Got a pre-programmed FlashROM (29F40) in there, had to move the resistors. Tested and it worked.
Then proceeded to bypass the karaoke chip and overclock the ES4308 for the remote.
Noticed some video glitches (white speckles one the screen). So I adjusted the power supply's 3.6v rail to 3.5v (it was WAYYY off, at around 3.2) and added some nice heat sinks to the 4308 & 7175 chips. That fixed the problem.
Got a 20giger IDE setup. That also worked flawlessly. I could watch videos, play my mp3s and even see the jpegs.
I was thinking of a way to make this a permanent setup. Decided to use the external SCSI drive bay for that. Since the thing has two (Centronics?) connectors for a "SCSI chain" I figured could use one connector on the Apex and the other on the drive and just run the external SCSI cable between them.
I removed the wider SCSI flat ribbon from the back of the connectors, added the IDE cables to both of them, and tested on an old computer/HD. It worked!!! Running a little slower than normal but it worked.
Connected to the Apex (cables, connector and drive), closed the lid and tested. Had a little problem with the analog audio but the nice people at the nerd-out.com forums pointed me to the menu setting. Problem solved.
Got my Dremel out, made the cuts for the connector and a cooling fan to put the hot air out of the back. Little wire mesh grid for finger protection and BAM!!! DONE!! Works perfect!
Put the lid on, attach HD and take it to the living room, next to the TV.
Nice setup too. If I keep the switch on the HD case off, then the unit works just like a regular DVD (the wife doesn't get lost).
Thanks to everyone at the OFFA group, the ner-dout.com forum and the guy who sent me the FLASHROM (You know who you are).
It's a snap-in SCSI Centronics connector, but I had to push each wire into the connector’s metal wedges then snap in the backing.
Since this is a 50pin connector and an IDE 40 pin ribbon you have to be careful in aligning it correctly.
