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Denson

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Hi all,

Has anyone tried hooking up the Brook retro board? I’ve tried 2 and cannot for the life of me get them to work....

I must be doing something wrong as I can’t believe that they’re both faulty.

This is how I’ve set them up:

The stick and buttons all connected to the J8 on the retro board with the supplied cable, then RJ45 to SNES (have also tried GameCube too) and nothing.. the little blue light on the board comes on but that’s it.

I’ve probably missed something glaringly obvious, but if someone wouldn’t mind pointing it out to me it would be greatly appreciated :D

Thanks!
 
I have a similar board, not the exact. Why don't you try J9 instead? Start with one button like "START" or "A" and make sure you're wiring GROUND. If it works with one button, the rest will probably work too.
 
Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

I was hoping to avoid having to wire all of the buttons individually to J9, hence getting the pre-crimped cable for J8, but it’s worth a shot. Like you say, I can start off with a single button and see how it goes.
 
glaringly obvious would be that your 20 pin harness is plugged into j8 backwards. below is correct, pin 19 and 20 are empty (unless you need power for some reason) how does yours look?


FA-UFB20PIN-HARNESS-INSTALL-ZOOM-34__85223.1504106042.1280.1280.jpg
 
Haha! Yeah I’ve already checked that as it’s the sort of thing that’s so easily done, but they’re around the correct way.

I don’t need anything connected to any of the other connectors to make it work do I? And I’m assuming it auto detects the console it’s connected to?

Thanks for the replies though guys, all help is appreciated :)
 
Hmm...I’d read that and understood it to mean that I didn’t need the jumper as I was only using the retro board without a UFB? Is that not the case? If so it might be an easy fix?!
 
I am not sure, that's why i just linked the manual. no-jumper could be just fine if it's not linked to a ufb.
 
Ok, so I’ve connected all of the controls to J9 and......still nothing. No inputs working at all.

The blue light on the retro board still come on, but nothing works.

I feel that I must be missing something here as these are supposed to be simple plug and play devices, but for the life of me I cannot figure it out. I’m starting to become very annoyed with these now! I’ve checked and double checked the simple manual, but aside from connecting the controls there isn’t anything else that I can see that is required... :(

I’ve tried connecting to the console prior to powering it on as well as disconnecting and reconnecting once it’s on to see if that makes a difference but still nothing.

HELP!!
 
Small update:

I have tested with a ps3 cable, and also a pc engine cable and both appear to work fine. So either I have 2 faulty SNES cables, or the boards just don’t like them for some reason..

It looks like I’ll have to try to locate a different source for a SNES cable and try that.

If anyone knows someone who can make one for me (preferably in Europe as the shipping/customs costs from the states are a killer) then please let me know.

I’ve yet to test the cables for the other consoles that I have, but hopefully they will work too. :)
 
I wonder if there’s faulty SNES RJ45 cables out there? Both of mine are faulty as yours, and one of them actually fried my SNES when using it with a PS360+.
 
I have no familiarity with the Brook, but one thing springs to mind re SNES woes...

Nintendo, being Nintendo, region locked controllers between NTSC and PAL consoles. This doesn't have anything to do with it?
 
I believe the RJ45 cables are all wired to one spec? Might be wrong, but it seems a bit strange that there’s a consistency re: SNES cables. I got mine off one of the leading “fight stick” sites too.
 
I don't know, but me knowing that there's a difference between PAL and NTSC controllers, and the controller ports containing power, your console frying and other people having issues... Something is amiss.
 
Agreed. I used my cable on a Super Famicom 1CHIP console. @oneleaf86 may be able to chime in more on what was damaged (as he fixed my console). I still might have them lying around if anyone feels like giving me a heads up to diagnose what's wrong with these two cables.
 
Your 1CHIP had two fried audio caps which stopped the audio from passing through to the multi out.
 
Last edited:
My console is a UK PAL unit, with 60hz region switch (which I run in 60hz).

I tried it switched to 50hz to see if it made a difference and it didn’t...

My SNES cables came from one of the leading sites too..perhaps they’re geared towards a US console? I have numerous Super Famicon joypads which work fine on my UK console, so didn’t think there would be any difference?!
 
Did this ever get resolved? I plugged a Brook Retro board into a SNES and the blue light comes on but nothing else works :-{
 
Likely faulty SNES cables, at least judging from OP stating that other console cables do work on the same boards. I've had issues with poor quality cables sold by multiple vendors stateside. Not SNES specifically but it's happened to me with Dreamcast and PSX cables for sure. I've since gotten a RJ45 crimper and will learn to make my own using extension controller cables as donors when the time comes to replace any more cables in the future. Will be going this route as well with N64 support just announced for the Retro Board - I no longer trust these vendors for pre-fabricated cables.
 
Hi, do you have working snes cables for the retro board then? If so could you possibly link where you got them from?

I gave up trying in the end but would still love to get it working.
 
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