Turbo Express for trade

[grahf]

The kynar stuff is good but your going to have to order it online. USB cords are a great source of small gauge wire. Matter of fact I used usb cord wire on one of the ones I did. Your milage may vary, but most of the ones I cut up use suitable wire.

The reason I said i'd trade my GT casing is because I dont care that it says GT on it. But I would want your TurboExpress case in exchange so I still have a complete unit. Its basically my project unit that I use for tests and such. But again, its in shitty condition. The screen has lots of surface scratches on it, and the casing has a bunch of rough looking scratches.

[Michael Helgeson]

I always hit up IDE 40 wire and 80 wire cables depending on what I need exactly. Also,you can get high quality trash bag twist ties and use those if you can find the ones not coated in paper. Sometimes they use the really good ones for stuff like wire tying toys into their packages.

[ctoomey]

also, what type of solder are you guys using? One of the problems is that even with small gauge wire I really need to jam in the wires to get the unit to fit back together. Inevitably the solder gives on one or two leads when I do this....

BTW, good call on the USB cable...I now have an almost endless supply of good wire

Dont worry about the GT case, the label doesnt really matter to me. Thanks again though for offering.

[grahf]

I just use radioshack solder. (.015" i think, or the .022" rosin core).
You probably need to clean up the pins before soldering. Try acetone (nailpolish remover), but be careful not to get it on any plastic. Then just pre-tin the pins and wires before soldering them together.  This is really just one of those things that takes a lot of practice to become good at. I look at some of the stuff I did from years ago, and wonder how it ever worked

[Michael Helgeson]

1.0mm 2 percent rosin core lead free. On spots I need to solder something onto,and the area is too smooth,I rough it up a tiny bit with a cardboard nail filer or one of my sanding bits on my Dremel kit so the solder latches on better. Usually anything too small to do this to has no problems with solder sticking anyway,tiny pins,jumper points ect.. That and you don't need to do much to pre existing solder spots that already have a tad there,other then maybe add a little more if your adding a wire or pin,or cap or whatever.

[ctoomey]

yeah for some reason they dont like sticking to the upper pins...They stick but wont take much movement before coming loose...

Anyway, i got it to work and then it died...Screen went dead and no sound...Checked the screen on another unit and it worked so I must have blown something whilst messing with it (ie: playing Operation wolf with the back off!)

anyway, it was a fun thing to mess around with. I need to just grab a GT or at least a PC engine to play some JAP cards. The problem is that the shipping on those units costs a frickin fortune. Ebay is slammed with Japanstock units but to get it here by the end of the summer it costs like $65 bucks. I'll just keep my eyes open.

[Michael Helgeson]

I think Toshi quoted me once with a price of around $65 for a Core Grafx and that price included shipping in the amount. His store on ebay is Dream Stars Japan or something along those lines.

[ctoomey]

So I jumped the power fuse and my TE => GT is back in action! Must have blown it when I was messing around with it during the conversion.

Problem is, I now have a GT and cant play my US games so I think the next project is to add a switch. I know someone posted a place to get decent 8 pole switches...Could someone repost? I cant find it. Thanks

[termis]

The 8PDT push-button switch that is commonly used is from this site:  http://www.surplussales.com/Switches/SWPushB-1.html Part#: (SWP) 120SA.1X11

But the above switch is about 3" long, so I dunno if a TE will have enough space for such a long switch.  There's supposedly an 8 Pole slide switch that might be a bit smaller, but I'd have no idea where you can get 'em these days.

If an 8PDT switch won't fit in nicely in a TE case, you might have to do this mod with two 4551 series IC chips + SPDT switch. 
http://mbrandel.vizionaires.net/?page_id=48

I never modded a TE/PCE GT, but I'd guess it's going to be a tight fit no matter which way you do it.

[rolins]

So I jumped the power fuse and my TE => GT is back in action! Must have blown it when I was messing around with it during the conversion.

Problem is, I now have a GT and cant play my US games so I think the next project is to add a switch. I know someone posted a place to get decent 8 pole switches...Could someone repost? I cant find it. Thanks

Well I have one or two 8PDT slide switches lying around that will fit the TE/GT. The part number is EG-8202 which is the old discontinued part from e-switch.com. I was saving them when I modify my TE, but just never got around to doing it. I'll see if I can post a picture tonight, but if you need one send me PM.

[ctoomey]

I'd still like to do this conversion, my concern is not knowing where to attach the wires to the switch...In the illustration linked on this site it shows a slide switch and details of how to wire the switch but it looks very specific to the switch shown...Any thoughts on where to find more info on wiring other types of switches? I've never really worked with 8PDT switches before so I want to be sure before I go pulling apart stuff....Thanks!!!

[termis]

Any 8PDT switch, by design, should have 24 contact points (12 on one side, 12 on other).

   top pins: a b c | d e f | g h i | j k l
bottom pins: m n o | p q r | s t u | v w x

This is how the switch actually works: in one switch position, following will be connected. a-b, d-e, g-h, j-k, m-n, p-q, s-t, v-w, on the other side of the switch, b-c, e-f, h-i, k-l, n-o, q-r, t-u, and w-x.

If you see can see that and follow how its wired, you'll see how the switch is actually switching the 8 data pins of the HuCard port -- thus switching between US and JP modes -- and why you need wire the switches across (from points a-o, c-m, d-r, f-p, g-u, i-s, j-x, l-v).

Maybe I'm making it sound harder, but the bottom line is, all 8PDT switches will be constructed above like that, so it won't really matter whether you have a push-button, or a slide switch, etc, etc.