New Duo owner - Now what?

[korpse413]

I am now the proud owner of a Duo. What are my next steps? The PCB is a PWA-3285-A


-Do cap kits now include the 2x ceramic caps to fix the Jailbar issues?
-For RGB, any suggestions on the AV driver or THS7374?
-I live in the States, and the Duo came with the OEM power brick, do I need a stepdown converter? I've never owned a system from another region until now.


Also, is it still recommended to burn images at 2x or 1x speed with 650mb 74min CDs if possible for Disc games?

Thanks for any advice you guys can share, I can finally join the club

[Keith Courage]

-Do cap kits now include the 2x ceramic caps to fix the Jailbar issues?
 No they do not.

-For RGB, any suggestions on the AV driver or THS7374?
 Most people use a THS7374 amp now but the other style still works fine.

-I live in the States, and the Duo came with the OEM power brick, do I need a stepdown converter? I've never owned a system from another region until now.
 No need for a step down converter.


Also, is it still recommended to burn images at 2x or 1x speed with 650mb 74min CDs if possible for Disc games?
8x is good enough depending on the burner and 700mb discs work just fine as well.

[that1crzywhtguy]

Adding on to the great practical advice sent your way by Keith, I'd like to mention a couple things:

Rondo of Blood
Lords of Thunder



Enjoy!

[korpse413]

Fantastic advice all, thank you very much! 

This community seems great, I just noticed the sticky thread that lists all capacitor values for the Duo, so I will be placing an order soon most likely from digikey or equivalent.  Hopefully everything can be found easily, I've never really order from them and it seems a tad overwhelming..

[Keith Courage]

yeah, both of those websites can be rather confusing for anyone who hasn't done much with ordering electronic parts. You can buy a complete duo cap kit for around $12 I think on the console 5 website. the cap kit is already put together with all the correct values and sizes you will need.

https://console5.com/store/nec-turboduo-cap-kit.html

No need to also get the AC adapter cap and memory super capacitor that is also mentioned in the cap kit description. I have yet to ever come a across a bad one of either.

[MobiusStripTech]

The supercap does go bad from time to time. I just replaced mine since I was replacing everything else.

For the OP, without knowing your soldering skills or your troubleshooting skills, be aware that duos are prone to have trace damage by now, so expect that you will be spending extra time/effort to fix that. Additionally many people are switching from the through hole style caps to using ceramic or tantalum. These are surface mount but will not need to be replaced again. They are harder to solder than the through hole style. If you want a set, I have a full ceramic kit I am selling.

As for the power brick, many of us switch these out. Technically you should be fine to use the original, but honestly I hate those giant transformers so I switched to a slim ps2 adapter for my duo r.