Category Archives: Hardware
Crystal Clear Cartridge Case Use Cases ;-)
A couple of months ago msxinfo.net started a ‘Inkoopaktie’ (Collective Buy) of Crystal Clear Cartridge Cases, from Paulo Maluf.
Here are some examples of use cases for these nice Cartridge Cases:
Philips Music Module Upgrade and Capacitor Replacement
Last MSX Fair in Tilburg I’ve bought the MSX Audio Extension Expander from Bas Kornalijnslijper.
This extension comes with an online build-in instruction that can be downloaded from Supersoniqs Website
The instruction starts with a little background:
Back in 2005 Brazilian MSX users Fábio Ricardo Schmidlin (FRS) and Luciano Sturaro
(MSXPró) released an expander PCB for the Philips Music Module. This board came with
and adjusted Panasonic MSX Audio ROM and with 256KB sample memory. A while ago
FRS published his schematics so other MSX users could recreate his upgrade PCB.
Because nobody took this challenge while there was still demand SuperSoniqs jumped in.
It took us some months to gather all the necessary parts, order the PCB’s and then find a
partner to assemble the upgrade boards. After some setbacks we finally succeeded. We
would like to thank FRS and MSXPró for their great work. They can be reached through
www.MSXpro.com. Please check our site for news and information about our products.
Our place on the web can be found at supersoniqs.com. We hope you have great fun with
this upgrade!
The upgrade can be done in some easy steps, but since I had to open up my Music Module I decided to also replace all electrolytic capacitors with high-grade audio electrolytic capacitors.
So I started to identify all capacitor values to order them. The following electrolytic capacitors ar used in the Music Module:
| Part.nr. | Value | Volt |
| C41 | 0.47uF | 50V |
| C13 | 100uF | 16V |
| C16 | 100uF | 16V |
| C29 | 100uF | 16V |
| C30 | 100uF | 16V |
| C25 | 10uF | 16V |
| C38 | 10uF | 16V |
| C39 | 10uF | 16V |
| C40 | 10uF | 16V |
| C21 | 1uF | 50V |
| C33 | 1uF | 50V |
I removed all electrolytic capacitors by cutting them out and then cleaned all holes using a desoldering pump.
Then I’ve put all new electrolytic capacitors.
After replacing all electrolytic capacitors I’ve tested the music module to see if it’s still functioning and to listen to the result. The result was not stunning, but the sound was somehow more ‘bright’.
I also replaced R41 with a 20KΩ potentiometer, so the sound output to the slotconnector can be adjusted.
After these modifications I started to build in the MSX Audio Extension Expander using the guide supplied by Supersoniqs.
The result:
Because I have multiple Music Modules with different ROM’s I have dumped them all using my Wellon VP-280 Eprom programmer and added them to the downloads section: https://www.msxinfo.net/downloads/?did=229
