PAL N64 – Tim Worthington RGB Mod Questions

[Stephen Cummins]

Hi all

I had my PAL N64 modded with the TW RGB board a little while ago now.

I recently bought a Retrotink 5x Pro which has now sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole though due to the statements on the Retrotink website regarding not using CSync TTL with the 5X.

At the time I had the mod done, my modder told me that I needed an NTSC SNES Csync passthrough scart cable at the time the mod was completed, so thats what Ive been using since then.

However, I now know that this cable is intended for Csync TTL and so does not have any built in resistors to lower the sync voltage.

The cable maker has told me that the passthrough cable is intended for use where the sync voltage is attenuated on the mod board itself.

I’ve checked the board in my console and it looks like the modder wired up using the “CS#” pin – which means Csync TTL.
Apparently they should have wired using the “CS75” contact for attenuation.

It also looks like the jumper on the board (J1, J2, J3) have not been bridged (these should apparently be bridged for use with PAL consoles).

So I was wondering if anyone knows:

1: As my N64 is PAL, should the jumpers be bridged or do they only get bridged if you want to use a PAL SCART cable?

2: If they are only bridged because of a PAL SCART cable then what would determine whether I should use a PAL or NTSC SCART cable?
I understand that most N64 compatible PAL SCART cables would either have a Sync stripper inside (which again is not recommended by Retrotink so is a no go) or use Sync On Luma (but I’m not sure if a PAL N64 has a Luma output as does not have S-VIdeo) so maybe its just a process of elimination that takes you to an NTSC cable instead?

Thanks all

[BuckoA51]

Don’t suppose you took pictures of your consoles internals did you?

If he’s wired it to TTL csync and you’re using a csync pass through cable that could damage whatever you connect to it, OSSC, RetroTINK, CRT, anything.

[Stephen Cummins]

I’ve added a pic here:

View post on imgur.com

After it was confirmed that I was passing TTL through I actually resoldered the sync output to the CS75 contact instead: https://imgur.com/a/BunoeY0

It’s connected to pin 3 on the multi av output.

You can see in the picture that jumpers 1-3 are open still but not sure if that’s correct seeing as I have a PAL console.

[BuckoA51]

Jumpers J1, J2, J3 select the cable type

All open for Gamecube SCART, Super Nintendo NTSC SCART, Super Famicom RGB21 (Japanese).
All closed (soldered) for Super Nintendo PAL SCART.

Doesn’t matter what native region your console is, you just set those jumpers based on the cable you are using.

You’re safe to use this on the RetroTINK 5x etc now, I don’t see why it would not work even if it’s not officially supported. Taking sync like this from the TW board is much more stable than trying to use the existing composite video feed.

[Stephen Cummins]

Nice one, thanks for that confirmation.

So is there any benefit from using an NTSC scart with a Pal n64 (instead of just using a pal scart)?

Just not sure what drives the decision on which cable to select (if it even matters at all)

[BuckoA51]

There is no difference, just use whichever cable you have on hand or can most easily obtain.

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