MegaDrive++ : new switchless region + IGR mod

Got most of the bits too, just waiting on a few components for the dfo part

 

No news on my side, I'm still waiting for my 2313A's to arrive and for feedback from some of you .

 

Today I finally managed to install the megadrive++ mod
Everything works as expected (except the led as I am using a dual-color one, more on that later) and it's a nice upgrade from the old dforce3000 mod because of the IGR functions . Mega-ED works fine with it btw.

First of all I made a quick pic on how to connect the nano , everything you need in a single picture:



front/back installation pics (led connector is a quick solder job for test reasons) :





...now I am unsure about the led. I use the typical red/green one and connected the red+green points to their corresponding pads. The led works and I do get green light in PAL mode and red in what I assume is the US one. But on JP mode the led is OFF - I assume it would light blue if I had an rgb led. How do it get it to work without a blue pin? Is there a code change needed?
Once this is sorted I'll close the machine as everything works fine

 

Glad to hear that everything is working fine! Things like that make me happy!

What AWG is the wire that you used for the controller pins?

About your led issue, it is actually a non-issue: as you said, by default MegaDrive++ supports an RGB led, colors for the various modes (for the Nano) are defined where the code states:

#elif !defined __AVR_ATtinyX5__
#define MODE_LED_EUR_COLOR {0x00, 0xFF, 0x00} // Green
#define MODE_LED_USA_COLOR {0x00, 0x00, 0xFF} // Blue
#define MODE_LED_JAP_COLOR {0xFF, 0x00, 0x00} // Red
#endif​

That should be pretty self-explanatory, let me just remind you that colors are expressed as 3 values in the 0-255 range, representing the RGB components, and that 0xFF is 255 in hexadecimal. If you used the Red/Green points for your dual led, then red means JAP mode. in USA mode your led will be off, as it would be blue, which is obtained with 0 for the red and green components.

To make a long story short, you should just change the above to:

#elif !defined __AVR_ATtinyX5__
#define MODE_LED_EUR_COLOR {0x00, 0xFF, 0x00} // Green
#define MODE_LED_USA_COLOR {0xFF, 0xFF, 0x00} // Yellow (kinda)
#define MODE_LED_JAP_COLOR {0xFF, 0x00, 0x00} // Red
#endif​

But feel free to use any values you like. On the Nano the pins used for led are PWM-capable, so you should be able to use any value in the 0-255 range to get any possible combination of red and green. The blue component should always be 0, but it will be ignored in any case. Also feel free to use decimal numbers if you prefer.

One question about the Everdrive: does the reset work? Do you still think it would be useful to add a longer/shorter reset? In that case please don't reassemble your console, as you will help me in the weekend .

 

Hiya SukkoPera!

yep, very pleased with the mod I will make the modification you wrote about and report back. I will actually change JAP to use the "yellow" color as it's the one that I rarely use.
The Mega-Everdrive that I have does not need a longer reset, in fact I doubt this ever was an issue and I think that I was thinking about SNES/SD2SNES and got confused, sorry about that. I think the same applies with the regular Everdrive , so reset is fine as it is. Ofcourse if testing is needed then I'll be happy to do so.

About the AWG rating of the wire used on the controller port pins, I do not know... the wires are multicore and before I use them on the megedrive+ they were in a special connector connecting 2 system boards of a dead professional printer - in other words they are re-purposed wires. Is it an issue? Should I go single-core?

 

No issue with the wires! I was just curious, as I really like them. Those I use are always too big or too small .

OK for the reset, then we don't need any testing. Just play a bit with it and let me know if you see anything wrong!

 

yaay ! time to order some Nano

 

@SukkoPera
heh, yeah they look nice that's why I used them... the alternative was using either wires similar to an IDE cable or really thin AWG30 one ... I just chose these because they were braided together and I like it

@MoockyLoock
yep, it works nicely. The only "boring" part of the installation is the control port wiring LOL

 

i'll have to learn a bit 'bout Nano flashing.
Then i'll have to find the good LED. I'm at my work right now, i wonder which LED is it ? it seems to me it's a 3mm diameter. I'll have to look for yellow-red-green LED on the Bay.

 

3 mm should be fine.

Yellow is actually the combination of red and green, so the actual led is just dual-color. There are both red/green and red/blue leds (which look purple when both colors are on) around. I tend to prefer the latter, but it's just a matter of personal preference.

Dual leds can either be common-anode or common-cathode. MegaDrive++ supports both so you don't have to worry about that, but the wiring differs.

You don't actually need the dual led, MegaDrive++ also supports a single led mode, where it is flashed a number of times to indicate the current mode. It works well, I use this mode on my MegaDrive 2.

Flashing is supersimple, I have already given the instructions in a previous post, but it's actually so straightforward that it's easier done than said!

 

Yep, flashing is really simple - download the arduino suite -> load the .ino file -> select your device from the list and program.
Ofcourse it is implied that you have connected the nano via usb and you have installed it's serial port driver. If you chose the same nanos that I linked earlier then there is a link on the sale page for the serial driver.

 

I think I'll get the dual color LED, as my NES ans my SNES have the same type of LED.
I'll check the seller's page for soft linkand let you know 'bout my progress.
Thank you all for your help !

 

I made an account because I want to do this mod but have a couple of questions:

1. Will this mod on a PAL Mega Drive 2 result in a Black and White Picture and require the additional Crystal Circuit to display color through composite video in NTSC 60Hz mode?

2. How do I wire the single led version (which flashes according to the region) using the original Mega Drive red LED?

Thanks for your help, sorry if the questions were stupid.

 

1. I think you just need an RGB cable, no need for the crystal mod. My PAL MD2 works fine, at least. You can get very high quality cables from retrogaming.co.uk. A bit expensive but worth it. I bought all of my cables there.

2. As stated on the wiki:

If you want to replace the LED with a new one, you can connect its cathode to the left contact of the old one: it is connected to ground through a 120 Ohm resistor, so you can just connect the anode(s) straight to your chip. I am not sure a 5 mm led will fit, though, so I recommend using 3 mm LEDs.

 

Thanks for your quick reply, I modded my Mega Drive 2 earlier today.

 

Sorry it wasn't really that quick .

Is the mod fine? Are you liking it?

 

I ended up using Damomonster's mod but without switches. So it permanently outputs 60Hz NTSC format, I used the crystal circuit because I'm still using composite video. I'm happy with it (for now).

 

Well, once you switch to RGB (with a decent upscaler) there's no turning back .

 

Yeaaah i finally got my NanoOo ! woOo ! never ending waiting.
Flash tomorrow !

 

Glad you did . I'm still waiting for my 2313A's .

@Bad_Ad84: Any news from you?