My ultimate Sega Genesis (model 1 va7)

This started out as a 10$ system that basically nobody wanted. My good buddy mvsfan hooked me up with a couple of va7 model 1s. I built myself quite the machine. This model 1 features the retrogamer343 mini crystal clear audio mod pcb designed by tiido. I installed a region switch to change between japan and america. The output of the ccam is wired into a headphone jack which I installed in the back. I wired up a s-video circuit to the built in cxa1145 for master system games. Out the back is a wired header connected to rgbs to make it easy for me to plug in my pre-wired 32x systems or a rgb to component device. The top half of the case is taken from a japanese va5 and modded to fit any model 1 bottom half, I like the look of the japanese megadrive case. The megadrive physical lockout device has been removed. This's one of the cleanest looking mod-jobs I've done to date and I'm very proud of this machine. This system produces in my opinion the best possible sound quality from a genesis. I'm waiting for capacitors so I can tweak the low pass filters before I make audio recordings.










The only things I would change with my next one is move the audio jack further away from the power jack and use less excessive amounts of wire for the audio jack inside. Thanks again to retrogamer343 for making this mini ccam pcbs, tiido for designed the ccam, and mvsfan for supplying me with fully functional va7 model 1s.

*edit*

Demo video for the audio quality:

im happy to say i also completed the ccam project thanks to drakon.

only things i really did different, was i used multi colored wires so i could keep track of them better as i was wiring it up, and i used the existing headphone jack on the front for the output. I also had stuck the board down to one of the chips on the genesis and it was causing a bit of audio noise, then you told me to relocate it to the spot where it looks like a chunk is missing from the motherboard. that fixed the problem.

thanks, drakon.

mvsfan wrote:

im happy to say i also completed the ccam project thanks to drakon.

only things i really did different, was i used multi colored wires so i could keep track of them better as i was wiring it up, and i used the existing headphone jack on the front for the output. I also had stuck the board down to one of the chips on the genesis and it was causing a bit of audio noise, then you told me to relocate it to the spot where it looks like a chunk is missing from the motherboard. that fixed the problem.

thanks, drakon.

Welcome.

I think ive also now figured out the pins on the the volume slider, so that is going to get hooked back up. I also ordered a small, 3w preamp kit for this as well as a 20k dual input potentiometer, and some .1uf caps so that i can tune the sound of the mod board from the back of the console.

thanks, again, drakon.[/quote]

Welcome.[/quote]

This does look pretty clean. Great work Drakon. I myself am still trying to get a hold of a VA7. The local place still hasn't gotten any in.

Skips wrote:

This does look pretty clean. Great work Drakon. I myself am still trying to get a hold of a VA7. The local place still hasn't gotten any in.

I can confirm the va7 rgb is more stable. I got a backup va6 and with my s-video modded 32x I get the same annoying occasional flicker which isn't present on the va7.

Drakon wrote:

Skips wrote:

This does look pretty clean. Great work Drakon. I myself am still trying to get a hold of a VA7. The local place still hasn't gotten any in.

I can confirm the va7 rgb is more stable. I got a backup va6 and with my s-video modded 32x I get the same annoying occasional flicker which isn't present on the va7.

I am actually still using a VA2, the RGB seems flawless on it so far. Lifting pin 50 removed all the jail bars for me too. It looks pretty sweet on my CVS287. I'm glad to hear the RGB is pretty good on the VA7 as well. When I do manage to get a hold of one I am going to install a headphone jack in the back and install the Crystal Clear Audio Mod. Should be the ultimate genesis setup for my entertainment system then.

Skips wrote:

Drakon wrote:

Skips wrote:

This does look pretty clean. Great work Drakon. I myself am still trying to get a hold of a VA7. The local place still hasn't gotten any in.

I can confirm the va7 rgb is more stable. I got a backup va6 and with my s-video modded 32x I get the same annoying occasional flicker which isn't present on the va7.

I am actually still using a VA2, the RGB seems flawless on it so far. Lifting pin 50 removed all the jail bars for me too. It looks pretty sweet on my CVS287. I'm glad to hear the RGB is pretty good on the VA7 as well. When I do manage to get a hold of one I am going to install a headphone jack in the back and install the Crystal Clear Audio Mod. Should be the ultimate genesis setup for my entertainment system then.

Yup, to tweak the audio I removed the 0.022 uf caps and replaced them with 0.1 uf caps in series with 240 ohm resistors, sounds great now. Now that it's finally tweaked here's a demo video.

mvsfan wrote:

I think ive also now figured out the pins on the the volume slider, so that is going to get hooked back up. I also ordered a small, 3w preamp kit for this as well as a 20k dual input potentiometer, and some .1uf caps so that i can tune the sound of the mod board from the back of the console.

thanks, again, drakon.

Welcome.[/quote][/quote]


I do have the volume slider hooked back up now. I traced out the 2 lines on the slider, cut the traces going to them, and soldered wires from the ccam to the volume slider, to the headphone jack. works perfectly.

btw, for my soldering i use a piece of 20" ceramic tile. Keeps the bench from getting burnt.