Recent content by Trimesh

They both run from 3.3V - in fact, from what I remember nothing on the GC main board actually uses 5V - it just goes to the disc drive connector and the controller and AV ports. If you're getting lockups, try putting that cap in - it certainly won't hurt and it might help. Sounds like you got...

Yeah, that looks like a PAL-M mod. I'm not quite sure why it has both signs of rework on X1 and an additional oscillator, though. The subcarrier is that crystal /4 - so for the 3.575611MHz PAL-M subcarrier it should be 14.302444 MHz - the original NTSC uses 14.3(18), so it's hard to tell just...

If it's working, then don't worry about it - it's just there as a DC block to compensate for any difference between the bias point of the amplifier inside the chip and the center voltage of the oscillator output - but if the system works then they have to be close enough anyway. As Cheese...

Yeah, if the pads on the board are empty then you have the right version. You should remove the xtal that's currently in the X1 position on the board. I think it has load caps between the xtal pins and ground too - in which case you should remove the one that's on the pin that goes to pin 5...

I don't know for sure how it's set up - but it's certainly entirely possible that the clock synthesizer would disable it's outputs if it's being fed a master clock that's way outside the expected frequency, which would certainly be the case if you attempted to clock the NTSC version with the...

Correct - the pin numbering starts from 1 on the pin with the dimple on it, goes up from left to right along the bottom row of pins and then from right to left on the upper set of pins. The power pins are 1 and 14 (I.E. the two pins at the extreme left of the device). Unfortunately, I had a...

The device used on those older GC boards is an oscillator module with an integrated xtal, rather than just an xtal. You need to connect all 4 pins up. 1: Enable - this has to be pulled high (to Vdd) to turn the output on 2: GND 3: Output - connect to pin 5 of the MX clock synth chip using a...

OK, it sounds like that specific board has already been tested - but the general advice of putting in on a bench PSU and testing it still holds since it's being used outside of the stated spec. My personal bias would be to run the step-up regs from Vbatt (or Vsys if you're using a BMS chip)...

I think you are looking at the wrong section of the datasheet - that power range you mentioned is listed in the "absolute maximum ratings" section - these are stress ratings, and are just the range that if you go outside you might damage the part, not values that the part can be expected to...

Yeah, I'm not terribly surprised either, to be honest - I always expected the PTH to work better simply because it's got a more efficient architecture.

OK, the results are in, and it took a lot less time than I expected, because two of them were so bad no extensive testing was done. The chosen testing conditions were 1.0V output and 2.0A load, since this is an operating point that will make the regulators work really hard. DUT 1: LM2596 based...

They were normally originally used with a GDEV/GBOX - which is basically a Gamecube in a bigger box with debug ports, the reason for the two different models is that the GDEV was shipped with an optical drive emulator and the GBOX wasn't and could only boot from those HDD based NPDP carts (same...

OK, I'll do some more testing - probably at the weekend. I'll try to get some comparison data. To add some context, I've dug out a few other regulators, too: The top one is one of those terrible LM2596 regulators - it's mostly included for comedic purposes, since I fully expect it to...

It won't work - the controller communications protocol is bidirectional over a single wire and is based on the assumption that the console is in charge and can talk whenever it wants, but the controller only responds when it's talked to. Trying to connect two consoles that both think they can...

I'll be honest, I was fully expecting it to exhibit horrible behavior and/or blow up like all those low-cost LM2596 based switchers available from various sources in China. But it didn't, and actually seemed very well behaved. And yes, I also did short circuit and step load testing (easy...