NES Toploader AV Mod Index

NES Toploader AV Mod Index

  1. Disclaimer – Sorry guys, but you doing this mod is all you.  You assume all risk.  What I’m providing here is step by step instructions, lists of parts, and loads of pictures.  There is no warranty that your toploader will still work when you are done.
  2. Background – Explanation about why modding the NES toploader is desirable and a little bit of comparison between the hardware of the toaster style NES and the toploader.
  3. Preparation – Things you’ll need to do an AV Mod and where to get them.
  4. Circuit Design – An explanation of the circuit you will be building.  This post is likely more for electronics nerds than normal readers so you may be able to skip over it if you just want to get your NES modified without a lot of messing around.
  5. Circuit Construction – How to build the circuit that will be needed for the mod.  This can actually be done before you’ve even opened up your toploader.
    1. Part 1 – Putting the first few parts on the board.
    2. Part 2 – Putting some more parts on the board.
    3. Part 3 – Finishing the circuit board and putting electrical tape on the bottom.
  6. Disassembly – How to take your NES toploader apart for the AV Mod.  This is pretty easy because with this mod you don’t even need to remove the motherboard.
  7. RCA Output – This is how to modify the NES to have RCA jacks for the AV output and how to wire them.
    1. Part 1 – Build the output connection wire.  This wire gets the output of the circuit to the RCA jacks.
    2. Part 2 – Install the RCA jacks into the NES and attach the output connection wire.
  8. Motherboard Input – You’ll need power, audio, and video signals from your NES for this to work.  This is how you get them and how to remove the visual artifacts called jailbars from the output.
    1. Part 1 – Build the input connection wire.  This is how all the signals from the NES get into your circuit.
    2. Part 2 – Connect the input wire to the motherboard.
  9. Smoke Test – Before you button it all back up, it’s a good idea to make sure what you have works.
  10. Reassembly – How to hook everything together and put it all back together so you have a working NES again.
  11. Output Comparison – A bit of before and after comparison for the sake of showing how much better it really is when you’re done.