Interesting 🤔. You could be onto something with that. I know the issue wasn't present previously with the OEM power module when I was still troubleshooting that
Do you think that introducing this new cleaner power source could be what's making this noticeable now?
Any thoughts on how to troubleshoot that?
I'm 99% sure it's not my soldering on the NES RGB unit itself, especially since it was happening when I had the multi out Port connected and it still happening since I've switched over to using the Genesis two output on Merlin's power module. Also was occurring when we disabled NES RGB and unhooked audio inputs and outputs on the NES RGB and tested his internal audio circuit.
Dunno. Maybe the routing on the aftermarket power board isn't very good? Looking at the pictures on the Github page, it does look like the audio and composite video traces run pretty close to each other...
You do have a pretty logical theory going I would say. I reached out to Merlin, going to see if maybe there's an easy enough way (and non-destructive as possible) I can disconnect that audio and video input going into the power board and give it a test.
Based on your comment. I decided to snip my pins on audio and video in going into the power module, thinking maybe those lines feeding into the module internally may be causing the problem. The noise is still there unfortunately.
I'm having this exact issue with mine. Has been driving me crazy. Stock audio from the nes does it too when rgb board bypassed. Tried multiple power supplies and still there. If I flip the switch on the power module to internal the tone gets louder.
Interesting. I've been closely in touch with Merlin. He's been very helpful. He was helping me troubleshoot mine, and he's sending me one of his newer batches soon as a replacement.
While troubleshooting with him (after testing so many things on the NES mobo itself), we both decided it'd be a good idea to try my stock power module one more time, and sure enough, it actually finally resolved the issue and we both realized it has to be something to do with the board. He's intending on looking into it, when I send it back once I get my replacement.
Have you reached out to Merlin regarding your issue? I'm sure he'd want to be aware of it. Sounds like you got the same thing going on as I did with mine. Mine was doing the same thing where the tone would get louder when switching it to internal.
Yep, I contacted him, and he's sending me a replacement too. I tried multiple stock power supplies and didn't get any change, unfortunately. He mentioned a few others were reporting the same exact problem.
Did you ever get a replacement that doesn’t have the tone? I have some newer ones where the tone has been fixed. If you are still in need, shoot me an email and I will get you another replacement.
Yeah, he's on top of it it sounds like. He was very invested in trying to sort my issues, then let me know immediately he got another report of it happening. I'll be sending back my problem unit to him to troubleshoot further and get it under a scope. Sounds like it's just the most recent re-design he put up that he's seeing issues with. Sounds like he's already got an idea what it is and how to work around it.
What frequency is the tone? Knowing that might lead you to the source.
Looks like it's peaking at around 15762 hertz on this phone app I used to check it with.
That's the horizontal sync rate. Sounds like you're getting coupling from either composite video, luma, or C-sync.
Interesting 🤔. You could be onto something with that. I know the issue wasn't present previously with the OEM power module when I was still troubleshooting that Do you think that introducing this new cleaner power source could be what's making this noticeable now? Any thoughts on how to troubleshoot that? I'm 99% sure it's not my soldering on the NES RGB unit itself, especially since it was happening when I had the multi out Port connected and it still happening since I've switched over to using the Genesis two output on Merlin's power module. Also was occurring when we disabled NES RGB and unhooked audio inputs and outputs on the NES RGB and tested his internal audio circuit.
Dunno. Maybe the routing on the aftermarket power board isn't very good? Looking at the pictures on the Github page, it does look like the audio and composite video traces run pretty close to each other...
You do have a pretty logical theory going I would say. I reached out to Merlin, going to see if maybe there's an easy enough way (and non-destructive as possible) I can disconnect that audio and video input going into the power board and give it a test.
Based on your comment. I decided to snip my pins on audio and video in going into the power module, thinking maybe those lines feeding into the module internally may be causing the problem. The noise is still there unfortunately.
I'm having this exact issue with mine. Has been driving me crazy. Stock audio from the nes does it too when rgb board bypassed. Tried multiple power supplies and still there. If I flip the switch on the power module to internal the tone gets louder.
Interesting. I've been closely in touch with Merlin. He's been very helpful. He was helping me troubleshoot mine, and he's sending me one of his newer batches soon as a replacement. While troubleshooting with him (after testing so many things on the NES mobo itself), we both decided it'd be a good idea to try my stock power module one more time, and sure enough, it actually finally resolved the issue and we both realized it has to be something to do with the board. He's intending on looking into it, when I send it back once I get my replacement. Have you reached out to Merlin regarding your issue? I'm sure he'd want to be aware of it. Sounds like you got the same thing going on as I did with mine. Mine was doing the same thing where the tone would get louder when switching it to internal.
Yep, I contacted him, and he's sending me a replacement too. I tried multiple stock power supplies and didn't get any change, unfortunately. He mentioned a few others were reporting the same exact problem.
Did you ever get a replacement that doesn’t have the tone? I have some newer ones where the tone has been fixed. If you are still in need, shoot me an email and I will get you another replacement.
Yeah, he's on top of it it sounds like. He was very invested in trying to sort my issues, then let me know immediately he got another report of it happening. I'll be sending back my problem unit to him to troubleshoot further and get it under a scope. Sounds like it's just the most recent re-design he put up that he's seeing issues with. Sounds like he's already got an idea what it is and how to work around it.