Couple of SuperCIC questions

Discussion in 'Modding and Hacking - Consoles and Electronics' started by Sonny_Jim, Feb 6, 2016.

  1. Sonny_Jim

    Sonny_Jim Enthusiastic Member

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    I have a GPM-02 SNES here that's been SuperCIC'd and it's working fine except for two things:

    1. It seems to only output PAL60 rather than PAL50, is this normal?
    2. SA-1 games don't work :\

    Anywhere I should start looking first?

    EDIT: Ok, figured out problem 2. The original CIC was still wired in, which meant that carts couldn't talk to the SuperCIC properly. Which was OK for any games that didn't interrogate the lock CIC (ie non SA-1 games), as the SuperCIC runs even if it doesn't get the right response from the cart CIC. So the fix is disconnect the CIC properly ;)

    I'm not too sure about my PAL60 problem though. Is it possible for a 2 Chip Jap Super Famicom to output PAL50?
     
    Last edited: Feb 6, 2016
  2. Pikmin

    Pikmin Resolute Member

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    Never mind, didn't see your edit
     
  3. Bad_Ad84

    Bad_Ad84 The Tick

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    If you have a super famicom, it's ntsc. So the 50/60hz mod gives you ntsc50 and ntsc60

    Most TVs won't accept ntsc50, if you use rgb it should be fine. You can also probably lift a pin of the video encoder and force it to pal, so you get pal 50 and pal60
     
  4. Sonny_Jim

    Sonny_Jim Enthusiastic Member

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    According to Ikari_01, lifting the video encoder still wouldn't work as it would be the wrong 'subcarrier clock', whatever that means. I think to do it 'properly' would mean changing the system clock at X1 as well. It it be possible to wire up the SuperCIC to switch X1 to using a different crystal?
     
  5. Bad_Ad84

    Bad_Ad84 The Tick

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    I actually wanted to test this, but the 1chip mod also puts the correct sub carrier on srgb pin 9. When I sell my 1chip pcb, I was intending to sell the sams board to everyone so they could use this signal to give correct composite output.

    I just wanted to test that it works first. That's why it's not for sale yet.
     
  6. tehgazza

    tehgazza Rising Member

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    If running RGB the colour subcarrier clock doesn't matter as it would not be used per se. This is why BadAd said it in the first place then again when talking about his mod board.
     
  7. Sonny_Jim

    Sonny_Jim Enthusiastic Member

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    Yeah TBH I'm going to give up my dream of having a 'pure' PAL50/NTSC60 SNES and just live with using an RGB cable. From what I understand, a Jap SFC uses the same RGB scart cable as Gamecube?
     
  8. MonkeyBoyJoey

    MonkeyBoyJoey 70's Robot Anime GEPPY-X (PS1) Fanatic

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    Not quite. The GC cable has an extra cap on the composite video line. On top of that, it uses pin 3 of the multi-out for providing +12V to the SCART connector. Pin 3 is C-Sync on NTSC SNES consoles. I'm not sure if this will cause issues but it might be safe to just remove the cap and disconnect the 12V wire. Maybe bad_ad can shed light on that.

    If you are getting a SFC, order a cable that is wired for NTSC SNES systems. If you mean one for your PAL SNES, get a PAL SNES RGB SCART cable instead.
     
  9. borti4938

    borti4938 Robust Member

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    Possible.
    You may lift pin 19 on the S-ENC to switch between PAL (pin set to 0V) and NTSC-encoding (pin set to +5V) - note that the logic is different to the on at the S-PPUs.
    For changing the clock, you may lift pin 3 of the S-PPU2 (pin 5 at the S-CLK in PAL-systems), switch between ~3.58MHz (NTSC) and ~4.43MHz (PAL) and forward the frequency to the free pad.
    However, it is not a good idea to use a frequency which is completely unrelated to the system clock. Colors can become loose and change there color slightly even in fixed-image scenes.
    In NTSC systems this could be a problem! In PAL-systems you can get 4.43MHz for PAL from S-CLK pin 5 (lifted) and for NTSC 3.55MHz from S-PPU pin 3 (~30kHz off NTSC subcarrier frequency). For a NTSC system I don't see a that easy way...
    I've done this a few month ago in a PAL-SNES.
    https://www.dropbox.com/sh/0z4ia3c29nus30n/AADN4WsED5WDRWl8ZUpV928Ja?dl=0
     
  10. Sonny_Jim

    Sonny_Jim Enthusiastic Member

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    I was thinking of using something similar to this to replace X1 and it's surrounding parts altogether and using the SuperCIC to switch between PAL and NTSC clocks:
    https://www.sparkfun.com/products/retired/9116

    The aim is to have a console that we behave *exactly* like a PAL Super Nintendo when it has a PAL cart inserted, or like a Super Famicom when a Jap cart is inserted.
     
  11. borti4938

    borti4938 Robust Member

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    Might be possible, but you have to switch a lot of clocks. In PAL-SNES there is the S-CLK which calculates at least the following clocks: master clock, color subcarrier, CIC-lock, CIC-key.
    You also have to look in the datasheet for the S-ENC - the passive components around it differs between PAL and NTSC-encoding mode.
    This was to much for me ;)
    Also the RGB amplification out of the S-PPU2 to the S-ENC and the MultiAV differs completely.
     
  12. Sonny_Jim

    Sonny_Jim Enthusiastic Member

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    Ah Ok, I'll file that under "Pie in the Sky" mods then ;) Thanks for the info
     
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