Tweaking a 3DO Laser

I just thought I'd make a quick post that I've managed to tweak my Goldstar 3DO. It previously only played originals, and even then, the movies (and sometimes the music) skipped quite often.

Playing backed up games from CDR was nearly impossible. It would only accept relatively expensive CDRs (like Kodak Gold), and still hang quite often.

Anyway, the secret was to tweak the potentiometer in exactly the same way as is documented here for your dreamcast. By opening the unit, and turning the pot just over a quarter of a turn ANTI CLOCKWISE (emphasis there, because the above doc says clockwise), it now plays CDRs as wells as originals.

The potentiometer on a Goldstar is a small circular screw like item just right of the cable connected to laser unit. I used the blunt end of a small hobby knife to gently turn it.

Note: It still doesn't play any tinted CDRs (ie. green or blue). I think it may have some sort of protection against that, as it spits them straight out.

Also Note: DO NOT make this modification unless you're prepared to personally take responsability if it goes wrong. Neither myself or SX will take any responsability for damaged hardware.

Anyway I hope this helps someone else.
 
hrm I tried to blind tweak mine with no guide going in both directions... now I get half assed compatibility.... can anyone give me the correct multimeter readout of the pot at its factory position?

its a Panasonic FZ-10...
 
there's no such thing as a default setting, laser units all have a different setting in production. 2 drives from the same production week could have a difference of several hundred ohms despite being produced at the same time for the same purpose.
 
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