NEC PC Engine Duo Full Recap, Supercap & RGB Mod (1st Unit)

My first PC Engine Duo was acquired in 2021. As expected, there was leakage everywhere though, to it's credit, it did still work, although with issues. If you want to hear what a PCE Duo sounds like when almost all caps have leaked, lend me your ear. #retrogaming #pcengine

This is a pic of the board before the recap, you can see the dust glued down by leakage in some areas and also pads under SMD caps all corroded in various areas.

I don't know how the rest of you deal with these two caps in the first pic but back then, I remember having to remove the IC in the second pic to get at the legs.

I treated all of the pads and fully depopulated the board. I treated the board to remove all contamination. The are near the op-amps was particularly bad.

Afterwards, I recapped with a console5 cap kit, including a new supercapacitor and I tested it with my favourite PC Engine CD game. Which is obviously Castlevania Rondo of Blood, because I'm a big Castlevania fan.

If you lend me your ear a second time, you'll see the audio is now perfect. 🙂🎶

Here's some Vampire Killer for the homies out there.

A short while later, I modded if for RGB. This was one of my first RGB mod installations, maybe even my first actually. I did it without cutting a trace on the board, I cut the pin on the DIN instead and fed sync straight to it. I had yet to perfect the art of short wire ends.

Unfortunately, I only have these 2 crummy pics post-RGB modding.