Famicom (not Mini) build (WIP)
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Yesterday after I thought that finally everything is working it started again to reboot.
I am out of ideas here. Everytime I thought I found the culprit it turns out not to be.
I will give this Mausberry another thourough test today after work on my RPi 3 and see if it behaves the same way.
If it does give me the same trouble I'll smash that thing and I'm gonna build a switch like ETA Prime is showing in his tutorial on youtube by shorting GPIO 5 and 6. -
Was it rebooting when fully assembled? You were saying the switch was making contact before. How does it work if you have the case out? I'm wondering if something is "kinked" inside the case and is causing an issue.
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That is what I thought too but the last few tests were out in the open not closed inside.
I am currently testing it with my RPi 3 as we speak and it seems to work just fine.
Maybe there is an issue with the Mausberry and the Zero4U board? I don't know and to be honest I don't care anymore. It does work with the RPi 3 so I'll just get one in the near future and replace the Zero with it.And it looks like my RPi 3 just froze up during the ES update...just great.
I think I'm gonna go watch DS9 and keep this Pi stuff running see if it moves. -
@FlyingTomahawk Sorry to hear that you're running into frustrations with the build, but I'm sure it's going to be really cool when you're done with it. Take the night off and you can tinker with it tomorrow. Just don't take weeks and weeks and months off like I've been doing with my handheld builds. ;)
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Yeah, you're probably right. A short break might do good. That and a cold beer.
Thanks. -
You'll get it sorted out and we're here to help you. I'd come over and take a look, but you're a little far away. :)
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Finally got all build together.
Removed the Pi Zero since it was a disappointment performance-wise. Put in my RPi 3 even though I tried to avoid that but no choice I guess. The RPi3 is encased in a case with a fan build in running at 3.3V to keep the temps low and noise down.I needed to remove the microUSB adapter since it was giving my the lightning bolt constantly. With it removed and the USB cable plugged in directly to the Mausberry I still get the lightning bolt occasionally (mostly in the ES menu when videos are running) but not during game play.
Here some pics of me trying to test fit all.
If you wonder what the other PCB board is, that is a RF module from an old RRoD (red ring of death) Xbox360. That way I can use my wireless Dreamcast Arcade stick.
Now what is left to do is fine tune the looks of it all. (Boot screen, loading screen etc....) Theme will be mainly Famicom-mini by ruckage and as soon he releases the NeoGeo/Capcom theme I will create 2 system profiles and separate Arcade stuff from the rest.
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@FlyingTomahawk Looking good! I get lightning bolts from time to time as well. I'm convinced a recent software update made Raspbian more delicate with its power indicator. I just went into the
config.txtand disabled warnings after determining that things are stable. -
I was just setting up some stuff in ES when suddenly my FC30 Player 1 controller start to shine red and right after turned OFF. So I thought it is time to recharge it, the first time btw., and....it is just dead. It won't recharge, no lights shinning. Just great. Now that I finally got my Pi there where I wanted the controller start to cause trouble.
The 2nd player FC30 works just fine though and recharges if necessary, green recharge light shinning.
So I wrote the 8bitdo guys an e-mail but I don't put my hopes too high. That's what you get when you buy China stuff. 7 out of 10 are faulty or crap. For that they charge a high price for those controllers.I am jumping from one shit to the other with this whole project. I am close to take that thing and smash it to a wall and then drive over it with my car a couple of times.
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@FlyingTomahawk That sucks. 8bitdo have a really good reputation so hopefully they will stand by their stuff. Is there a warranty at all?
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Warranty? Well I bought that stuff in March 2017 through their eBay store and as far I know the usual warranty time is 1 year. So I hope they do something about it. If not, I'll just use the necessary steps through PayPal or eBay to get a solution to my satisfactory.
I mean that controller was not even really used yet. Never got through one single full charge cicle.
Some say it is firmware related but I doubt that since my 2nd player works just fine with the same, latest firmware. -
@FlyingTomahawk at least they seem to make more of the "Player 1" variant so they should be able to send another easily. Reading online seems to say that a red LED means low battery. Have you taken the battery out and tested the voltage? Or tried using the battery from the other controller? I don't own an 8bitdo controller so I'm not sure how feasible that is.
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No I havent yet.
I am waiting for their reply first before I open up the controller and loose my warranty.
If all fails I sure do that. -
@FlyingTomahawk Ah, so it's not a user-replaceable battery. That makes sense.
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Yeah, it doesn't seem to be a such a battery.
There are 6 tiny screws on the back but I never opened one up so can't say for sure.
Maybe there is a simple 480mAh Lipo battery inside? Not even sure it is a battery issue.Curious, in your SNES build you used a regular L angled micro USB extension cable (M/F).
Never had a lightning bolt issue? -
@FlyingTomahawk I had quite a few lightning bolts, typically when using the wifi. I tried different power cables, with and without the Mausberry, all sorts of things. I even got them from time to time with my Genesis Pi, and that doesn't have an extra TFT hooked up to it that would be drawing more current. I really think that Raspbian is being overly cautious, because I've not had stability issues with either of my "home console" builds.
Adding
avoid_warnings=1to/boot/config.txtmade the lightning bolt go away. It didn't solve the "problem", but I'm not convinced there was one to begin with. -
In my case, games like Street fighter 3rd strike started to run poorly and therefore I decided to get rid of it till I can find a replacement that can handle 2.5A current.
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@FlyingTomahawk I've never even heard of that game, but I can tell you this: I even found a 3.5A power supply and that didn't solve the lightning bolt issues. I believe it's more of a voltage issue than an amperage one. The Pi freaks out and displays a lightning bolt if it dips below 5V, even if it's otherwise working just fine. It seems that if you can find a power supply that puts out slightly more than 5V, that's the key. That way if the Pi starts taxing things and the voltage drops it only drops to 5V. Unfortunately, most power supplies are rated at 5V, and some will output slightly more or less, since most phones (after all, most of these power supplies are really phone chargers) aren't as worried about that minor difference in voltage.
I did see some power supplies advertised as 5.25V, but I haven't bothered to pick one up since I haven't had any crashing or corruption issues. When it comes to really taxing games like N64 or Dreamcast, if they don't run well I just chalk that up to the Pi 3 just not being powerful enough.
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Another key factor are the cables.
At first when I got my RPi3 new I bought a 5V 2.5A power supply (one that you can plug in a regular USB cable) but the cable they provided was not getting the necessary 2.4-2.5A to the RPi so all of my FBA arcade games run poorly and I blamed it on the Emulator or romset. Until I read somewhere here in the forum that the cable is also important to provide the necessary power. So I went to the store and got me that silver USB cable you saw on the pics. It was rated as 2.4A on the package. Not sure how it is over there but here in Japan they started to write the A rating on the packaging which is great. We got 1A, 1.5A, 2A or 2.4A cables here. I think those short adapter USB cables male/female are simply not made to handle such current unless they state it. I think normal or average is 1A?Anyways, besides having a cable coming out from the Famicom and a faulty Player 1 FC30 controller everything runs great. Tested various games with my Arcade stick and they run great without any loss in quality or speed.
Maybe one day I can get the last few bits and pieces sorted out and then I can call it done. -
@FlyingTomahawk Having an amperage rating on the cable would be really helpful. Here you really have no way to know what gauge the wire is inside the insulation.
You'll get there.
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