I'm a hopless addict - PC Engine Duo inbound...

[alexh]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but are the 6 button controllers generally 3rd party?

If you are asking what the percentage of 3rd party to OEM are I don't know. There were only 3 AFAIK. One official, One semi-official and one 3rd party.

The official one was called the NEC Arcade Pad6 and was sold by itself and bundled with the RX

https://necretro.org/Arcade_Pad_6

[rubber_jonnie]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but are the 6 button controllers generally 3rd party?

If you are asking what the percentage of 3rd party to OEM are I don't know. There were only 3 AFAIK. One official, One semi-official and one 3rd party.

The official one was called the NEC Arcade Pad6 and was sold by itself and bundled with the RX

https://necretro.org/Arcade_Pad_6

Yes, I saw some of those on ebay and took an instant dislike to the price, and the Avenue and Hori controllers are quite expensive too.

Will see how I get on and may just look for a standard Duo controller with the autofire options. Or is it turbofire?

[rubber_jonnie]

Well I found a 'standard' controller, 2 button plus autofire and the right colour for the Duo. Placed a shifty low bid on it and won it without having to bid again, so that's in the post.

HUCard SD adapter also arrived and it's fantastic!!!

What's even better is that I found a game on there called 'Sidearms'. I loved the arcade cabinet and actually completed the one in the Naafi where I was based in the RAF, and it is a brilliant reproduction of the game, so hit by a mega wave of nostalgia

Also amazed at how reasonable Space Harrier, Outrun and Afterburner II are. I mean they can't compete with the Saturn versions, but for an 8 bit system they are pretty damn good.

What a lovely little system the PC Engine is

[HigashiJun]

What a lovely little system the PC Engine is

Indeed !

[rubber_jonnie]

Probably last post of the weekend for me, as the MiL has gone back into hospital!!!

My 2nd PC-Engine controller arrived today and differs in that it has 2 auto-fire switches, which is going to be a big help with some of the SHMUPS on the platform, R-TYPE and Sidearms spring to mind.

PXL_20230617_114542780.jpg (254.83 KiB) Viewed 1540 times

It's not quite the right colour (The pic on eBay looked closer TBH, but hey ho), but it's closer than the other one I bought.

Better scoot now, have a good weekend all.

[rubber_jonnie]

Hmm, annoying, just brought this out after a long spell and the video issues are back, though not to the extent that they were present before. Possibly some more caps in need of replacement but will check out all the leads etc before I go too far.

[rubber_jonnie]

OK, so I've recapped everything on the PC Engine Duo that hadn't been previously recapped and I'm getting variable results.

Stuff looked like this so I had to sort it out:

IMG20260314144101.jpg (257.52 KiB) Viewed 822 times

Sometimes I get this:

IMG20260314155846.jpg (194.26 KiB) Viewed 822 times

Sometimes this:

IMG20260314155837.jpg (204.52 KiB) Viewed 822 times

And every once in a while it's normal.

It seems to be related to this IC:

IMG_20260314_151220.jpg (275.5 KiB) Viewed 822 times

As when I removed it and reflowed the legs it seemed to improve. Also blasting it with cold air seemed to improve things. I suspect, since the legs had been contaminated by cap juice, that the IC is on it's way out, so I'll ID it and get a replacement ordered.

Wouldn't be the first time I've had cap juice cause chaos later on an IC, it happened on my A5000 too.


EDIT:

IC506 is an RC4558, and it's a dual op-amp in the video circuit. Worth a shot I think.

[rubber_jonnie]

So, I replaced the OP amp and it's made no difference...

IMG20260319114818.jpg (243.88 KiB) Viewed 728 times

So it looks like I'm about to start a protracted repair session on this console...

Very frustrating as it's one of my favourite machines. I suspect I need to go hunting for a PC Engine forum now...

[rubber_jonnie]

Oh bugger....

I just looked at the schematic again and realised the OP Amp I replaced was in the sound circuit and not the video circuit, so it's no surprise the image didn't get any better

What a numpty.

Better go back and look properly...

[rubber_jonnie]

Aha!!!

So I looked at the schematic (properly this time!!!) and found that there is one capacitor in the video circuit:

Screenshot 2026-03-19 at 14.58.39.png (1.33 MiB) Viewed 716 times

It's C962. Now I had already replaced this with a like for like spec, but on pulling the cap out and testing it, it was 23% out of spec...

So I found a better quality cap with better readings and in spec plus a bump from 16v to 50v and lo and behold it looks great:

IMG20260319145301.jpg (229.42 KiB) Viewed 716 times

What I find a little odd is the location of the cap:

IMG20260319144345.jpg (329.84 KiB) Viewed 716 times

It's this big green one down by the power switch and a very long way away from the video out connector.

Nonetheless it seems an out of spec cap is more than enough to muck up the video signal by quite a lot. It wasn't a cap I changed when the original recap was done either.

Mental note to self - read schematics properly...