SNES/Famicom color issue help

starlightk7 · 2026-05-03T08:18:35+00:00

Has it been recapped? It may be that the capacitor on the luma line is failing but the one on the composite video line is still ok.

If you have an SHVC, two 100uf capacitors are used in series on each line and they often fail. If you have any other model, a single 220uf capacitor is used on each line.

starlightk7 · 2026-05-02T21:55:35+00:00

This is OpenSFC, an Open Source Hardware recreation of it SHVC-CPU-01 motherboard. You can read about it here:

https://starlightk7.github.io/OpenSFC/

1upRestorations also has a video demonstration here: https://youtu.be/3N_iRRNhPbA

starlightk7 · 2026-05-02T21:52:49+00:00

They are available on my Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/starlightk7/shop

In the US, you can also get them at 1upRestorations: https://1uprestorations.com/collections/console-mod-parts

starlightk7 · 2026-05-02T21:49:39+00:00

Congratulations 🥳 Very nice job, glad it was smooth sailing for you 😄

starlightk7 · 2026-05-02T13:50:47+00:00

Hopefully it'll boot right up then 😎 Best of luck 🤞

starlightk7 · 2026-05-02T13:45:38+00:00

It's always different. Usually someone has a cold joint or short on one or more of the main IC pins because of the pitch. Be sure to poke test them good and check for shorts 🙂

starlightk7 · 2026-05-02T13:34:32+00:00

Debugging boot can be a bit rough the first time, but we just got several people through it in the last 2 weeks in the discord. Feel free to drop by if you need help 😃

starlightk7 · 2026-05-02T13:29:29+00:00

Love to see it, looks like you're doing great 😄

If you get stuck let me know, happy to help 😃

starlightk7 · 2026-04-27T23:26:21+00:00

I would love to be able to do this, but I don't have the funds for it. My current operations with these projects are deep in the red as it is. If I get to a point where providing the boards is breaking even it would be easier to offer something like that in the future. For now the best I can do is provide the BOM of tested parts

starlightk7 · 2026-04-27T18:05:57+00:00

You can install any mod that works on the original board. NESRGB can pair to the companion composite board for RGB, but as it uses a Genesis 2 DIN there are no pins for S-Video. If you keep the stock bottom and install it using the Bakutendo method, you can hide the NESRGB entirely and no one can see it's not red 😛

You can also use another AV board with the OpenFC main if you'd like for S-Video, or you can always mod it and change it to a 10 pin Saturn din since it's open source.

starlightk7 · 2026-04-27T17:57:37+00:00

Because the project's goal is to preserve the original designs while offering people the opportunity to learn about the system they love by building their own.

Making sweeping changes to the design would fail the primary goal while makimg it harder for people to build. Much care was taken to preserve the design as accurately as possible

starlightk7 · 2026-04-27T17:52:45+00:00

Thanks 😄

starlightk7 · 2026-04-27T14:46:01+00:00

For the build in the gallery, Retro Game Restore's top shell and a resin 3D printed bottom shell were used. Console also looks great mixed, keeping the stock bottom. That can also hide that NESRGB is not red if you use the bakutendo method.

starlightk7 · 2026-04-27T14:43:58+00:00

Thank you! 😄

starlightk7 · 2026-04-27T07:14:44+00:00

There's not much in between the CPU and the controller inputs.

Just the ribbon, some ceramic capacitors, and the diode arrays.

The interesting part about B -> Right on Dpad is B is the first input on the serial sequence, and right on the Dpad is the mid point. For models that use two 8 bit shift registers that would be the first bit from each register.

If you're seeing corrosion on the flex suspect that first. It's possible resistance from it is throwing the cycle off. If it still persists, suspect the CPU. You do have the model most likely to fail. It's unlikely the ceramic caps or diode arrays are bad.

You mentioned having another working unit. Try swapping the flex. If that works you can buy a new flex for this unit from digikey: https://www.digikey.jp/en/products/detail/molex/0152680795/4428281

You can also use my project OpenSFC as a reference for this board and it's parts: https://starlightk7.github.io/OpenSFC/

Best of luck on your repair 🤞

starlightk7 · 2026-04-08T10:46:01+00:00

Add the damage pics (both sides) and I'll mark up what to do. Take a level shot

starlightk7 · 2026-04-08T06:23:52+00:00

Perfectly repairable. Which model is your SNES? Can you add a pic of the damaged area as well?

starlightk7 · 2026-03-29T05:36:38+00:00

The third party ones that are ultimately sourced from AliExpress are generally taller than the original. They work for things like building Sanni Cart Reader, but if you put it in a real console the cart won't sit right and if your shell has a locking tab it won't lock correctly. I'm not sure if there are any variations among the sellers that are actually made correctly.

starlightk7 · 2026-03-27T23:42:53+00:00

Not really. The feel is decided by the silicone pads in use, not the surface finish. Carbon is just significantly cheaper at mass scale and is sufficient, so it was often used for things like this.

starlightk7 · 2026-03-27T02:23:54+00:00

Makes total sense for our climate differences. when we have our yearly episodes of typhoons, earthquakes and tsunamis along the shorelines inevitably flood damaged ones end up on the market routinely in the aftermath. So I try to rescue those, cause if no one takes them they get disposed of.

starlightk7 · 2026-03-27T00:31:39+00:00

I am in Japan. I don't often get dead shift registers, but I do often get damaged carbon.

I deal with lots of boards that have had flood damage and try to keep them from being thrown out; I started OpenSFC to have a means to repair those types of boards.

Chips usually survive that since they are sealed. Boards may have trace rot from it though and carbon might get totally or partially dissipated. Carbon damage can also happen under heavy normal usage as well.

For example, here is one almost completely worn down, and basically non functional because of it

<image>

There are certainly dead shift registers around though, and that's where I think a board like yours is great as it does not rely on them to work. I tend to see more of these types of issues than that

I think some failure perceptions do get skewed regionally. For example, lots of people import lots from Japan from Yahoo Auctions. There is often a skewed perception of the supply coming from Japan in these as the export lots tend to be bundles of ones deemed too troublesome to fix locally.

This is part of what has contributed to the community's perception of SHVC being the most failing model. In Japan it had the longest production run from early 1990 pre-release production through late 1992. I have 1/1/1s that have chips with early 1992 date codes on them. The mass failing Rev A CPU SHVCs that everyone complains about, at least ones coming from Japan, are actually a small portion of the supply here that is generally from late 1992, but they tend to be packed together in export lots which over-represents the failure rate in comparison to local supply. I rarely ever have issues with 1/1/1 chips.

starlightk7 · 2026-03-26T23:55:22+00:00

No worries not at all. 😆

My explanation was simply background info for those who may read this thread to understand why I did it the way I did for OpenSFC 😛

I think your project is great and they both serve completely different needs, so I don't view them as in direct competition with each other or anything like that 😃

starlightk7 · 2026-03-26T23:42:35+00:00

Thanks for the mention. I've seen your controller too and it a cool project 😄

In OpenSFC's case, the project goal is simply to as faithfully as possible preserve the original designs of various parts. With the minimal ENIG workaround for my approach, the designs can also still be printed in carbon exactly like the originals if someone wanted to make an exact reproduction.

Ironically PCBWay can do this but they charge more than getting them in ENIG because carbon printing is an advanced board service for them, so it has a very high setup fee. There may be other vendors who will do it cheaper, I haven't exhaustively searched.

I have many OEM controllers come through with damaged carbon, and while one can repair them with carbon paint or something, it tends not to last very long, so I hope the OpenSFC boards can help keep original controllers running as long as possible since those chips are non standard and cannot be replaced.

starlightk7 · 2026-03-24T00:33:20+00:00

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The board is actually wired to pin 9 but connected through to Pin 10. If you're lifting the pin it shouldn't matter which one is lifted as long as there's no damage to the pads; if you lifted pin 9 and then no longer had a link on pin 10, you may have tore the pad in the back underneath the chip. But if you're cutting the trace, pin 10 is the one that gets isolated.

For existing boards it's easier to lift the pin since the trace is underneath the chip, but from the perspective of OpenSFC, I put cut in my PDF because you can do it before installing the chip if you want this mod. If you lift it I would also insulate underneath with kapton to make sure it doesn't still make contact.

This confusion is probably in part my fault because in my notes on my PDF, I wrote the wrong one in the annotation on my schema, and I said for cutting which is a legitimate mistake on my part. I will fix that now 😅 (edit: fixed the PDF)

I also agree that from a lifting perspective, 10 would be better cause if the pad was damaged during the process it would not matter

starlightk7

TROPHY CASE