Stereo mod on Genesis/Mega Drive 1?

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I would like to mod a Genesis/mega Drive 1 so that it will output a stereo signal through the AV-out. I have not found any instructions or pictures of where to solder, so does anyone know how to do it?
 

68k

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You have to tap the phono jack. I'll snap some pictures later and show you where to solder.
 

68k

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Linkintones said:
Thanks! :-) Do I need any extra components or do I only need a couple of wires?

Nope, just wires and the RCA jacks to mount on the back.

An easy solution would be to get a phono-to-stereo RCA adapter. They cost next to nothing :).

s107547.jpg


Plug this adapter into the headphone jack and you're off and rocking.
 

norton9478

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68k said:
Nope, just wires and the RCA jacks to mount on the back.

An easy solution would be to get a phono-to-stereo RCA adapter. They cost next to nothing :).

s107547.jpg


Plug this adapter into the headphone jack and you're off and rocking.

Those things suck..

I recomend 3.5mm <-> RCA cables.
 
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The thing is that I want to output the stereo signal through the AV-out. I got my AES modded this way some years ago in Italy (while also performing a RGB mod). At the same time I also bought a custom made scart cable that outputs both stereo and rgb signal. The cable should work with the Genesis/Mega Drive too as they are built in a similar way.

So how do I solder to make the Genesis/Mega Drive output a stereo signal through the AV-out?
 

68k

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norton9478 said:
Those things suck..

I recomend 3.5mm <-> RCA cables.

They do the exact same thing...

:conf:
 

Murray

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68k said:
They do the exact same thing...:conf:
Dunno if this is what he meant, but the cable would have less chance of breaking something inside the Genesis if it gets bumped since it's more flexible right next to the connector.
Linkintones said:
68k, Can I just connect a cable from the phono jack to the av-out to be able to output stereo?
Yes. Headphone level is very near line level and it works just fine. The only exception to that is the late version model 1 Genesis (w/o the EXT connector on the back, made w/ cheaper parts, had Sonic 1 packed in). Those had terrible headphone outs.

I also recommend using a cable instead of the adapter because of the reason I mentioned above.
 

chaoticjelly

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Ok, from what I understand skimming over whats written here, you have a Neo Geo Stereo RGB scart cable, which is wired up to tap both right and left audio from the A/V port.

Firstly, can I ask, does this cable actually fit into the Megadrive 1 A/V port? The Neo Geo AES and CD consoles take a "c" style 8 pin din connector, whereas the Megadrive 1 uses a "U" style 8 pin din connector i.e. it is of the offset variety where the top two pins are offset by a small number of degrees - I feel that your cable may not fit into the Megadrive 1, unless when you had the mod done they replaced the whole A/V socket?

The best way would be to purchase a new cable (I could supply it..) or construct your own. You can tap the right and left audio signals by soldering a two core piece of audio cable to a 3.5mm audio jack, then the other end of this wire goes inside your 8 pin din plug, and right and left audio are then soldered to wires which go down the cable to the relevant scart pins (2 and 6) - this cable then plugs into the headphone port of the Megadrive 1 therefore giving you stereo sound.

If however you wanted to go ahead with your original plans of routing the stereo signals to the A/V socket. I would go about it by doing the following: a piece of two core audio cable, inside the system, soldered to the right audio and left audio at the points on the motherboard where the 3.5mm headphone receptacle is soldered, then as per the above diagram use a multimeter to locate the relevant tracks on the motherboard behind the DIN socket for the mono audio and the sync* and cut these tracks just before they reach the socket pins.

* (Check first whether your Neo Geo scart cable syncs on "true sync" or composite video first, since either can normally be used in a scart cable)

Then simply scratch away some of the solder resist on the board after the points where you cut, and then wire right audio to one of the pins and left audio to the other.

Of course all of the above depends on the pinout of the 8 pin din plug on your cable, check all the connections first and make sure everything is correct!

It sounds like a hell of a lot of hassle to me though for the sake of an extra cable.

Also keep in mind, an unmodified Neo Geo AES outputs a varying level of RGB, i.e. early units supposedly output a better RGB than that of later units. The Megadrive 1 outputs a very nice RGB signal, but it is too strong, resistors are required on the R, G and B lines, of a value of 75 ohms each, without these the picture is overly bright and text is difficult to read because it blurs.

It may be that the scart cable you have now has no resistors on the R, G and B lines, there may be extra resistors added internally to the Neo Geo AES, so therefore if you do carry out what you originally intended, its possible you could get an overly bright picture which isn't nearly as nice as with the resistors..

Of course this just depends on the construction of your cable etc, and without looking at it I couldn't make any definite assumptions.

Good luck!
 

Murray

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Follow chaoticjelly's instructions to do what you're trying to do. I'll also add that I'm using a NGCD AV cable with my Genesis 1 and SMS and it works / fits fine (but I'm not using the second sound channel, of course).
 

norton9478

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68k said:
They do the exact same thing...

:conf:

Yeah but those adaptors are POS's....

They break easy and put a lot of stress on the console Jack.....

I've had a few take a shit on me....
 

chaoticjelly

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:help: Guess my post was completely and utterly wasted then.. good luck with the cable, you do know its a poorly-spliced together piece of crap, made out of cutting the end off some sort of el-cheapo PS2 scart cable.

It probably doesnt even have the resistors on the R, G and B lines, so good luck trying to get readable in-game text!

The cables I make use fully shielded SCART cabling, with all required resistors and fully grounded.. all custom-made, no splicing and dicing maaaan.
 

SNKNostalgia

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Of course you could always get a Mega CD 2 Drive and have stereo the easy way and you get the option having that system. You can get those for like $40 US nowdays, sometimes less.

The best thing to do is just do the S-video mod with RCA jacks in the back or you can do it on the side of the system. Same goes for the S-video jack.
 
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chaoticjelly, I am very very sorry. I highly appreciate your effort of writing that wonderful guide that any one who want to perform that mod can use. The thing is that I bought brand new never used Japanese Mega Drive from 1988 and I thought that it would be a shame to open the Mega Drive and perform a mod as it is a real collector’s item. But that does not mean that I sometime in the future maybe will perform the stereo mod.

Now I know that I can contact you If the cable I bought is of bad quality! :)


SNKNostalgia, It is to late I have already bought a Japanese Mega CD 1. But will I get stereo sound through the cable I bought when I play Mega CD-games?
 
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not sonic

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chaoticjelly said:
:help: Guess my post was completely and utterly wasted then.. good luck with the cable, you do know its a poorly-spliced together piece of crap, made out of cutting the end off some sort of el-cheapo PS2 scart cable.

It probably doesnt even have the resistors on the R, G and B lines, so good luck trying to get readable in-game text!

The cables I make use fully shielded SCART cabling, with all required resistors and fully grounded.. all custom-made, no splicing and dicing maaaan.

stop tryin to be a pusher maaaaaaan. :emb:
 

SNKNostalgia

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Nope.... You will get stereo sound through the Mega Drive system only. If you hook up the stereo sound through the Mega CD RCA plugs, then you get stereo through both. The first and second model Sega/Mega CD systems are the same in how they work with sound. You do have to use the the headphone jack hooked into the Mega Drive that connects to the Mega CD player to get stereo out (the cable is included when you buy a Mega CD with 3.5mm to 3.5mm). So you really do not have to do any modifications to either system. As for one cable doing it all, you would have to get a Mega Drive 2 system to use one cable from the back.

My setup is S-video mod to my Genesis 1 for video and RCA stereo through my Sega CD 2 system. You can't do video out through the Sega/Mega CD as for regular hook ups or mods as far as I know of.

Try to imagine that two Mega Drive systems are working together.
 
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SNKNostalgia, Thank you for the information. Do you think that I will get stereo sound if I just connect the 3.5mm plug from the Scart cable in to the Mega CD 1 instead of the Mega Drive 1?
 

SNKNostalgia

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Wait a minute? Is there a output on the back of your Mega CD just like the Mega Drive? I am not too familiar with the European models of the Mega Systems. Either way if you want CD stereo sound it does have to come out from the Mega CD system. If you want the cart music/sound effects to have stereo also, it does have to have the 3.5mm hooked to the back of the Mega CD
 
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I know, I have the Japanese version of Mega Drive 1 and Mega CD 1. You are supposed to connect the MD1 and MCD1 with a cable that has a 3.5mm plug on both sides. You connect the cable to the headphone-jack on the MD1 and to the jack on the back that fits a 3.5mm plug on the MCD1. Then you should get all the effects and CD-music through the 2 RCA-jacks on the back of the MCD1.
 

Jedah Doma

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I would personally talk to segasonicfan on the boards. He's a good guy with some more information as far as Sega Genesis mods go. I can tell you this, you won't get as good of an audio signal as you will from a mod. That's the best way to go. The headphone out will do the trick, but trust me, I've compared the sound from my modded Genny to my unmodded Genny with headphone output, and the modded one sounded much cleaner and more crisp. But hey, that's just my two and a half cents.:D
 

68k

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Jedah Doma said:
I would personally talk to segasonicfan on the boards. He's a good guy with some more information as far as Sega Genesis mods go. I can tell you this, you won't get as good of an audio signal as you will from a mod. That's the best way to go. The headphone out will do the trick, but trust me, I've compared the sound from my modded Genny to my unmodded Genny with headphone output, and the modded one sounded much cleaner and more crisp. But hey, that's just my two and a half cents.:D

Should sound exactly the same, since the audio is tapped from the Genesis 1's headphone jack when you mod it :p.

FYI you did well with getting a model 1 Mega Drive as opposed to a model 2 (or the dreadful model 3 Genesis). The audio in the latter models sound like a bad emulator.
 

Neo Alec

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Kpj does modded AES's with stereo audio through the DIN connector he calls the "Cloaked" mod.

http://www.neotropolis.net/33401.html


68k said:
FYI you did well with getting a model 1 Mega Drive as opposed to a model 2 (or the dreadful model 3 Genesis). The audio in the latter models sound like a bad emulator.
Is it really worse? I can't tell the difference, other than the usual Mega Drive buzz found on all models.
 
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