Help: CPS3 Digital AV Installation troubleshooting

Got a hold of these hard to find mods and since I had successfully installed one on a CPS2 a couple years before, I wanted to have a CPS3 with the mod as well. Using the lovegood QSB I took a crack at it and things seemed pretty straightforward. I flashed the CPS3 Firmware and fired up the board and a sigh of relief when the board booted- sweet! I didn't kill the CPS3 board....

Plugged it into my computer monitor to test the HDMI out and more good news, audio is coming in crispy and I have a picture on the screen. I noticed the colors are a bit off. I go into the test menu and here is what I see:

I

I wiggle the hdmi board to see if it's an issue with a connection but nothing changes. I proceed to do the following troubleshooting:

1. Visual inspection, and continuity and short checks.
2. Remove the installation - CPS3 board worked with the mode reversed. - Sigh of relief, the CPS3 board is fine.
3. Re-install the mod.
A. Start by re-soldering the QSB board only. Checked the CPS3 board and colors are still working 100%.
B. Proceed with the rest of the installation. Now the same color problem has returned.
4. Since I'm back at square one but I had eliminated a problem CPS3 board, I remove the little ribbon that connects the lovegood QSB to the CPS2 Digi AV HDMI board. This immediately restores the colors on the CPS3.

So this color issue is happening when the QSB is connected to the HDMI board. Plug in ribbon cable, color issue shows up. (As pictured above). Remove ribbon cable, colors are restored.

Any ideas? I would appreciate any help!

Thanks!

Is this the JAMMA video out? So its fine if you disconnect the ribbon cable, but when that's plugged in - you get the above color issues, over JAMMA?

Does HDMI look clean?

If you could also send a picture of the QSB install - with as much detail as you can get, that would be helpful.

The issue is both JAMMA and HDMI. The exact same color issue. If you see the picture it shows an error with the RED color bar.

I will get some good pics of the install tomorrow in the daylight.

Interesting. The only thing I can think of is the QSB has some funky shorts.... if you used flux - did you make sure you cleaned the area around the qsb really well? I have a spray can of flux remover that I use, and then a blower to make sure its all off the board and as clean as possible. I have had issues with mine where some flux was causing some issues like this - even though continuity meter hadn't picked it up.

Matt

The fact that the issue is showing in analog and digital means you have shorts on the resistor networks where you grab the color signals. Post pictures of the work, and also use a multimeter on continuity to test the color connections.

Thanks for the replies fellas.

I snapped a quick picture of the qsb - I got to thinking. If there's a short right here On the qsb and resistor network, wouldn't the color issue be present without the ribbon cable attaching itself to the FPGA board?

Right now with the QSB board on here, the color is fine through JAMMA. The moment I connect it to the FPGA board the color issue shows up. Does that mean the short is somewhere else down the line?

Yes, the short is at the resistor networks, unplugging the ribbon won't make any difference on the analog output. The short is not at the fpga side. Use continuity setting on your meter and test each connection to the one right next to it, none of them should be shorted. I would start on the red connections.

I will be checking each for shorts thoroughly. Thank you!

Just to be clear, when the ribbon cable is connected, the analog output gets the color errors. When the ribbon cable is not connected, the analog output is totally fine. if the short is at the resistor network, wouldn't the analog be having color issues as long as the short is present?

Anselmo said:

I will be checking each for shorts thoroughly. Thank you!

Just to be clear, when the ribbon cable is connected, the analog output gets the color errors. When the ribbon cable is not connected, the analog output is totally fine. if the short is at the resistor network, wouldn't the analog be having color issues as long as the short is present?

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You didn't mention that part, in that case the short is on the cps2digitalav color connectors. Can you take a picture of the digital av?

Yep. I'll go home for lunch and snap some pics. Appreciate the help

After meticulously troubleshooting my install I decided to try it with out the QSB and I got it working. I dunno what was wrong with the qsb, I tried it twice with it.

Miraculously I didn't lift any pads after installing and removing so many times. Thank for all the help guys.

That is odd - but I am glad it's all working! the digital mod for the CPS3 is fantastic!

Matt

Anselmo said:

After meticulously troubleshooting my install I decided to try it with out the QSB and I got it working. I dunno what was wrong with the qsb, I tried it twice with it.

Miraculously I didn't lift any pads after installing and removing so many times. Thank for all the help guys.

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Hey there, Anselmo. I’d like to do this, but VGP doesn’t have the CPS3 ones in stock. I’m assuming it is because the Lovegood part isn’t available.

Are you saying you were able to get the Digital AV going without the Lovegood parts?

Yea, it's very doable without the QSB from lovegood. You do have to pretty solid with soldering tiny wires!

Anselmo said:

Yea, it's very doable without the QSB from lovegood. You do have to pretty solid with soldering tiny wires!

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Ahhhh, understood. Is this documented, or did you do it by looking at the QSB?

Yea, it was the de facto install method before the QSB. Very well documented on the VGP website. Do you already have the board? They've been sold out for a while.

Anselmo said:

Yea, it was the de factor install method before the QSB. Very well documented on the VGP website. Do you already have the board? They've been sold out for a while.

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Not quite. They had a few 2 weeks ago, which I got for CPS1, CPS2, and CPS3. But Matt at VGP refunded the CPS3 one saying he had made a mistake on stocking and didn’t have any.

I figured I would wait for the Digital AV and if, as you say, you can do it without the CPS3 helper board, then consider going that route.

Maybe it was the Digital AVs that ran out and he had enough QSBs, though.

The Digi AV boards are all the same, with different firmware. If I was to do this again I would not need the QSB. It's just supposed to make the install easier , but in my case it made it more complex.