PCEngineFans.com - The PC Engine and TurboGrafx-16 Community Forum
NEC TG-16/TE/TurboDuo => TG-16/TE/TurboDuo Discussion => Topic started by: HercTNT on December 08, 2011, 04:03:57 PM
-
I have wanted a PCE GT/Turbo express since the day they came out. Two years ago I gave a TG16 to my best friend to introduce him to the Turbo for the first time. Until then he had never heard of one. This year he bought me a PC-engine GT with the help of my wife as an early christmas present. I sent it out to Steve for repair and a new screen and got it back today. First I want to thank the hard work and dedication of this community to even make such mods and repairs possible. I have been to alot of forums and this one has one of the closest communities I have ever seen. Also, huge thanks to Steve for taking on the project and putting up with me for the last month. He did a fantastic job and I highly encourage anyone wanting similar work done, look him up. Please forgive the picture, my lack of photoshopping skills does not do the picture justice at all. Turns out, my batteries suck as well. After reading another thread in this forum on just such a matter, i'm gonna purchase some eneloop rechargables to fix the problem. I dont have the funds yet. When I do get the batteries I will put up a picture of it running.
Forgive the blatant butt snorkling, but i'm a huge turbo fan and this site and its forum goers has made my dreams possible. Thank you all again, and Huge thanks to Steve!!!
-
This community rocks. Thanks for sharing your story, HercTNT.
...Now I want to mod my Express with a new screen. :D
-
I now want to GET an express/GT.
looks sick, how's the screen?
-
Nice one. and how does it look in action? :)
-
his looks slightly better than mine (better color faster sync)
-
The screen in my opinion is fantastic. Compared to the original its completely night and day difference. There is no lag what-so-ever. There is no ghosting. The colors are sharp and the text in games has gone from impossible to read for some, to crystal clear. The Picture does not do it justice. Steve cut the plastic extremely well and when the GT's in your hand it looks natural. The sound is loud and clean. I guess thats what a good recap will do for you. I was just as impressed with the sound as i was with the screen. I tested Coryoon, Air Zonk, Twinbee, and columns (using my PCE PRO flash cart from tototek). And now for the most impressive reviewer of all..........my wife!! Yes folks, she has never seen a Pc-engine GT in her life. When I turned it on and started playing Air Zonk, she removed it from my hands for the next half an hour!! And that about says it all :)
-
Wow! very impressive. Steve, I didn't know you were already doing these mods. Very nice.
-
Very nice. That's awesome xmas gift. You have a pretty cool wife. Unfortunately, my wife doesn't even know(or care to know) what the PC engine is.
-
Dang good friend and a great wife. Looks nice and clean - any chance of some up close pics of it in action?
-
im not officially doing the mods, and havent quite nailed down the final encoder design, and i havent stocked any screens.
but that doesnt mean i cant do a few prototypes.
-
Has anyone explored putting a 320x240 screen in the GT/Express?
-
heh the screen i used claims 640 480
-
Wouldn't that cause some odd artifacting on most Turbo games, assuming the screen resizes content instead of just displaying it with a black border. I hate LCD resizing. CRTs are much better about making it look good.
-
actually a 480i display will display 240p without scaling as they are the same format
-
note you should get about 5.5 hours on the average NiMh batterys
-
I cant do a pic of it in action until i get batteries. I had cheap family dollar batteries and my wife used them up when she "borrowed" the GT from me :) Their were no artifacts or issues of any kind on the games I was able to play. In my opinion they looked fantastic. Text was easy to read as well making many more games playable. A huge bonus I would think. Yea my wife is cool. Shes a blue eyed blonde that kicks ass in some games (sorry i know i'm bragging). She used to play Unreal tournament 2004 online against me and my friends. When they found out a girl was kicking their ass they quite playing :lol:
-
Pics or it didn't happen!!
Just kidding :wink:
-
I dont have any pics of her kicking our ass, that was just to embarassing :wink:
-
I'm assuming if the screen is 640x480 that is it inherently capable of 480p, and to do 480i or 240p requires doubling.
-
its composite, so inherently 480i
-
Oh, right, a system as old as the GT would us an analog signal and not a digital one... Still, if the resolution of the screen is 640x480, it is doing pixel doubling. The actual display resolution of 240p/480i is 320x240.
-
i agree, and suspect its a true 240 display.
it was advertised as 640X480, but thats the format spec for comp video
-
Whatever it is it works great. Now we just need to figure out how to hook a minidisc player through the cartridge port to play cd games and we will be all set. Oh yea, and invent an arc reactor to power it all. Anyone friends with ironman?
-
In that case, it is the perfect screen. So, how does it deal with the many 256x256 res games? Just black bars on the side?
-
it will deal with them like any other composite screen, however the game tells it to
-
Thing is, I don't know how an analog LCD will typically respond to a resolution change. A long time ago the default was to simply display a smaller screen area, retaining a pixel to pixel aspect ratio and simply blacking out the parts of the screen that aren't in use. But these days controllers in the LCD often scale the input to the display size. With something like a GT I think I'd actually prefer the former for the extra clarity. That's why I'm curious what the screen does in this case.
-
the system does not display different resolutions.
the PCE/TG chipset scales everything to fit the composite standard screen format, so the screen never sees different resolutions.
-
I can't wait to see some pics of the new screen. Of course, before and after shots would make for a very nice comparison. ;) I know, I know—I'll stop.
Congrats on the GT! I am envious.
-
we live in the middle of podunk usa. Next week when i get paid i will pick up some energizers so i can take some pics for you guys. Sorry i could not do it sooner. Yea i feel pretty lucky. My only hobbies are retrogaming and building gaming pc's, kinda nerdy i know. My wife does not care, so i'm glad to have my GT.
-
Sounds like you desperately need some good rechargeables. That way you never have to run out for batteries.
-
Awesome Job on that GT!
I recommend a power adapter. The rechargeables don't cut it sometimes.
-
OK, a friend of mine was nice enough to stop by with batteries, here is a pick from bomberman 94. once again, i know its crappy i wanted to give you an idea of screen size and clarity. Trust me the pic does not do it justice
-
another pic, this one taken by my wife, apparently i dont know how to use a camera :-k the screen is not blurry, its my camera
-
This ones for blue, i hope you know shes hates having her picture taken. she gave the following message:
Obey the wife, then the PCE!
-
wow, that is a crappy camera.
all the pics look grainy
-
sorry man, its a kodak. Damn thing sucks at macros, constantly goes out of focus, and has terrible low light function. Considering it was not a cheap camera you can imagine my thrill. its about 4 years old though so hey, what can you do.
-
sorry man, its a kodak. Damn thing sucks at macros, constantly goes out of focus, and has terrible low light function. Considering it was not a cheap camera you can imagine my thrill. its about 4 years old though so hey, what can you do.
My friend, the images you posted are .gif, which is incredibly limited for photos. :)
We can help you produce better images to post here, if you have the time and patience :)
That said, I think that the photos you posted are quite interesting.
-
According to the forums i have a 120kb limit to the size of picture i can post. I have been intentionally chopping them down and saving them as gifs to get within that limit. I have zero knowledge on photo cropping and resizing. I was just winging it. please show me a better way. it would help alot.
-
you might have to use an external photo uploading site like photobucket, imageshack, etc and then post the img tag in the forum post.
This looks really awesome and I would love to have this mod done asap! I just don;t know if I should have my turboexpress modded or get a cheaper gt system for the new screen mod.
-
ive been uploading here as jpg.
the compression looks better for photo's
-
:clap: :clap: :clap:
I guess it happened :D Pics dont lie :dance:
-
I like PNGs for photos. But then, I like PNGs for everything.
-
That screen looks bright as hell in the pic with your wife holding it. Very impressive when compared to the standard screen.
-
Ok, I wanna know how to do this to my Turbo express!
-
there are 2 requirements.
(1) you will need a video encoder installed in the TE.
(2) you will need a composite display, that can be run on 5V and fit in the system
-
Well Flare, you contact thesteve, let him know you want yours done up, and he will take care of the rest :) It takes a special encoder board to work, so its not likely something you can do on your own. definately well worth it as far as i'm concerned.
I can see, before i managed to post this, he beat me to it. Anyhow thats the guy you wanna ask.
-
This looks awesome! I want one! :twisted:
-
<-- blame me for being lazy on building up encoder boards... steve's making them manually right now. Someday we'll have some nice fancy ones though.
-
<-- blame me for being lazy on building up encoder boards... steve's making them manually right now. Someday we'll have some nice fancy ones though.
If they will help me get a screen like that into a Turbo Express, I am happy. The future looks bright!
-
there are 2 requirements.
(1) you will need a video encoder installed in the TE.
(2) you will need a composite display, that can be run on 5V and fit in the system
Hi,
I'd like to modify my GT too. Did you post somewhere the way you did this ?
What is this encoder made of ? I may be able to do it myself without any problem.
Thanks.
-
heres the original thread.
mine is using different parts as the original thread.
heres some pics of my first http://www.pcenginefx.com/forums/index.php?topic=9334.msg189357#msg189357.
heres some encoders I built with schematics http://pcengine.freeforums.org/encoders-t94.html
you chose the screen you want to use, as the encoder puts out composite.
Im using a reverse camera display that i modify the power supply in
-
heres the original thread.
mine is using different parts as the original thread.
heres some pics of my first http://www.pcenginefx.com/forums/index.php?topic=9334.msg189357#msg189357.
heres some encoders I built with schematics http://pcengine.freeforums.org/encoders-t94.html
you chose the screen you want to use, as the encoder puts out composite.
Im using a reverse camera display that i modify the power supply in
Not sure if you are doing these for other people or not, but if you would be willing to do this conversion for me, what would you charge? I'd need the screen, encoder board, and it all installed and up and running. I got an extra Express laying around that I can do this with. It has the no sound, I still have to get that part fixed.
-
i am doing these for others on a somewhat limited basis.
i am also doing full cap replacements which solves your sound issue and gets the system all clean and reliable.
i do a switchless region mod as well.
i will do the caps and screen for $100 shipped (if your in the US)
add $30 for the region mod
-
Great, thank you very much for the quick reply.
[Edit] I just thought about something I wanted to do on one of my Nomad (which has a new LCD screen) : wiring the RGBS signals to the A/V output. I think I'm gonna do it with my PCE GT too. Now the side output will have a useful purpose.
-
That looks sexy, and the screen colours look great. Love to see some video of it as well as it would capture better then a pict. Wow you got everyone loving this man... congrats. :)
I have nomad that has a new lcd screen in her... makes these handhelds so much more playable i think.
-
to run the RGBS to an output you will need to add an amp as well, however adding composite out would just require another resistor
-
to run the RGBS to an output you will need to add an amp as well, however adding composite out would just require another resistor
Yes, but all my TVs are RGB, so even if there's more work I'd prefer to get a better quality on a big screen.
-
Eneloop rechargeable? Are those different from the standard Ni-Mh batts?
Might be better off with an A/C like Blueraven suggested.
I use a universal A/C with my Lynx.
Rechargeables are good but, they usually run at less voltage, yet they have more amperage so, you get longer play time but, not the same volts as with alkalines.
If you're determined to use disposable batteries until you get your rechargeables, I recommed Dollar General brand alkalines as they are cheap and provide longer life than any other off-brand battery.
In fact they run almost as long as Rayovacs.
Oh. And I have a question for thesteve.
Is that as in THE Steve (A.K.A. TZD Steve)??
-
Shrapnoid, It makes no difference that they run on a lower voltage as long as they work just fine, and whats wrong with longer play time? Once you use a ac adapter you ruin the concept of portability. The idea is to get the best batteries you can for a reasonable amount of money to use the system on the go. Rechargables are so cheap, how many regular batteries are you gonna buy before your wasting money? Not all batteries are made the same either. rayovac alkalines perform at about 3/4 of what a duracell can do according to consumer reports this year. If you were gonna go that route, why not buy a set of lithiums. In high drain devices they can last 5x longer than alkalines. then again, you buy two sets of those and you could already have a nice set of rechargables. I bought a set of family dollar alkalines and put them in my GT and 45 minutes later they puked. I bought a set of Duracells and they lasted 4 hours.
-
nope i have never been associated with TZD
-
Shrapnoid, It makes no difference that they run on a lower voltage as long as they work just fine, and whats wrong with longer play time? Once you use a ac adapter you ruin the concept of portability. The idea is to get the best batteries you can for a reasonable amount of money to use the system on the go. Rechargables are so cheap, how many regular batteries are you gonna buy before your wasting money? Not all batteries are made the same either. rayovac alkalines perform at about 3/4 of what a duracell can do according to consumer reports this year. If you were gonna go that route, why not buy a set of lithiums. In high drain devices they can last 5x longer than alkalines. then again, you buy two sets of those and you could already have a nice set of rechargables. I bought a set of family dollar alkalines and put them in my GT and 45 minutes later they puked. I bought a set of Duracells and they lasted 4 hours.
Wait a minute here. I never said that longer play time was a bad thing. I was simply pointing out the advantages vs the disadvantages between rechargeable and alkaline.
The situation is what do you consider to be more important? Play time or performance? Now, there was a rachargeable alkaline some years ago that Rayovac made but, then suddenly dropped after a short time. I had a few of those and they were okay.
I now use the IC-3 types which are also discontinued but, seem to provide a good balance of voltage and amperage even though they are rated at only 1.2 volts each where alks are rated at 1.5v.
Another good rechargeable are those precharged green and silver Rayovacs that can last for up to 6 months in some devices before needing to be charged up again.
Also while similar in what they sale, Family Dollar is *not* Dollar General. I can slap 4 DG alk batts in an XMODS R/C and get up to an hour or more of running time at high speeds where any other cheap-based battery will barely even turn the diff.
As for suggesting an adapter, I meant for when you're just sitting around the house.
Another thing that you could try since you don't seem to mind modding your GT is to drop by RadioShack and check out their selection of rechargeable packs that could be wired up in parallel to generate twice the playing time you'd get out of whatever rechargeable you're planning on while maintaining the same voltage so, as not to fry your system.
Not criticizing your methods. Just trying to help out is all.
-
My vote goes to Eneloop. I spent a bit on a set of 12 AAs and 4 AAAs, and I absolutely love them. Might buy some more triple A's too.
They consistently last 4-6 hours (I don't really keep count, but seeing as lunch and bus are around an hour, it gives me a fair idea), and they've gradually snuck into all my devices. I use them for the 4 GBAs/GBCs I take out regularly, my wireless keyboards, Wiimotes, arcade stick... And the 2500MaH duracell rechargeables I bought for about £12 are crap in comparison.
Eneloops get charged when they die, and then sit in a drawer ready to be grabbed up for instant power. The f*cking rock.
Oh, nice GT BTW :D I don't think I could take a knife to one though.
-
I'm a pro Eneloop user for years now.
I recently bought for 83 € (with shipping) for 32 Eneloop (AAA 750 and 550 mAh and AA 2400 and 1900 mAh, 8 of each) at nkon.nl.
Yes, those batteries rock because they age very well (the first 8 I bought years ago are still "keeping the charge" like before) and they stay charged even if you don't use it for a long period.
My previous branded rechargeable batteries (Energizer, Duracell, ...) are really piece of crap compared to Eneloop.
Advice : Use a slow charger with rechargeable batteries, don't buy fast charger if you want them to live longer.
-
A third vote for Eneloops here, I've also had some I've been using pretty regularly for the last 4 years and they're still running like champs. Like most people mentioned, they have a huge benefit in the ability to charge them and store them, without worrying about the charge degrading over a couple months.
-
i use Eneloops and energisers with good results.
the express/GT wont be hurt by the lower voltage, as it uses a linear regulator that (wastes) anything above the 5V required to run the system.
the slow VS fast charger depends on the build of the battery and charger, some wont/cant charge properly fast.
-
Shrapnoid, you are talking about the batteries performance in general. I'm talking about their performance in a Pc engine GT. Not all batteries are made the same quality. its nice that ray-o-vacs can go for six months without recharging, but thats in a wireless keyboard or mouse, not a high drain device like a GT. Lithiums will destory all other batteries in high drain devices, but cost alot of money, and cant be recharged. High end Ni-Mhs will not always out perform Quality alkalines, but get very close, and can be recharged. The reason people in these forums use quality rechargables in thier Gt's is because they know what they will get if they use cheap batteries. Dont take my word for it, look it up in consumer reports. Walmart alkalines will get you 133 pictures out of a digital camera. Duracell coppertops will get you 290. Duracell lithiums will get you 1099. So, it all boils down to price. Now i ask you, would you rather pay $25 for a top rated set of eneloops with charger, that will last you atleast 5 years, or do you want to spend the next 5 years buying dollar store batteries? I have no problem with your opinion and you can use whatever you want, but you will find that most people that own one of these devices understand that rechargables are the way to go, good rechargables.
-
I did it, i made the internal encoder run
http://pcengine.freeforums.org/express-gt-composite-t179.html
-
this thread is WIN!!! great job you freakin genius!!!
-
I did it, i made the internal encoder run
http://pcengine.freeforums.org/express-gt-composite-t179.html
So what was it running before, RGB? Hmm, I guess it makes sense.
I guess this should be possible to mod on a white PCE then?
*edit* and wait, how come we have a whole other forum with the same people on it?
-
the second forum was made when this one went down.
yes it was RGB only
-
Holy cow! That's amazing stuff, thesteve!
-
Wow, that's awesome! Great job!
-
I did it, i made the internal encoder run
http://pcengine.freeforums.org/express-gt-composite-t179.html
Steve you are da man!!! That is great!
-
Bump! =)
Pics or it didn't happen!!
Just kidding :wink:
-
there is one of here around here somewhere holding my custom gt that steve put together. she hates having her picture taken and looks irritated :)