81 Reply by m00dawg

(9 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

Ah derp sorry! I missed some key points in your first explanation about power and the current state of things. If you don't see the LEDs cycling when LSDJ is in master mode, but do see them on incoming MIDI events, then you know it has something to do with the game-link cable. I have included, as best as I could, information about how to figure out the wiring for the GameLink cable here. That is for a DMG-001 so your situation may be a tad different.

The cable I have is something similar to this one. I say similar because I ordered another cable from the same shop recently and it appears to be slightly different. Likewise, I tested it with both a DMG-001 and GameBoy Color (as my cable has connections for both).

I can't think of a reason why the GBA shouldn't work but I haven't tried it hmm Also, LSDJ does work in Master Mode - it's just that I have not isolated the problem as to why I'm not getting MIDI Out events from the ShieldBoy. I wasn't planning on using that myself but do plan on figuring that out so folks that want to use the ShieldBoy have that option. I don't have an o-scope at the moment so it's a tad hard to track down currently.

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82 Reply by m00dawg

(37 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

Doh sorry didn't see that original post, but I have responded to it with my thoughts. I think it might just be a simple case of needing to power the ArdunioBoy correctly (the 5V jumper is bridged and it shouldn't be as you have no 5V input coming from the GameLink cable).

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83 Reply by m00dawg

(9 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

Yeah sorry about that backwards diode. It's fixed in my schematics. I thought I uploaded those to the website, but I may need to check. All the printed boards I have are wrong, doh!

As far as what's wrong, I see that you have a jumper on the 5V input. That is for supplying power from the GameBoy instead of through the USB or power jack. That requires a modification to the GameBoy, however, and either way, you do not have any wire going to +5V on the GameLink header.

So try removing that jumper first and supplying power using USB. If everything is powered up correctly, you should see the LEDs cycle for about 1 second. Then to test that things work, break out LSDJ and set it to slave and set the ArduinoBoy to slave as well (2rd LED from the top if looking where the USB is on the top-left). Start your track in LSDJ and then start your DAW or whatever you have sending a clock. The LEDs should cycle to the beat of the clock and, if the cable is working as it should, things should start playing in LSDJ at the same rate.

Alternatively, you can test master mode. Press the button on the ArduinoBoy again to do that (3rd LED from the top) and set LSDJ to master. Now if you start playing the song, the lights should blink to the BPM of the song. Note that I could never get MIDI Out working on mine for whatever reason and if that problem is intrinsic to the design, it may not work for you. But the LEDs should blink regardless since the problem has to do with the MIDI Out port itself and anything coming through the GameLink interface.

Hope that helps!

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84 Reply by m00dawg

(6 replies, posted in Releases)

Thanks! Couldn't have been done without the help from lots of folks here!

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85 Reply by m00dawg

(6 replies, posted in Releases)

Just a quick update that we have 5 days left for the Kickstarter project. We're not at our minimum goal yet (7" single) but we're close. If chipsurf on vinyl interests you, check out the links in my original post. But if not, that's cool too! Just wanted to share just in case.

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86 Reply by m00dawg

(6 replies, posted in Releases)

Glad you folks like!

@Cathode - checked out your work too and yeah man our styles mesh pretty well!

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87 Topic by m00dawg

(6 replies, posted in Releases)

We finished our entire chipsurf album (available in digital form here)! We are quite proud of it and while it's not a pure chiptune album, the combination of surf guitar and chiptunes makes for a neat sound. For folks interested in vinyl, we are trying to fund a 7" or 12" LP of the album on Kickstarter. You can just pre-order the record (assuming it funds) or pledge more and get some other neat stuff (our test dub-plate is up for grabs, for instance).

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88 Reply by m00dawg

(37 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

kitsch wrote:

he means switching midi pins around, not on the uC

As in physically right? I did find this and it actually indicates that the pinout is correct if I am reading the top-left diagram correctly.

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89 Reply by m00dawg

(37 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

As in MIDI 2 to 5V and MIDI 4 to pin 1 or just picking another digital in pin on the Arduino? Hoping it's the latter since that can be fixed in software wink

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90 Reply by m00dawg

(37 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

Apeshit wrote:

Cool project. I still haven't found the time to make an arduinoboy, so I'd like to get my hands on one of these.

Theta_Frost wrote:

Looks good! See how small you can get the final version!  Internal anyone? wink

Internal? But it's a shield...

What I made up above is a shield yep, but I want to make a smaller all in one at some point. I dunno about small enough for internal. That has been done before though so it's possible! I do want to shrink it down, or at least fit it in a standard hobbyist case.

As far as getting your hands on one, the board layouts are available here which is also where I will be putting up the build docs. Note that I haven't fixed the diode issue on the design currently on that page. I will (you'll know it's the right one when the silkscreen says ShieldBoy v1.01). I need to figure out the MIDI Out problem too so I will likely wait to post updated boards until I know what that problem is.

That said, I do have 2 spares. I may be using one for another ShieldBoy but I may have an extra. Not sure yet, but if you're interested, let me know and I can send it to you if I find I don't need it. You can also have it fabbed yourself. It was $30 to have it fabbed via DorkBot. That's $10 per board, so it won't break the bank if you want to have it made yourself.

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91 Reply by m00dawg

(37 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

It's alive!

I received the boards a few days ago and am happy to report that (almost) everything is working like a champ! I ran into a few issues along the way, but nothing major. One is that the diode is the wrong way on the silkscreen although I caught that before I actually soldered it in place and have already correct the board design. Another problem is that I can't seem to get MIDI output when using LSDJ as a master. The LEDs light up to the BPM from LSDJ so I suspect it has to do with the MIDI side of things. Just not sure what it is. I also don't have +5V working from the GB so I have to power it with USB still (I'm actually using a MintyBoost to supply power through the USB port. Works good enough for now).

I have only tried LSDJ, but mGB is on my list to do probably today. I am going to put together a full article on my band's website and I'll post a link here for the curious. I wanted to add a few things to make it easier for folks building their own (using the Shield design or otherwise), such pinouts for the link cables (which took quite some time to figure out), among other things.

Huge thanks to Trash80 because, damnit, this thing owns face! Once I've figured out the things noted above, I'm going to start work on an all-in-one design, which should save quite a bit of space and let me put it in a nice case, etc. But for now this is rocking out with my GameBoy out!

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92 Reply by m00dawg

(3 replies, posted in Nintendo Consoles)

Theta_Frost wrote:

I think he is refferring to the expansion chip audio the powerpak injects into our NES.  What are the original resistance values on the Famicom expanded carts?  If they are all close, a fixed resistance is fine.  But if it varies for each chip, a trimpot would probably be a good idea!

Actually, if the expansion audio chips all assume different resistance, a volume knob on the back (or front?) would make more sense so it can be changed externally. This can be done with the current design (simply hook up a pot before the input pin for the PowerPak) if need be.

I seem to remember the resistance value was fixed on the PowerPak as I thought it adjusts the output to be the same across all expansion chips that it supports. I want to say it is something sort of odd like 62k.

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93 Topic by m00dawg

(3 replies, posted in Nintendo Consoles)

I have never quite figured this one out. It seems that there are various resistor values folks are using for the PowerPak input and was curious as to what people here are using that has produced the best results? I have tried quite a few values but it seems I am always too low as the results are still distortingly loud if I don't further attenuate them using an analog mixer. I also noticed that the values used for the PowerPak differ than those used for the Japanese import cartridges with their own audio output.

I ask as I am thinking about adding a trim-pot to my NESA design so that the volume can be set to taste with the 2A03 output. Normal volume pots could be used as well, but if I use a trimpot, it would fix both the passive mixed output and allow a single volume knob to be used for the output of the separate channels.

What I am trying to figure out at this point is the values of the trimpot so I can cater to both import cartridges and the PowerPak.

Anyone have any ideas or suggestions there?

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94 Reply by m00dawg

(37 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

trash80 wrote:

Not to discourage this thread at all, I'm all for the idea! smile

Haha can't discourage me to design my own board - it's fun smile Didn't realize you used a shield though as from the pics it looked like one board to me. Maybe put a link to that guy up on your G.Code page as a suggestion?

I'm still likely going to end up making a fully custom board if all goes well just because it's fun and should be (if I do it right) fairly compact.

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95 Reply by m00dawg

(37 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)

Yup looks like that would work, although how did you handle the LEDs (or did you just not bother using them)?

My custom shield is in the mail but has yet to arrive so I can't say much about mine yet. Mine's larger than the one pictured and faces the other way because I wasn't sure how much clearance I would have between boards for solder blobs. Seems like the above considers that a bit of a non-issue, which is good smile

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96 Reply by m00dawg

(83 replies, posted in Nintendo Consoles)

For what it's worth, I was one of the guys that wanted NSF channel muting smile

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