Help needed with 50/60hz Saturn mod..

Ok, so I followed this tutorial. http://www.retrocorner.net/index.php?Mods_/_repairs:Saturn_model_2_50/60hz_switch_-_page_1


It is my first time electronic soldering and taking apart a console this far and putting it back together after. Luckily I can say I didn't break it! But I haven't gotten the desired result either... Not all the details inside my saturn were exactly the same as in the tutorial, but I found the SW4 pins and conneceted the wires in the middle, with the A wire on the middle of my switch.



Now classic 50hz mode works just fine.



But when I switch over to 60hz....



Does anyone know what is going on here and how to fix it?

 

Since your Saturn didn't match the tutorial, this mod probably doesn't work for your model. When I 50/60Hz modify a Saturn I always lift the pin on the video-chip and solder a switch to that instead, that should work on all models. Mmmonkey has an excellent guide for this here:
http://mmmonkey.co.uk/console/sega/saturn5060.htm

 

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Thanks for the replies . Its too late now but I'll try fixing it tomorrow. Just to be sure, cutting the trace means disrupting that line?

 

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Permanently locked into PAL until you grind into the casing and solder to what barely sticks out. I've fixed region mods on a few MegaDrives this way.

 

Ok I was just going to cut the wire lol, but the bit about that it should always be grounded worries me. It's still connected to ground through my switch or?

But you are sure that everything aside from actually doing to points to that being the way to get 60hz? With the switch in place. Am curious if I'll lose my clock functionality though.

 

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I'm happy to report that it works!

Here look the difference on a imported game.



and now i flip the switch to 60hz



Thanks Druid II!


But a question, both times as I put the Saturn back together and turned it on, I only got a black screen from it, so I put it back open and just made sure the ribbons are packed in extra secure and then I put it back together and it then luckily works again after giving me a scare. Is it me putting in the video plug more firmly or are the ribbons that finicky?

 

ribbons arent required for the console to boot up.

 

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I hope it's okay I use this old thread to ask this question. I found a nice Saturn on a local flea-market today. I wanted to mod it with a 50/60Hz mod and unibios and then sell it since I already have a working Saturn. I have modified several Saturns before, and most of them have turned out really nice. A few times though I have ended with nothing but a black screen after doing the 50/60 mod. And sure enough this happened for me today as well
I'm fairly good at soldering, and I checked thoroughly for shorts when soldering the bios and lifting pin 79 on the VDP. I also use liquid flux to ensure good soldering, so there shouldn't be any problems there.
I'm really puzzled why the Saturn has died after modding it. I have tried resoldering pin 79 to it's original position and even the solder pad on "SW4", just in case the soldering pad under the IC were bad after lifting the pin. But it still doesn't work.

My guess is that the Saturn is completely dead now, I just don't understand why Any thoughts and possible help would be greatly appreciated

Here are a few pictures of the mod:

Bios:


50/60Hz mod:

 

I can't tell for sure but are pins 1 and 2 shorted on the MX chip? You're only supposed to wire up pin 2 which I'm sure you're aware of but you've either shorted them with solder or pin 1 is removed? Something I learned a long time ago to do was to test each mod as I went to help isolate issues, don't suppose you tested both the BIOS swap and 50/60hz mods separately?

Is it possible the pin has come loose enough from the VDP that it no longer has an electrical connection but it physically connected? In my younger days when I first started soldering I recall slathering a wire with solder and yet the device still didn't work until I bothered to heat up the wire to melt solder onto it. Happens occasionally to this day when I forgot to flux/tin something.

Could try grinding off some of the casing and soldering directly to the internal portion of the pin.

 

Pin 1 is removed I didn't test the mods separately unfortunately. I assume the bios is working correctly though, as I have had this black screen problem in the past on another Saturn where I didn't replace the bios.

Good suggestion, and sounds like a possible solution. I usually have no problems lifting pins, but sure, it could have broke in this case. What do you use to grind into the IC? A dremmel or something similar?

EDIT: But wait. Wouldn't the pin be pulled low if it was broken, and just set the Saturn to 50Hz? Actually the XRGB-mini saw the input as 50Hz and 60Hz when I switched modes, but there was just a black screen. I guess the pin couldn't be broken then?

 

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Sounds like bad bios install to me. It can be quite hard to get a good connect as the chips are slightly larger than the pads.

 

Druid II>

But that's not the case I guess, since the TV and XRGB sees the signal as 50 and 60Hz correctly when I switch. My problem is very similar to this guys:
http://segaxtreme.net/community/topic/13914-black-screen-saturn/

I bend all the pins inwards using a ruler. Soldered all the legs using liquid flux and tested with a multimeter. I even double checked and resoldered all the pins after first seeing the black screen. Would the disc drive spin if the Bios was broken?

 

Today I resoldered all the pins on the bios and tested them all for shorts and connections to whatever they connect to on the motherboard. That didn't help. I also tried disabling the 50/60Hz mod for good (disconnecting power and GND from the PIC), and I tried to leave pin 79 on the VDP floating which should set it in 50Hz, but that didn't work as well.
I tested for shorts between pin 79 and 78/80 and even between 78 and 80, unthough that seemed a bit unlikely. I then, just for the hell of it, added some flux to those pins and used a flat headed soldering tip to make sure that they hadn't come loose when lifting the other pin.
I reconnected 5V and GND to the PIC and connected it to pin 79. It still doesn't work. I have no idea what to try next. I made this video showing that the Saturn does in fact output 60 (59.40Hz) and 50Hz correctly, but with just a black screen. For some reason my iPhone decided that rotating the picture would be fun. Sorry about that. Green is 50Hz and red is 60:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMT1r9qiwUw

 

Maybe I damaged the bios when installing it. I don't see how, but you never know. I might order a few more from you next month
If that doesn't work I'll try grinding down the IC and see if any of the legs surrounding pin 79 has broken when lifting the pin. Again it seems pretty unlikely, but I'm all out of ideas. To me it seems like there are models that doesn't like the 50/60Hz mod, but surely it would be widely documented if that was the case, right?

Pin 79 isn't connected directly to GND originally. There are some resistors in between. But I guess the VDP's are pretty much the same on all Saturns so that couldn't be a factor that would break it when feeding it 5V or GND directly, would it? I mean, the theory should be the same for ALL models, right?