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Step 21Connecting Power and A/V Wires and Troubleshooting
What you need:
Wire cutters
Soldering Iron
Heat shrink tubing
Heat gun or some heat source for heat shrink tubing
IDE cable or other suitable wire
WIRING POWER
Take the connector you saved and find the two wires all the way to the left. Those are your power wires. The blue one is positive. Chop off the rest of the wires and solder a red wire to the blue one and a black one to the white one. To test the screen, simply attach the red wire to the positive end of your power supply and the black one to the negative side of your batteries. The screen's light should turn on. If not, see the last paragraph. You may have switched your connections and blown a fuse.
ATTACH THE REGULATOR
If you had to build the regulator for the screen, don't attach power just yet. Solder the 8v out wire from the regulator to the red wire of your screen. Solder the black wire to the ground spot of your batteries, which should also be connected to the ground on the regulator. Touch the positive wire from your batteries to the V+ in on your regulator, and the screen should light up. If not, check the last paragraph in this step.
A/V ON THE NES
Once you are sure the screen works fine, solder the audio and video wires to the appropriate spots on your NES board. The audio wire just gets soldered straight to the pad on the NES board, but the video wire has to be attached to the amplifier we built. Solder it to the video out wire on the amp. See the picture if you need help.
CHECKLIST
Before turning everything on, do a couple checks first.
Are the console's ground and the screen's ground tied together? They must be, or nothing will work. The screen and the console must share a common ground.
Is the NES's regulator board working? Is it connected to the NES?
Is the screen's regulator working, and is it connected to the screen?
Are the screen's power wires reversed? Make sure they are not.
Are audio and video wires soldered to the correct spots?
Once you are sure of these things, go ahead and put in a cartridge (Make sure it is facing the right way! If you used the connector I did, the label should be facing up, and so should all the NES's electronics.) and attach the power wires of your batteries. The screen should turn on, and so should the NES. You should get a nice picture on the screen. If everything is not working, check the troubleshooting list below.
TROUBLESHOOTING
Troubleshooting: If it does not work
Does the video amp work? You may have fried the transistor while soldering to it.
Did you reverse the screen's power connections? You may have fried a fuse.
Do the screen and console share a common ground?
Are the batteries charged?
Can your batteries handle the amp draw? Anything better than AAAs should work.
Are any wires touching that shouldn't be?
If you are using Li-ions with a protection circuit, and there was a short, unplug the Li-ions from the protection circuit, then plug them back in. If there was a short, then the protection circuit switches off the batteries.
Check everything and find the problem. If it still doesn't work, you may have fried something.
First check the regulators. Are they putting out the voltage that they need to? If they are, but the voltage drops to almost zero when you add a load, then try replacing the 7805.
Does the screen light up when you add power? If not, see the last paragraph.
If the screen does light up, but you get no picture, then try using a different video input. If it works then, try building a new video amp for the NES. If the screen does not work after trying a different input, check the next paragraph.
If the new video amp does not work, your NES is dead. Get a new one, and be more careful with it.
IF YOUR SCREEN DOES NOT POWER ON
What to do if your screen does not work:
There is a fuse on the PS1 screen. If you reverse the power to the screen, then this fuse will blow, and the screen will appear to be dead. Not to worry - if you jump this fuse, the screen should work again. On the front of your screen, down by the connectors, there is a small rectangular object that has the word PS1 printed next to it. Put your soldering iron on one end of it and kind of "pull" it away from its pads with the soldering iron, so that the fuse is removed and there are just two small solder pads. Add a blob of solder right there, so that the two solder pads are bridged. Viola! The screen should now be working. If not, it is most likely dead. Sorry. :(
Wire cutters
Soldering Iron
Heat shrink tubing
Heat gun or some heat source for heat shrink tubing
IDE cable or other suitable wire
WIRING POWER
Take the connector you saved and find the two wires all the way to the left. Those are your power wires. The blue one is positive. Chop off the rest of the wires and solder a red wire to the blue one and a black one to the white one. To test the screen, simply attach the red wire to the positive end of your power supply and the black one to the negative side of your batteries. The screen's light should turn on. If not, see the last paragraph. You may have switched your connections and blown a fuse.
ATTACH THE REGULATOR
If you had to build the regulator for the screen, don't attach power just yet. Solder the 8v out wire from the regulator to the red wire of your screen. Solder the black wire to the ground spot of your batteries, which should also be connected to the ground on the regulator. Touch the positive wire from your batteries to the V+ in on your regulator, and the screen should light up. If not, check the last paragraph in this step.
A/V ON THE NES
Once you are sure the screen works fine, solder the audio and video wires to the appropriate spots on your NES board. The audio wire just gets soldered straight to the pad on the NES board, but the video wire has to be attached to the amplifier we built. Solder it to the video out wire on the amp. See the picture if you need help.
CHECKLIST
Before turning everything on, do a couple checks first.
Are the console's ground and the screen's ground tied together? They must be, or nothing will work. The screen and the console must share a common ground.
Is the NES's regulator board working? Is it connected to the NES?
Is the screen's regulator working, and is it connected to the screen?
Are the screen's power wires reversed? Make sure they are not.
Are audio and video wires soldered to the correct spots?
Once you are sure of these things, go ahead and put in a cartridge (Make sure it is facing the right way! If you used the connector I did, the label should be facing up, and so should all the NES's electronics.) and attach the power wires of your batteries. The screen should turn on, and so should the NES. You should get a nice picture on the screen. If everything is not working, check the troubleshooting list below.
TROUBLESHOOTING
Troubleshooting: If it does not work
Does the video amp work? You may have fried the transistor while soldering to it.
Did you reverse the screen's power connections? You may have fried a fuse.
Do the screen and console share a common ground?
Are the batteries charged?
Can your batteries handle the amp draw? Anything better than AAAs should work.
Are any wires touching that shouldn't be?
If you are using Li-ions with a protection circuit, and there was a short, unplug the Li-ions from the protection circuit, then plug them back in. If there was a short, then the protection circuit switches off the batteries.
Check everything and find the problem. If it still doesn't work, you may have fried something.
First check the regulators. Are they putting out the voltage that they need to? If they are, but the voltage drops to almost zero when you add a load, then try replacing the 7805.
Does the screen light up when you add power? If not, see the last paragraph.
If the screen does light up, but you get no picture, then try using a different video input. If it works then, try building a new video amp for the NES. If the screen does not work after trying a different input, check the next paragraph.
If the new video amp does not work, your NES is dead. Get a new one, and be more careful with it.
IF YOUR SCREEN DOES NOT POWER ON
What to do if your screen does not work:
There is a fuse on the PS1 screen. If you reverse the power to the screen, then this fuse will blow, and the screen will appear to be dead. Not to worry - if you jump this fuse, the screen should work again. On the front of your screen, down by the connectors, there is a small rectangular object that has the word PS1 printed next to it. Put your soldering iron on one end of it and kind of "pull" it away from its pads with the soldering iron, so that the fuse is removed and there are just two small solder pads. Add a blob of solder right there, so that the two solder pads are bridged. Viola! The screen should now be working. If not, it is most likely dead. Sorry. :(
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thank you for all the answers :)