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60Hz mod switch for European CDI 220/210 Tutorial

Posted: Mon May 06, 2013 11:14 pm
by t0nito
Hi guys, I'm new here I've recently entered the world of CD-i when a cousin of mine gave me a CDI 220 player.

I've done a 50/60Hz mod because PAL CDi's basically suck because some (most?) games don't show in full screen.

Something you may want to know first. On 60Hz mode you will only get colour with a RGB SCART cable, if you use composite vĂ­deo, you will get a black & white picture even if your TV supports NTSC.

I'm guessing it's because american counter parts use a different oscillator frequency, so when switching to NTSC mode will give you a colour burst frequency other than the 3.58MHz that the TV expects to receive to display colour. Once again if using RGB you'll have ful colour on both modes.


OK, now for the good part: (I used some images and info from this site: http://www.cdiemu.org/ I hope the author doesn't mind)

As far as connections go, this is what you'll have to do:

Remove the resistor shown inside the circle:

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Start by connecting the pads with some length of wire as shown to a single pole double throw switch adding a 10Kohm resistor on the center leg of the switch.

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Thats basically it, find a location for the switch, and use your imagination on where to place it, here's a few photos on how I did mine, hope you like it.


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Posted: Mon May 06, 2013 11:29 pm
by t0nito
He are some photos comparing composite and RGB signals after the mod:

Composite 50Hz (PAL):


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Composite 60Hz (NTSC with wrong colour burst frequency)

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RGB 50Hz:

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RGB 60Hz:

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Notice how the 50Hz image is compressed with black bars and 60Hz shows a lovely full screen :)

Posted: Sat May 11, 2013 1:58 pm
by K1ngArth3r
This is fantastic!

Thanks so much for sharing! Have you tested with anything else other than Mad Dog McCree and come across any compatibility issues?

I can't wait to do this on my player!

Posted: Sun May 12, 2013 9:59 pm
by t0nito
I haven't got many titles, but so far I tried:

Mad Dog McCree
Mad Dog McCree II
Micro Machines
Merlin's Apprentice

All work perfectly fine in 60Hz

It's funny that Micro Machines work in full screen on both modes, so I guess it was a game optimized for PAL, all the others display black bars squeezing the image when using 50Hz.

Amazing!

Posted: Tue May 21, 2013 9:07 pm
by Ozfer
That is great work! Where did you get the sheets from to know what the holes do. Plus do you think we could remove the pal oscillator and either replace it with a ntsc one or have it on a switch so color would work in the normal mode?

Posted: Tue May 21, 2013 11:14 pm
by cdifan
This is based on part of my CD-i Emulator site here: http://www.cdiemu.org/site/hw/cdi210sw.htm. All of the pictures there are links to larger versions.

Posted: Wed May 22, 2013 1:41 pm
by t0nito
Yes I mentioned your website on the first post, I hope you don't mind!

Posted: Wed May 22, 2013 9:11 pm
by cdifan
I don't mind, the information is there to be used. Just answering Ozfer's question about where the information came from (at least partially), since it's a bit hard to find on the site.

I've got a fairly complete set of Philips CD-i player service manuals and these include the schematics and board diagrams shown.

Posted: Fri May 24, 2013 4:47 am
by Ozfer
Yea sometimes if you click on links right to sub parts of the website or open pages on the emulator website in a new tab it says it can't find the website :( do you have a copy of the full service manual I could see or know where to get it? Also if we did the same thing with the 210/220 resistor would it make a difference in anything?

Posted: Sun May 26, 2013 7:01 pm
by cdifan
I have the full (paper) service manuals for many Philips players (not all), but they are hard to scan because the interesting parts are all folding out to several times A4 size. Found most of these for sale online by accident several years ago, don't know if they are still obtainable.

There used to be crude scanned versions online somewhere, but I can't remember where.

I don't think the 210/220 resistor will have much effect, but this is from memory (detailed ROM inspection was several years ago) and may be false. It also probably depends on the player model.

Service manuals

Posted: Sun May 26, 2013 11:51 pm
by Ozfer
I have looked all over the internet to obtain any of the service manuals for any of them and have not been able to find any :( . A lot of the CD-i websites have been going down in recent years and we are constantly losing resources. If there is anyway for you to make some scans even if its with a camera or whatever it would really be beneficial to everyone since this is a dying resource.

Re: Amazing!

Posted: Mon May 27, 2013 1:14 pm
by t0nito
Ozfer wrote:That is great work! Where did you get the sheets from to know what the holes do. Plus do you think we could remove the pal oscillator and either replace it with a ntsc one or have it on a switch so color would work in the normal mode?
It's weird because according to this image

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there seems to be a 4MHz crystal driven by an internal oscillator within the chip itself, but there is no option between PAL and NTSC parts.

It's weird because I think it should be driven at 4.43MHz for PAL and 3.58MHz for NTSC.

Maybe that crystal isn't for video timing and the video timing is controlled from another main oscillator circuit of a higher frequency with a divider.

Re: Amazing!

Posted: Mon May 27, 2013 4:27 pm
by cdifan
t0nito wrote: there seems to be a 4MHz crystal driven by an internal oscillator within the chip itself, but there is no option between PAL and NTSC parts.

It's weird because I think it should be driven at 4.43MHz for PAL and 3.58MHz for NTSC.

Maybe that crystal isn't for video timing and the video timing is controlled from another main oscillator circuit of a higher frequency with a divider.
Part 7201 (MC68HC0518) is an 8 bit microcontroller; the 4 MHz crystal provides its internal clock.

The video chip is elsewhere.

Posted: Mon May 27, 2013 8:05 pm
by t0nito
Do you know what crystal generates the colour signal?

Re: 60Hz mod switch for European CDI 220/210 Tutorial

Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2014 12:42 pm
by pr3ston
I have a CD-i 210/60 with a Mono IV Mainboard. The Layout is completely different... Can anybody help me to find out the right solder points for my version ?


thanks a lot