oh I get it the markings are mirrored along the horizontal axis ... that's no n and e, it's a V and G making them 5V and GND probably. That also explains why there are two G ... the unused one is probably for the sheath.
97 Dec 4, 2012 12:54 am
Re: DMG all in one USB for power, sound and MIDI ... is it possible? (39 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)
98 Dec 4, 2012 12:50 am
Re: DMG all in one USB for power, sound and MIDI ... is it possible? (39 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)
Alright, I got the USB spider/squid hub and managed to take the casing off with a lot of force and sweat (it was an almost solid piece with 2mm wall thickness!) and what I found isn't entirely what I expected. I could need somebody's expertise on this. The leads going into each of the USB jacks are wire directly coated with something none-conductive that color codes them at the same time. How do I get it off or solder to it? I thought for a second to solder directly to the pads on the PCB even though they're fairly tiny but they are also coated with a clear coat (looks like a thin coat of glue) and don't conduct like that.
I have tried fire on one of the wires, making it glow hot orange, but I could only restore conductivity to a certain degree... any ideas?
also while we're at it, any idea on the markings near the solder points? D+ and D- are probably the data lines ... n stands for neutral aka GND? and e could then be +5V? As I said they're coated with a non-conductive clear coating of some sort and I can't measure anything.
99 Dec 3, 2012 9:55 pm
Re: Switching built in audio jack between ProSound and headphones? (17 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)
thebitman wrote:
...and I am trying to push myself from a modding standpoint.
I remember there being that audio input pin in the cartridge connector that almost no cartridge ever used. you could add a push button to your EMS cart and intercept that line, switching between prosound and headphone amp that way with a hardware button and no case mod... 
(at least no PiL case mod)
100 Dec 3, 2012 9:30 pm
Re: Switching built in audio jack between ProSound and headphones? (17 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)
That's a pretty cool idea. Would there be any way to make it switchable after boot or would you have to turn it off and on again if you decide to record something you've been working on on headphones?
101 Dec 3, 2012 8:04 pm
Re: Trying to get MIDI in on nanoloop 2.5.5 (21 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)
PULSELOOPER wrote:
What I was trying to do is let nanoloop receive midi clock from lsdj (that modified lsdj version by trash80s). But when I just connect my midi/usb cable on the nano midi adapter, nanoloop goes crazy on the sync screen, running the steps randomly.
Have you put nanoloop into slave mode and lsdj into nano master sync mode (see respective manuals)?
102 Dec 3, 2012 6:55 pm
Re: Trying to get MIDI in on nanoloop 2.5.5 (21 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)
with the USB MIDI adapter you're limited pretty much to devices that can act as a USB host (mostly computers), yes ... however search for "arduinoboy", a device that lets you connect any MIDI source and translates it to the same messages. (In fact the arduinoboy was the inspiration for the USB MIDI adapter).
You can build it yourself, try to find readily built ones (good luck) or find somebody here who'd be willing to build one for you.
103 Dec 3, 2012 5:22 pm
Re: Switching built in audio jack between ProSound and headphones? (17 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)
I just wanted to report back, that now that I finally have the triwing I've gone ahead and installed a switch next to the A button that switches the source of the built in jack. Up position is pre-pot prosound, down position is headphone amplifier. The difference is really dramatic and very apparent when switching between both settings live. I would have never dreamed to get rid of so much of the hum and hiss with this. Very happy
It was a challenge fitting the switch there, and it was an act of minor force to close the case again, but it works well. The switch doesn't toggle buttery smooth because of a little force that gets applied to it, but it is still switchable easily enough. Everything has been secured with hot glue instead of screws.
I know I could have gone for a separate jack or just hardwired prosound to the internal one, but I had fun figuring this out and I know I couldn't have made a second jack look as clean and almost meant to be there as I was able to do with this switch. Also in the down position everything works just like with an unmodded Game Boy.
104 Dec 3, 2012 4:14 pm
Re: Nanoloop USB MIDI adapter makes backlight glow. can it damage stuff? (14 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)
fluxer wrote:
Does this mean your batteries won't drain as much when you've got this baby plugged in?
unfortunately not, according to nitro. The diode will only let current through if the voltage on the link cable side is higher than on the other side, which won't be the case if the DMG is switched on. That is to prevent voltage spikes from harming the chip
105 Dec 2, 2012 11:00 pm
Re: Nanoloop USB MIDI adapter makes backlight glow. can it damage stuff? (14 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)
OK I've been talking to nitro and can shed some insight.
Both the signals for clock and serial are normally high, that means 5V. So nothing is wrong with the USB adapter, it behaves just like an arduinoboy and just as expected. Now comes the fun part: According to this diagram http://gbdev.gg8.se/wiki/images/0/03/Ga … uboard.gif the two lines (ELP3 and ELP5) go to VCC on the main PCB, meaning everything that draws power from the regulated power source will get some amount of those 5V that come in through those pins. It may not be 5V but enough to make the backlight turn on if it was soldered to the regulated power source like kitsch's instructions suggest for example.
I take that this means the DMG is fine and nothing will be broken by this. Nice.
Not sure how healthy this is for the adapter though.
106 Dec 2, 2012 9:58 pm
Re: Nanoloop USB MIDI adapter makes backlight glow. can it damage stuff? (14 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)
OK I was able to revive the multimeter by connecting it to a power supply.
And WHOA... here's my measurement: between the gnd and TWO of the pins there seems to be a pretty solid 5V when the adapter is connected to USB. In my picture I've labeled those pins 3, 5 and 6. 6 is gnd, 5 is clock and I think 3 is serial out
I'm not sure, but I can imagine it has something to do with the way signalling works, high being 5V ... how does this compare to say an Arduinoboy in MIDI mode (used for mgb)?
107 Dec 2, 2012 9:41 pm
Re: Nanoloop USB MIDI adapter makes backlight glow. can it damage stuff? (14 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)
My multimeter is dead 
I'm afraid I can't measure right now
108 Dec 2, 2012 9:40 pm
Re: Nanoloop USB MIDI adapter makes backlight glow. can it damage stuff? (14 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)
Saskrotch wrote:
still though, a backlight drawing power through a cart has got to do some kind of damage to the cart, right?
This is not through a cart, this is through the link port
109 Dec 2, 2012 9:38 pm
Re: Nanoloop USB MIDI adapter makes backlight glow. can it damage stuff? (14 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)
I'll grab my multimeter and measure where and how much current flows on the link cable side of the adapter. I'll be reporting back in a bit
110 Dec 2, 2012 9:36 pm
Re: Nanoloop USB MIDI adapter makes backlight glow. can it damage stuff? (14 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)
Apeshit wrote:
I'm rather unfamiliar with the device, but as far as I know it's a PCB that plugs into a link cable, for MIDI syncing? There should be no voltage pin present. Is it a genuine link cable?
Yes it is a PCB with 4 USB pads on one side and 4 pads on the link-cable side (two on top and two on the bottom) that match up with all 4 pins in my genuine Nintendo Game Link cable for the DMG.
111 Dec 2, 2012 9:11 pm
Topic: Nanoloop USB MIDI adapter makes backlight glow. can it damage stuff? (14 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)
Heya,
my LEDx3 backlight in my turned off DMG is glowing when I plug in the Link cable that's attached to the nanoloop USB MIDI adapter. It's about 3/4 the brightness that it gets when I turn the DMG on. It happens with and without inserted batteries. Looks like (some of?) the voltage of the USB port gets passed on by the adapter and passed on to certain parts inside the Game Boy...
Is this expected and more importantly is this safe? I don't want to damage anything.
I mean if it's safe this is great, it's kind of cool but I'd rather know sooner than when it's too late if I should only plug this in when the DMG is on and plug it out before turning the DMG off.
112 Dec 2, 2012 8:53 pm
Re: Trying to get MIDI in on nanoloop 2.5.5 (21 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)
on the mac (or any unix based sytem) to execute a file in the current directory you have to prefix ./ so the command should start with ./nlmidi02