When I was modding soeter04's PCEngine HERE I had a bit of a flash of inspiration. It should be entirely possible to draw all the signals, and power, we need from the expansion port. Simply hook up the amp, and feed it all to a SCART socket, doddle. A quick Google, and indeed it is possible as it has been done a few times. However, all those hacks were Huge and looked pretty amateurish to me.
Also, the CoreGrafx, which I own is much more restricted internally, fitting an internal mod is no where near as straightforward as the original PCEngine with the RF out.
I have my own amp, bought from Thgill, so I set about testing and sorting it out. First of all I used some PC Mobo connectors that I had lying about...
I had a spare SCART header which I had prepped up for a MegaDrive, however, the Resistors and Capacitors you see are unnecessary, so I removed them. Most of the signals you need are on the right hand side, the two audio out signals, are on the left.
Testing was successful, so, using a small casing I picked up from Maplin I secured the amp internally, soldered all the connections, hooked up the audio and sync connections and started work on some proper headers to connect to the expansion slots. I wanted to make it easier to plug in and out, so leaving it as it is isn't really an option. Be a bit of a pain to fiddle about around the back hooking up individual signals every time.
This is just a bit of solder board cut to size, with 3 Single in line Header (SIL) sockets, cut to size, glued together, and soldered into place. The second picture shows you the signals, +5v and GND.
Welding all the cable connections up didn't take long, and I used a bit of heatshrink to protect it, and neaten it all up.
The finished cable is quite robust and simple, and works a treat.
Just another option available to you instead of hacking around internally.
Also, the CoreGrafx, which I own is much more restricted internally, fitting an internal mod is no where near as straightforward as the original PCEngine with the RF out.
I have my own amp, bought from Thgill, so I set about testing and sorting it out. First of all I used some PC Mobo connectors that I had lying about...
I had a spare SCART header which I had prepped up for a MegaDrive, however, the Resistors and Capacitors you see are unnecessary, so I removed them. Most of the signals you need are on the right hand side, the two audio out signals, are on the left.
Testing was successful, so, using a small casing I picked up from Maplin I secured the amp internally, soldered all the connections, hooked up the audio and sync connections and started work on some proper headers to connect to the expansion slots. I wanted to make it easier to plug in and out, so leaving it as it is isn't really an option. Be a bit of a pain to fiddle about around the back hooking up individual signals every time.
This is just a bit of solder board cut to size, with 3 Single in line Header (SIL) sockets, cut to size, glued together, and soldered into place. The second picture shows you the signals, +5v and GND.
Welding all the cable connections up didn't take long, and I used a bit of heatshrink to protect it, and neaten it all up.
The finished cable is quite robust and simple, and works a treat.
Just another option available to you instead of hacking around internally.
Last edited:
although will need to wait untill I can get an amp sorted... will PM thgill now and see if he knows when he will be back in business.
