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If you connect your keyboard directly into the mister, you won't get any display. Invzim confirmed the expander is powered by the usb port. We'd need to plug in a usb exstension cable to a usb hub then connect that hub back to the mister. If that indeed works, I would probably run the hub out the back of my cab and leave it that way for updates over wifi and keyboard access.
 
Fedex romania or internarional or whatever liars . Nobody asked me any documents who can help them to make clearence in customs … anyway , package is now in otopeni airport custom office , lets see how much will take to go out from there . I called today more 2 hours uninterruped from 2:30pm till 4:55pm and nobody answer
Thats sucks, they probably want to charge you some import tax or something.
 
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I dont see the need, but I guess if you really need it you could use a USB hub if you need to have multiple things plugged in.
 
The selling point of the expander (to me) is so that I never have to open the cab to make setting changes to the mister, that and direct_video > rgb. We can still do that, just takes a few extra cables and a powered usb hub (cheap). The sync block feature is also very nice, the components used on this expander are quality, very well made product.

FYI - I use a 3 button Astro CP, just much easier to fly around the menus with a keyboard. :)
 
If you are trying to do this on your cab screen via JAMMA, then this is an issue.
Yes, I'm referring to doing everything in my cab. My Mistercade has never been plugged into any kind of external monitor, and I can't see why I ever would. The whole point for me is to have a solution that just works in my cab.

Once you have things set I agree there's no need for a keyboard for daily use as far as games go. The issue for me is that Mister is a constantly shifting platform, with constant updates to cores and methods etc. It's the opposite of stable. And there are times when you need to plug in a keyboard to take care of stuff.

Can you pull the Mister from your cab, or plug in another monitor or do whatever else? Sure. Not the end of the world. Or it sounds like there's a USB hub solution too, cool.

I'm simply suggesting that on board support of a keyboard would make it a better product if there's ever a revision with thoughts about what to change, that's all. I'm glad to have it with what I'm using.
 
Would it be too much or a power strain on things if one also connected the USB hub to the Nano, and use a splitter for the power cable coming from the Expander?
 
Would it be too much or a power strain on things if one also connected the USB hub to the Nano, and use a splitter for the power cable coming from the Expander?

Had a usb hub I wasnt using so slapped it on there just to try it, I don't think it would be an issue.
You could do this, but I don't like it, or really want it, think its needed. I have zero issues with removing the sd card / board from the cab if I really have to some desktop maintenance/updating, etc... where its a must.

image0.jpg


Another issue I think would be if the Jamma Expander uses protection offered by the DE10 through the USB OTG port for power, will the hub that uses its own power barrel offers the same protection?

I love the JE, its simple and straight to point on what it does. I don't want to fuzz around with too much stuff, buttons, addons, etc...although all the extras in other solutions are nice to have.
 
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Wait, but doesn't the little MicroUSB to MicroUSB adapter prevent the OTG cable from connecting? I thought if the OTG cable wasn't attached to the board, you'd get no video?
 
Wait, but doesn't the little MicroUSB to MicroUSB adapter prevent the OTG cable from connecting? I thought if the OTG cable wasn't attached to the board, you'd get no video?
you should be able to use a good quality usb extension cable from the hub to the JE, instead of the OTG cable.

Ex....
1632422123072.png
 
Ah. Because... there are... other powered USB ports.. there.. lol derp

#facepalm
 
I'm still new to Mister. I'm playing with the release candidate of the Mistercade, and I don't want to compare it too much to your product, I'm not in a position to do so. But I am running a Mister in cabs now. My experience so far is that it's necessary to have that keyboard at times. Not for operational use once things are 'perfect', but for setup.

If you do a revision to your board I'd keep that in mind, I think it is a bit of a shortcoming.

I didn't really want to bring the mistercade into this, but since you bring it up..
The design philosophies are quite different from what I can gather. My goal is to provide the missing pieces for treating MiSTer like an Arcade PCB (and not much else). Therefore, a few of the things that MiSTer has to offer is 'out-of-scope' for me, like adding hardware to enable NES Duck Hunt with SNAC.

Another aspect of adding 'stuff' is that it increases cost , chance of failure and even worse (for me :) ) - it all has to be tested / QA'ed before shipping.

For comfort, ease and speed of setup, I recommend doing the base install on a desk before 'cabifying' it. The way the firmware on the Expander works now, you get F12, ALT-F12, volume-up/volume-down, cursor keys, space and enter - which should be enough to interact with mister.

For updating the DE10 itself, I made a page where I describe how I do it https://irkenlabs.com/jamma-expander/mister-tips-tricks. YES, an ethernet cable in your cab would do the trick - but I swap out PCB's quite often, and it would be another cable to connect/disconnect when I do.

expander w network.jpeg

That being said, it would be nice to have a plug on the expander for a WiFi dongle, and maybe this will come in the future.
 
I didn't really want to bring the mistercade into this, but since you bring it up..
The design philosophies are quite different from what I can gather. My goal is to provide the missing pieces for treating MiSTer like an Arcade PCB (and not much else). Therefore, a few of the things that MiSTer has to offer is 'out-of-scope' for me, like adding hardware to enable NES Duck Hunt with SNAC.
I respect that, and frankly I don't care about SNAC or Duck Hunt either. And really, I'd rather not be messing with it every week, I'm only going to make updates for big releases once I'm settled I think. I have found the keyboard support useful though. Certainly not any kind of deal killer for your product.

I'm also discovering that Mister as an arcade PCB replacement is cool, but still on the rough and early side. The politics of the project are beyond my emotional capability to be involved in, but I'm already slotting it as a fun novelty device, and not something that's going to really replace a ton of PCBs fore me in the near future. It's clear that consoles are the bigger priority outside of a few dedicated people's efforts.

Really it's almost more of a competitor for Darksoft's multis, since the strongest plays it has right now are CPS2, CPS1, and Neo Geo.

Still, if the Cave core alone is finished it will be more than worth it to me.
 
Im really hoping to get a working IGS PGM core. I want to get a PGM board because they are fairly cheap and I have a Neo25 to toss it into but... some of those carts like Martial Masters... ooof.
 
finally took the expander for a spin, so far it looks and sounds great. The usb connection on the de10 side looks like the cable is only half in the connector, but it works. i still need to play around a little bit with the controls, but didn't get around because the update_all script with the jotego beta cores took ages to download ||.

But overall great build quality, and as far as it is possible, it's really a plug and play affair. I certainly don't regret my purchase
 
That feeling when you finally keymap 'coin' to the actual coin slot and it works on mister...ahhh
 
I found that I can adjust the 5v in my Namco Exceleena cabinet PSU. I adjusted it down so it's showing 5v now. This cab has a Nanao MS9 chassis , all stock no mods etc etc.

Any ideas why I am only getting this when i plug the jamma expander into this cab? The setup is working, because when i plug it into my Atomiswave SD cab it all works fine. Just not on the Exceleena/Nanao MS9

Here's what the screen does
je1.jpg




Here's what shows on the OLED, nothing else, it just shows this. Is it the 12v causing the issue? I read that this is what happens when the 5v is out, but will the 12v being this high trigger the system not to boot as well like the 5v does? I'm pretty sure the answer is going to be yes, i'll need to come up with a way to drop the 12v output because these PSU's definitely don't have anything to adjust 12v.


je2.jpg
Did you remember to do the step with editing the ini_settings?

xmister_composite_and_direct_video.png.pagespeed.ic.nbRJi-h4i9.webp


I had forgotten and that was doing the same for me.


Incidentally, sometimes when I boot, I get the garbled video and the Sync lock, but if I shut down and restart, it's fine. Not sure what could be causing that.
 
@Murray and others, from thread activity I realize I have made a bad UI decision. The way it works is if it detects an abnormal supply voltage, it will show the voltage display and halt. In other words, not enable sync and other stuff. The thinking was that most cabs had their voltages dialed in somewhat reasonable, and that this would be a rare occurrence.

Executive summary: if the expander shows the voltage readings, and none of the buttons do anything - the expander is halted, sync is blocked, and it will not do anything.

I'll update the firmware ASAP and provide a bit better feedback via the OLED on what's going on, and probably relax the voltage requirements a bit.
 
Oh, I thought the Expander was only monitoring the +5V rail.

No jamma cab will have an adjustable 12V rail. It just isn't needed. 12V rail powers audio amps on 99% of jamma boards and I think most audio amps can handle a maximum voltage of at least 18V.

Out of interest, what are the current thresholds?
 
@invzim That is a pretty cool way to protect things. I find that my 12v supplies are either at 12v or a little below. Since the 12v is for the audio amp of the JE, you would know what it can safely handle, so maybe adjust thresholds to that to be safe?
 
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