PCB of the day! Requiem for a 5.1K CC resistor 🔌💡🔧
We have a few gadgets around the house that, despite having a USB type C connector, do not abide by the USB C power delivery specification! They leave off or mis-connect the two 5.1K resistors required to tell a USB PD wall adapter that they want 5V 1A power, a common issue because the devices work fine with a USB A to C cable, and only Macbooks seem picky about this stuff: cheap power supplies blast 5V and call it a day. This doo-hickey is a solution. It has two USB sockets nestled back-to-back, and instead of connecting the CC lines through, each half has its own dedicated resistor set. It makes for an excellent symmetrical design. Pair it with a short USB C-C cable to create an inline extender. We considered having one side be a plug, but the SMT-able plug connectors seemed like they needed to be more mechanically stable.
In 1990, Sega made a handheld system to compete with Nintendo’s Game Boy called the Game Gear. The thing is though, the Game Gear is kind of awful. Sure it has a color screen, but the screen itself is blurry and cannot handle motion well. It ate batteries, and was too big to be portable in a practical sense. The Game Boy has a huge legacy, as each successor became better and were backwards compatible. The Game Gear had none of this; if you want to play Game Gear games you need to find a working Game Gear.
The Game Gear is unpopular in retrogaming communities, and I believe it’s because of how inaccessible it is. That’s why I wanted to complete this project. Consolizing a Game Gear fixes every problem that I mentioned earlier...and it’s a neat trophy piece.
Unfortunately, I did not keep a journal while I was building this. I wanted to focus on getting it done instead of worrying about writing every detail down. So instead I’m just going to dump a bunch of links that I found while I was doing research.
Tim Worthington’s Game Gear TV Board Instructions + Purchase
Console5 (Cap replacement kits, useful components, and Game Gear Schematics)
[Forum Thread] Let's consolize and old dirty broken Game Gear found in the trash. (This is a goldmine of info)
Japanese Game Gear consolization development blog
Master System joystick pinout (good site for pinouts of every kind)
[Video] Replacing Game Gear capacitors
[Video] Installing GGTV Board
[Video] Installing controller port
I’m sure there are other useful links, but these are the major ones. Overall, this was a fun project to do with a really cool end result. It requires a lot of time and a bit of money, but I can’t see a better use for all of the unused Game Gears sitting on ebay.
I did a few mods to a Model 2 Sega Genesis. It now has S-Video output, RCA ports and a blue LED light. I made a more detailed explanation of my process, including the tutorials I used, here.
