Green Beret
Fio's Quartermaster
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2013
- Posts
- 498
I have got a Naomi 2 with Virtue Fighter 4 since 2 years. I bought it with a Sega I/O but returned it back and after a couple of months I found a Capcom I/O. It was time to test the system for the first time using my one and only Sigma Raijin. The first surprise came after a few seconds in the red title screen where the game just froze...I thought it may be the 5 volts as my little volt display on the jamma was showing a little less than 5v. Upped voltage and it played for more time.
Here it came my first conclusion that every other pcbs play with the voltage at about 5.1 with no pcb connected while the Naomi 2 needed about 5.3. That would drop to about 5.05 with the system connected and in demo mode. I still had freezes after about half an hour though. Volts would drop as low as 5.0 in intense scenes of demo mode and would go to 5.1 on easy scenes. I was always careful not to overvolt the board. I had came to a final conclusion that I may need a separate PC PSU or a SUN psu in order to play normaly.
A few months ago I read that all caps in Naomi 1 & 2 are ELNA! These caps are already known to some of you from Irem's M92. So I decided to replace all smd caps in my Naomi. I counted about 80. Most of them had already leaked a little bit but there was no damage yet. I cleaned the pcb very well and soldered back all 80 caps . The only difference is that I used classic electrolytic caps because it was easier for me with the simple soldering equipment I use. I don't know why but powering up the board and have it running needed more volts than 5.3. Or else it would freeze quicker. I remind that 5.3 is without a board connected. With the board this would drop to about 5.05.
I left the system worrying that it may had hardware failure somewhere. Maybe one faulty GPU from the two.
Yesterday searched the forum once again and found that Naomi games have some very sensitive buffers. Overvoltage above 5.2 kills them and consequences are random freezing. I was about to believe I have bought a broken game until yesterday when I got in my hands a Chinese 450 watts PC PSU. I measured all its outputs, 12v 5v and 3.3v with a multimeter and it seemed right. Advertised amperage was far more than a SUN psu in both 5v and 3.3v. Connected the system but nothing. This shit couldn't even power on the system. When connected readings where 4.9v and 2.2v. I decided to do a last attempt with my Sigma upping voltage in 5v line while the pcbs playing in demo mode trying not to have it fall below 5.05. I could achieve it but when not intense moments voltage could go instantly to 5.16. At the end it played ok for 2 hours until I turned it off. Now I am sure that the game and the system are both ok. 2 Power VR 2 Gpus are power hungry. Back in the day a Power VR2 was equivalent with a 3dfx Voodoo 2.
Is it normal for the voltage to switch between 5.05 and 5.16 ? Do I really need a SUN psu or an Industrial Mean Well 150/200 watt psu with adjustable all voltage lines?
How do you play Naomi 2?
Thanks for reading all this
Here it came my first conclusion that every other pcbs play with the voltage at about 5.1 with no pcb connected while the Naomi 2 needed about 5.3. That would drop to about 5.05 with the system connected and in demo mode. I still had freezes after about half an hour though. Volts would drop as low as 5.0 in intense scenes of demo mode and would go to 5.1 on easy scenes. I was always careful not to overvolt the board. I had came to a final conclusion that I may need a separate PC PSU or a SUN psu in order to play normaly.
A few months ago I read that all caps in Naomi 1 & 2 are ELNA! These caps are already known to some of you from Irem's M92. So I decided to replace all smd caps in my Naomi. I counted about 80. Most of them had already leaked a little bit but there was no damage yet. I cleaned the pcb very well and soldered back all 80 caps . The only difference is that I used classic electrolytic caps because it was easier for me with the simple soldering equipment I use. I don't know why but powering up the board and have it running needed more volts than 5.3. Or else it would freeze quicker. I remind that 5.3 is without a board connected. With the board this would drop to about 5.05.
I left the system worrying that it may had hardware failure somewhere. Maybe one faulty GPU from the two.
Yesterday searched the forum once again and found that Naomi games have some very sensitive buffers. Overvoltage above 5.2 kills them and consequences are random freezing. I was about to believe I have bought a broken game until yesterday when I got in my hands a Chinese 450 watts PC PSU. I measured all its outputs, 12v 5v and 3.3v with a multimeter and it seemed right. Advertised amperage was far more than a SUN psu in both 5v and 3.3v. Connected the system but nothing. This shit couldn't even power on the system. When connected readings where 4.9v and 2.2v. I decided to do a last attempt with my Sigma upping voltage in 5v line while the pcbs playing in demo mode trying not to have it fall below 5.05. I could achieve it but when not intense moments voltage could go instantly to 5.16. At the end it played ok for 2 hours until I turned it off. Now I am sure that the game and the system are both ok. 2 Power VR 2 Gpus are power hungry. Back in the day a Power VR2 was equivalent with a 3dfx Voodoo 2.
Is it normal for the voltage to switch between 5.05 and 5.16 ? Do I really need a SUN psu or an Industrial Mean Well 150/200 watt psu with adjustable all voltage lines?
How do you play Naomi 2?
Thanks for reading all this