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Attempting to hook up PC to Dynamo HS-27 help!

jassin000 said:
Good thing you didn't put money on it (I know my Dynamo).;)
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Soooooo funny brutha. An LCD-only guy that is an expert on CRT's :thumbsup:!

I think Sharper Image and Kortek were often rebranded models of one another.

bobdrakken said:
So would you recommend the 15k setting instead of the 25k setting? Happy to know I may have a pretty good monitor as I was starting to feel I got had a crappy one :(
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15khz all the way.

I think like 10-15 total games run on 24khz. Greater than 90% run at 15khz. A properly setup CRT Emu setup PC will auto-switch resolutions once in Windows, but that monitor does not auto-switch resolutions. So if you ever want to go to 24khz with MAME, and given that the 24khz jumper on that chassis is on the outside of the chassis, just wire up a long jumper lead with connectors on both the 15khz and 24khz positions so you can do manual switching a lot easier. Or just reach into the cab (when it is off), and do the switch. I wouldn't bother though, most games will run at 15khz. And when you do get your Naomi MvC2 setup, it will be running at 15khz. Though a Naomi can run at 31khz, that monitor can't handle 31khz.
 
RealMFnG said:
I think like 10-15 total games run on 24khz.
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There are a lot more than that, but the vast-majority are simulator type games (like sit-down racers) or light-gun shooters.

off the top of my head:
Lots of Late 80s Atari games
Atari System II hardware
Atari Flagstaf Hardware
Atari/Midway Seattle Hardware
Atari/Midway Vegas Hardware
Konami Hornet hardware
Midway Z-Unit hardware
Midway V-Unit hardware
Midway Quicksilver II hardware
Midway Zeus II hardware
Sega System 24 hardware
Sega Model 1 hardware
Sega Model 2 hardware
Sega Model 3 hardware

I'm sure there are others, but on a whole you can probably count the number interesting 24kHz only games that can be played with a joystick on one hand.
 
Okay so after some messing around I finally got a picture! The bad news is it's like off to the side and it's rolling. I've adjust all the knobs and cannot seem to get a sweet spot. They just seem so sensitive. Hrm. Thanks for the help from everyone so far! Never knew how technical it was getting an arcade cabinet running. So much to learn!
 
bobdrakken said:
Also apparently I never plugged the usb cable into the multimarc jpac adapter. That might help. :D
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When you enable EDID, might want to uncheck or check the box for 'enable c-sync'. Personally, I have never checked this box in my MAME builds with or without the J-Pac.
 
Crtemu drivers and groovymame has a setting for both dual sync as well as tri-sync and 15khz only monitors.

If your monitor can do both 15khz and 24khz it's worth using the dual sync setting. The whole point of groovymame is to play all games in the correct res and refresh rate.

While there is less EGA games than CGA, there's enough EGA classics to make it worth it. Why play games like Paper Boy, Narc, Virtua Fighter and Daytona etc in interlaced 15khz when you don't have to...

Plus, groovymame does this fairly clever thing with 15khz vertical games on a horizontal monitor if 24khz modes are available. It lets you play them in the correct res and vertical refresh rate without turning the monitor.

E.g. A 384x224 15khz vertical game would be displayed as 384x224 24khz horizontal. It's obviously not as good as running two monitors in the correct orientation but it's a good second.

It might be slightly more annoying to play EGA games on a monitor that doesn't auto switch though. You'll have to turn the monitor off and change the mode when you play EGA games. I'd probably consider that preferable to playing in interlaced resolutions but everyone is different.

Either way, it's worth trying both ways to see what you can live with and what you prefer.
 
Zebra said:
If your monitor can do both 15khz and 24khz it's worth using the dual sync setting. The whole point of groovymame is to play all games in the correct res and refresh rate.
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While this is technically correct; the monitor in question here requries a physical connector change to go between 15Khz and 24Khz modes, so it would not be advisable to have GroovyMAME select the mode automatically since switching modes requires turning off the monitor, swapping the connector, and then powering the monitor back on.
 
twistedsymphony said:
While this is technically correct; the monitor in question here requries a physical connector change to go between 15Khz and 24Khz modes, so it would not be advisable to have GroovyMAME select the mode automatically since switching modes requires turning off the monitor, swapping the connector, and then powering the monitor back on.
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That would certainly make the process more annoying.

I'd probably still want to do it anyway, even if it meant using splitters, switchers and maybe one of those 8" crt monitors on the side to see what I'm doing while the main monitor is off.

I guess it depends how much the individual cares about running games at native res. I'm sure it more hassle than it's worth to some. The OP will have to decide if it's worth the effort for him.

The way I look at it, it's still less hassle than switching PCBs every time you want to play a new game. I.e. It's nothing above and beyond the kind of effort I already put into this stuff.
 
Welp, I tried a few different resolutions with the AMD 5450 card and CRT emudriver and couldn't manage to get a stable picture. Considering just sidelining this project for now until I can think with a clear mind :D. Perhaps maybe I'll try the GroovyArcade usb to see if that might work first.
 
twistedsymphony said:
did you confirm which resolution mode your monitor is currently set to?
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You mean the one it outputs to the original PCB that came with the cabinet? I have not. What would be the best way to do this? I did check the PC output to the monitor and it was showing 640x480 (recommended). I moved it down to the lowest resolution supported which was 192x200 or something like that and still could not get a stable picture. Picture was there but it was only on 80% of the screen (horizontally) and the picture rolled up over and over.
 
There is a physical connector on the monitor that needs to be plugged into one of two sockets, one for "standard resolution" and one for "medium" resolution. this is well documented in the technical links we posted for you earlier.

you will want to set this to standard resolution then set your output to 320x240

I'm not sure that simply setting the output in windows will actually work through. I'm pretty sure that it's only possible when running a game in full-screen. I believe windows will force a higher resolution superseding your setting whenever it's UI is displayed.
 
Also, setting up CRT Emu isn't as simple as installing the driver and setting the resolution. You have to enable 15khz using the tools in CRT emu (VMMaker). So it might be you are feeding a VGA signal to the monitor which it can't handle. Since you are using Ultimarc's J-Pac (I believe), there is circuitry to divide the resolution so it doesn't damage your monitor. But that circuitry will also mean that your image from your PC will never sync.

Make sure you follow the installation guide precisely: https://geedorah.com/eiusdemmodi/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=1052#p1052
Enabling EDID is shown in these steps and beyond: https://geedorah.com/eiusdemmodi/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=1054#p1054

But yeah, make sure you have the monitor set to 15khz with the physical connection.
 
RealMFnG said:
lso, setting up CRT Emu isn't as simple as installing the driver and setting the resolution. You have to enable 15khz using the tools in CRT emu (VMMaker). So it might be you are feeding a VGA signal to the monitor which it can't handle.
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100%

RealMFnG said:
Since you are using Ultimarc's J-Pac (I believe), there is circuitry to divide the resolution so it doesn't damage your monitor. But that circuitry will also mean that your image from your PC will never sync.
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There is a special mode set by jumpers that will perform the signal division. however the normal "protection" mechanism is to simply turn off the sync signal if it's out of range... this in turn will make it impossible to get a stable image, which seems to be exactly the problem Op is having.
 
If you went through the CRTemu installation properly and then selected 640x480@60i for your Windows desktop res, you may just need to adjust the V hold and / or H hold pot to stop the image rolling.

You should be using the Arcade OSD to set the Windows desktop resolution. In there you'll be able to see that the selected resolution is 640x480@60i 15khz and not 640x480@60p 31lhz.

The Windows desktop res should be the only one you set after initially following the install instructions and generating all the modes in VM maker etc. After that, groovymame does all the resolution switching automatically.

It won't help setting the Windows desktop to the lowest res in the list. Leave it at 640x480@60i for now. Almost all 15khz monitors work in 480i.

A few other things to check...

Did you remember to switch ports on your GPU after generating all the modes and selecting 15khz in the install process? Only one of the ports on your GPU will work in 15khz.

Did you remember to activate composite sync or, are you connecting to the monitor using RGB HV? Some monitors will only accept composite sync and this needs to be manually enabled in settings unless you're combining sync in another way.
 
Zebra said:
If you went through the CRTemu installation properly and then selected 640x480@60i for your Windows desktop res, you may just need to adjust the V hold and / or H hold pot to stop the image rolling.

You should be using the Arcade OSD to set the Windows desktop resolution. In there you'll be able to see that the selected resolution is 640x480@60i 15khz and not 640x480@60p 31lhz.

The Windows desktop res should be the only one you set after initially following the install instructions and generating all the modes in VM maker etc. After that, groovymame does all the resolution switching automatically.

It won't help setting the Windows desktop to the lowest res in the list. Leave it at 640x480@60i for now. Almost all 15khz monitors work in 480i.

A few other things to check...

Did you remember to switch ports on your GPU after generating all the modes and selecting 15khz in the install process? Only one of the ports on your GPU will work in 15khz.

Did you remember to activate composite sync or, are you connecting to the monitor using RGB HV? Some monitors will only accept composite sync and this needs to be manually enabled in settings unless you're combining sync in another way.
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Hrm, I did not try that specific format the other day. I did finally get Arcade OSD to work as it wasn't previously working. I will try that when I get home. Thank you for the help everyone! Fingers crossed!
 
Ok so I made some progress! I got the image to stablize finally but the screen is off center like the entire side of the screen on the left is black and the right side is cut off if that makes sense?
 
bobdrakken said:
Ok so I made some progress! I got the image to stablize finally but the screen is off center like the entire side of the screen on the left is black and the right side is cut off if that makes sense?
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Pics?

Sounds like:
  1. You still are feeding it a non-15khz resolution and thus J-Pac is dividing the resolution so as to not to damage your monitor
  2. You are not powering the J-Pac via USB
  3. You need to find a horizontal adjustment on your monitor
Sounds like #1. Have you gone through with the VMMaker setup yet? If not,
  1. Ensure resolution jumper on your monitor is set to 15khz first
  2. Run the VMMaker setup
I advise setting a restore point before you do this. Saves time if you ever mess up.
 
Are you using chunksins build? It's made like a wizard and you just click next next next.

But I agree, it doesn't sound you're feeding it the right resolution
 
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