post by zyrobs on Aug 3, 2022 16:13:28 GMT
There should be plenty of guides on youtube. As I recall the gist of it is measuring one of the test pins for voltage difference between idle and read modes and making sure the difference was a certain value.
edit: yeah, that was it. Measure the RF point on the drive with a multimeter (should be marked on the board), and make sure the difference between idle and track reading is between 0.7-0.8V. So for ex. if the RF test point measures at 2.55V when the drive is idle, and it measures 3.1V when it tries reading the disc, you have to turn up the potmeter on the optical pickup, because 3.1-2.55 = 0.55, far too low. But if you get something like 2.55V idle, 3.4V reading (difference: 0.95V), then you have to turn the potmeter down because it is getting too much power and may burn itself out faster. So aim for a difference of 0.75V or thereabouts.
or just get an ODE.
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Post by zyrobs on Aug 2, 2022 15:41:29 GMT
If there are audio tracks present on the disc but the Saturn doesn't even see those, then I'm guessing the CD was burned fine but the pickup in the Saturn is too weak to read it. You'd need to recalibrate it.
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Post by zyrobs on Aug 1, 2022 21:01:48 GMT
Do the audio tracks show up on your PC for the burned disc (with a cd player program like Exact Audio Copy or the cd player in foobar2000)?
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Post by zyrobs on Aug 1, 2022 18:04:09 GMT
To what degree does it not read the discs? If you boot without the cart, do you hear the laser moving to the edge on boot to attempt to read the security ring? Does the CD player in the BIOS show up any audio tracks, or just one track (all commercial Saturn games bar one or two come with at least two tracks minimum, one data and any number of audio)? Do you burn the cue sheets properly or do you just put the bin/cue onto a data track on the disc (if you put the burn CD into your PC drive, you should see several game files)?
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Post by zyrobs on Jul 27, 2022 14:25:22 GMT
That's something I never tried. The pinouts are, as far as I know, the same. But there might be electrical differences, which makes it necessary to have some extra resistor or capacitor on certain pins, the lack of which would cause stability issues at best, burn out the chip at worst. The Megadrive had a bunch of hiccups like that between different versions of some chips.
To the best of my knowledge the VDP1 got two versions only, and the first one was only used on VA0 boards. But I've no clue on the difference. It could be a fix to a manufacturing defect that would make board construction simpler by not requiring a workaround in the form of extra resistors/caps. It could also be functionally 100% identical, being nothing more than a die shrink.
I wish we had scans of the service manuals for later board revisions, those would likely explain this since later boards can have different chips for certain ASICs even on the same board.
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Post by zyrobs on Jul 25, 2022 18:33:10 GMT
Looks like it's pretty hard to install, and only compatible with model 2 units that use the single board, since it relies on certain parts being at the right location.
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Post by zyrobs on Jul 17, 2022 18:46:42 GMT
The PAL consoles remove the c-sync output and replace it with 9V or 12V (depending on console version). Everything else is the same. The composite and s-video luminance pins both carry sync signal, since they won't work without that.
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Post by zyrobs on Jun 30, 2022 15:57:10 GMT
It's a problem on the motherboard. No one managed to figure out what causes it yet. Some people suspect aging caps / EMI filters, but others fixed it by replacing other discrete components like some of the 74 ICs. Whatever it is, it seems to be caused by old age, not the power supply or even the CD drive (it happens even with the cd drive removed).
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Post by zyrobs on Jun 15, 2022 1:09:24 GMT
funny thing, now that you mention it. I did knew a guy who worked at Sega as a play tester in the early 00s. He was running one of the biggest Sonic sites at the time, I was one of the co-admins. I probably got into console collecting thanks to him, he had the most amazing collection for the time, and kept a list of obscure Sega units too, like the Aiwa mega cd. Most of the entries had remarks like "will trade money/girlfriend/sexual favours/soul for this".
He modified his Saturn so it could hold giant battery packs, I think Goliath batteries, so they keep the internal saves for a longer time. Also had double switched Genesis units with big rocket switches on the front to play those import goodies.
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Post by zyrobs on Jun 12, 2022 18:06:39 GMT
It's possible on all boards, it's just that on some of the PAL units it is easier.
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Post by zyrobs on Jun 12, 2022 0:48:17 GMT
All the Saturns work fine with the OSSC, and you can use any SCART cable with any unit, even cables that only work on PAL units, since the OSSC doesn't care about the RGB switch pin. The highest quality cables I know of are the model 2 OEM original cables that come with the console, but those don't work with NTSC units since the RGB select pin is wired differently (they work on an OSSC). PAL 50/60 modded units work on the OSSC fine, but your TV might get the occasional hiccups in motion because a 60hz modded PAL unit doesn't output NTSC standard 59.97Hz but something lower. Of course, on a CRT, this is not an issue. I could use my pal model 2 scart cable with Japanese Saturn without any issues 🤔 That depends on how your TV handles the RGB select pin. NTSC Saturns output c-sync on that pin which may or may not have enough voltage to trigger RGB select. On some TVs it works, on the OSSC it works because it ignores the pin entirely, while some other TVs will just randomly switch back and forth between composite and RGB, or not switch to RGB at all.
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Post by zyrobs on May 29, 2022 0:51:00 GMT
I don't think it's possible to tell from that website, even if I could recognize them.
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Post by zyrobs on May 28, 2022 1:28:42 GMT
Hi, Could anybody tell me which motherboard revision for a model 1 HST-3210 with serial P5202008 ? Thanks! VA2 aka VA SG.
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Post by zyrobs on May 27, 2022 21:40:53 GMT
If the laser is calibrated, the way you burn the disc should be irrelevant. It only makes a difference when the laser can't read things.
Unfortunately we don't have the service manual for the later revision Saturns, which use a very different CD drive, so we don't know the exact way to calibrate it. But even if we had the manual, you'd probably require an oscilloscope. The closest we have is that youtube video where it is explained how you have to measure a point on the drive for voltage difference between idling and reading. If you calibrated the drive according to that, then I don't know what else you can do. You also have to accept that the optical pickups currently in circulation are basically Chinese bootlegs of the real thing - they either work or they don't.
Perhaps you should consider investing in a ODE instead, or the Satiator.
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Post by zyrobs on May 27, 2022 13:51:56 GMT
They are all china made, no matter the engraving.
It's possible that the tray needs to be adjusted, but I don't know how to measure that. As long as the calibration voltages are right, the laser should be set up fine. Is it only burned games you have problems with, or also burned audio discs? Is it possible that it's not the laser, but your modchip at fault?
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