What are the main differences between the 2 Interface unit Models?

[HuBaroth]

Hi there,
Not sure if that question has been answered before, but does anyone know what differences there are between the 2 sets of Interface Units ( you know the 'suitcase' thing). From what I read, the IFU 30 was the one you bought separately, you had to get the Cdrom2 (CDR-30) by itself.
Apparently, the IFU-30A and CDR-30A came as a combo in one box.

Thing is, I have noticed some hardware differences too. The IFU-30 and CDR-30 are missing some little features that the IFU-30A and CDR-30A have.
The features (for the IFU-30a/CDR-30A) are in the case of the interface unit: 2 little metal 'points' that are located on the CDRom side, and the CDR-30A has a metal plate underneath (that touches/sits) just on the metal bits in the interface units.
Does anyone knows what they do or are for? At the moment I'm using a CD30A with the IFU-30 interface unit (so it does not have the 2 bits that touches the cdr rom metal part), I have another interface unit (a IFU-30A) but it's in storage at my parent's house so cannot test to see if it makes any differences....

I would appreciate any info regarding those hardware differences. 

[Arkhan]

A stands for awesome.

[Tatsujin]

This was a grounding improvement which was added to the 30A.
It doesn't do much, nothing you will ever notice.
Was probably a simple EMC precaution.

[HuBaroth]

Thanks for the heads up Tatsujin, I thought that it might have been the case, but thought that It could affect some functions of the CD-Rom-Rom.
Cheers 

[SuperPlay]

Interestingly the core grafx has similar points, that are missing from the original PCE

Apologies for pic quality this was taken with my phone

[NinSEGA]

I have a plain IFU-30 unit with those metal points/pins that you are talking about. I think the only major difference is that one was a bundle with the CD-ROM² (IFU-30A) and the other wasn't. There are of course some cosmetic differences like the cover/lid actually saying "IFU-30" on the bottom-right of the top facing instead of "CD-ROM² System".

Long story short, there are always revisions, but it's great that we're figuring this out as time goes on.

[Black Tiger]

I had a cib combo set bitd and the PC Engine didn't have RF out. The console shell had stylized angular bump where the RF jack normally is.

[NinSEGA]

I had a cib combo set bitd and the PC Engine didn't have RF out. The console shell had stylized angular bump where the RF jack normally is.

Seems like that was a cost-cutting revision because RF was being phased-out in favor of composite A/V yellow-white-red.

[xelement5x]

I had a cib combo set bitd and the PC Engine didn't have RF out. The console shell had stylized angular bump where the RF jack normally is.

Weird, so the PCE by itself literally had no output available on it?  You had to have an IFU or the like to even get video out?