I have 2 PSX Debug, both blue and their lasers just burnt out. This isn't more of a "how do i swap" etc type of question because I do know younger PSX systems had a different type of setup for the laser than the older ones have. I think i figured it out how to get a newer laser working on an older sytem and that is just by switching a cable in the power plug. I'm hoping thats all there is to it. So right now is trying to get the wires that I have to switch out of the plug without breaking them. I was wondering how one would go by doing that. Any suggestions?? Also, I have a PSY-Q Saturn, it is PAL 220V 60Hz and I live in USA (NTSC). What would I need to get this system working in a 110V AC 50hz world?
You could also just get a step-up and a PAL->NTSC converter box dealy, but I don't know how much they degrade the picture. It might be easy enough to mod to output NTSC - normal Saturn mod's seem simple enough, anyway. Also, if it just uses a standard Saturn power supply, you can probably just swap it with one from a 100-120V/60Hz US/JP model - is this easy to do with Saturns?
If you manage to obtain the right version of Saturn, yes. Madhatter: the best solution is to sell the Saturn to me, I think :-D
If your Saturn is in 60Hz, you're in luck, as the NTSC standard is also 60Hz. You can hook it up to your TV straight and it will be usable - you won't have the rolling picture, but since it's PAL, it will still be black and white and a rather odd aspect ratio. You could also try running it through a TV-in card on your PC.
I would advise agains tmodding the hardware thogh - you'd be defacing a piece of development history! (not that that ever stopped me though ... hehehe)
Ha, you're funny. $300 and it might be yours ;-). Seriously though its not for sale, not for some time. I opened her up and found that it uses a 5 prong power connector instead of 4, which my US Saturn has so I dare not try, even with a multimeter, plug in the US PSU to the unit and figure out which ones should go where. What's wierder is that the CD Unit doesn't have what the retail unit has. Also, the data cable of the CD unit goes to this PCB board connected to the mobo, and first thing that popped into my head was MPEGCard because the port that is on the back of the retail Saturn for you to plug in an MPEG Card is on the PCB board and it has 2 big chips on the top and a small on the bottom so I'm hoping that it might or can play VCDs or if I ever get my hands a copy, Lunar 1 or 2 MPEG versions, the supposed better versions of the remakes. Another interesting find was that the case of the unit has vents where a fan would go to and near there, on the mainboard there are leads to power such a fan since it circled and has the word Fan printed on it. So I might mod this in the future but I'd have to power it first to know if a 12volt fan is needed or a 5 volt fan. GSL, I think it is 60hz, I will find out when I get home since I'm at school now and with the moving I have yet to get Internet in my new home so posting of pictures of this will have to wait until wednesday I hope.
I'm pretty sure that what you're describing is just an early revision Saturn - the 2 chips being the SH-2 CPU's and the 5-pin PSU. Sorry to shatter your hopes (but I could be wrong)
there should be picture somwhere when I u'/l my prototype Satun pictures on this board.... does yours look like that? cheers
What's this PAL 220V 60Hz Psy-Q Saturn? I don't get it. I'm not exactly up on my regional differences so can someone suggest why would there be a 60Hz Pal machine & where that might be useful? What I've seen: My Psy-Q Saturn is a modded grey japanese machine with a hole chopped out of the side by hand, I swapped the PSU from a normal uk machine I had sitting around 'cause someone had fried it by giving it 220V. The board wasn't the exact same size but dropped in easily. It doesn't have the board & cable coming out of the side but I have the cart. I have no idea if it's 50 or 60Hz 'cause I've never used it for anything other than seeing it power up. My mate has the exact same machine but with the wire in the side. Someone else I know brought his Psy-Q saturn to show me (actually he was wanting to offload it on me but wanted far too much stuff for it) His was a black US machine that had a replacement lid with a moulded cut-out for the lead - looked a lot nicerer. kevin
mate it's Dev unit after all... my PAL PS2 Test has 110 VAC PSU from factory. now how many PAL countries run on 110 VAC? about the hole at the side. does it have SCSI port there? I had two Psy-Q Saturn that I sold to a chap in US. One of them had a hole at the side and inside there's small board with SCSI port that sit there. Another Psy-Q Saturn didn't have the hole but had interrupt wire hanging out in front... Then there is blue DevCart. I never got hold of it and that's why I sold those two on eBay... cheers
I think he might be getting things a bit mixed up - he also said that the US is 110V 50Hz (which it's not - it's 60Hz), so maybe he meant to say 220V 50Hz? Anyway, this is the frquency of the line voltage - the frequency of the video output is a whole other annoying problem...
yea, where are all the carts then? Psy-Q saturns don't seem to be the most rare dev things at all but I've only seen a small number of the carts. Or maybe it seems like there are many machines as they just get passed about from one collector to another kevin
most of PSU should handle either 50 or 60 unless the appliance is replying on the freq for anothe function - timer, clock, etc... well that's my understanding anyway...
I think assembler has a complete setup but my guess is it's not cheap... probably cheaper to get CartDev Rev.B setup... Think NFG(?) sold one for around $350-400 not so long ago?
The setup assembler has is worth close to $600. Its the cartridge and the dongle that take up most of that price. Well I looked int he back of the saturn and saw that its an AC 110V 50/60hz, yet the power connector is that of a PAL and I don't have a cord with that type of plug. The PSY-Q saturn is just a modified saturn thats made to work well with the PSY-Q dev cart because you can use a retail saturn with the PSY-Q dev cart, it says so in the manual that I have. And Anti, those are not SH2 chips cuz I located them elsewhere on the mainboard. And DJ. I found the pictures you were talking about. Yes it looks a lot like your prototype except for that chip with flat metal shielding is just black, the SH2 chips on my saturn are where yours are and the PCB board I talked about, you have it too. I don't have that big BIOS looking chip though.
I'm not sure but assembler's setup might also has Mirage VCD unit which can be fairly expensive to buy it alone if you can find one. If the label says 110VAC I wouldn't stick it into anything other than 110VAC if I were you. Maybe who ever sold the set put in the wrong power cable without checking. There are few different revisions of Psy-Q Saturn from what I saw. One with SCSI port at right hand side and no region switch, one with interruption(?) cable hanging out in front w/ no region switch, one with SCSI port AND region switch, another one with region switch, VCD port but no SCSI port... and etc. Like you said with Psy-Q setup it's Blue DevCart that is most important - in some what similar ways to the Dev box sits underneath the console in CartDev Rev.B setup. fair number of Psy-Q Saturn consoles are either modified launch grey Saturn or black M1 and some cases M2 but haven't seen them that often. It usually grey oval button JPN Saturn modified. You can tell it's launch Saturn if the PSU is attached to the top portion of shell when you open as I believe Sega moved the PSU to the lower shell soon after... It wouldn't surprise the launch Saturn's M/B shared many things with the prototype Saturn which in turn shared with Sophia. The BIOS chip in socket is I think only for Sophia and prototype which makes sense as it wouldn't have fixed till Saturn went into the mass production. Mine has sticker on it saying it's revision dating April or something... According to Retro Sophia has similar looking BIOS chip on the socket as well... cheers
The Psy-Q is the cart, not the console. The console is just a console modded with a VCD port and country mod. I doubt you have a Mirage or VCD card (not Video CD, Virtual CD). So just plug the cart into your regular US saturn and it will work. It isn't that common to find a PAL psy-q saturn, they were mostly NTSC. Another answer would be buy one of the NTSC units that goes for peanuts. $300? Well, if it is all boxed and complete, including manuals and software, then maybe it is worth that. Other answer is Step-up + RGB monitor (e.g. a Commodore RGB monitor), and make an RGB cable from a SCART cable.
