Turbo Everdrive V2 does not work in my US Turbo

[bozo55]

Hi all,

My Turbo Everdrive works in my PCE Duo but gives all sorts of errors in my TG16.  It crashes just browsing the files and if you can manage to get a game to load it crashes after a few seconds.  I tried cleaning and reflowing the card connector and that didn't help.

I brought my Everdrive to my friend's TG16 and it worked perfectly on his so I know it's not the Everdrive itself.

I noticed that the board uses Taicon capacitors.  Should I replace these?  The system is not region modded and works fine with original HuCard games.

I do know that this system has sat in storage for YEARS in its box in a basement.  Will that increase the odds of the caps drying out?

Thanks for any help and sorry for creating yet another help thread.

[Keith Courage]

What kind of Ac adapter are you using? Have you tried swapping with your friends? Just wondering if it is  supplying enough power for the everdrive to work correctly.

[mickcris]

I had broke out my duojindance Duo-r, that I had bought a while ago, to test some scart cables I had made as it was the easiest console to get to.  Its odd as it works fine with my Everdrive v1 but just gives a white screen on the Everdrive v2.  I tried every combination of switch on both console and everdrive with no luck.

My v2 has worked on every other console that I have tried it on.  Seems to still be some odd behavior with the v2 on some consoles.

[bozo55]

What kind of Ac adapter are you using? Have you tried swapping with your friends? Just wondering if it is not supplying quite enough power for the everdrive to work correctly.

I have a genuine NEC supply 10.5v 730mA.  It's putting out 11 volts at the + Cap where the AC adapter plugs in.  I tried a genuine Model 1 Genesis adapter 9v 1.2A and that didn't help.  I noticed some voltage droop on pin 38 with the Turbo everdrive inserted.  It's a solid 5v  but then can fluctuate to a lesser amount, like 3.8 but only for a split second.  One of the 1uf50v caps was only showing 1v, but consistently.  Others were showing 2v, others 3.4ish. One of the Taicons was showing 4.6v, others 5v, others 11v.

I never thought to try my system on his power supply.  Damn.

[bozo55]

I had broke out my duojindance Duo-r, that I had bought a while ago, to test some scart cables I had made as it was the easiest console to get to.  Its odd as it works fine with my Everdrive v1 but just gives a white screen on the Everdrive v2.  I tried every combination of switch on both console and everdrive with no luck.

My v2 has worked on every other console that I have tried it on.  Seems to still be some odd behavior with the v2 on some consoles.

Your Doujindance is region modded?  I know these flash carts are super picky with region modded units.

[mickcris]

Yeah but the v1 works fine. The v2 is supposed to use less power so it should be more compatable.

[bozo55]

Yeah but the v1 works fine. The v2 is supposed to use less power so it should be more compatable.

Krikzz claimed that power is not the reason why region mods screw around with Everdrive functionality.  Rather, it distorts the signaling.  If the V2 is more strict with the signaling requirements, it doesn't matter if it uses less power.

[bozo55]

I tried jumpering pin 38 of the HuCard slot directly to the 7805 output with a 22 gauge wire and that did not help at all (I heard doing this could solve the problem).

Seems to me I have no choice but to replace the caps.  I already have 10 of the 16 I need from Nippon-Chemicon and Nichicon.  I'm gonna hunt down the rest from my electronics store and see if a recap helps. 

Unfortunately the power supply is sealed so I won't be recapping that any time soon.  I somehow doubt it's power supply related though, since even the Genesis power supply doesn't help, and that powers a Genesis and Mega Everdrive no problem.

[bozo55]

I hunted down some caps from a local shop but had trouble finding exact values in quality brands.

For the 10 and 100uf caps I ended up huge caps rated at 250v and 160v respectively.  Besides the frustration of fitting the caps, are there issues I should be aware of (i.e. heat, power draw, reliability)?  Would it be wrong to use such overkill type caps?

[wilykat]

No heat issue, they are just huge and rated to handle a lot more volts than you need.

[Keith Courage]

I just wanted to chime in and say that within the past week I have had two people contact me saying they have the exact same issue with the everdrive version 2 on their US turbo grafx systems. Works fine with Duos though

I hope this isn't the sign of a wide spread problem with these things. Please post if the caps fix this problem for you.

I'm leaning more towards it being an everdrive issue not the systems since this was never reported using a version 1 everdrive and a US Turbo grafx before.

[bozo55]

I just wanted to chime in and say that within the past week I have had two people contact me saying they have the exact same issue with the everdrive version 2 on their US turbo grafx systems. Works fine with Duos though

I hope this isn't the sign of a wide spread problem with these things. Please post if the caps fix this problem for you.

I'm leaning more towards it being an everdrive issue not the systems since this was never reported using a version 1 everdrive and a US Turbo grafx before.

I'll post results as soon as my cap kit from console5 arrives. I think the fast loading of the RAM on the v2 puts more stress on the system. My friend's working TG16 is a newer serial number than mine I believe but as far as I've heard all TG16s are identical internally. Maybe some system's caps aged worse than others.

[SephirothTNH]

Looks like I'm now in this same boat.  On my TG16 games glitch or freeze after a few min of play.  Some immediately.  However, on my PCE Duo everything works great.  bozo55 let us know if the recap fixes your problem.

Oddly I know that my duo needs re capped.  I have no to very low audio on it.  Yet the ted v2 works perfectly in it.

[bozo55]

Looks like I'm now in this same boat.  On my TG16 games glitch or freeze after a few min of play.  Some immediately.  However, on my PCE Duo everything works great.  bozo55 let us know if the recap fixes your problem.

Oddly I know that my duo needs re capped.  I have no to very low audio on it.  Yet the ted v2 works perfectly in it.

Interesting indeed.  Perhaps the US Turbo was an odd beast due to that board revision not existing in Japan.  Maybe the signaling on it is not as reliable?  All I can say is that I've proven that it can work on a US Turbo.  My friend's unit works perfectly with it.  If recapping it can't fix it I may just let him have it and wait for a new revision (2.3 or whatever) before I buy another Everdrive.

Kevin Horton, a well respected electronics engineer says that Krikzz's designs could be done better and that he's not surprised at how finicky they are (at least with regards to the version 1, see the GametechUS youtube channel for those vids). 

I even experienced an odd glitch today in Air Zonk at the end of Stage 2.  The backgrounds started flickering oddly.  It only lasted for the last section of the stage and then it was gone by stage 3.  Wonder if it's my Duo or just the fact that this cart is wonky.

I am anxiously awaiting the cap kit from Console5. It hasn't crossed the border yet though.  I probably won't have it until next week.  But I won't be working for most of next week so as soon as those caps are in my hands I'll get on it and report back.

[bozo55]

The caps arrived today.  I'm going to get started on this and report back hopefully later today.