PlayStation PAL Series Colour/Color Modification (PAL60)

[erucoco]

Oh, that's good info.

I'm not very good on electronics but I do have good soldering skills and I've done various console hacks and modifications. In this case, I don't feel comfident on using a 2pin crystal and add an amplifier, unless there is a tutorial

So I've found une crystal on ebay that seems to suit the specs of the qxo-1100. Here is the link:

http://www.ebay.es/itm/4MHz-Xtal-Quartz ... 5d48ac79bc

What do you think guys? Is it suitable?

If so, I'll get one asap.

Thanks.

[nocash]

That ebay item is an 4MHz oscillator, not a 4.43361875MHz one. And the price (3.70EUR) is quite high.
You get those 4pin oscillators for 0.64EUR (for example, in germany: www.reichelt.de, part number OSZI 4,433619).

[erucoco]

Oh, good point. hanks fo rthat tip, very apreciated.

The thing is that the shipping costs are 5,60€, jaja, more than five times the price of the Oszi. Anyway, I'll buy it as it's cheap and in Europe. BTW, I'm from Spain.

Regards.

[LameGuy64]

I tried nocash's advice on a PAL color mod for NTSC systems and it actually works! To clarify his advice, its pretty much just like this mod but instead of tying the pad to ground, you tie it to 3.5v instead and a pad for that is easy to find on the leftmost portion of the board with a multi-meter.

However, PAL modes will only display correctly on a multi-system CRT TV... LCD displays and capture cards will have trouble accepting the signal properly since its quasi-PAL (NTSC-50) and not true PAL.

[ady05113]

Hi, I need help regarding my SCPH-1002 (PAL). Its already chipped and able to play NTSC/J/US games but only in BLACK and WHITE . What kind of colour correction mods available for it? By the way i'm from Malaysia and its hardly to find a TV with SCART support here. So i only use the Multi AV out and direct RGB (Yellow,White,Red) out.

Please help and thanks in advance guys.

[Administrator]

You need to add a separate crystal oscillator for the 1000 series, or swap crystals entirely.

[ady05113]

You need to add a separate crystal oscillator for the 1000 series, or swap crystals entirely.

I'm thinking to swap the crystal oscillator. Should i follow this guide? http://www.psxdev.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=628

[Administrator]

You need to add a separate crystal oscillator for the 1000 series, or swap crystals entirely.

I'm thinking to swap the crystal oscillator. Should i follow this guide? http://www.psxdev.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=628

Yeah.

[DD-Indeed]

Bumping this up, sorry.


Did I understand correctly, that by doing such modification, I can force my PAL console with PAL games to use PAL60 colours ?

[Administrator]

No, PAL games will run at PAL 50 and NTSC will run as PAL 60.

[DD-Indeed]

No, PAL games will run at PAL 50 and NTSC will run as PAL 60.

Allright, gotcha. But I presume, that with PSIO, you need that in order to play NTSC-games ?

[Administrator]

No, PAL games will run at PAL 50 and NTSC will run as PAL 60.

Allright, gotcha. But I presume, that with PSIO, you need that in order to play NTSC-games ?

Yes, you'll need to do a modification like this topic suggests in order to play NTSC games on a PAL console in colour. The only exception is if you're using RGB.

[nocash]

Just converted a PU-16 board to PAL, using one of those 4-pin 4.43361875MHz oscillators as described above.

I've also had to fix the GNDed clock signal on the GPU.pin192, and instead connected it to the NTSC clock signal on GPU.pin196. As TriMesh had pointed out here, http://www.psxdev.net/forum/viewtopic.p ... 2420#p5593 that's required for LATE-PU-8 NTSC boards (and for the PU-16 NTSC board, too). Most or all other boards should be wired to inject the clock to both pin192 and pin196 by default anyways, so it isn't needed to mod the GPU clock input on such boards.

For the CXA1645 chip, I've changed pin6 (subcarrier aka colorclock) and pin8 (pal/ntsc mode select). But the CXA1645 datasheet does additionally tell to change the resistor on pin18 ("FO" pin, should be GNDed via 20K for NTSC, and via 16K for PAL, as seen on the page with the schematics). But I don't know what that's good for.
I've tried to install an 80K resistor in parallel to the 20K one (which should get me the 16K for PAL). And tried to connect/disconnect the extra 80K resistor during operation, but I couldn't see any difference on the TV screen, so one can apparently use 20K for PAL mode, too. Or would it be important to use 16K in some cases?

[rama3]

The FO resistor tunes a filter for Composite. It doesn't have to be exactly 16/20k. As long as it's in that range, it will work.
You can fine tune it with a potentiometer and find a nice looking value

If the console uses that color splash style BIOS, you can use it as the perfect test screen. No game will look as bad in Composite as that BIOS does. It's even interlaced for extra effect ;p

[K4DoS]

Although old, I have tried the PU-18 colour mod made for CXA1645.

IT DOES NOT WORK.

I don't know but I I've rechecked my wiring at least 20 times over 4 days. The QXO-1100 was replicated using a 4.43MHz 2 pin XTAL with two 20pF disc capacitors and a 2.2K resistor for the frequency wire.

Result: PAL is now black and white too, and NTSC remains the same as before (B/W).

Removing the frequency wire will restore colours.

Apparently for colours on a PU-7/8 or PU-18 board, without installing the second oscillator for NTSC, one must install this "colour correction chip" shown in the picture (there was a detailed diagram but I can't find it right now) along with the 4.43MHz crystal and the 20pF caps.

I attached a diagram of the chip. Likely this is an variation of Old Crow (or anything similar to it) that incorporates a colour correction code which requires the XTAL and the disc capacitors.

I tried everything that has RCA video inputs. 2 TVs and a AVerMedia M733 TV Tuner. All three exhibited the same result - NTSC still in B/W and PAL in black and white as well.

[nocash]

That 8pin chip you have there is a PIC microcontroller that you are using to "amplify" the 2pin oscillator? Uncommon solultion, but if you have the PIC in there anyways & think that it should work then it's okay. Otherwise 4pin oscillator would be easier. Also, since you said that the colors came back when disconnecting the wire - are you sure that you've disconnected to original color clock signal before connecting the new one?

[K4DoS]

Actually, I don't have that PIC installed in my PS1. That was just a diagram of what is required to make that PU-7/8 & PU-18 mod.

I tried finding a 4 pin 4.43MHz oscillator but no dice in my town. Only 4MHz.

And the wire I disconnected is the one that goes to Pin6 on the CXA1645M chip. (so SCIN I think). Pin 6 and 7 are lifted off the board, just as the diagrams I found about it said.

[rama3]

Now it's not clear which kind of oscillator or resonator you used in your mod. Also it's not clear whether you used a driver, in case you went with a resonator.
The PIC in the original mod is used as driver ( I guess. I can't imagine what else it should be good for. )
In any case, you obviously need to have a 4.43Mhz solution for PAL.

If all checks out, please also check if your PSX has the PAL/NTSC select signal connected to the GPU.
I think some models have it just permanently tied high/low for the region.

[K4DoS]

Now it's not clear which kind of oscillator or resonator you used in your mod. Also it's not clear whether you used a driver, in case you went with a resonator.
The PIC in the original mod is used as driver ( I guess. I can't imagine what else it should be good for. )
In any case, you obviously need to have a 4.43Mhz solution for PAL.

If all checks out, please also check if your PSX has the PAL/NTSC select signal connected to the GPU.
I think some models have it just permanently tied high/low for the region.

My circuit simply consisted of a 2 pin 4.43MHz crystal, two 20pF disc capacitors and a 2.2K resistor. There's no PIC in the circuit PCB I built.

I lifted off Pin157 from GPU and tied it to GND but there's no difference, as the video mode on these doesn't work the same as PU-20 and later. (my board is a PU-18, for the record)

I do have a modchip installed in the system (which has nothing to do with the PIC used to drive the CXA, which I don't have) but I don't even think it's a color correction chip. (it came out of a broken SCPH-7502 or 9002 I think)

[rama3]

Okay, there's your problem: No crystal driver.
Try to find a 4.43 oscillator. This is a 4 pin device that you just connect to Vcc and GND and it outputs the frequency on a pin. That pin then goes into CXA1645 pin 6.