Saving an American FZ-1 3DO - Cable Cut Off - Internal PSU UK 230v conversion + LUBE!

** This video is Sponsored by www.PCBWay.com **
In this video we take a look at an American Panasonic FZ-1 3DO which has had the cable removed, and investigate what is wrong with it. Along the way we also covert the Panasonic 3DO's power supply so it can be used directly with UK power, use our 3D printer to make and replace missing elements such as a missing expansion flap.
This console was kindly donated by ‪@MikeDailly‬ - Creator of Lemmings and Grand Theft Auto and a supportive patron of the channel!
🤞 PLEASE HELP MARK FIXES STUFF SURVIVE 🏆: Due to "The Event" my livelihood vanished in a puff of magic blue smoke. If you can spare some change to help support the channel it is really appreciated; even the smallest pledge goes a long way in helping make more content and feed my cats (and children). Visit / markfixesstuff for more info about Patreon Benefits!
3DO Expansion Flap by ‪@robertdalesmith‬ is here: www.thingiverse.com/thing:517...
Thanks for watching!
#3DO #Retrogaming #FZ-1

[@thefifthdoctor6780]

Great stuff Mark, forever grateful when you solved and fixed my 3DO.

[@JVHShack]

Watching this brought back some memories of me playing Road Rash on my stepdad's 3DO in the summer of 1995. He sold his 3DO many years ago and I wish that he hadn't. Anyway, great video, Mark. You're getting better with each one. Keep it going!

[@TheCurlyP]

Been playing that on my Saturn lately, great game. Odd how nobody seemed to take notice at the time

[@mistermatix8241]

It's so good to see you making vids again. The 3DO, what an underrated machine, nice to see it rescued. There used to be a rare electronics shop where I live, they used to sell Neo Geo Neo Geo CD, PC Engine, Pioneer Laservision, Commodore CDTV, and of course 3DO, a glorious time. You could play on them in the shop too. If I remember right the shop was called Electric Dreams or Electric Boulevarde. The schoolkids on their dinner breaks used to be in there, and I remember Tom and Marv, the owners, chasing them out when dinnertime was over. I got my modded PS Net Yaroze there. Tom's wife and Marv's mate worked there when Tom & Marv went to Japan or the US system hunting

[@atomnetton]

Very tidy work, you're so patient with it! Also I love heat shrink tubing. That stuff is invaluable and great fun to use.

[@BottIsNotABot]

Fantastic work Mark, the 3DO is looking really good. Looking forward to a follow up with a working controller!

[@coldmethod]

Mark is a top bloke indeed. Lovely work.

[@CheshireNoir]

"Don't lick things" is one of those life rules you learn the hard way

[@retrojem8531]

Glad to see some of the items you saved getting a new life. Looking forward to the controller video

[@iakovosmarkoras4523]

Thank you for your video,i did the exact same 110V to 220V convertion following your video and buying the exact same part... Very helpful and i thank you

[@MrLurchsThings]

I do like a nice simple printed replacement part. Nice work.

[@ToddsNerdCave]

Good stuff Mark! Happy to see another 3DO rescued.

[@tdub8719]

Great refurb video Mark. A pleasure to see a fixit master at work.

[@rjonzun5828]

I loooove your channel, Mark. Keep it coming. Regards from Memphis, TN.

[@MarkFixesStuff]

Thanks so much!

[@richards7909]

I was waiting for a James Bond-esque ending with “The 3DO controller will return.”!

[@mooch4274]

Love your channel mate, I was heart broken to see your video after the fire, really bothered me that. I'm glad your making a strong come back.

[@MarkFixesStuff]

Thanks 👍

[@BarrowZigger]

Looking forward to the controller resto!

[@Dev_olution]

Another superb repair Mark, nice one

[@paulwilliams7070]

I love mark proper fixer upper very enjoyable

[@LetsPlayKeldeo]

Love your video ! MPlease never stop

[@Colin_Ames]

Excellent video, as always. Nice job on the cable grommet.

[@Rocky1138]

Excited for that controller restoration.

[@markwrightrf]

Solid. Solid as (a rock - Ed.)

[@Hackinside]

I'm going to do the same for my 3DO unit. Great job.

[@Quietruck]

"Good Stuff Fixed" Mark. Thanks

[@MellowVR24762]

Loved this vid bud strangely soothing look forward to seeing the controller refurb

[@frankowalker4662]

Nice conversion. It's amazing how small step-down transformers are these days, mine from the 80's is a big heavy lump of metal. LOL. Typical of Terry and Dave to show up when the work is finished. Ha ha.

[@paulclooney3531]

Great video And wishing you all the best

[@MarkFixesStuff]

Thank you! You too!

[@cadburybunny]

Great vid as always Mark!

[@Rockythefishman]

Really enjoyed this one mate. Saved and good to go for many more years. I can honestly say it’s the first time I have ever heard a transformer being referred to as a traffo

[@MarkFixesStuff]

More of an audio tech term to be honest.

[@RTDragonCommando]

Cables only get chopped off for two reasons, at least here in Canada. They didn't want someone plugging in a potentially faulty device, usually see that with fans and stuff that could catch fire. The other is copper scavengers, they'll cut any wires they see exposed on anything you throw out.

[@TheDarkHour684]

It was definitely a government slash and burn job.

[@davehall8458]

Mark recapped my PAL 3DO a while back. I USB modded it with MNEMO host board. Native S-video FTW!

[@TheChipmunk2008]

Great to see you coming back from the fire mate, as an electrician, gotta say, very impressive job on the conversion, totally safe with good attention to detail :) Grommet is especially neat. The use of a split winding transformer like that will allow a future owner to convert back to 115/120v use by swapping connections around on the primary :)

[@gotmygoodelf]

i had a ntsc panasonic back in the day, loved the big 3do boxes

[@simonwilkie]

I’m sure I’m not the only person wondering where that screwdriver set is from? Looks like a great kit.

[@nsp265]

Cracking grommet Mark 🖐

[@PhaQ2]

I picked up a Sanyo T.R.Y. 3DO off ebay for $20 back in the mid 2000's. It went so cheap because someone had cut the power cord. I simply pulled a functioning transformer out of a non functioning Panasonic FZ-1, and transplanted it into the Sanyo. With the addition of a USB reader from MNEMO, I now have one of the rarest 3DO consoles in the world. Maybe even one of a kind.

[@keiiko]

About the soldering of mains cable, you could just use "chocolate" terminal block for the test, its easier, safe and ment to be used with mains volatage ;)

[@BastetFurry]

Maybe its a German thing about economy simulations but Theme Park was loved over here. o.o

[@dave4shmups]

Great work Mark! Novastorm is a great 3DO shooter if you ever get the chance to play it.

[@GORF_EMPIRE]

"until the lubrication spreads all over the....." You did say cogs, right? 🤣 Well done as usual my friend!

[@B3tanTyronne]

My 3DO was one of my lucky car boot finds as I picked it up with 30 odd games for £15 - admittedly this was some time ago now, and I miss those days when people were not asking silly money for stuff like this.

[@DariusPowers]

My prayers have been answered! I’ve been looking for a voltage conversion mod to do on my Japanese 3DO. I’ll be looking to do the same mod to mine now. In reference to the S-Video cable, I hope you have better luck than I have. I’ve tried a modern LCD and an old 50/60hz JVC video monitor and I’ve only ever been able to get a black and white image from it 🤷 ideally an RGB mod would be preferable, but that’s a mod for another day. Thank you again for showing the mod.

[@MarkFixesStuff]

Don't plug in the centre tap. I made a mistake. Other than that, this is the way. I'll do a quick follow up about my foobar.

[@DariusPowers]

@@MarkFixesStuff - point noted. I’ll remember not to do that. Thank you.

[@martinevans1206]

You must get Total Eclipse for the soundtrack alone!

[@P5ychoFox]

My FZ-1 has a cigarette burn on the top case. Proof it was a console aimed at a more mature consumer. Mine has a US 60hz board inside which works fine with the Original PSU.

[@andychicago8295]

Best console ever! :)

[@MarkFixesStuff]

It's definitely unique!

[@MD4564]

15:20 when you said you burnt some of the shrink, you could cut one up in half and heat it over over the top of the existing one, abit like bandaid. Saves undoing it all.

[@Capt.Marco-Hawk-L.L.A.P]

agree with that theme park game, but I've played golf games on x-box and play station and they are ok when you play them with friends, great work on the console, but yes I agree you do need to replace them caps asap.

[@hinny2005]

Cables are usually cut off by scrappers, for the copper inside. It’s not much but cut enough cables and after a while and some stripping later you have a decent amount to cash in.

[@Nobe_Oddy]

OMG I wish it was cheaper to ship stuff from the States.... I have a CD/DVD burner, some blanks of each (a mix of the formats), and some PROPER wire strippers..... but idk if it would be worth it to spend the $100 to $150 to ship them over to you... those are things you can find on the side of the road all the time around here (well, maybe not wire strippers) - BUT if you REALLY need them, just mention it again in you next video and I'll get on top of it (plus any other lightweight things you may need) - I don't check my notifies here on YT and rarely go back and check to see if my comments got a response... so if you are in need of them that bad, best bet is to mention it again in a vid :)

[@Colin_Ames]

@Tweedle. I live in Georgia, but will be visiting family in England at the end of August. If you find out that Mark needs stuff, you could mail it to me and I’ll deliver it to the UK.

[@relo999]

Recently got a Japanese 3DO and did something similar, but instead of replacing the transformer I modded a male barrel connector so I could use an external PSU to power it. Cheaper and much easier. Made it output the same location as you'd normally connect the transformer so polarity doesn't matter as it gets rectified anyway. Also build a RGB modded it and replaced the Svideo connector with it, so had to design and print a custom bracket to hold it instead of using the Svideo port (as for some reason only the Svideo port is part of the bracket while the tulip plugs aren't) and while I was at it designed a switch for the 240p switch some Japanese models have. If you ever plan on RGB modding it, do yourself a favour and don't use the Via locations and rather use the ones on the chip, much easier to solder.

[@hinny2005]

My rule is if the laser is working fine don’t touch it, easily killable. Secondly the vacuuming dust is a bit sketchy I’ve ended up killing a few lasers with static from the vacuum. Great video overall enjoyed it.

[@BodaScambaits]

OMG I loved my 3DO!! So much fun. need for speed, star controller. I heard there were tons on peripherals too. Heard about some warehouse that had a ton of stuff made for it that wasn't even released publicly. probably myth tho.

[@DavidMarvin]

Cut off for safety... I think someone got grounded.

[@sos.gamers]

Whats the reazon for going for 110v instead of 220v? I always made changes to PSU of any console from 110 to 220, to avoid anoying down converters

[@koztech]

If the console came from 'murica with the cord cut off it's more than likely it was cut for scrap. It's a common practice here with any tech that's either thrown out or recycled. Scrappers will cut off the cords for their copper, fill up their pickup truck beds with them, and sell them for scrap. "Easy" $3,000 (depending on current market rate of copper.) Apparently they just get thrown into the kiln to melt down, the plastic then floats to the top, gets scraped off, and there's your copper. If it were me replacing the cable, instead of just soldering the cable directly to the transformer as Panasonic had, I would have installed an IEC C7 socket so I could just use the cable instead. That way it can be easily removed for storage, shipping, etc. Plus if the cable ever got damaged, easy replacement. Now, that WOULD require slightly modding the case, which some would be against, but for me, the benefit would more than outweigh the "destructive" mod. To each their own I suppose.

[@TheGeoffers08]

Another grand video squire! Do you happen to have a link at all, to where that replacement UK transformer is available from? Looking at doing the same to my dear 3DO. Cheers chap, and as ever - thanks for the quality content!

[@MarkFixesStuff]

Funny you should ask. I'm just ordering one for a Japanese console. www.mouser.co.uk/ProductDetail/553-FD6-16

[@TheGeoffers08]

@@MarkFixesStuff cheers chap!. Mine is a Japanese one I picked up cheap on Yahoo auctions... and as much as I don't mind using a step down, your info has been just what I was after.

[@steve87uk]

Don't need to be so worried about 110v, it only tickles a bit :P

[@steve87uk]

Also, jealous of that Wera screwdriver set..

[@loganjorgensen]

Yeah must have been for safety sake that cut cable. Very nice clean up and power conversion. Oh yeah, the 3DO was a showpiece for the S-Video advantage, sweet true 320x240 graphics. ;) Hyperbole is a tough mistress vis-a-vis Theme Park's reputation, I don't think it's a bad game but it will never live up to the memory of it's heyday. Same can be said of "bad" games, I've played a few where I'm like "This really isn't that bad.". ^_^

[@2j4ez]

Did you eat the jelly sweet on the controller?

[@TheCurlyP]

3do was high on my list before buying burnout hit. I reckon it's still high in my list

[@hgage2003]

Hi. Can you share stl for power-cord gland you made?

[@MarkFixesStuff]

Certainly! This is the one for rubber like resin - www.thingiverse.com/thing:5525657 and this is the one for FDM printing - www.thingiverse.com/thing:5465949 you might need to scale them slightly for a perfect fit on your printer!

[@SMlFFY85]

21:15 Why does the sofa have the Midland Bank logo on it?

[@RichSzerman]

Good work but after all that effort of gentle buffering you are gonna stick a heavy old monitor on it again 😉 I just know it hehe and you will have to repeat the treatment

[@nicolasaugeard]

Just what I'm was looking for ! Why did you select the FD6-16 over the FD4-16, FD5-16 or FD8-16 ? Can you share the 3D printed files for the cable connector guide ? Thanks

[@MarkFixesStuff]

Hi Nicholas! I chose the FD6-16 specifcally for it's power rating of 30VA which is best suited to the console! You can find the cable gland at www.thingiverse.com/thing:5465949 and you can edit it at www.tinkercad.com/things/j5777eLPPA6 Hope this helps!

[@nicolasaugeard]

@@MarkFixesStuff Yes it will help a lot, thanks

[@zackpetrovic3029]

Link to buy transformer, hi from Australia

[@MakoNext]

I just bought one… it turns on, but the tray doesn’t open and there is no video :( I don’t know what to do, any ideas?

[@MarkFixesStuff]

The capacitors in the power stage are likely fried. It's really common. You can usually test by removing, cleaning up the leakage from and replacing one capacitor C36. Nine times out of ten that's gone highly resistive and whilst the machine is powering on it can't get enought current to boot. Here's a video showing the process - kzbin.info/www/bejne/iKbVdaOErcmmn7c After you have te machine booting you'll likely find drive issues, so search for my 3DO cog replacement videos!

[@ivoidwarrantiesuk]

on theme park... did i see the midland bank (now hsbc) logo on the sofa? As I said in my last comment to you.. If you want to bring out a really good shine use smoooth peanut butter

[@CygnusTM]

Since that is an American model, that makes it an “eff-zee one”. :)

[@Colin_Ames]

You beat me to it 😀

[@kuro68000]

Try using a bit of flux when soldering wires together or to transformers. The solder will flow a lot better.

[@nemesis2264]

Try actually watching the video and you will see that he does use flux. lol

[@kuro68000]

@@nemesis2264 it's clearly not working. If you have to shape the solder with the iron to avoid sharp bits it's obviously not flowing very well. Might need more heat.

[@davidretrogamesplayedbadly3533]

Nice refurb on the 3d0 mark, that controller looks seriously nasty though, definitely wouldn't be playing with that 🤮

[@bryandrobny7690]

Why window cleaner i would use Dawn Dish soap and bleach in a sink of water on the case with a tooth brush or soft brush and wash cloth also on lense i would use purified or distilled water soaked cotton swab not using any harsh chemicals on the cd lense and a dry cotton swab to dry it

[@nickolaswilcox425]

oh god, i didnt realize it was a direct uninterrupted connection straight into the transformer windings, why would anyone cut that

[@jamesp5478]

Cool Video! Are you sure the new 2A transformer is enough? Since the fuse in the FZ-1 is rated at 3.15A, I suspect the original transformer is a 3A transformer.

[@RWL2012]

2A should be more than enough for a games console. That's into the territory of the big surround sound computer speaker systems with the big subwoofers.

[@jamesp5478]

@@RWL2012 yeah they might have been anticipating high draw peripherals which never materialized.

[@demonsty]

wouldnt it be funny if the guy mark fixed this for was planning on sending the 3DO to a friend in the USA!?

[@TheChipmunk2008]

Those 50VA stepdown transformers are not really very good at supplying 120v, they normally load down to about 100v hence your low voltages

[@bryandrobny7690]

OMG he didn't blur out the naked exp. Port 😲 this video sould get an R or a 18+ and the power cord who would do such a thing 😭

[@dant5464]

A figure 8 socket instead of a fixed cable could have been a nice mod, but it looks like there wouldn't have been enough clearance inside.

[@BilisNegra]

Oh, that would have been neat, but then Mark wouldn't have had an excuse to use his 3D printer (he's so fond of it) to make that cable grommet, right?

[@WesleyNixon]

You don't have a CD burner!? Noooooooo!!

[@danefieber5517]

@Mark - Can I buy the old transformer from you? :) I have a goldstar 3DO that is having some issues with power. I changed the caps and the voltage from the transformer is only 10v. :(

[@MarkFixesStuff]

Hi Dane. Sorry I missed this! It would likely be cheaper to grab a triad PSU locally mate?

[@danefieber5517]

no worries! I figured out a way to remove the bad transformer and wire in an old Dell 19.7V 3.7A laptop charger. I recapped the Goldstar power board for good measure in the process. Now it runs perfect.

[@MarkFixesStuff]

@@danefieber5517 great job!!!

[@pjoconnell8268]

Would the same modification work converting from Japanese voltage to European voltage?

[@MarkFixesStuff]

Yes. I've done it.

[@pjoconnell8268]

@@MarkFixesStuff Great - my Japanese board doesnt have a red center lead like yours though - any advice?

[@MarkFixesStuff]

@@pjoconnell8268you don’t need to connect it in that case. Some revisions don’t have it.

[@pjoconnell8268]

You are such a legend responding so quickly. Thank you so much Mark.

[@MarkFixesStuff]

@@pjoconnell8268no worries. Don’t forget you need to change the capacitor at C36 which has probably dried up or leaked. There’s videos on the channel… somewhere 😂

[@jocool7370]

I don’t mind when my flap drops out. People keep reminding me.

[@grantm902]

Don't put your fingers near AC! Particularly not onto metal shielding in a Class II appliance.

[@chrisrobson8540]

my eyes or was that the old midland bank logo?????

[@bombjack1984]

Yep, they sponsored Theme Park.

[@MacMelmac]

Perhaps this was stolen at one point, that's why the cable was cut?

[@DieFischbude]

Wait... The 3DO has a hard wired power chord? This is horrible design... I hate when consoles have those... If it's modded now anyway you could fit a power jack like the one in PS2s. Maybe next time :)

[@TruthSword7]

Wait just a second. I heard you say "ZED", while taking about this AMERICAN product. Don't expect me to keep saying "ZED" instead of "ZEE" next time I say ZX Spectrum! And that happens all the time in normal conversation, just trust me.

[@MrCalldean]

Theme Park.... dull.... hard unsub. To think, I liked you; how wrong can you be about a person?! Monster!!!!🤣

[@RetroGamerBB]

Good one ♦️ 🟦 🟡