I fixed my NES RF switch

[MaximRecoil]

The NES-003 RF switch works great when it is new, but over time, it tends to become flaky. The reason for this is the type of coax cable / F connector combination that they decided to use when they made it. They didn't use a solid-core coax cable, so the F connector has a little center pin that presses against the stranded wire in the center of the coax cable.

 

That's right, it just presses against it to make contact; i.e., the F connector's center pin is not soldered nor crimped to the stranded center conductor of the coax cable. So over time, the F connector's center pin and the coax cable's center conductor can start to become separated, in which case, your RF switch starts having intermittent problems (i.e., sometimes you'll get good video/audio and sometimes you'll get fuzzy/staticky video/audio). Wiggling the RF switch and its coax cable around will help at first, but does more harm than good in the long run. Eventually the switch will completely fail to work most of the time.

 

The better quality coax cables that are intended to carry RF signals and be terminated with F connectors (like cable companies use) have a solid copper center conductor. This eliminates the need for a center pin on the F connector, because the coax cable's center conductor is sturdy enough to act as the center pin. As a bonus, this completely eliminates the potential for the eventual flakiness that I described above. The only drawback is that coax cable with a solid center conductor is far less flexible than coax with a stranded center conductor. In the case of an RF switch, this is irrelevant however, because it is only a short section of cable, thus it doesn't need to be very flexible.

 

RG-6 coax is what the cable companies normally use, but it is too thick overall for this application (it wouldn't fit through the hole in the plastic housing). I used some coax cable that is about halfway between the thickness of RG-6 and the original coax that Nintendo used. I don't know what it is specifically; it was just a short section of coax that I had laying around. It is good quality, has a solid copper center conductor, and it [just barely] fit through the hole in the RF switch's plastic housing; so it was ideal for this application.

 

First I removed the plastic housing (4 small screws), and then I desoldered the original coax cable from the PCB (3 solder joints). The original coax cable has a small metal connector with 2 legs crimped to it's ground/shield and insulation, and both of those legs are soldered to the PCB (ground). One of the solder points here is redundant of course, as they are both part of the same connector and both go to ground. The center conductor is soldered to the PCB as well.

 

Next, after removing the coax cable from the PCB, I used a small screw driver to pry open the crimps on the 2-legged connector, and I removed said connector. This connector needs to be reused, but not in exactly the same manner that it was used on the original coax cable. The front crimp area of the connector is too small to be of any use here, because the replacement coax cable is much thicker. So I cut the connector in half, which resulted in a one legged connector with the larger of the two crimp areas; i.e., the crimp area that was crimped to the outer insulation of the original coax cable. I then crimped it to the replacement coax cable's shield-covered inner insulation so that I could solder it to the PCB.

 

The solid center conductor was too thick to fit in the pad for it on the PCB, so I filed the center conductor down until it was small enough to fit in the hole, and bent it over at a right angle. Now both the center conductor and the crimped on connector could be soldered into the proper pads on the PCB.

 

It now works perfectly, and should continue to do so indefinitely.

 

Here are some pictures:

 

 

 

 

Edited March 17, 2012 by MaximRecoil

[godslabrat]

Great effort, I applaud your thinking. You do know about RCA-coax adapters, right?

[MaximRecoil]

Great effort, I applaud your thinking.

 

Thanks.

 

You do know about RCA-coax adapters, right?

 

Yes, that's what I was using before when I needed to use RF, such as with an NES toploader, or Atari 7800 (an RG-6 coax cable with an F-to-RCA adapter), but it was annoying because it was so inflexible/cumbersome. I also have an RCA-to-F adapter that I can use with the typically more flexible RCA cables, but I actually wanted to get the switch working again, mainly for the sake of it being an original part.

 

Also, it seems that the NES-003 switch is less affected by occasional interference than the cables with adapters are (otherwise the picture quality is the same). This might be due to whatever is happening on that little PCB, or it might be my imagination; but either way, this RF switch works perfectly now, and its wire to the console is thin and flexible, and it of course allows you to hook up an antenna to the TV without removing the switch, which an ordinary cable + F-to-RCA adapter doesn't do by default (you'd need to add a splitter).

Edited March 18, 2012 by MaximRecoil

[MaximRecoil]

Also, it seems that the NES-003 switch is less affected by occasional interference than the cables with adapters are (otherwise the picture quality is the same). This might be due to whatever is happening on that little PCB, or it might be my imagination;

 

Maybe it isn't just my imagination. According to the Best Electronics folks, the Atari RF switches have RF interference suppressing circuitry in them, and I would assume that this applies to any TV/Game RF switch. Here is an excerpt in the context of using an RF switch vs. using an RCA-to-F adapter:

 

Also the Direct Connect Adapters that are on the Internet do not have any RF interference suppressing Circuits in them, compared to the Mechanical Atari Cable ready TV switch boxes which do. That means you will get a clearer Game picture with less RF interference on your Cable Ready Color TV if you use an Atari Cable Ready TV switch box.

 

Link

Edited March 25, 2012 by MaximRecoil

[godslabrat]

Also, it seems that the NES-003 switch is less affected by occasional interference than the cables with adapters are (otherwise the picture quality is the same). This might be due to whatever is happening on that little PCB, or it might be my imagination;

 

Maybe it isn't just my imagination. According to the Best Electronics folks, the Atari RF switches have RF interference suppressing circuitry in them, and I would assume that this applies to any TV/Game RF switch. Here is an excerpt in the context of using an RF switch vs. using an RCA-to-F adapter:

 

Also the Direct Connect Adapters that are on the Internet do not have any RF interference suppressing Circuits in them, compared to the Mechanical Atari Cable ready TV switch boxes which do. That means you will get a clearer Game picture with less RF interference on your Cable Ready Color TV if you use an Atari Cable Ready TV switch box.

 

Link

Believable, but it runs counter to my experience. I stopped using the RF switches because not only did they break easily, but they seemed to pick up interference no matter what I did. I've had fewer issues with the Coax converters... but that might be because I keep a minimal distance of cable run in the first place.

 

Hopefully it won't be an issue forever. The only system I have now that uses RF is my NES2, and as soon as I find a toaster to refurbish, it'll become a secondary system.

[MaximRecoil]

Believable, but it runs counter to my experience. I stopped using the RF switches because not only did they break easily, but they seemed to pick up interference no matter what I did. I've had fewer issues with the Coax converters... but that might be because I keep a minimal distance of cable run in the first place.

 

Normally the picture quality is the same for me between the OEM RF switch and an RG6 coax with RCA adapter. However, with the coax + adapter, sometimes I see brief interference (it just lasts a second or so and then it goes back to normal). That doesn't happen when I use the OEM RF switch.

 

With that said, I normally use my front-loader with AV cables, which has great picture quality and interference isn't an issue anyway.

[Satoshi Matrix]

Interesting discovery, but this begs the obvious question of why you would bother with the RF adapter at all when the NES has superior RCA composite jacks?

[genesisguy]

Interesting discovery, but this begs the obvious question of why you would bother with the RF adapter at all when the NES has superior RCA composite jacks?

 

I have my NES hooked up via RCA and RF. Sometimes the RF just looks "right." The slightly fuzzier rounded over pixles draws at my nostalgia heart strings. It's kind of like how even though I bought a powerpak, I'd rather play Contra on my original cart then fire up the powerpak.

[MaximRecoil]

Interesting discovery, but this begs the obvious question of why you would bother with the RF adapter at all when the NES has superior RCA composite jacks?

 

I also have toploader. It only has RF output.

[Satoshi Matrix]

The "toploader" only lacks an external source for composite video. The PPU it has is exactly the same as the NES-001 "toaster". All you need to do is solder a few wires to the PPU, build a simple video amplifier and add in two standard RCA jacks in the back of the case.

[Austin]

The "toploader" only lacks an external source for composite video. The PPU it has is exactly the same as the NES-001 "toaster". All you need to do is solder a few wires to the PPU, build a simple video amplifier and add in two standard RCA jacks in the back of the case.

 

Top-loaders are worth a little more than the toasters, so some people might not want to hack them up. Good to know though that the mod is easy.

[Satoshi Matrix]

Well, obviously only do this if you know what you're doing. Even so though, its not very hard at all.

[MaximRecoil]

Well, obviously only do this if you know what you're doing. Even so though, its not very hard at all.

 

I don't think that was his point. Some people don't want to hack a toploader; not because they are worried about messing it up; but simply because they don't want it to be hacked at all. I fall into that category.

[Satoshi Matrix]

Well, to each their own, but leaving it stock is leaving it intentionally inferior.

[MaximRecoil]

Well, to each their own, but leaving it stock is leaving it intentionally inferior.

 

In that case, hacking in composite output is leaving it "intentionally inferior" too, because RGB is superior (i.e., hacking in a PC-10 PPU and an RGB amp).

 

There are plenty of people who value originality over performance, especially when the performance difference isn't all that much and/or isn't critical by any means.

[godslabrat]

I catch a lot of flack because I don't mod my SNES to play import games. I'm repeatedly told that all I have to do is snap off the inner tabs with a pliers. It confounds people that:

 

A) I'd rather not rip chunks of plastic out of my 20 year old system

B) I don't have any SFC games anyway and

C) If I did, buying a Game Genie or some other pin extender would be easy enough.

[Satoshi Matrix]

In that case, hacking in composite output is leaving it "intentionally inferior" too, because RGB is superior (i.e., hacking in a PC-10 PPU and an RGB amp).

 

True. The only reason I didn't bring up the RP2C03 is because most people don't have access to one to install in the first place, and there is little reason to install one outside of Europe anyway unless you plan to then also install a RGB to S-video adapter.

 

But again, that's different from preforming a composite mod on an NES-101 "toploader" - all you're doing is utilizing the hardware that's already there, not adding in new hardware.

[genesisguy]

Well, to each their own, but leaving it stock is leaving it intentionally inferior.

 

In that case, hacking in composite output is leaving it "intentionally inferior" too, because RGB is superior (i.e., hacking in a PC-10 PPU and an RGB amp).

 

There are plenty of people who value originality over performance, especially when the performance difference isn't all that much and/or isn't critical by any means.

 

I agree! There's a guy who sells modded top loaders on ebay. He does beautiful work and I've heard nothing but good things about his modded systems. That said I won't buy one. Everytime I see those listed I think, "there goes another one, from an already limited amount of these that has lost it's originality."

 

I have a BA in history and a Masters in Library Science and Archiving so I'm probably more over the top preservationist than most.

 

Maxim Recoil - you make one other good point and that is the performance isn't really all that different. I too believe the term "inferior" is a bit much when comparing he RF of the top loader to my RCA toaster. Only on games where there are large solid colors on screen do I notice the jailbars.

 

The interesting thing about retro gamers is we all have various thresholds we'll cross or not cross with regards to how we play the original stuff.

Edited March 28, 2012 by genesisguy