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Game-Tech.US

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Posts posted by Game-Tech.US

    VEXTREME for Vectrex

    in Vectrex

    Posted

    1 hour ago, playvectrex said:

    one that might explain some cases is misuse of the cart... you cannot leave the cart plugged into USB after adding roms, without ejecting it, before turning on the Vectrex.  If you do, it will just boot into mine storm. 

    If this does happen, what is the fix?

    VEXTREME for Vectrex

    in Vectrex

    Posted

    50 minutes ago, playvectrex said:

    I posted about the soldermask issue about a month before you made your 100 boards: https://github.com/technobly/VEXTREME/issues/10

    You didn't start selling the boards until long after I had confirmed this issue with you.  So let's not pretend we didn't know about it ;-) 

    There are lots of customers that posted on the Vectrex Fans Unite Facebook group with game crashing issues, and I suspect many of them just didn't contact you for support or a refund.  I replied to them with how to test for this issue, and how to contact you.  I didn't see you there offering support.

     

    There is a lot more to go wrong to make the Vectrex drop back to the built in Mine Storm than just pin 32 (/CARTS) line which no carts ever used AFAIK.  All carts use /CE and /OE to effectively do the same thing as /CARTS and so does VEXTREME.  That said, if any of the 8 data lines, 15 address lines, /CE, /OE, R/W, or +5V or GND are intermittently making contact with the Vectrex connector... the game can crash, or not be seen.  So that's pretty much every pin of the cart.  Which is why the soldermask must be removed in front of the fingers, because it might work on one machine, but not on another... or might be intermittently making contact on the same machine between cart updates i.e. adding some new games (this is a very commonly reported issue on the FB group BTW).  I'm guessing many users remove the cart to do the updates, and then put the cart back in.. not they have to though.

     

    The fingers are still wider than original carts (which are 2.54mm/2 and spaced every 2.54mm).  I would not suspect this to be the issue.  The cart PCB is also 48.0mm wide, so it perfectly centers itself as well.  Same width as original carts.

     

    Well the leading edge of the PCB is the first thing the Vectrex connector contacts touch, and as they wipe across they make their way finally to the PCB fingers.  If you don't see marks on the soldermask, it's because it is sufficiently harder than the HASL finish of the PCB fingers (which is just solder).  Soldermask is typically a hard epoxy based ink... so not likely to show much abuse.

    Please don't read in to this that i'm angry or combative, i'm not, mistakes were made, i'm just trying to get through this...

    I can't make people come back to me first for help, they know how to contact me, there's a contact page on my site, but yes please tell them to contact me.

    No I don't visit the FB or dicord regularly, sorry can only do so much...

    Oh and no my boards were gold fingered not HASL. I think the owners Vec was just dirty and left marks, but it cleaned off.

    I had the order in around Dec 16th, so yes before the warning posted on github, but yes I was aware of it before I shipped.

    I just still think it's not the whole story...

    I keep thinking about all the things i'm seeing that can't be explained by the solder mask.

    Ok first the cart detection issue didn't come up at all, that I know of, until I did the FW update, all 100 of the boards i prog'd and tested never failed to detect, and i wiggled each during final boot, which you'd think would show a solder mask issue, all booted fine.

    Both my Vec and the customers Vec showed the roms crashing and not booting issue and both showed it fixed after fw update.

    Are there other complaints i'm not hearing about, like not detecting, on the FB and discord?

    VEXTREME for Vectrex

    in Vectrex

    Posted

    2 minutes ago, Game-Tech.US said:

    Nope pin 32 isn't connected to anything on the vextreme....

    Also seeing this in changelog:

    - Made the contacts on the edge connector thinner (1.52mm) and made sure they were
       spaced properly (2.54mm).

    Maybe they are too thin now?

    How wide are the original contact pads?

     

    I also noted obvious line in the contacts made from the console's fingers, all were on the contact pads, none were out on the solder mask...

    VEXTREME for Vectrex

    in Vectrex

    Posted

    7 minutes ago, Game-Tech.US said:

    I sold all the 100 I had made, which BTW were made before any solder mask warnings were put out, but i've only had one returned with roms crashing or not booting.

    For this one berzerk would crash during play and pole position would not start.

    I was able to recreate the issue, cleaned the cart, and my console, and issues persisted.

    I updated it's firmware to v.23 and that fixed those issues totally!

    Solder mask was not cut back.

    Now the only known issue seems to be cart detection, sometimes his console will not know the vextreme cart is there and will boot straight to built in game.

    I could see this still being a solder mask issue, but not on all pins, could it be just pin 32 of the cart?

    Nope pin 32 isn't connected to anything on the vextreme....

    VEXTREME for Vectrex

    in Vectrex

    Posted

    I sold all the 100 I had made, which BTW were made before any solder mask warnings were put out, but i've only had one returned with roms crashing or not booting.

    For this one berzerk would crash during play and pole position would not start.

    I was able to recreate the issue, cleaned the cart, and my console, and issues persisted.

    I updated it's firmware to v.23 and that fixed those issues totally!

    Solder mask was not cut back.

    Now the only known issue seems to be cart detection, sometimes his console will not know the vextreme cart is there and will boot straight to built in game.

    I could see this still being a solder mask issue, but not on all pins, could it be just pin 32 of the cart?

    FPGA Based Videogame System

    in Classic Console Discussion

    Posted

    Darn. :) thought I was in to something since the HiDef autodetects the clock speed on the CPU and creates that internally.

    Or swap between a set of ntsc and pal cpu/ppu chips in your console, no need to mess with the crystal if you aren't using composite video output and only hdmi since the hi-def nes kit supplies the necessary clock signal to the cpu/ppu.

    FPGA Based Videogame System

    in Classic Console Discussion

    Posted

    Is there any news on the card adaptors? Since its already done design-wise game-tech would be able to order, assemble and sell them?

     

    But the "read cart" is only available in the software for the nes at the moment?

    I asked Kev about them a few weeks ago and the hold up of course is his time. He still has to design the 'shell' that will surround at least the bottom of the pcb to open the mini's doors so they don't scratch or catch the pcb.

    • Like 1

    FPGA Based Videogame System

    in Classic Console Discussion

    Posted

    So you are the distributor behind it. Sorry I got you guys mixed up. Was it you or Kevtris who were the face of all those long videos discussing it's progress?

    We both talk about it, you just have to watch a vid on my channel or his that is only the one of us in it and you'll tell us apart I guess.

    FPGA Based Videogame System

    in Classic Console Discussion

    Posted

    Whoops! :dunce: Did you help design it, or are you merely just a licensed reseller/installer?

     

    Reason I ask is because all the videos I've watched regarding the HDMI NES mod have Game-Tech branding.

    I pestered Kev in to making it happen and helped where I could, mostly on the installation end of the mod.

    I am selling the kit for him so he can concentrate on other projects like the zimba3k etc.

    My brand is not on the kit anywhere other than in the list of ppl he thanks, but yeah I did a lot of vids about it. Kevtris did some too...

    NESHD - a 1080p HDMI mod kit!

    in Hardware

    Posted

    Kevtris posted an update to the hi-def's firmware, only 30-40 consoles are out there right now so this mostly just applies to them:

     

    Weeeelllll, here it is. I received the everdrive yesterday and loaded V12? firmware onto it (the version before the "fix" for the HDMI adapter). Thinking this was going to be a "worst case" test. It worked perfectly with the games I tested- I tested about 6 or 7 different mappers and all is well. Reset even worked properly. Before, the error messages wouldn't show up properly but they do now (i.e. no SD card).

     

    FDS is working properly now, and so do MMC5 games (i.e. reset works there too, and no need to use a game genie). I sent it out to a couple people and they could apply it properly, though one person has problems.

     

    He was using a powerpak, and his MMC3 file was different than mine- I think he has the savestate mappers. This caused the update to not work. It reported a data corrupt error and refused to flash the firmware. I gave him my mapper 4 file direct off the CF card on my powerpak and then he got it to work properly.

     

    I don't know anything about the save state mapper, but I assume it cannot load 512K PRG ROMs, because it uses some of the RAM for the savestate part? I could be totally wrong but that's just my first guess.

     

    It works on some everdrives, but some people had issues.

     

    Anyways, here is the update:

     

    http://blog.kevtris.org/blogfiles/HiDefNES%20Update%20V2.00.nes

     

    To use it, load this ROM on a flash cart (or burn EPROMs? hehe), run it and then get into the Hi Def menu, select "save and update", then "update firmware", and follow the on screen prompts. It will check the update for integrity, and then flash it if it passes the check. Cycle power and it will use the new firmware.

    I reworked the region mod pcb for Turbo Duo - now it's super easy!

    in Classic Console Discussion

    Posted

    The TG-16 only version of the kit is ready to buy through my site.
    http://game-tech.us/temp/turbografx-16/

    The site is being worked on so this temp page may disappear at any time, but when that happens it should be viewable from the main domain, game-tech.us.

    Shipping is only set up for US and Canada, not much need for this kit in other countries anyway.
    I only have pri mail for US and economy for Canada for now.

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