PC Engine RGB (Continued)
Here's the pinout for the 8 pin mini din plug (assuming you used the same pinout as me for the socket!), the photo shows the side of the plug that you solder onto.
The following photo shows a couple of things. First of all, I remembered to put the plug casing onto the cable, and secondly - how much of the cable I stripped back. Because the individual wires can't be too long, I split the outer cable so that I could work with the individual wires easier.
To solder the wires to the plug, first of all add some solder to both the backs of the pins and the wires. The photo above shows how much exposed wire I leave on the wires - it's not much at all. I keep it short to help keep the plug tidy. I usually strip too much wire back so that I can twist it up and then melt solder into it, finally trim it short.
I then put the wire near the contact, heat the contact up and push them together, simple if you prepare them properly and take your time. I find it easier to start with the very middle contact, then solder one line of contacts at a time, then try and arrange the wires ready to solder the next line (this is why I put a couple of splits in the black cable). Finally you have the plug soldered up.
BEFORE you put the plug together, solder the other end of the Scart cable together (I forgot to photograph this bit, but it's the same as the MD2 lead, but without the resistors on the RGB wires).
Now, back to the mini din plug, put just the metal part onto the plug, you can now test it all out, you should be able to safely put the partially assembled plug into the socket you've wired up.
On my CRT TV the image is a bit dark, on my LCD TV the image isn't too dark, but my LCD doesn't like any retro consoles - and with the PC Engine the top of the screen wobbles like it's out of sync. If your cable is working then finish putting the plug back together and you're done!
My mini din plug is slightly too fat for the case, but I fixed this by cutting a tiny bit off of the plug.
If the image is too dark, then you can build a simple amplifier using just 3 transistors.
Of course, you don't have to fit a socket for the Scart cable, some people hard wire the Scart cable to the console, you don't have to make a hole for it - you could squeeze the cable out of the hole for the RF unit or channel switch.
Many many thanks to Saurian for the info in the first place. And to the people, businesses that got me a PC Engine when I wanted one (JazzFunk/Chaoticjelly games)
Summary of Components needed
1 x Shielded 8 pin mini din
board mount socket
1 x 8 pin mini din plug
1 x Scart plug
1 x 75 ohm resistor
Cable to make the scart lead (at least 8 core), or a Scart Lead to sacrifice!
some wire (like Kynar)
