Jinks Posted November 7, 2016 Share Posted November 7, 2016 Update just so it is made public that Batari has already responded to my PM as of now and is working with me on a solution to get it working. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Everett1954 Posted November 7, 2016 Share Posted November 7, 2016 Yes, and he has responded to my PM for a suitable solution. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted November 7, 2016 Share Posted November 7, 2016 I am not angry. Just looking for a solution. Yes some support would be nice absolutely. I read earlier he wanted to fix these concerns so now I just need to wait and see if he follows thru. The lack of answers as of now is lets say... somewhat concerning. I hope he can fix it, that is what we all want anyways is a Concerto we can enjoy are 7800 games on. If some games didn't work I could understand that but I cannot play a single game without it freezing, resetting or have messed up graphics. Some load to a blank or white screen and I don't always get a rom menu. Right now i have an expensive paperweight. Any news would be appreciated. My sentiments exactly, but I did finally get a PM from him. I think he is swamped with support requests so give him a bit more time before you pass judgement. But yes, mine currently is borderline unusable (except 2600 games and I have a harmony for that) until something gets fixed. I hope the "paperweight" issue gets resolved. So have the folks who kept suggesting that only 2% of consoles might have an issue changed their minds yet? How about the folks that felt like the product should go full steam ahead without further work on "perfectionist" issues, and that support would be just a matter of happy end-customers just swapping consoles? Not that I would ever be so bold as to say "I told you so". I may have first coined the 2% bit. I'll admit I pulled the number out of my ass. Well my 7800 has played every game I've ever plugged in 2600 or 7800, and nothing ever crashed or failed to boot, aside the fact some 3rd party 2600 games are difficult or impossible to fit. Yet most homebrew or bitd 7800 ROMs I tried to load in some way are either black screen or corrupt graphics or crashes soon into gameplay (similar to Everette). So I'll eat my words and say that it's safe to say in all likelyhood the percentage of problem consoles is more than 2% on these things. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
78001987 Posted November 7, 2016 Share Posted November 7, 2016 It's entirely possible the issues with mine are a bad pokey chip. I desoldered it from a spare ballblazer cart myself. None of the pins are damaged, but it's entirely possible the chip got borked. Anyone have a good source of cheap pokeys? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Everett1954 Posted November 7, 2016 Share Posted November 7, 2016 It's entirely possible the issues with mine are a bad pokey chip. I desoldered it from a spare ballblazer cart myself. None of the pins are damaged, but it's entirely possible the chip got borked. Anyone have a good source of cheap pokeys? There is always Best Electronics but there is a minimum order and shipping (to Midwest) is not the cheapest. There are a few sellers on Ebay. I purchased one for $14.00 w/ free shipping from a seller in Czechoslovakia who has close to 400 of them. The free shipping will take awhile ( due end of Nov) but it was shipped promptly. I can let you know more once i receive it. How I just need a working Concerto to put it in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
78001987 Posted November 7, 2016 Share Posted November 7, 2016 (edited) There is always Best Electronics but there is a minimum order and shipping (to Midwest) is not the cheapest. There are a few sellers on Ebay. I purchased one for $14.00 w/ free shipping from a seller in Czechoslovakia who has close to 400 of them. The free shipping will take awhile ( due end of Nov) but it was shipped promptly. I can let you know more once i receive it. How I just need a working Concerto to put it in. Thanks for the heads up on the Pokeys. as for the Bolded part - this isn't helping anything here. I realize you're frustrated because yours isn't working. But it's been made crystal clear here that this is a product that is still in development. As such, everyone buying one would know they may run into compatibility problems ranging from minor game incompatibilities, to major issues/not working at all. Not singling you out, but for everyone who bought one of the concerto carts in the last week and have had issues - this was expected. PM Fred and he will work it out. Stop airing all your gripes here. That's not helping to make the concerto better. But if you're willing to be a beta tester, continue to post bug reports. That WILL help correct the issues. Edited November 7, 2016 by 78001987 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
78001987 Posted November 7, 2016 Share Posted November 7, 2016 Interesting, that makes no sense to me, POKEY doesn't talk, so to speak, unless asked. I wonder if the power draw of it being there screws something up. Odd to me, some of those games that reveng changed the bankswitching hotspot on, work fine on even the MCP devcart, and that thing uses NVRAM. But Pokey sound works 100% on Ballblazer and Commando as expected?? Is it possible that some of the Pokey-enabled homebrews address the chip in a different way where banks are broken, yet would still work with BB and Commando? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tep392 Posted November 7, 2016 Share Posted November 7, 2016 But Pokey sound works 100% on Ballblazer and Commando as expected?? Is it possible that some of the Pokey-enabled homebrews address the chip in a different way where banks are broken, yet would still work with BB and Commando? Have you tried this version of Ms. Pac-man 320? http://atariage.com/forums/topic/186049-happy-30th-birthday-ms-pac-man/page-3?do=findComment&comment=3622847 I posted it last week. It is an update of the POKEY sound effects to my latest version. I also changed how POKEY detection is done. I first check for it at location $4000, which is the same location as BB and Commando. If found, I go with it. If not, I enable at the XM location of $450 and check for it there. If it's not found, then I use the TIA sound code. I'm curious if this will work for you since BB seems to work ok. I have tested this on a board that supports the BB POKEY location and it worked fine. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
78001987 Posted November 7, 2016 Share Posted November 7, 2016 Have you tried this version of Ms. Pac-man 320? http://atariage.com/forums/topic/186049-happy-30th-birthday-ms-pac-man/page-3?do=findComment&comment=3622847 I posted it last week. It is an update of the POKEY sound effects to my latest version. I also changed how POKEY detection is done. I first check for it at location $4000, which is the same location as BB and Commando. If found, I go with it. If not, I enable at the XM location of $450 and check for it there. If it's not found, then I use the TIA sound code. I'm curious if this will work for you since BB seems to work ok. I have tested this on a board that supports the BB POKEY location and it worked fine. I will try this tonight! Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
78001987 Posted November 7, 2016 Share Posted November 7, 2016 (edited) Also - one other odd question: So my concerto has this odd looking solder blob just above the center of the Pokey chip socket. (mine came socketed from batari!) Is this intentional? like a bridging of lines/circuits for a specific purpose, or is this an errant solder boo-boo that might account for some issues? Edited November 7, 2016 by 78001987 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Everett1954 Posted November 7, 2016 Share Posted November 7, 2016 Thanks for the heads up on the Pokeys. as for the Bolded part - this isn't helping anything here. I realize you're frustrated because yours isn't working. But it's been made crystal clear here that this is a product that is still in development. As such, everyone buying one would know they may run into compatibility problems ranging from minor game incompatibilities, to major issues/not working at all. Not singling you out, but for everyone who bought one of the concerto carts in the last week and have had issues - this was expected. PM Fred and he will work it out. Stop airing all your gripes here. That's not helping to make the concerto better. But if you're willing to be a beta tester, continue to post bug reports. That WILL help correct the issues. We are really limited as to what we can do for troubleshooting and helping. I tried numerous SD card sizes, types and speeds (classes) and tried both of his posted BIOS's. Unlike your problems that appear to be game specific, mine affect all games. I have asked him if I could provide additional information on my system and have heard nothing back. Does he want Board rev numbers or chip manufacturers and date codes? I can send screen shots and will send him my systems, all he needs to do is ask. You are not frustrated as you have 70% play ability, I would die to have that. I have 0% as do others.. Your tune may be different if nothing worked. I do believe Fred will eventually fix the problem. I think he picked a bad time to release those betas he had because of the personal problems at the same time. He should have anticipated lots of questions and problems. He needed to communicate to us his status and that he would get back to us. As I have said before, it was the lack of not hearing back from him in a timely fashion that was frustrating. A quick PM or Post would have eased my mind. Anyways, he has gotten back to me with an alternative so 'nuff said. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
78001987 Posted November 7, 2016 Share Posted November 7, 2016 Actually - I do have 0% compatibility, on one of my 7800 consoles. I have 4 7800 consoles. 3 of them work with about 70% 7800 compatibility. One barely loads the menu, and loads no games. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted November 7, 2016 Share Posted November 7, 2016 It's entirely possible the issues with mine are a bad pokey chip. I desoldered it from a spare ballblazer cart myself. None of the pins are damaged, but it's entirely possible the chip got borked. Anyone have a good source of cheap pokeys? Did you add the 22uF capacitor? Pokeys are kind of hard to kill IMO. The desolder gun gave me fits so I heated the entire PCB in an oven set to 400 F until the chip simply dropped out of the PCB. And it still works flawless after having been baked. I have determined after plugging and pulling it, the issues with my Concerto are not related to the presence or absence of the Pokey chip, but I thought I'd mention that if you're having issues with your Pokey chip, adding the cap might fix it: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted November 7, 2016 Share Posted November 7, 2016 Have you tried this version of Ms. Pac-man 320? http://atariage.com/forums/topic/186049-happy-30th-birthday-ms-pac-man/page-3?do=findComment&comment=3622847 I posted it last week. It is an update of the POKEY sound effects to my latest version. I also changed how POKEY detection is done. I first check for it at location $4000, which is the same location as BB and Commando. If found, I go with it. If not, I enable at the XM location of $450 and check for it there. If it's not found, then I use the TIA sound code. I'm curious if this will work for you since BB seems to work ok. I have tested this on a board that supports the BB POKEY location and it worked fine. I'll give it a spin later. My experience with the Pac 320 Pokey games is they exhibited game breaking bugs in the rare event that I was able to get past the title screen. And my Concerto is corrupting both Pokey and non-Pokey ROMs. Homebrews as well as bitd games (when they boot) have had severe and bizarre issues when I attempt to play them. Seems everyone who's had issues with Concerto is having different symptoms with it. EDIT: Also you guys with multiple 7800s to test on are lucky. Many of us have only one console for each system to use as a "daily banger". 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinks Posted November 8, 2016 Share Posted November 8, 2016 Anyone know what drivers to use to reprogram the bios on the Concerto? Also what firmware to use? Just asking in case someone has ever done this. Any help is appreciated. I tried installing a ftdi driver and when I plug my cart in it says usb device not recongized. Any ideas? I want to try and fix this myself but need some direction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinks Posted November 8, 2016 Share Posted November 8, 2016 Actually if anyone has ever reflashed a harmony and uses windows could please pm me on some help with reflahsing this cart as well that would be great. Tried another computer and none will see the cart as plugged in on all 6 ports. Will try again tomorrow night if anyone has any advice on usb detection for this device and reflashing(yeah there is a harmony manual but not all applies here) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinks Posted November 8, 2016 Share Posted November 8, 2016 Also - one other odd question: So my concerto has this odd looking solder blob just above the center of the Pokey chip socket. (mine came socketed from batari!) Is this intentional? like a bridging of lines/circuits for a specific purpose, or is this an errant solder boo-boo that might account for some issues? IMG_4374.JPG Mine is socketed too but not getting to the point of putting a pokey in maybe weeks from now need to get it to be able to power up correctly first. Bios corruptions are a real bitch to figure out. I need to be able to do this on my own as it may be a perquisite to owning a multicart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted November 8, 2016 Share Posted November 8, 2016 Anyone know what drivers to use to reprogram the bios on the Concerto? Also what firmware to use? Just asking in case someone has ever done this. Any help is appreciated. I tried installing a ftdi driver and when I plug my cart in it says usb device not recongized. Any ideas? I want to try and fix this myself but need some direction. Actually if anyone has ever reflashed a harmony and uses windows could please pm me on some help with reflahsing this cart as well that would be great. Tried another computer and none will see the cart as plugged in on all 6 ports. Will try again tomorrow night if anyone has any advice on usb detection for this device and reflashing(yeah there is a harmony manual but not all applies here) It appears Windows detected your device on first insertion but did not recognize it afterwards. Maybe Windows borked your "FTDI" chip? I hope Batari got his chips from a reputable source... http://hackaday.com/2014/10/22/watch-that-windows-update-ftdi-drivers-are-killing-fake-chips/ Now I'm genuinely scared to plug in my Harmony to a Windows PC ever again... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevEng Posted November 8, 2016 Share Posted November 8, 2016 Now I'm genuinely scared to plug in my Harmony to a Windows PC ever again... Even if it is the issue you linked to, it seems to be a soft "brick". The FTDI driver seems to change the VID+PID of the fake FTDI chip. There's a video in the comments of your linked article showing how to point Windows at the serial driver anyway. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted November 8, 2016 Share Posted November 8, 2016 Even if it is the issue you linked to, it seems to be a soft "brick". The FTDI driver seems to change the VID+PID of the fake FTDI chip. There's a video in the comments of your linked article showing how to point Windows at the serial driver anyway. I think I last flashed my Harmony BIOS in 2013 and haven't attempted to reconnect the USB cable since then. If it ain't broke, don't fix it! As for the FTDI driver issues, it sucks especially since the fake chips can get into the supply chain at multiple points, even if ordered from a reputable vendor. IIRC, Windows will not negotiate with the device once it has been soft-bricked and you need a Linux installation or at least a Live CD to unbrick it. Even then, simply plugging the device back into any up-to-date Windows PC would automatically rebrick the FTDI. I just thought it was weird that Jinks stated the software gave a "device not recognized" error the first time he tried it, then multiple systems refused to even acknowledge it's presence. So I Googled "FTDI driver Windows 10" and that article was on the first results page. But I'm getting way off topic here. I'm sure Batari would only use genuine chips in his devices so the updated driver shouldn't be an issue at all. And I have no idea if a "bricked" FTDI chip would really prevent the Concerto from reading SD cards or merely prevent firmware updates through the USB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
78001987 Posted November 8, 2016 Share Posted November 8, 2016 Have you tried this version of Ms. Pac-man 320? http://atariage.com/forums/topic/186049-happy-30th-birthday-ms-pac-man/page-3?do=findComment&comment=3622847 I posted it last week. It is an update of the POKEY sound effects to my latest version. I also changed how POKEY detection is done. I first check for it at location $4000, which is the same location as BB and Commando. If found, I go with it. If not, I enable at the XM location of $450 and check for it there. If it's not found, then I use the TIA sound code. I'm curious if this will work for you since BB seems to work ok. I have tested this on a board that supports the BB POKEY location and it worked fine. So this one exhibits the exact same issues as Beef Drop. With no POKEY installed in the concerto - plays with TIA sound, game is 100% playable. With POKEY installed - Attract screen plays as normal, starting the game causes POKEY music to play, but playfield graphics are garbled (both maze layout and dot alignment) and game is unplayable - but you can control the character through a broken maze. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevEng Posted November 8, 2016 Share Posted November 8, 2016 Have you tried this version of Ms. Pac-man 320? I can't check for myself right now, but are you using memory@4000 and pokey@4000? The symptoms sound like bus contention. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tep392 Posted November 8, 2016 Share Posted November 8, 2016 That' So this one exhibits the exact same issues as Beef Drop. With no POKEY installed in the concerto - plays with TIA sound, game is 100% playable. With POKEY installed - Attract screen plays as normal, starting the game causes POKEY music to play, but playfield graphics are garbled (both maze layout and dot alignment) and game is unplayable - but you can control the character through a broken maze. That is interesting. So it seems the POKEY works sufficiently to be detected and play music. This is probably a long shot, but I've wondered if maybe the power draw of adding the chip could be causing a problem. Maybe some of the variation people are seeing between consoles is related to the condition of the power components. Do you have any way to check the power supply voltage? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tep392 Posted November 8, 2016 Share Posted November 8, 2016 I can't check for myself right now, but are you using memory@4000 and pokey@4000? The symptoms sound like bus contention. No, the game is 32k, residing at $8000. That's why I though it would be a good test. It's the same as ballblazer in theory. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevEng Posted November 8, 2016 Share Posted November 8, 2016 Ok. Hopefully it's power related, or the symptoms ring a bell with batari. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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