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CPS2 Desuicide Troubles On Early Rev Boards

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Otheym

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Hello All-
First off, let me start by saying I have had no problems desuiciding later boards with the CN9 connector, got that on the first try, so I know my Arduino works.
I have not been able to fix two Rev 3 boards and a Rev 4. All the boards I know worked just fine before the batteries failed.
I have checked multiple times that I am plugging everything into CN2 correctly for the Arduino and CN7 for power.
I have confirmed that power is reaching the chips from the battery on each board.

The boards in question are:
AvP on Rev 3
Vamp Savior on Rev 3
Marvel Super heroes on rev 4
All are Blue US boards.

Has anyone else had troubles with Rev 3 or 4 boards? Any advice? I am at loss as to what to try next.
Thanks.
 
I was one of the testers. I was never able to get a -3 or -4 pcb to revive thought the other testers had very little problems getting it to work. So I, unfortunately, can't offer much help.
 
Mitsurugi-w said:
I was one of the testers. I was never able to get a -3 or -4 pcb to revive thought the other testers had very little problems getting it to work. So I, unfortunately, can't offer much help.
Click to expand...
I am both glad and sad to hear I am not the only one that has had problems.
I wonder what the differences were between those that had success and those that did not.
Did certain regions work better than others? Certain games? Or was it random?
 
I'm in the same boat. Got an AvPJ on a 93646B-3 board that was once working, but I can't get it to take a keyload.

I think the different pinout of the keypad/LCD shield is part of the issue.

My LCD keypad/shield is the Sainsmart one linked in the Arcade Hacker instructions, but the one shown in the tutorial is different, and in particular, the pic shows connections to the header on the Arduino as 0,1,2,3,11,12,13 but on my Arduino, there are two headers, the first appears to go 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7 and the second looks like 10,11,12,13,GND,AREF,SDA.

However...

When I ohmed out the pins coming from the Arduino and figured out where they ended up on the keypad/LCD shield, they were completely different than where I expected them to be. The pic shows the wires how they should be connected according to the labels on the Arduino itself and ohming out the pins on the keypad/LCD shield.

Still, I still been unsuccessful in getting a keyload to take.

Also, there is this inconsistency in the instructions:

Pinout for board revisions 93646B-3 and 93646B-4
CN2 interface pins:

DATAArduino #2→ CN2 A32
SETUP1Arduino #3→ CN2 A30
CLOCKArduino #11→ CN2 A31
SETUP2Arduino #12→ CN2 A29

CN7 power pins:

+5VPower supply → CN7 A25
GNDPower supply & Arduino GND → CN7 A23
GNDPower supply & Arduino GND → CN7 B23


Then further down:

Connect all pins to CN2 following the order described below.
DATAArduino # 2→ CN2 A32
SETUP1Arduino # 3→ CN2 A30
CLOCKArduino # 11→ CN2 A31
SETUP2Arduino # 12→ CN2 A29

GROUNDArduino # GND → CN2 C32

Connect power cables to CN7 A23 & B23 (GND) and A25 (+5)
 

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On mine the header is definitely there, but was upopulated so I needed to buy header pins and install them

Those instructions are both the same, they're written slightly differently but the pins are the same, not sure if that photo came from the site and that's the inconsistency, but if that's the case I'd suggest the photo was never designed to be used as a reference.
 
I was starting to think that my Arduino was the problem or that the pinout was wrong but then I tried a Rev 7 board and it worked the first time. That confirmed for me that the pins are correct (at least for my Arduino) and that it is working. I am also using the Sainsmart one linked in the instructions.

Have you tried any later Rev boards?

I have still not had any luck on Rev 3 or 4 but was planning on revisiting it tomorrow. I will report back how it goes.
 
xodaraP said:
On mine the header is definitely there, but was upopulated so I needed to buy header pins and install them

Those instructions are both the same, they're written slightly differently but the pins are the same, not sure if that photo came from the site and that's the inconsistency, but if that's the case I'd suggest the photo was never designed to be used as a reference.
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My point was about the different ground location for the Arduino, which I copied and pasted right from the Arcade Hacker blog. One place says use CN7 A23/B23, the other says use CN2 C32. The photo is of my setup once I figured out the correct pins for my keypad/LCD shield.

Also worth noting is that it says to connect to CN7 A23 & B23, but the pics only ever show it connected to A23. Ohming out A23 and B23 reveals that they are not the same connection. One of them is the same as CN2 C32, however.

Otheym said:
I was starting to think that my Arduino was the problem or that the pinout was wrong but then I tried a Rev 7 board and it worked the first time. That confirmed for me that the pins are correct (at least for my Arduino) and that it is working. I am also using the Sainsmart one linked in the instructions.

Have you tried any later Rev boards?

I have still not had any luck on Rev 3 or 4 but was planning on revisiting it tomorrow. I will report back how it goes.
Click to expand...
I have my multikit on a Rev 7 board, but I am loathe to remove it and reinstall all the ROMs just to try it out. Maybe if I get really bored. The only other board I tried was a rev 6, but that one turned out to have other issues preventing the desuicide process from working, plus I had the wrong pins connected, as I recently learned.
 
Bit of a necro post here but I found out some interesting information I wanted to add:

I had a board to desuicide today and it was an early revision -3 (Super SF2) and tried a couple of times to perform a keyload with no success. I noticed when I connected up the +5 and turned it on, the board itself was only seeing about 4.3v (I've used the same power supply to desuicide CPS1 and 1.5 boards and never had an issue of seeing voltages below 5v, at worst they were typically 4.7-4.8) so I removed the daughterboard with the mask ROMs on it and the voltage jumped up to about 4.4v. Tried another keyload with no success, but I suspected that the less items on the board the better to try and increase the voltage given to the area holding the encryption keys. I understand that voltage drop is still going to occur even with empty slots on the board, but I suspect that the drop is greater when the board is populated.

tl;dr - when trying to do a keyload on an early revision board, try removing ALL EPROMs from the board (they're all socketed so it's easy enough) - I did this and it worked for me.

Also in relation to the information from the poster above: CN2 is the GND connection for the Arduino, A23/B23 is the GND connection for the ATX power supply. Both are correct and used.
 
xodaraP said:
Bit of a necro post here but I found out some interesting information I wanted to add:

I had a board to desuicide today and it was an early revision -3 (Super SF2) and tried a couple of times to perform a keyload with no success. I noticed when I connected up the +5 and turned it on, the board itself was only seeing about 4.3v (I've used the same power supply to desuicide CPS1 and 1.5 boards and never had an issue of seeing voltages below 5v, at worst they were typically 4.7-4.8) so I removed the daughterboard with the mask ROMs on it and the voltage jumped up to about 4.4v. Tried another keyload with no success, but I suspected that the less items on the board the better to try and increase the voltage given to the area holding the encryption keys. I understand that voltage drop is still going to occur even with empty slots on the board, but I suspect that the drop is greater when the board is populated.

tl;dr - when trying to do a keyload on an early revision board, try removing ALL EPROMs from the board (they're all socketed so it's easy enough) - I did this and it worked for me.
Click to expand...
Removing all EEPROMs might have been a workaround which allowed you get away with an under-powered supply, but using a better supply is the actual solution for that particular problem. I would not recommend people go through such an unnecessary hassle every time they want to desuicide Rev. 3/4.

I have come across many discussions (not just here) regarding the difficulty of updating Rev. 3/4 boards and I've actually been looking further into this recently.

There are 2 notable differences between Rev. 3/4 boards and Rev. 5/6/7:

1. Not all Rev. 3/4 boards have a resistor added to CN2 pin A32. I own many Rev. 3/4 boards that never had that resistor added at the factory, so this is definitely a widespread problem. This resistor (4.7k ohm) is a pull-down resistor for the DATA signal of the decryption key programming interface and should be added for reliable programming (pin C32 is a convenient GND connection on CN2). Capcom added a surface mount pull-down resistor to their layouts on later PCBs.



2. Rev. 3/4 boards have much longer traces for the programming signals (they run almost the entire length of the board). This means your programming signals are ~10" + whatever your actual programming cable length is. Longer path means opportunity for noisier signals, so be careful with long cable length (especially the GND connection between the Arduino and the B board).

Notes about my setup:

- I am powering both my B board and the Arduino from the same supply (Toshiba power brick rated for +5V @ 5A, though Arcade Hacker's recommendation of 2A should be plenty) and am powering them up/down at the same time. I have found no benefit from powering the Arduino from a different supply or in a different order.
- I definitely needed a direct GND wire from the Arduino to the CN2 pin C32 as in the Arcade Hacker instructions. I verified programming both with and without on 3 boards. 100% fail without. 100% success with.
-ud
 
Hi ud,

I used the same PC PSU (5V @ 20A max) I have desuicided multiple other CPS2, CPS1 and a CPS1.5 (both Kabuki and C board) - and the older revision board is the first I have run into trouble with. I will admit I used a floppy drive connector for the +5 rather than a HDD connector, so this probably affected the amount of power I was getting. But it did work without the EPROMs installed.

It's knowledge worth having for those with a power supply that won't supply quite enough power for the older boards and may get them across the line - but I agree, a more powerful PSU is definitely the preferred option.

My setup:

PC PSU connected to +5v on CPS2 B board
Laptop USB port running Arduino
GND connected to C32 from Arduino
 
Glad to hear of success on Rev 3/4 boards.

I tried many things but eventually gave up and burned unencrypted Roms for all the boards.

I never tried removing the ROMS as suggested but I did try different PSU's.

My Arduino cables were a bit long, that coupled with the longer traces mentioned by ud may have been a problem. If I need to try this again on an early board I will make some shorter cables.
 
Can anyone help me with the Compiling n Uploading of sketch to my Arduino Uno for my Rev 7 MSH and MvsC boards?
 
It's really easy:

Install Arduino software
Connect the UNO with an USB cable
Start Arduino software
Select your Uno from "Tools" -> "Board" (Arduino/Genuine Uno) & "Port" (something something USB)
You can try "Tools" -> "Get board info" to make sure everything is OK

Download ArcadeHacker_CPS2.ino from https://github.com/ArcadeHacker/ArcadeHacker_CPS2
Load up the Arcadehacher sketch from "File" -> "Open"
Upload the sketch to your Arduino from "Sketch" -> "Upload"
 
Ok. When I watched the YOUTUBE video everything went so fast but yet was done much differently. I was also told that REV 6&7 boards are the easiest n more successful boards to desuicide. This really was a HUGE HELP!!!! Thanks so much Nem!!!
 
I have a Green/Japanese Rev. 4 board (Vampire Hunter: Darkstalkers Revenge) I've tried unsuccessfully to desuicide.

Everything on the board appears stock. I've replaced the battery. The board powered up OK with the suicide tester from razoola with no errors.

I swapped back in the original socket 3 ROM.

Hooked up the 5v and GND to CN7 A25 and B23 from a power supply.

Arduino is powered by computer USB and has the correct pins going to CN2 A32-A29, along with Arduino GND to C32. Select the board to program on the Arduino, says complete. I unplugged and set it back in the CPS2 motherboard.

When I powered on the system though, nothing. As though the board is dead. But if I swap out the socket 3 ROM with the suicide tester, I still get nothing.

But if I reprogram using "Phoenix", the suicide tester works again. So, it IS being programmed correctly, right?

And my board does have the resistor that undamned mentions a few posts above this. Arduino cables are all less than 9 inches. Power supply cables though are about 24 inches.

Any suggestions on what to try next?
 
I could never make it, even with Eduardo and Artemio's help, there's some problem with the method. On versions 6 and 7 everything is fine.
 
I've revived every revision, but rev 4 seem to be a common failure :( some do work but I've had others that just wouldn't reload keys.
 
Stupid Dufus said:
I have a Green/Japanese Rev. 4 board (Vampire Hunter: Darkstalkers Revenge) I've tried unsuccessfully to desuicide.

Everything on the board appears stock. I've replaced the battery. The board powered up OK with the suicide tester from razoola with no errors.

I swapped back in the original socket 3 ROM.

Hooked up the 5v and GND to CN7 A25 and B23 from a power supply.

Arduino is powered by computer USB and has the correct pins going to CN2 A32-A29, along with Arduino GND to C32. Select the board to program on the Arduino, says complete. I unplugged and set it back in the CPS2 motherboard.

When I powered on the system though, nothing. As though the board is dead. But if I swap out the socket 3 ROM with the suicide tester, I still get nothing.

But if I reprogram using "Phoenix", the suicide tester works again. So, it IS being programmed correctly, right?

And my board does have the resistor that undamned mentions a few posts above this. Arduino cables are all less than 9 inches. Power supply cables though are about 24 inches.

Any suggestions on what to try next?
Click to expand...
I learned recently (on Twitter) that sticking a resistor in series with the CLOCK signal can help: https://twitter.com/konosuke/status/1051307292056940545
-ud
 
What value? I do see it's not related to the resistor often installed on the Rev 3 and 4 already.
 
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