cannot get any display on my psone screen

notaburger · Post by **notaburger** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 2:02 am

howdy
i'm tryin to build the portable nes and i'm have problems with my psone screen
i can't seem to get any picture
i've tried twistin the wires to my video and i've tried the direct soldering to the board of the lcd
no luck
i didn't build the large board from the book, instead i only made the signal amplifier from an earlier chapter
i get no image but the screen does power on
when i click the contrast or brightness the bars come up and there are also some red lines behind it
the only place that the lcd is wired to my nes is through the amplifier
they are not using the same grounds or anything
and the lcd is wired to the wall right now
i did notice that in the book the top of ben's lcd board is missing that big box but i didn't see anywhere where he said to take it out
i haven't tried the wiring of the 5v pin to the power regulator yet
any help would be greatly appreciated
thanks

edit: i just tried to wire the ground of the nes (by way of the video amp) to the psone lcd and still no display

nos_slived · Post by **nos_slived** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 3:25 am

The 'big box' you mentioned is probably the transformer for the backlight, which I believe Ben removed when he did the LED mod.

Do you have 5V in at pin 12? That is needed on some screens, for some reason. Also, what pin do you have ground at?

BTW, what are you using for your power source?

Foxx373 · Post by **Foxx373** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 9:27 am

Time for some Troubleshooting.

This is a PSOne screen?

Can you ghetto-rig the screen into a working video source, like VCR or working console to make sure the screen works?

Can you plug the video out of the NES into a working TV to make sure it works?

The red lines behind the green OSD (On Screen Display) could be caused by your video amp to the NES not working properly, or because you have the video signal plugged in backwards. OR your signal isnt strong enough. OR you need to do a simple mod to the screen to make it display video (check the stickey at the top of this forum for more info on that). I have the red "shadow" from time to time on my screen when i have a really weak input signal.

Does your screen "Blank out" when you hook it to the NES? Or to any video source for that matter? It should, but if it blanks out then gets no video, then there is something wrong with the NES or video amp.

notaburger · Post by **notaburger** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 12:53 pm

alright, i'll give the 5v thing a shot later tonight after work
i tried applying the ground to the gnd1 spot and the gnd3 spot and even the ground from the dc power in plug
i have it running through the systems power jack to the wall
i get no picture but the blacklight does come on and i can see the brightness and contrast bars when i push the buttons so i would assume that the lcd is fine
i tried cuttin up the psone adapter so icould try it on my pstwo and i still get the same results
granted, the only wire that i wired was the composite video so if that connection pulls rgb then that would explain that not working
and btw, when i did that i had each unit powered seperatly (which is why i had to cut the board of the psone that had the in and out for the av port since it blocked my pstwo power connector spot)
i'll post up here again late tonight and say what happened when i did the 5v trick
i'm doing this project for a class up at school so here's hoping i can get it working and not have to pick up something else entirely

oh yeah, and i don't get ANY flicker or ANYTHING when i turn on the nes or when i plugged in the pstwo

Turbo Tax 1.0 · Post by **Turbo Tax 1.0** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 3:31 pm

try connecting the grounds between them

Foxx373 · Post by **Foxx373** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 9:31 pm

Have you tried to plug the NES into a working TV to make sure the NES is actually spitting out a signal?

This could be something as simple as a bad wire. Test the continuity between the wire you are using for video input and the composite pad on the board. There should be continuity. Same with signal ground and GND points on the board. Perhaps try to solder directly onto the Composite Input pad of the board if it doesnt work out properly (again, check the stickey).

Tying the ground of the console and the ground of the screen together shouldnt make a difference. Weather they use the same power source or not. If you are using 2 wall warts (wall adapter plug things) for the screen and console, i would advise AGAINST tying the grounds together. There is no point if the screen and console are being supplied with power via 2 seperate wall-warts. The screen has common grounds anyway. The Signal Ground to the audio and video is also ground to the power supply. If the console does the same thing, again, there is no point in grounding the 2 power sources together, its allready done on the board. It could cause more problems later, like leads crossing, and crap shorting out by accident.

notaburger · Post by **notaburger** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 11:45 pm

okay
tried the 5v thing and it didn't make a difference
i tried to take some pictures of my setup but since my roommate lost my camera i had to use his 1 megapixel and it doesn't produce anything of value (WAY too blurry to see where connections are)
i do not know of a way to test out the nes on a tv
it was working fine before i tore off the rf box
the only other thing that i can figure that could cause a problem lies with where those pins from the rf box connected to the nes (the 5v, audio and video in, plus two others)
on most of them the solder on the top came off (the ring around the hole)
but the solder on the bottom stayed fine
i tried to just add solder to the top but it doesn't stick (cause there's none there to stick to) and the iron just sucks it up
am i wasting my time dealing with this part cause it connects fine at the bottom
the nes powers up fine
the red led comes on
i just get nothing
i tried wiring the speakers too and i get no sound (i tried dr. mario cause i believe that one has sound at the menu)
anymore suggestions guys or am i sol with this lcd

and fox, i've tried wiring the video using hte plug and soldering directly to the board
didn't fix the problem

and when i tried to get the sound to work i also connected those two spots on the board like it was said in the book

edit: from what i can tell, it looks like i only get those red lines whenever i hook up the nes to the lcd now (which is odd because i also got it whenever i hooked up my pstwo to the lcd)
this is proving to be an even bigger pain than i thought, hopefully it's not fried cause my backup plan was to just build the lcd into a projector

but i'd much rather have a portable nes
...i'm gonna go play with it some more
and i don't think i've said it yet but thanks for all the help guys
i really do appreciate it

Foxx373 · Post by **Foxx373** » Fri Oct 21, 2005 1:11 am

you should be able to hook the video out that you have constructed for the NES directly up to the composite input of a TV. If you have a camcorder, or acces to one, some of them have inputs so you can hook stuff up to them. Perhaps you can use that to test your connections. Hook the camera up to the NES and see if u ges NES, and hook the camera up to the screen and see if you get the video from the camera. Get a pic from the forums of your screen and use MS Paint or something to draw up a quick diagram of what you have done. Try and do the same for the NES.

And this is no problem, im just glad you know ENGLISH! I have no objection to helping people, but a lot of em' dont wanna do ANY real thinking. Apparently the search button is too complex for them.... bastards piss me off.

I hope we can get all of this working for ya'

notaburger · Post by **notaburger** » Fri Oct 21, 2005 1:39 am

alright, i'll give it a go tomorrow night after work
i haven't installed an av out jack yet although without looking i'm guessing that it merely wires to the video out and the ground
i'll let you know how it turns out
thanks

notaburger · Post by **notaburger** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 1:58 am

no luck
still no picture or flicker when i try to wire the nes board up to the tv using av plug
(a part of me is happy cause at least i know that it could possibly be something other than my lcd, hopefully just my wiring)
here' s a picture of my wiring

thanks

Post by **gannon** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 5:14 am

looks like everything's hooked up right. Unless the transistor's dead. Could you re hookup the rf box and test it?

cennar · Post by **cennar** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 5:18 am

yeah if in this case the ps screen is dead too thats common.. but good grasp so far man....

notaburger · Post by **notaburger** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 1:17 pm

sadly i don't have the rf box anymore
i was getting frustrated trying to get it off so i ended up tearing it up something fearce to see what was inside
eventually i was able to get it all off though
i suppose i could try a new transistor
maybe i got it too hot or something
am i supposed to get ANYTHING on screen though if i were to just hook the nes up to the tv straight without the signal amplifier?
does anyone think that it'd be worth my time and money to buy another batter pack and regulator and wire up the amplifier on its own?
or is there another place on the board where i can pull video from? i'd be willing to try that too, i can't seem to find where though

notaburger · Post by **notaburger** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 11:40 pm

this may be a stupid question but should i be getting 5v difference between ground and my video out signal
cause i'm not
i'm getting zero

Post by **gannon** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 5:06 am

I think it should be about a 1.7V difference. Is that from the video point on the nes or after the transistor?