What's new

CPS-3 90 degree cart adapter problem

Viku

Viku

Champion
Joined
Mar 1, 2022
Messages
793
Reaction score
1,234
Location
Spain
That screen looks like the CPS3 motherboard saying "I cant see the security cart"

Given that it works perfectly without the adapter, safe guess the problem is the riser card :-)

$5 off aliexpress doesn't buy much quality control, its possible that they just shipped you a dud riser card, so I would start by ordering another one while we try other troubleshooting steps.

Getting the thing seated right is always a fun adventure with CPS3, maybe start by giving both the card-to-riser and the riser-to-boad some minor adjustments (with the power off obviously). I often find that I need to insert the cart all the way, then back it off 1/2 a mm or so

Next thing id be checking is the orientation, is pin 1 on the mainboard connecting to pin 1 on the riser and pin 1 on the cart? When I've been making my own right angle adapters (not for CPS3) I'v frequently flipped the front and back side of the card by accident in the initial design.

Then I'd be checking that all the pins are wired, that riser card is specifically for PCI, and the 32 bit PCI standard does not require all the pins to be wired. The CPS security slot shares the same physical connector, but its not a standard PCI bus, its possible that our aliexpress friends shaved a few billionths of a cent of their PCB costs by only wiring the PCI bus pins, not all of them

Then I'd be checking the physical construction (again, not much QC for $5) to make sure all the pins are soldered correctly and that none of the pins inside the slot are damaged or missing.
 
hatmoose said:
That screen looks like the CPS3 motherboard saying "I cant see the security cart"

Given that it works perfectly without the adapter, safe guess the problem is the riser card :-)

$5 off aliexpress doesn't buy much quality control, its possible that they just shipped you a dud riser card, so I would start by ordering another one while we try other troubleshooting steps.

Getting the thing seated right is always a fun adventure with CPS3, maybe start by giving both the card-to-riser and the riser-to-boad some minor adjustments (with the power off obviously). I often find that I need to insert the cart all the way, then back it off 1/2 a mm or so

Next thing id be checking is the orientation, is pin 1 on the mainboard connecting to pin 1 on the riser and pin 1 on the cart? When I've been making my own right angle adapters (not for CPS3) I'v frequently flipped the front and back side of the card by accident in the initial design.

Then I'd be checking that all the pins are wired, that riser card is specifically for PCI, and the 32 bit PCI standard does not require all the pins to be wired. The CPS security slot shares the same physical connector, but its not a standard PCI bus, its possible that our aliexpress friends shaved a few billionths of a cent of their PCB costs by only wiring the PCI bus pins, not all of them

Then I'd be checking the physical construction (again, not much QC for $5) to make sure all the pins are soldered correctly and that none of the pins inside the slot are damaged or missing.
Click to expand...
Thanks! Are there any alternatives to aliexp?
 
None that I'm aware of.
I did briefly consider making some custom, but these are hilariously cheap off aliexpress, custom would be 10-20x the price. I guess there would be some value in custom art work and guaranteed tested/working and etc. But hard to imagine people willingly paying 20x

Oh, also, forgot to mention, sometimes taking the shell off the cart can help with getting a better/differnt angle. If you do narrow it down and suspect the problem is indeed the cart insertion connection, try taking the shell off and adjusting the connection angle (with the board powered off of course)
 
hatmoose said:
None that I'm aware of.
I did briefly consider making some custom, but these are hilariously cheap off aliexpress, custom would be 10-20x the price. I guess there would be some value in custom art work and guaranteed tested/working and etc. But hard to imagine people willingly paying 20x

Oh, also, forgot to mention, sometimes taking the shell off the cart can help with getting a better/differnt angle. If you do narrow it down and suspect the problem is indeed the cart insertion connection, try taking the shell off and adjusting the connection angle (with the board powered off of course)
Click to expand...
Just ordered another model and got the money back from aliexpress from the previous ones . Let’s hope this one works
 
Not sure why it’s not working. I haven’t tried this out yet.

But if you have a multimeter, a good first step is to check continuity between input/output pins.
 
I got a random one off ebay and it works perfectly. Looks like it is probably the same as the one Matthew posted. Wouldn't be surprised if QC on these things is ultra sketchy.

I jammed a glue stick under mine to keep it stable and level, but it was working just fine without any support and only sagged a small amount.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top