My impression of the Yobo FC-16 Go

[J.D]

After many weeks of anticipation, my FC-16 Go arrived at my doorstep today. Here are my impressions of it.

The build quality of the system is great, and the system itself, closed, is about the size of a DMG (Game Boy Original for the retarded). The screen is decent, not very good quality. Luckily, you can replace it with a 3.5" screen from Dealextreme. The D-Pad is not good at all. It is great for moving up, down, left, and right, but moving diagonal is near impossible. It feels more like pushing buttons then moving a D-Pad. You can replace it with a D-Pad of your choice, and get better tact switches. The ABXY buttons are great, and I have no problems with them.

The system is compatible with normal SNES games and Super FX games, as far as I know, but it will not work with SA-1 games (Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars and Kirby's Dreamland 3), which is too bad. I haven't tried Mega Man X2 and X3, so I'm not sure if they are compatible or not. Since this system doesn't have the stupid tabs the original SNES does, you can play Japanese carts on it. I'm not sure if it has region lockout on it, but I'm assuming it doesn't. You can connect the FC-16 Go to a TV via AV cables, which go into the 2.5mm port. The downside of this is that you can only use 2.5mm headphones, which sucks balls. The speaker on the system is mono. The (wireless) controllers included with the system are pretty good, even though they feel cheap they function very well.

The real treat of the FC-16 Go is the VERY small SNES board included. You can make a very small SNES portable with the hardware in the FC-16 Go, which is great for us modders/portablizers. Overall the FC-16 Go is a decent portable, and a few small changes can make this a great portable.

 

[hailrazer]

The screen is decent, not very good quality. Luckily, you can replace it with a 3.5" screen from Dealextreme.

How exactly? Did you find a 5v power source on the board?

 

[J.D]

The screen is decent, not very good quality. Luckily, you can replace it with a 3.5" screen from Dealextreme.

How exactly? Did you find a 5v power source on the board?

No. For some reason I thought that you said you could replace the screen

 

[hailrazer]

The screen is decent, not very good quality. Luckily, you can replace it with a 3.5" screen from Dealextreme.

How exactly? Did you find a 5v power source on the board?

No. For some reason I thought that you said you could replace the screen

Not unless I can find a 5v power supply. The battery is only 3.7v and none of the Dealextreme 3.5" run off less than 4.5v

 

[J.D]

You can wire up a different battery. Get a step-down regulator and wire the battery to the SNES board, then wire the battery directly to the screen.

 

[Mako321]

or get a ti step up.

 

[J.D]

That too.

 

[snowpenguin]

There's probably not space for a second cell in the casing. It is probably best to get a small TI step up regulator for the screen.

 

[J.D]

For you people that have seen the insides, what D-Pad should I use to replace the flaxty one?

 

[AfroLH]

I am seriously thinking of buying one today or tomorrow and recasing the SNES part and using the screen for a NESp.

 

[hailrazer]

Ok there are going to be several problems replacing the d-pad.

1. The d-pad is incredibly large. Even bigger than the Genesis d-pad and the N64 d-pad.
2. The d-pad is incredibly thin. Thinner than any other d-pad I have seen. Usually HALF as thin as say the nes or N64.

The closest d-pad I have found thinwise that will work is the Snes. But it isn't nearly big enough to fill up the space. So you will have a problem keeping it in place.

The closest d-pad sizewise is the N64 or the Genesis. They will "almost" fill up the holes and they are similarly shaped, so minimal modding to make them work. But they are WAY to thick . And I don't know if sanding them down will work.

Have you thought about just removing the plastic between the d-pad directional buttons to see if that will give better movement and control?

 

[hailrazer]

using the screen for a NESp.

Probably not possible. The led part of the screen uses a higher voltage supplied from the main board.

 

[J.D]

Ok there are going to be several problems replacing the d-pad.

1. The d-pad is incredibly large. Even bigger than the Genesis d-pad and the N64 d-pad.
2. The d-pad is incredibly thin. Thinner than any other d-pad I have seen. Usually HALF as thin as say the nes or N64.

The closest d-pad I have found thinwise that will work is the Snes. But it isn't nearly big enough to fill up the space. So you will have a problem keeping it in place.

The closest d-pad sizewise is the N64 or the Genesis. They will "almost" fill up the holes and they are similarly shaped, so minimal modding to make them work. But they are WAY to thick . And I don't know if sanding them down will work.

Have you thought about just removing the plastic between the d-pad directional buttons to see if that will give better movement and control?

I can't even open this Dang thing I fail.

 

[hailrazer]

I can't even open this Dang thing I fail.

5 screws on the back. Bottom half pops off. Can leave battery and cover in.
2 screws on the cart slot board. It pops off and you can de-tach the two wire connectors.
3 screws on the bottom board and it pops off.

You are now at the buttons

 

[AfroLH]

using the screen for a NESp.

Probably not possible. The led part of the screen uses a higher voltage supplied from the main board.

I could get a High Voltage Battery and Step it down.
Problem Solved

 

[hailrazer]

using the screen for a NESp.

Probably not possible. The led part of the screen uses a higher voltage supplied from the main board.

I could get a High Voltage Battery and Step it down.
Problem Solved

It's 17.9v

Good luck with that.

 

[XCVG]

If it's really 17.9V, I highly doubt it's LED backlit. Unless, of course, they did something REALLY strange with the wiring. Are you sure it's not 1.79V? Then again, it is a Yobo...

I thought about getting one, but it's like $60, the audio is mono and you can get a Retro Duo which is probably better for significantly less. Of course I would mod it and I'm not really interested in using the FC 16 Go as a portable, stock anyway.

 

[grossaffe]

is it better than the FC mobile II?

 

[themadhacker]

somebody should really test to see how low the screen can run off of.

 

[daftmike]

Actually 17.9V for the led backlight makes perfect sense. It would mean there's probably 6 or so leds wired in series. If you could deal with the smd packages, it wouldn't be too hard to re-wire them to run from a lower voltage.