One of the delights of our tips line is that from time to time it brings us retrocomputing hardware that, despite years of reporting, we were not aware existed. [Hitmanmcc] has just such a machine, an NEC PC Engine LT. It’s a PC engine in a laptop form factor, and like many of this super-rare console, it has succumbed to capacitor failure. We’re treated to the process of bringing it back to life.
Replacing capacitors was only part of the story for this repair, as the electrolyte had caused damage elsewhere on the board. In particular there is a small transformer that forms part of an inverter to generate an LCD bias voltage, and this had been destroyed. Fortunately the art of switching power conversion has advanced in the decades since the console was produced, and a small module was procured to do the same job.
The result of all this surgery is another rare console rescued from e-waste, and an opportunity for the rest of us to take a look too. The PC engine is a relative rarity here, but we’ve had a few hacks over the years. This converter for its American cousin is one.
Nice save.
Thank you very much. It was quite a battle but I got there in the end. :)
Well done and what a neat piece of tech. The PCE/TG16 might have the widest and most interesting variations of a console ever.
Thank you, I appreciate that. Yeah, NEC was really coming up with all sorts of interesting approaches to what a console could look like and work. It must have been a very interesting place to work at back at the time.
now gonna be sold for $2k probably
No, not really. This is one of the holy grails of my collection, certainly the one that was hardest to acquire. Much like a fair few of them, it was the fruit of me taking a chance on a broken item, as a path for more economic ownership and as a test of my skills. Just like the rest of my collection, this is not and will not be up for sale. When I pass, then my kid can decide what to do with it but until such a time, my collection is my own and will not be going anywhere, any time soon.