Mega Drive 2 50/60Hz and Jap/Eng Switches (Continued)
A Mega Drive 2 is a little bit more difficult to add 50/60Hz and Jap/Eng switches than a Mega Drive 1. It involves finer work, lifting a leg from a chip, as well as cutting a smaller trace on the motherboard. Make sure you read the Mega Drive 1 guide as it explains some of this in more detail.
Take your console apart (very straight forward), and remove the metal shielding. During this guide mmmonkey left fitting the switches until the last minute - this is not recommended, it is much easier to fit them before you begin soldering (as in the Mega Drive 1 guide)
Jpn/Eng Switch
We'll do the more difficult Jpn/Eng switch first, look for the following chip on the motherboard, and you'll need to lift leg 107 from the motherboard (very easy to find leg 107, as 105 is the corner leg, labelled for you). If you've got a very fine craft knife, or a needle you may be able to lift it without even needing to use a soldering iron. Gently use the knife blade to prise the leg off of the motherboard.
Look at leg 107, you can follow the track along the motherboard a short distance, if you've got a fibreglass pencil, the use it to prepare this point (otherwise scrape at it very carefully with you craft knife), you will need to solder a wire to this point in a minute. Now it's a good idea to isolate leg 107 so it can't make contact with the motherboard by accident. Lay some electrical insulation tape over the motherboard directly underneath the lifted leg. Maybe put 2 layers of tape. Solder a wire to this leg, wait for the solder to cool completely, then cover with more insulation tape, this is just a precaution, to protect the leg if the wire gets pulled. (Remember to "tin" the wire and the leg before attempting to solder them)
Melt some solder onto the point that you previously prepared, then solder a wire to this point (remember to "tin" the wire)
The remaining wire for this switch needs soldering to a ground/earthing point. There are lots of possible points you can solder onto for this. mmmonkey finds it easier to use the following point, as it doesn't interfere with the shielding too much when you re-assemble the console. Solder 2 wires in this area, as the 50/60Hz switch will need one as well.
All that remains is to solder the wires to a switch, tin the contacts of the switch and solder the wire from leg 107 (red in this guide) to the middle contact of the switch. The wire from the point that was linked to leg 107 (grey and red wire in this guide), should be soldered to either of the 2 remaining contacts, and the wire soldered to ground (yellow in this guide), should be soldered to the remaining contact of the switch.
50/60Hz Switch
This is easier than the Jap/Eng switch. First off, it's necessary to cut a trace on the motherboard. Look very carefully and cut this trace.
Next, on the left of the motherboard, look for JP3 (it's near the largish heat sink).
Find the points for JP3 on the underside of the motherboard, heat up the solder for the right-hand side of JP3, then push a wire through the hole. Trim the wire as short as possible to the motherboard.
Now do exactly the same for the left-hand side of JP3.
You should already have a wire soldered to ground, so it's time to solder the wires to your second switch. The wire connected to the right-hand side of JP3 (red in this guide) should be soldered to the middle contact of your switch. The wire connected to the left-hand side of JP3 (red and grey in this guide) should be soldered to one of the remaining two contacts of your switch. Finally, the ground wire (yellow in the guide) should be soldered to the remaining contact of your switch.
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Test out your Mega Drive 2, then cut holes for the switches (as mentioned previously, it's easier to do this BEFORE you do any soldering). See the Mega Drive 1 guide for info on fitting switches, when replacing the metal shielding, route the wires like this.
mmmonkey fitted the switches so they are only visible on the underside of the of the console (still enough to use without picking up the console though).
The following pics show a Mega Drive running a PAL copy of Streets of Rage in 3 different modes, UK (Eng 50Hz), US/Genesis (Eng 60Hz) and Jap (Jap 60Hz), notice the size of the image and the name of the game changing depending on the selected mode.
You also need to know that unless you use an RGB Scart cable, the picture of the 60Hz mode will be a very bad quality black and white image (regardless of whether or not your TV accepts an NTSC signal or not). You can buy an RGB cable from one of the shops on our links page, or you can make one yourself. The reason break-before-make switches are used is so that you can safely use the switch whilst the console is switched on, useful if you want to play an American game that will only start up in US/Genesis mode but your TV doesn't support 60Hz, you can start the game in US mode, then switch to UK mode and play the game.
There are some games that refuse to start if the machine is set to a different region than the cart expects. This is Street Fighter II Championship Edition refusing to start.
A big credit must go to DjoeN and to SegaXtreme, this guide is based very heavily on these, with a few alterations introduced by mmmonkey.
Summary of Components needed
2 x Single Pole, Double Throw
switches
6 x lengths of wire
