PS1 -> RGB conversion

[ross1man1]

[uk-vac] PS1 -> RGB conversion
Hiya,

I've been trying to hook an old PS1 to an arcade monitor - I built this circuit:

http://www.gamesx.com/misctech/lm1881.htm

And I followed the tip here:

http://arcadecontrols.com/arcade_consoles.shtml#rgb

... which said I'd need 220uF capacitors on the input lines.

Well, things are quite good, but it's still a tiny bit dark - I have to up the brightness on my monitor every time I switch between a PCB and the PS1, which is a pain in the neck because the brightness control is buried away in the innards of the cabinet, and even when it is tweaked up to maximum it isn't quite as bright as I'd like.

I read (too late!) on this page:

http://www.mameworld.net/pc2jamma/arc_sat2.html

... that I shouldn't have used electrolytic capacitors.

So my question is, do you think I would be best replacing the capacitors with non-electrolytic (in which case, anyone care to point me at the most appropriate ones?) ... or, do you think I can improve the brightness by varying the value of the capacitors, and if so, should I go up or down, and how far? I very rarely do anything like this, so I don't have a pile of spares that I can experiment with, hence asking the list before ordering a half dozen parts that will cost less than the postage!

Thanks if you can help,
Ross

p.s. You might be interested to know that using this circuit the gun games play great... which reminds me, does anyone know where I can get some of the metal shielding (looks like a narrower version of shower hose) and the end connectors that you see on the cables to the guns on arcade games?

--
Dr Ross Hamilton (ross@djse.com), Director / Lead Developer

DJSE Limited, Grove House, Well, Alford, Lincolnshire, LN13 0ET
Tel: 01507 466 797 -:- Mob: 07970 801 661 -:- Web: www.djse.com

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[pobtastic]

RE: [uk-vac] PS1 -> RGB conversion
Don't quote me on any of this because I've never looked into any of it (the
monitor I hook my Xbox up to is VGA) and also I've never played around with
PS1s...

One thing I do know is that arcade boards kick out a far higher voltage
compared to 'normal' tv related things. This is why the newer ipacs have an
onboard amp for the video signals else the picture appears very dull on a
normal arcade monitor. All of this means that I think it's very unlikely
that your problem is caused by the electrolytic capacitors... I'd have
thought that page says not to use them because they 'work' differently to
say, ceramics - not that I bothered reading any of the links you gave
because I'm lazy... It's possible that using electrolytics might cause
oscillations in your circuit because of the higher leakage with these caps.

Pobster

-- ArcadeGeek.co.uk --

 

[dz1n3]

Re: [uk-vac] PS1 -> RGB conversion
The caps aint your problem.

TVs like a 1v p2p video signal, old arcade monitors like 4v p2p for
there inputs.
You need to get yourself a video amp.

The shower hose you talk of is called copex

http://www.aist.go.jp/aist_e/latest_research/2006/20060210/20060210.html

 

[andrewhannay]

RE: [uk-vac] PS1 -> RGB conversion
Interesting link you posted - nothing to do with "shower hose" but very
interesting all the same.
What's next true 3d games????
Andrew

>

 

[ross1man1]

RE: [uk-vac] PS1 -> RGB conversion
D wrote:
> You need to get yourself a video amp.

I don't suppose you have a good URL for a circuit to do this? I'd rather have a go at making one than just buy one, it's more fun.

> The shower hose you talk of is called copex

Cool... I've had a quick Google search, but haven't found a supplier yet... Any pointers? Incidentally, is it just me being useless at searching, or is the RS online catalogue virtually useless for finding something in?

Cheerio,
Ross

--
Dr Ross Hamilton (ross@djse.com), Director / Lead Developer

DJSE Limited, Grove House, Well, Alford, Lincolnshire, LN13 0ET
Tel: 01507 466 797 -:- Mob: 07970 801 661 -:- Web: www.djse.com

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[ross1man1]

RE: [uk-vac] PS1 -> RGB conversion
Hmm, found this, but the diagram isn't readable:

http://www.mameworld.net/pc2jamma/hardware.html

--
Dr Ross Hamilton (ross@djse.com), Director / Lead Developer

DJSE Limited, Grove House, Well, Alford, Lincolnshire, LN13 0ET
Tel: 01507 466 797 -:- Mob: 07970 801 661 -:- Web: www.djse.com

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[pobtastic]

RE: [uk-vac] PS1 -> RGB conversion
I have a proper bit of that 'shower hose' together with the wiring for a
force feedback Namco gun (Point Blank, Time Crisis, etc). It's expensive
though... Brent sell them for something like £200 each (and I only have
one) and so I wouldn't want to sell it for peanuts.

Pobster

-- ArcadeGeek.co.uk --

 

[ross1man1]

RE: [uk-vac] PS1 -> RGB conversion
> I have a proper bit of that 'shower hose' together with the wiring for a
> force feedback Namco gun (Point Blank, Time Crisis, etc). It's expensive
> though... Brent sell them for something like £200 each (and I only have one)
> and so I wouldn't want to sell it for peanuts.

Youch! That's more than my wife would let me spend on gaming right now

I'll have to investigate alternatives. I just know that my little boys will soon manage to damage the cables if I poke holes in the cabinet and leave G-con 45s hanging out... Maybe some shielded grommets at both ends will be sufficient.

Thanks guys,
Ross

--
Dr Ross Hamilton (ross@djse.com), Director / Lead Developer

DJSE Limited, Grove House, Well, Alford, Lincolnshire, LN13 0ET
Tel: 01507 466 797 -:- Mob: 07970 801 661 -:- Web: www.djse.com

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[andrewhannay]

RE: [uk-vac] PS1 -> RGB conversion
I can read it OK.
Don't want to state the obvious but IE automatically reduced the size so I
had to expand, were you viewing at 100% size?
The circuit is drawn as if it were on a piece of Stripboard (or Veroboard if
you like) as apposed to a standard circuit diagram.
Andrew

>

 

[dz1n3]

Re: [uk-vac] PS1 -> RGB conversion
Dont bother, i designed that like years ago, better off just getting
hold of a video amp chip like the AD8073 (built a few with it so
recommend), so your
only need a few resistors to go with that and your away.

I do have a circuit pre drawn up, and some spare AD8073's R U going to
honiton?

D!

Andrew Hannay wrote:

>I can read it OK.
>Don't want to state the obvious but IE automatically reduced the size so I
>had to expand, were you viewing at 100% size?
>The circuit is drawn as if it were on a piece of Stripboard (or Veroboard if
>you like) as apposed to a standard circuit diagram.
>Andrew
>
>

 

[ross1man1]

RE: [uk-vac] PS1 -> RGB conversion
http://www.mameworld.net/pc2jamma/images/big/vamp.gif

Andrew wrote:
> I can read it OK.
> Don't want to state the obvious but IE automatically reduced the size so I had to
> expand, were you viewing at 100% size?

I know what you mean about IE shrinking it, I did expand it first... but even when I expand it, I can't read the component labels because they are behind the blue track lines... i.e. what types are the three transistors?

... not that it matters much, after D!'s next posting

Cheerio,
Ross

--
Dr Ross Hamilton (ross@djse.com), Director / Lead Developer

DJSE Limited, Grove House, Well, Alford, Lincolnshire, LN13 0ET
Tel: 01507 466 797 -:- Mob: 07970 801 661 -:- Web: www.djse.com

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[ross1man1]

RE: [uk-vac] PS1 -> RGB conversion
D wrote:
> Dont bother, i designed that like years ago, better off just getting hold of a video
> amp chip like the AD8073 (built a few with it so recommend), so your only need
> a few resistors to go with that and your away.

Ah, cool. It turns out that Andy Warne already has some amplifiers made up and he's going to give me one in return for me not bugging him any more to get his PS2 interface to work on a PS1

> I do have a circuit pre drawn up, and some spare AD8073's R U going to honiton?

It'd be great to see the circuit - I have a spare LM1881 so it'd be nice to build a complete spare circuit on a single board and try to do it a bit more tidily the second time around (my prototyping skills are not the best!)... I'm not off to Honiton though, I didn't even bother to ask my wife if she'd mind me travelling across half of the country for something like that!

Cheerio,
Ross

--
Dr Ross Hamilton (ross@djse.com), Director / Lead Developer

DJSE Limited, Grove House, Well, Alford, Lincolnshire, LN13 0ET
Tel: 01507 466 797 -:- Mob: 07970 801 661 -:- Web: www.djse.com

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[andrewhannay]

RE: [uk-vac] PS1 -> RGB conversion
Oh yeah I see what you mean, although they would probably be BC108B.
Andrew

>

 

[jetboy_ukvac]

RE: [uk-vac] PS1 -> RGB conversion
IE:
Tools > Internet Options > Advanced > Multimedia > 'Enable Automatic Image
Resizing'

Firefox:
Tools > Options > Advanced > Browsing > 'Resize large images to fit in the
browser window'

<snip>

Don't want to state the obvious but IE automatically reduced the size so I
had to expand, were you viewing at 100% size?

</snip>

 

[dz1n3]

Re: [uk-vac] PS1 -> RGB conversion
Andy Warne is a tit.. the last and only amp i got off him had no terminating resistors on the inputs plus it had wrong valued resisitors on the amp, it was like he never read the fucking data sheets cause they had all the info needed. When i contacted the tit about it, he told me i had grounding problems, but that was like after he told me no monitor needs a video amp anyway.

Ross Hamilton wrote:

>D wrote:
>
>
>>Dont bother, i designed that like years ago, better off just getting hold of a video
>>amp chip like the AD8073 (built a few with it so recommend), so your only need
>>a few resistors to go with that and your away.
>>
>>
>
>Ah, cool. It turns out that Andy Warne already has some amplifiers made up and he's going to give me one in return for me not bugging him any more to get his PS2 interface to work on a PS1
>
>
>
>>I do have a circuit pre drawn up, and some spare AD8073's R U going to honiton?
>>
>>
>
>It'd be great to see the circuit - I have a spare LM1881 so it'd be nice to build a complete spare circuit on a single board and try to do it a bit more tidily the second time around (my prototyping skills are not the best!)... I'm not off to Honiton though, I didn't even bother to ask my wife if she'd mind me travelling across half of the country for something like that!
>
>Cheerio,
>Ross
>
>--
>Dr Ross Hamilton (ross@djse.com), Director / Lead Developer
>
>DJSE Limited, Grove House, Well, Alford, Lincolnshire, LN13 0ET
>Tel: 01507 466 797 -:- Mob: 07970 801 661 -:- Web: www.djse.com
>
>
>