SecretAgentLuna
Offline
Houston, Texas

Hey, all. (First post here, pretty new to the chiptune music scene.)

I recently ordered a modded DMG off of eBay from a pretty trustworthy looking guy. Nothing special, just has a backlight and prosound. It works fine with any normal Gameboy game (Mega Man, Pokemon Red, etc.), but when I use my EMS 64s with LSDJ flashed on it, it goes bonkers any time I press start. It gets all low pitched and makes crazy noises, and the contrast goes up all the way so I cannot see anything unless I adjust it again.

Any idea what is the issue? Could it maybe need fresh batteries? I'm using some rechargeable batteries that were in my Gameboy colors, and like I said it works fine with regular games. I can attach pictures if necessary. c:

PanicPlant
Offline
Puerto Rico

Hmm sounds like the EMS64 is the thing. Maybe the internal battery of the cartridge?

SecretAgentLuna
Offline
Houston, Texas
PanicPlant wrote:

Hmm sounds like the EMS64 is the thing. Maybe the internal battery of the cartridge?

That could be it, but that doesn't really explain why it works on the other gameboys. x.x
I never mentioned that. The EMS 64 thingy works fine on my Gameboy Colors.

PanicPlant
Offline
Puerto Rico

Oh, wow... That is... strange hmm
Do you have the chance to borrow someone's LSDJ to see how the DMG reacts to that one??

I think that's as far as I can help sad I hope you can fix that.

SecretAgentLuna
Offline
Houston, Texas
PanicPlant wrote:

Oh, wow... That is... strange hmm
Do you have the chance to borrow someone's LSDJ to see how the DMG reacts to that one??

I think that's as far as I can help sad I hope you can fix that.

I'm actually the only person around (where I live) that does chiptunes at all, so no.. -w-
Still, your help is greatly appreciated! I'm going to try new batteries. Maybe it could be dirty terminals or whatever. Who knows.

Timbob
Offline

Bear in mind that lsdj is quite a heavy program to run, and backlights do add extra strain on your batteries, so some contrast/light reaction is normal.

It also depends sometimes on how the backlight was attached. There are various points to choose, and some respond more to power fluctuation then others.

Anyway, in short: yes, maybe, could be, could be not.

Also, I hear a lot of people talking about replacing the battery inside the EMS when the gameboy starts to act weird.

Now it could be just me, but isn't that battery not just for saving the ram? How does an empty save battery effect the rest of the gameboy?

Timbob
Offline

Addition!
Rechargeable batteries are usually not as strong as normal batteries. They also provide 1,2 volts usually instead of 1,5. So there's that as well.

Jazzmarazz
Offline
Michigan
Timbob wrote:

Addition!
Rechargeable batteries are usually not as strong as normal batteries. They also provide 1,2 volts usually instead of 1,5. So there's that as well.

Right. Are they NiCd batteries? These also have the lowest mAh output.

PanicPlant
Offline
Puerto Rico

Yeah ^

Rechargable batteries have always given me problems. hmm

Jazzmarazz
Offline
Michigan

What the DMG really needs is a fifth battery slot. xD

SecretAgentLuna
Offline
Houston, Texas
Timbob wrote:

Bear in mind that lsdj is quite a heavy program to run, and backlights do add extra strain on your batteries, so some contrast/light reaction is normal.

It also depends sometimes on how the backlight was attached. There are various points to choose, and some respond more to power fluctuation then others.

Anyway, in short: yes, maybe, could be, could be not.

Also, I hear a lot of people talking about replacing the battery inside the EMS when the gameboy starts to act weird.

Now it could be just me, but isn't that battery not just for saving the ram? How does an empty save battery effect the rest of the gameboy?

Agh! You're probably right! But would taking the save battery out ruin/delete my LSDJ saves?

SecretAgentLuna
Offline
Houston, Texas
Jazzmarazz wrote:

What the DMG really needs is a fifth battery slot. xD

This is genius.

SecretAgentLuna
Offline
Houston, Texas
Timbob wrote:

Addition!
Rechargeable batteries are usually not as strong as normal batteries. They also provide 1,2 volts usually instead of 1,5. So there's that as well.

I did not know this.

SecretAgentLuna
Offline
Houston, Texas
Jazzmarazz wrote:
Timbob wrote:

Addition!
Rechargeable batteries are usually not as strong as normal batteries. They also provide 1,2 volts usually instead of 1,5. So there's that as well.

Right. Are they NiCd batteries? These also have the lowest mAh output.

Nah, they're Energizer. But they do have 1.2 volts like Timbob said. This might be the problem.

Timbob
Offline
SecretAgentLuna wrote:
Timbob wrote:

Bear in mind that lsdj is quite a heavy program to run, and backlights do add extra strain on your batteries, so some contrast/light reaction is normal.

It also depends sometimes on how the backlight was attached. There are various points to choose, and some respond more to power fluctuation then others.

Anyway, in short: yes, maybe, could be, could be not.

Also, I hear a lot of people talking about replacing the battery inside the EMS when the gameboy starts to act weird.

Now it could be just me, but isn't that battery not just for saving the ram? How does an empty save battery effect the rest of the gameboy?

Agh! You're probably right! But would taking the save battery out ruin/delete my LSDJ saves?

Yes, if you replace the battery, it will wipe the ram. So back up first before you do that. After that you can just re-upload the sav and all is peachy.

I do see a difference between my two EMS carts tho. With the older one the screen light/contrast seems to react more to lsdj then a new version, but it could also be a board revision.

With my drag 'n derp I get very little interference.

katsumbhong
Offline
Taichung, Taiwan

I use Energizer rechargeable batteries and have never had any issues with my backlit/prosound DMGs and 64M carts.

Last edited by katsumbhong (Aug 12, 2013 1:34 am)