Hello everyone, After signing up to this community I decided it would be worth to get my hands "dirty" again with this console and in particular in this mod. I want to have one single Saturn that has the mods to play with the best quality possible. Only 3 things will be done to this, which are S/PDIF Toslink Audio mod, Phoebe, and RGB CSYNC without Audio to a Frameister. I have tried to do this audio mod once, but it was without success. I found this link for the pinout and schematics of what I should do: http://gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=av:saturn_sp_dif Here are my final results: http://imgur.com/a/2qcaQ However after trying to connect the console for the first time after all the solder and connections to the breadboard, this ended up happening: 1- http://dai.ly/x5r45zx 2- http://dai.ly/x5r464a I believe one thing might have happened but I'm not really sure, thus I'm here searching for your opinions since you probably have more knowledge of the system than I do. Do you think this might've been due to too much heat on the audio chip (TDA1386T)? Would a broken audio chip (due to heat) crash the system as it is currently happening? What do you think I need to do to fix this ? Try to replace the TDA1386T with a new one, will need to completely change the board, can I somehow take out the TDA1386T since I only pretend to use S/PDIF? Regards!
Does the system still work if you remove the mod? That would be the first ting I would try before I went any further with this. I'm using Helder's board for this mod too, but I'm not using an inverter. Without an inverter you need to tie pin 3 high, otherwise it will sound really off. This can be done by just soldering pin 2 and 3 together.
Thanks for the reply. I ordered 2 of those boards by Helder. Although I was trying to do the mod in the breadboard first to see if it would work correctly. In that case, I think I will skip the inverter and join pins 2-3. Less circuitry to deal with is good Well, Those results were in fact with and then without the mod So that's why I believe I damaged the Audio IC. But what I wasn't expecting was an Audio IC to crash the whole system which it seems to be doing. Out of curiosity, how sensitive do you think those ICs are to temperature? (Without power of course) I might try to order a TDA1386T and change it from the original. And then re-do all the solders with a less powerful iron. Do you think a hot air would be better suited for this? Or low power iron would be sufficient?
I couldn't say how sensitive they are. I wouldn't expect a broken DAC to freeze the system either, but you never know. If no one else has any suggestions, I would try removing the chip as a last resort and see if that restores life to the console. My Saturn has the PCM1710 chip. I only soldered the reset line to that, and used the test points on the bottom side for the rest of the connections. I wouldn't solder any chips with a hot air station, I find that much harder than using an iron, and you will expose the chip to much more heat by doing that. I only use my hot air station to remove SMD stuff.
Seems fair... I've just ordered 2x TDA1386T from ebay, so I guess I'll try to change the original a new one. Hope it fixes the issue, otherwise I have to give my motherboard as dead =( I'll post news as soon as I receive them and start the process. Also, can I ask you for some pictures of your mod? It would be good to have another source of information. I'm afraid I'm doing something wrong...
