Issues with RGB modded PCE Duo through Shinybow scart switch

[jetfire13]

Hello guys!

I'm new to the forums and I just wanted to start out by saying thanks for all the great info. You guys are kinda the who's who when it comes to Turbo tech info.

I recently purchased a PCE Duo from a local seller off of CL cheap and it was suffering from barely audible sound and flaky hu-card reading. I sent it off to get re-capped and RGB modded and it came back working great.

I have an issue with running it through my Shinybow SB5525 and then to my Framemeister. I get no picture or sound. The FM shows a video input light but the screen stays black.

The odd part is when I run the DUO straight into the FM and bypass the switch, it's fine. It also works if I use my old HAMA 100S switch between the DUO and the FM. I was thinking it might be a faulty Shinybow switch but it works just fine with my RGB modded NES top loader, N64, SNES, Saturn, and dreamcast through the Toro.

I've played with the sync levels on the FM to try to get a picture and it does nothing no matter how high or low I go.

This is the DUO mod service that I used: http://www.ebay.com/itm/171271420873 The circuit he uses looks like the one that's recommended. Seemed reputable.

Could it still be a sync issue? It's just weird that this is the only console that doesn't work through the Shinybow switch.

Any info would be awesome. I'm stumped.

[Keith Courage]

 I'm surprised that no one else here has responded to this. Everything I've read from other topics similar to this have just found the solution to be to use a different switch to take care of the issue. No one seems to have a good viable solution otherwise

I'm wondering if maybe the sync signal needs to be Amplified but I don't know anyone who's ever tried it to fix the problem you're talking about  by doing so. So I can't say yes it would work or not.

 One thing I can say though is that I'm sure the guy who did your modification did everything correctly. I've seen a few of his installs before and I haven't seen anything out of the ordinary as far as what others do for these modifications as well.

[jetfire13]

Thanks for the reply Keith Courage!

I've been in contact with the modder and just sent my DUO and switch back to him for him to troubleshoot. I think he's going to try to amp the sync and maybe pull sync differently. He said I'd possibly lose the ability to use composite video but that's fine since I'm just going to be using the RGB signal with the Framemeister.

Not sure if anyone cares, but I'll update when I get them back and can test some more.

Thanks again!

[MNKyDeth]

One of my friends had the same issue. Scart switches were out of the question.  I told him I could try boosting the sync signal but he opted to just swap the cable out when needed.

The sync signals are weak from the hu6260, losing the composite just means he is gonna try hard wiring to pin 44 and who knows it might work, but I doubt it. He would need to try and put a amp, something to boost the signal in the Euro scart cable, Imo.

[SignOfZeta]

Is this for one of those YouTube background brag piece rooms or do you actually play this stuff? I ask because you can't play more than one system at the same time and from my experience all SCART switchers are shit so the solution is really simple. There is nothing wrong with your system, sell the switcher to some collectard.

[mickcris]

this is a switch that works well:
http://retrorgb.com/gscartsw.html

It is nice to have a lot of systems hooked up at once so you dont have to plug and unplug systems.  Not necessarily just for youtubers who probably dont have those systems plugged in anyways.

[schweaty]

Is this for one of those YouTube background brag piece rooms or do you actually play this stuff? I ask because you can't play more than one system at the same time and from my experience all SCART switchers are shit so the solution is really simple. There is nothing wrong with your system, sell the switcher to some collectard.

All my consoles (which is only 6) are hooked up directly to the tv.  It would drive me nuts if I had to dig out the ac adapter, AV Cable, and other shit every time I wanted to play something.

All that being said, it's only 1 console that doesn't work thru the switch.  Is that enough of a reason to re-engineer your entire setup?  To each his own I guess

[jetfire13]

Lol!

I'm certainly not one of those "game room/collection" Youtube circle jerkers. I've been into retro gaming for a long time and have been building up my setup slowly over the years when I could afford it. It's not anything flashy but it's mine.

I suppose it's not that big of a deal if I have just one console that doesn't work through my switch but it would be nice if it did. I was hesitant to drop almost $200 on a quality scart switch and I guess I'm just bummed that after spending all that money plus the cost of modding my PCE Duo for RGB that it wouldn't work how I had hoped it would.

I was just looking to you guys for any info you might have as to why it wouldn't work since this forum seems to be the best resource for this type of thing.

Thanks for all the info guys.

[jetfire13]

Apparently, a .1 uf cap on the RGB outputs from the amp was the solution.

Here's the video he made showing it working with the Shinybow switch.

Just wanted to follow up and let you guys know what happened in case any of you wanted to know.

[mickcris]

that doesn't really make much sense, but i guess he made it so it had less capacitance by adding those .1uf caps in series to the ones that were already there.  that person's mod work is a bit of a mess though.  cant really tell whats going on there.  dont see an amp unless that is whats in the heat shrink.

edit:
if that is the amp in that heat shrink, then it looks like maybe he put the .1uf caps on the input side of the amp. 

[jetfire13]

After re-watching the video again, you're right. The capacitors are on the input side of the amp. That's my bad. I'm pretty sure that the amp is wrapped up in that tape.

It is a little sloppy but it gets the job done. haha! As long as nothing is shorting out and it works with my switch, then I'm good.

The guy that usually does my mods (retrofixes.com) has been dragging his feet for months on getting his amp and install services up on his site and I really didn't want to wait around anymore.

Again, hopefully this will be of some help to anyone else having this issue with their scart switch.

Thanks everyone! I appreciate all the input.

EDIT: The original mod was a lot cleaner than what I ended up with. Here's the original video showing the system after the cap replacement, LED and RGB mod.