Adventures of buying a Broken PCEngine and Briefcase from ebay

[pceslayer]

I was browsing ebay and found a listing for a defective PCE interface unit with the CDROM and a Core Grafx for $48 plus shipping. I thought to myself what the hell I'll give it a try.

Well it finally arrived yesterday afternoon and I began to troubleshoot the unit. Seperated the CDROM and PCE and powered them on individually.

First I test the CDROM unit. Ok it spins up, makes some nasty noises and stops spinning... So its a Laser issue maybe?

Now I attempt to power on the Core unit and get absolutly nothing, not even a flicker on the screen.

So I dissassemble the unit and this is what I find...



A nasty crack in the mainboard thats about 2" long and severs traces along the bottom and top of the board.(*note* Pictures are taken after I scraped the board to expose the traces)

So with some patience I follow the traces and attempt a repair.


**placeholder for top pic**
ok soldering done(green circles indicated areas where traces were severed)


now some hot glue to hold the wires in place


reassembled


testing... YAY!


So next i'm going to dissassemble the interface unit and CDROM to see whats going on.


Also, does anybody know where I can purchase a region mod preassembled PCB on the cheap?

[ooPo]

That's a nice quality picture for a projector on a classic system. Which model is it?

[pceslayer]

That's a nice quality picture for a projector on a classic system. Which model is it?

Its a Sharp XG-C60X... a little old, but it handles 480i pretty well.


Ok now... I attempted a laser swap with a working Sony Discman D-33, but it is acting the same as before.

It spins the disc up and sounds like its reading, but after a few seconds stops and powers off.

So upon closer inspection I found this...


a broken cog

It seems to still spin pretty decently and I'm not really sure what effect this has on the lense sled. So... What to do now...


So does anybody know where I can get this tiny gear or another solution?

Also what should the POT on the laser be reading for the PCE/TG CD unit?

[chop5]

excellent job on restoring that pcengine 

those cogs are a real quest as you can see in other threads. so far no ones found a replacement

[pceslayer]

excellent job on restoring that pcengine 

those cogs are a real quest as you can see in other threads. so far no ones found a replacement

Thanks man, but... awww thats not what I wanted to hear


Question to anyone who would know....

Are the PCECD and TGCD interchangable?

[Zeon]

Are the PCECD and TGCD interchangable?

Yep parts wise they are nearly identical and as a result a tg-cd can be used on a pce system and vice versa. Yes those cogs are evil, Nec cheaped out on that one cog for whatever reason, and as a result they get very brittle and break from age. Numerous tg-cd's and pce-cds have this issue and it's highly frustrating. Good luck finding a compatible gear, likely someone will have to get a custom one made and it's not going to be cheap. To date I have not heard of a reliable existing source of these gears. Good luck man.

[papa_november]

     I have a dead TG-16 drive that you might be able to salvage an intact gear from. Failing that, you could always try tracking down a CDR-35D, as the whole CD mechanism in that drive is directly exchangeable with the TG-CD's mechanism.

[pceslayer]

     I have a dead TG-16 drive that you might be able to salvage an intact gear from. Failing that, you could always try tracking down a CDR-35D, as the whole CD mechanism in that drive is directly exchangeable with the TG-CD's mechanism.

I PM'd you about the TGCD drive...

I was really trying to keep this project as cheap as possible...

The wife gives me the evil eye everytime I buy old broken stuff lol

[Necromancer]

Nice job of saving a PCE from the scrap heap and good luck on resurrecting the CD.  Now you need to change your name to something more fitting - pcesavior, perhaps?

[pcenginesales]

Is it just the plastic that needs restoring or what?

If it is just the plastic there is no reason why these cannot be easily molded and a replacement made out of epoxy glue.

How the hell does the board in original units get cracked in this way? I have two like this and it's unfathomable. I did not attempt a repair on either because so many traces are cut it's not worth the time taken. It's a better idea time-wise to use units like this (cracked right across the PCB, unlike yours) for parts for other less time consuming repairs. I already took the HuCARD port out of one and used it to fix a white engine with a port so corroded I couldn't get it to conduct after thorough cleaning. My other reason for not wanting to fix the heavily cracked boards is I sell my consoles and somebody might buy one, take it apart and whine about it. And I wouldn't want to sell it for less than the value of a non restored unit, after all that work done on it!

One's cracked right across the lower part of the board, nowhere near the EXT port or power in so how it's happened without the PCB being out of the machine and somebody stepping on it at some point, I've no idea.

I've fixed plenty of consoles cracked round the joypad in port though. You need now to fill that console with steel strength epoxy to stop the crack growing on the board.

[pceslayer]

@Necromancer
thanks man.. I <3's me some PCEngine

But, ive had my pceslayer tag for like 11 years now... I'd be hard pressed to change it  lol.

@pcenginesales

Its just worn/broken teeth on the gear... and I have no real Idea of where to start for molding the gear, I guess I can google a molding kit.

Also I don't plan on ever removing the Core from the briefcase once all my stuff is up and running, but I think I will epoxy the shit out of that side of the board when I open it up again for my region mod.




Answering my original question about finding a regionmod... never mind, I found the IC's online and ordered a few.

[Shawnathan]

I need to get me a gun to do repairs like such. you guys are some serious badasses when it comes to repairing these systems!

[pceslayer]

Ok so ive given up on searching online for this compound gear. 

And it is far too expesive to have it remolded...(That is unless we all chip in to get a few hundred made and offer them up for sale on ebay or something. )

I guess in the next few weeks i'm just going to order a CDR-35D and pull out the laser assembly. I found a place that sells them for $45 with $10 shipping.

In the meantime, if anybody has a dead drive and doesn't mind giving it up for cheap, I'll take it off your hands!

[TheMilford]

I guess in the next few weeks i'm just going to order a CDR-35D and pull out the laser assembly. I found a place that sells them for $45 with $10 shipping.

can you share where you these drives can be found?

Also, couldn't you just steal this gear from another cd transport? just figure out what make the transport was and figure out what models used it. I bet you can find cheaper drives that use that same gear.

[Duo_R]

that is the magic solution that many a people consider to be the Holy Grail of TG-CD repairs.....

Also, couldn't you just steal this gear from another cd transport? just figure out what make the transport was and figure out what models used it. I bet you can find cheaper drives that use that same gear.