¶ Headphone Board Bypass
¶ Basic Information
This is more of a work-around rather than a repair. The headphone PCB used inside of Crossbeats is notoriously prone to failure. Either through the contacts wearing out or the solder joints breaking.
Since the parts are hard to find, this bypass works as a method to still have working headphones without the PCB.
¶ Terminology
- Audio Line (Blue Box)
This is the 3.5mm line from the aduio out of the Sega Nu to the front of the cabinet. - Detection Circuit (Red Box)
This is connector CN1 on the PCB. It detects when there is something plugged in - Public Facing Jack (Green Box)
This is the public facing jack for players to plug their headphones in.
¶ Picture
¶ CN1 Modification (Detection Circuit)
We need to short the 2 wires on this connector to activate the headphone output. The original board has an auxiliary switch contact (normally open) that is closed when you plug a 3.5mm device into the public facing jack.
¶ Options to accomplish (varying degrees of permanent alteration):
- Stick wire into connector to short
- Find the appropriate opposite connector and make a jumper
- Cut connector and just wire nut together
NOTE: THIS MEANS THE JACK IS ALWAYS ON AND WILL NOT RESET VOLUME WHEN SOMETHING IS UNPLUGGED.
¶ Audio Line Modification
The audio line is a standard 3.5mm aux cord coming from the rear of the cabinet. Stick a female to female barrel plug on it to let other devices plug in. 3.5mm extensions can also be used if needed for routing the line where you want it.
The 3.5mm connector needs to have public access.
There are several options:
- Re-route cable and pass it through elsewhere
- May require new hole
- Requires cable rerouting inside the rear of the cab
- Remove original board and line barrel up with existing hole
- Barrel size needs to be close to original jack size (6mm) to poke through properly
- Requires something to hold the jack in place (either just tape or something nicer like a 3D printed bracket if you want to make that)
- Get a thin extension cable that passes through the existing hole & hangs out
¶ Optional items
¶ Volume Reset Button
A reset button could be made with a button with a normally closed contact. Pressing it would open the detection circuit making the game think the headphones were unplugged. If a matching connector can be found, this is not destructive to the CN1 cable. However this requires a place to mount said button on the cabinet.