nmalinoski wrote:
Can the Virtual Tap be wired using a header? If so, what size/pitch header would I need?

Or should I just solder directly to the board?

And what kind of cable/wire should I be using?

Not as-is – there are no vias large enough to handle header pins on the Furrtek board. The board has solderable pads, but they are large enough to handle easily.

I use Kynar wire for my installations.

The lines show up on ALL sprites on screen, or just some?

Capacitor polarity is important. Are you sure you installed them correctly? Also make sure that you used the correct values – capacity is important, but you can match or exceed the rated voltage with no problems.

Also, describe what problems you are experiencing. Use pictures if possible.

Also…sorry for hijacking this thread, moderators…

Yikes. I just got a quote back from one of my many potential fab houses (the last and latest one to reply). They want to charge me $2000 for fucking TOOLING.

NOT. A. CHANCE. I don’t care if they make the cables out of liquid diamond – they can go suck a bag of dicks! Definitely not going to be using THEM.

Nes Freak wrote:
and just an FYI if you buy these and dont want to risk damaging your displays installing them just PM me. i can install them for you. ive fixed over 200 VB consoles.

btw id also like to pre order these so add me to the list. thank you 😛

How many are you interested in?

nmalinoski wrote:
I considered asking if it makes sense to fit the LED boards with ZIF sockets, but that didn’t really make any sense; if you have to get in there and do soldering anyway, just make a permanent connection; it’s going to be just as difficult, if not moreso, to retrofit a socket.

You know, I looked into this, but dismissed it. The reason why is simple:

The LED board contact pitch is decidedly non-standard – no off-the-shelf ZIF connector that I can find uses such an oddball size. To take advantage of this, you would have to go through the entire manufacturing process for a unique ZIF connector, which is STUPIDLY expensive. Like, on the order of tens of thousands of dollars expensive.

Otherwise, that would actually be a brilliant idea.

Everyone is being added to a prospective buyer’s list. Once I’ve verified the prototype and tested them, I’ll send out blanket PMs.

Also, for dedicated repair guys – if you buy 15 sets or more, you get a 15% discount (not including shipping).

I will use the cheapest SAFE method of shipping, which for most people will be Priority Flat Rate boxes at about $7.25 or so. International shipping will be per country with an eye to costs and protection.

Aaaaaaand sent.

Just got word that my prototypes are slated for production on March 12th. I’m also finishing up with some fine tuning on the design c/o the fab house I’ve picked.

[RetroDan]

I’ve found a fab house, and…

YES. I can manage $10-ish per pair. Obviously, this does not include shipping, but within the US, that shouldn’t be expensive at all.

Now, before I get ahead of myself, obviously, I still have to order prototypes, but if the prototypes work out well (which they SHOULD), then I’d like to place an order for at least 50 sets (100 cables).

Cross your fingers.

EDIT: Prototypes ordered!

• This reply was modified 5 years, 9 months ago by RetroDan.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 9 months ago by RetroDan.

brumbie13 wrote:
Hey there. So I am pretty excited to join this community and spent a decent amount of money on a VB from Ebay that was from a good reputable games seller and they said the system had been inspected and worked well. I paid a bit of a premium for the peace of mind.

However, after getting the unit and trying it out, there are definitely some issues with the screens. I know some of these problems are typical and that the repair services in this thread can fix them, but some of the issues I haven’t seen addressed on this or other forums, so I don’t really know.

My left screen is very dim, I can hardly see it and can’t make anything out on it. The camera picks it up, but my eyes do not. The game seems to work fine out of this lens, but it is constantly blurry (due to a mirrored image?) in the pics, and I’m thinking perhaps there is an issue with the mirrors not oscillating. There are also horizontal lines across the top or bottom.

The right screen starts up fine, and the brightness is good. After about a minute it gets the telltale glitchy “The Matrix” look that I know is repairable, but after about another 30 seconds, it turns to mostly just a single bright thick line. I haven’t seen any examples of the thick line in other people’s posts.

If your mirrors weren’t oscillating, you wouldn’t have a picture – the VB works by spinning mirrors at 50Hz, while flashing LEDs at them in certain patterns. The flash-n-spin is so quick and precise that it tricks your eyes into seeing a complete image, rather than the single staggered line of flashing LEDs.

Like RetroRGB, I plan on having my unit modded with a VirtualTap, so in theory, I would only need one good screen anyways, but given the premium I paid for the console, I would kind of like the system to work so that I have the option to play the console either with an external monitor OR through the viewfinder. If the right side monitor could be repaired and the left can not, it still might be worth it to tap off that one, but with the glitch turning into a thick line, I’m not sure even that is a possibility.

I have attached a picture below that shows the issues I’m talking about. If a modder has experience and can tell me whether my issues are fixable and worth the effort, or whether I should just return the item and try my luck with another unit, I would really appreciate it.

As to why your left screen is dim – I couldn’t say for absolute certainty, but a few things come to mind: 1) Your left plastic eyepiece needs cleaning 2) For some reason, the left LED board is undervolted (it requires 5V – perhaps the trace on the cable is partially corroded) 3) the LED board has been previously replaced by a working one from a DIFFERENT VB unit, one that simply wasn’t as bright.

Now for your right screen – almost without exception, visual defects of this kind occur because the ribbon cables that attach the LED board to the motherboard on the VB are glued (GLUED!) onto the LED board instead of soldered. Nintendo cheaped out on this, which is absolutely baffling.

Aside from the gimmicky cables and the fragile mirrors, the VB is a very solid device – I would be absolutely shocked if I couldn’t get this up and running for you. I have modded my own VB with the VirtualTap, and am a very experienced solder monkey.

I, amongst others on this site, would be more than happy to take a look at your console and repair those lenses for you.

Virtual Davey wrote:
I’ve done everything mentioned in this topic but still cannot get this Padder application to work. I downloaded the Padder.win-x64 from this site. I’ve used my Flashboy Plus in the past, so I know the application must have worked previously. It’s been a few years since I’ve used my Flashboy Plus, though. Figured I’d try in again after hearing about the Innsmouth Mansion English Translation. Downloaded the Innsmouth game via this site, unzipped it, dragged it over to the Padder.exe. Screen has a quick flash with a black box. No patched exe appears. Tried copying the game into the Padder folder even, but same result. I’ve tried the app on my Windows 10 Surface 2 and my Windows 10 Pc with the same result. Innsmouth is 1024kb and remains unchanged, no second padded copy appears. I tried the app with other VB roms too with the same results.

You’ll get better results with navigating to the Padder’s folder in Command Prompt and running the padder from there.

Alright, just finished my fourth (and ostensibly final) workup of the VirtualCable. I absolutely loathed EAGLE at first – now, I kinda love it.

Now to wait for the fab houses I contacted to get back to me for a prototype run.

Attachments:

1. 

   virtualcable-2.png
   

nmalinoski wrote:
I considered asking if it makes sense to fit the LED boards with ZIF sockets, but that didn’t really make any sense; if you have to get in there and do soldering anyway, just make a permanent connection; it’s going to be just as difficult, if not moreso, to retrofit a socket.

And, as nice as it would be to have readily-available replacement cables, until, as you said, someone starts producing replacement LED boards, I think the only market for these will be people who screwed up their originals during a repair job.

Not necessarily. When I added an RGB out to my VB, I noticed that the original cables were starting to crack and decay, something that I also verified with my other VB consoles. The cables are the main point of failure in this console, and I like making PCB layouts, so I figured “Why not?”.

mawa wrote:
i am sorry i whas tinking that this cables where almost ready for plug and play ( but after talking i hear that it need still soldering )
i need to cancel then ( i am not that good in soldering )

mawa wrote:
hello,
just what the force81 says iff you can drop the price to around 10 $ for a set
I also will take atleast 10 sets

greetings

…You do realize that there will never be a non soldered solution for this unless someone produces a new, compatible LED board, right? My aim is to make the tough part of VB restoration as easy and painless as feasible as possible.

Besides, my fourth iteration for this is in my head and will get underway when I get home in a few hours.

[RetroDan]

Current 3rd Iteration; now to find a decent fab house.

Current fab prices for OSH park are costing $25 per pair. Obviously, a real fab house will allow me to drop the price with quantity (and I’m shopping around), but I’d like to get an idea of how many people I could reasonably expect to get on board. The more I get, the lower the price can get per person. I would like to get it down to about $10-$15 per pair.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 10 months ago by RetroDan.

Attachments:

1. 

   virtualcable-1.png
   

TheForce81 wrote:
Looks good to me, if you can supply them at a very reasonable price, it will be a very nice addition to repairing displays!! Still won’t be too easy to install, align and all that, but skilled people should have no issue doing that.

Actually, I’m on my third revision right now of this cable design. I’m used to using Proteus, but it’s not quite capable of some of the design options I want, so I’m having to learn EAGLE. Nothing like a project to force new knowledge into your brain-hole.

I dub it ‘brainal’.

First Iteration of what I am dubbing the VirtualCable:

Attachments:

1. 

   virtualcable.png
   

TheForce81 wrote:

I think $20-$25 is pretty expensive, I would have thought they would be dirt cheap, just the start up would be an issue. If you can get the costs to limit to $12 a set I would order 10 sets straight away.

To be fair, I’m just estimating. As I said, “I have no data to back it up”. I’m just throwing babies at the wall to see what sticks.

Splain wrote:
If you know how to design flex cables/PCBs and have them printed, then yes, you are smelling interest from me. 😀 If not, then I may start learning it myself. I have at least one LED board with no cable, that can be used for testing.

Ideally, they would also have a tab attached like the stock cables, to allow easy insertion/removal from the VB (and they also seem to help thicken the cable at that end for a good firm seating)

I’ve designed PCBs before – not flex cables – but I can’t imagine that it would be impossible for me to make the transition.

I can’t imagine the cables would be expensive, though. I’ll get to some designing and whack up a prototype, but I’d like to be able to order 100 (50 sets) at least, for cost reasons. I have no data to back it up, but I can’t imagine it would cost more than $20-$25 for a set.