darthnumbers
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Hey guys, I finished prosounding and backlighting my DMG yesterday and I went to go play around in LSDJ and I noticed some strange things going on. When the volume knob is turned all the way down and no headphones are plugged in, I can hear sort of a hum from the speakers, even though the sound is down. When the sound is turned up, the hum is still there, but not as noticeable. When I plug in headphones to the built in headphone jack, I have to fenangle the headphones around because if I plug the jack all the way in, I only get audio in one ear, and the humming is there as well. When I plug my headphones into the prosound jack, I only get one ear's audio, and the humming is very noticeable. I'm using the 1/4" pro sound mod from the kitsch bent store, and I have it wired post pot.

I think I must have messed something up when I soldered the pro sound mod in-- I don't have access to a workstation for another day but what are the odds that the prosound module itself is faulty? I think it's probably an issue with my soldering, but I don't know why it would cause the speakers to hum, as well as mess with the built in audio jack.

Thanks!

Last edited by darthnumbers (Jan 30, 2016 7:32 pm)

darthnumbers
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Just as a note, I think I definitely messed something up in the soldering because when I set the output of LSDJ to just the left channel, I get no audio. Right and stereo both work (but stereo is just right in this case I think).

Also in LSDJ, when holding down certain buttons, for as long as the button is held down there is a louder and slightly higher pitched hum.

Last edited by darthnumbers (Jan 30, 2016 7:52 pm)

catskull
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NUMBSKULL

Pretty much a gameboy will always buzz a little bit. I don't think what you're describing is anything out of the ordinary. As for the left/right audio issue, yeah you probably botched the soldering. I'd be shocked if you broke the jack though. Grab a multimeter and check for continuity.

darthnumbers
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catskull wrote:

Pretty much a gameboy will always buzz a little bit. I don't think what you're describing is anything out of the ordinary. As for the left/right audio issue, yeah you probably botched the soldering. I'd be shocked if you broke the jack though. Grab a multimeter and check for continuity.


Ahh, gotcha. I'm a little confused by the weird change in buzz I get when I press A or Start in LSDJ (it happens when actually selecting notes, but not during playback), and it plays through the speakers, so there's feedback through the speakers related to my input, even when the sound is off.

Gotcha, I'll have another look at the soldering-- the pro sound definitely works, the ear I can hear through has great sound quality! I just gotta fix the connections.

Kuesa
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California

If you notice nothing wrong with the soldering, make sure that you're using a cable that only has Left, Right and Ground points(2 colored stripes).

darthnumbers
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The wires I'm using are the ones that came with the pro sound mod from the kitsch bent store, its a green wire, a blue wire, and a yellow wire I believe. Do the colors of the wires matter? Or is it just where they're soldered on to? I'm red-green colorblind, which is potentially a problem if the wires have to be color coded ^^;

catskull
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NUMBSKULL
darthnumbers wrote:
catskull wrote:

Pretty much a gameboy will always buzz a little bit. I don't think what you're describing is anything out of the ordinary. As for the left/right audio issue, yeah you probably botched the soldering. I'd be shocked if you broke the jack though. Grab a multimeter and check for continuity.


Ahh, gotcha. I'm a little confused by the weird change in buzz I get when I press A or Start in LSDJ (it happens when actually selecting notes, but not during playback), and it plays through the speakers, so there's feedback through the speakers related to my input, even when the sound is off.

Gotcha, I'll have another look at the soldering-- the pro sound definitely works, the ear I can hear through has great sound quality! I just gotta fix the connections.

Yeah there's something to do with a power saving feature implemented in LSDJ that causes that. When playback starts, that feature is turned off and it should not buzz when you press buttons. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but you're still well within the limits of normal. I mean a gameboy was designed to play tetris for a 10 year old with crappy headphones so the audio isn't perfect. You'll likely want to do some noise reduction in post-processing.

darthnumbers
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catskull wrote:
darthnumbers wrote:

Ahh, gotcha. I'm a little confused by the weird change in buzz I get when I press A or Start in LSDJ (it happens when actually selecting notes, but not during playback), and it plays through the speakers, so there's feedback through the speakers related to my input, even when the sound is off.

Gotcha, I'll have another look at the soldering-- the pro sound definitely works, the ear I can hear through has great sound quality! I just gotta fix the connections.

Yeah there's something to do with a power saving feature implemented in LSDJ that causes that. When playback starts, that feature is turned off and it should not buzz when you press buttons. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but you're still well within the limits of normal. I mean a gameboy was designed to play tetris for a 10 year old with crappy headphones so the audio isn't perfect. You'll likely want to do some noise reduction in post-processing.


Oh, phew! I was worried I had done something wrong (other than the soldering haha). Awesome, thanks for assuaging my fears tongue When I have access to a soldering iron again I'll recheck my connections and such. I don't really understand how the DMG is wired-- would it make sense for faulty solders on a prosound to mess with the built in audio jack?

Adzetko
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Ardèche, France

About troubleshooting, I can't say anything but to check your soldering, and wires. Also, every wire is the same, just conductive copper (or anything else conductive), so don't worry about colors.

I can give you another tip: always test how is it going before modifing anything. So you can say if you've made a mistake during the process, or if things were like this before.

Last edited by Adzetko (Jan 31, 2016 3:19 am)

darthnumbers
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Okay, so I've checked my solder points and resoldered the left ear connection (the one that was not playing sound), and it still only plays sound through the right earbud, on both the prosound jack and the built in headphone jack. I'm gonna try just resoldering the entire thing, just for completeness sake. Because the built in audio jack is having problems with the left ear sound as well as the prosound jack, that leads me to believe it's not the prosound unit failing. I'm gonna try to resolder it entirely but as far as I can tell the solders are okay o.0

darthnumbers
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Okay, replaced and resoldered the connections from the pro sound to the pcb. Still only getting audio on the pro sound from one ear-- the only thing I could think of is maybe I just confused the pins on the actual pro sound unit? There are 3 prongs, one longer one on the bottom which I assumed was ground, and one on the left and right. It's possible its not like that at all, and maybe that's why I'm only getting audio in one ear? I'm not sure because if I fenagle the headphone jack around, I can hear both ears for a tiny split second, but then it goes away again.

darthnumbers
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Update: I switched the connections so that the (what I assume to be) left channel on the prosound unit is connected to the right connection on the pcb and (What I assume to be) the right channel on the prosound unit is connected to the left connection on the pcb. Put everything together and tested it, now the left ear works and the right ear doesn't (before the right ear worked and the left ear didn't).

So originally, left on prosound is connected to left on pcb, right on prosound is connected to right on pcb: Right sound works, left does not.

Now, left on prosound connected to right on pcb, right on prosound is connected to left on pcb: left sound works, right does not.

Because of this, I'm working under the assumption that the left prong connection on the pro sound unit is not functioning. I don't have access to a multimeter at the moment, so I can't exactly test my theory, but given the evidence I think that the pro sound unit itself's left prong is having issues. I can also hear the sound VERY faintly through the speaker when headphones are plugged into the pro sound unit.

If I hold the headphone jack at a certain angle, the sound goes through the speaker at full volume, the left earbud at full volume, and the right earbud VERY faintly.

Regardless of wiring, built in audio jack is wonky, which means to me that the built in audio is unrelated to the issues with the prosound.

Does anyone have any suggestions of what to do at this point?

Last edited by darthnumbers (Feb 2, 2016 2:42 am)

darthnumbers
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Hey guys, at this point I think I've determined that the issue is with the kitsch-bent store prosound 1/4" unit. Does anyone know if the kitsch-bent store does returns? The unit itself is not that expensive so the price isn't a huge deal, but I'm going to MAGfest in two weeks and I'm worried about the shipping time for a new unit-- I can compose music using LSDJ using the left earbud or the speaker, but obviously that can't work for live sound or recording if I only have access to one channel, and also I can't do any panning or anything.

danthalian
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Świdnica, Poland

basically, our return policy is, \"if you paid for a working product, then you shall have that working product.\" we strongly believe that the customer is correct and if we are paid for a service, it is our job to do for them the best we are able.

with that being said, very rarely an item will be damaged by the post office or some similar accident will occur. our return policy is as follows:

    items are assured for 1 month after purchase to be fully functional.
    if you wish to discuss an exchange or return, please contact us immediately via the contact section of the website.
    all exchanged/returned materials must be sent back to us with all of their parts and packaging. there are no exceptions.



we will not accept returns on items that have been altered, painted, or defaced in any manner. nor will we accept items broken due to user error (in other words, you break it you bought it). items must be returned in the condition in which they arrived.

so, please let us know if you have any issues. we are always happy to help. the majority of the time there is just a simple issue that is easily fixed (customers don\'t understand the software, or something similar). however, if we make an error, or if the postal system destroys your products, please get in touch with us as soon as possible.

if you are returning an item, we must receive it before we ship you the replacement, and also verify that it is indeed defective.

also, please do not attempt to return an item purchased from another website or vendor of similar merchandise.

shipping costs are non-refundable.

urbster1
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Naptown

I wish I could offer some help, but my big question is, if both the built-in headphone jack and the pro-sound jack aren't working properly, what makes you believe that it's only the pro-sound unit that's faulty? Would that be the only cause of all the issues you are having? I'm asking genuinely because I haven't done a pro sound mod, so I couldn't tell you.

If worse comes to worst, maybe just order a 1/4" TRS female jack and wire/stereo cable from Amazon? Not as elegant, but it would be more timely.

darthnumbers
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urbster1 wrote:

I wish I could offer some help, but my big question is, if both the built-in headphone jack and the pro-sound jack aren't working properly, what makes you believe that it's only the pro-sound unit that's faulty? Would that be the only cause of all the issues you are having? I'm asking genuinely because I haven't done a pro sound mod, so I couldn't tell you.

If worse comes to worst, maybe just order a 1/4" TRS female jack and wire/stereo cable from Amazon? Not as elegant, but it would be more timely.

My reasoning is that the built in audio jack is having audio channel issues independent of the wiring of the prosound. It's possible that I'm incorrect in this, but I switched the left and right wires for the prosound, and that switched the side that worked for the prosound jack (IE it was right only before, and once I switched it, it became left only), but the built-in audio jack is right-only regardless of the prosound's wiring, which suggests to me it is an independent issue. I'm sort of new to this, but since the built in audio jack is having a consistent issue, and the prosound jack's audio issues change depending on the wire, I think they're separate, anyway.