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Note that I’m not using the ram (as I still wait for it to be delivered), but I would have expected to at least see the menu.
 
@Mackie 5.17 on 5.0V rail is a tad hot, dial it down a little and it should boot fine. Next version of the firmware will give you better feedback for this condition.
 
It worked. Thanks.
Now I need to look at setting the controls.
 
Yeah I launched ddp as it can launch without the ram. And it worked. I’ll wait to receive the additional ram to setup things.
 
Got my expander up and running today, install was pretty straightforward and it just worked right out of the box. The update all script seems to not have uploaded the neo geo cores and cps2 cores, but I was able to play some cps1 titles and some other stuff and it was pretty good. A little cumbersome, but I guess that's MiSter currently. It's a tradeoff to have a nice library of games that play better than a Pandora's box on one device. One thing I did notice is some games coined up right away and some didn't. Is that a known thing?
 
Yo! Thanks for the detailed write up. I ran into another issue, since I configured the mister to use a CRT, now when I plug it in to my PC monitor via hdmi to re run the update script I don't get any picture at all on the screen. It's like it's not outputting any hdmi picture...it can't do both? Do I have to reconfigure it to output specifically for hdmi?
 
@invzim Looks like the jamma edge needs to be powered on before the usb powered hub. Is there a way to change the behavior (disable) via firmware update / menu option or something? I'm assuming this is part of the voltage guard thing?
 
goto jotego core and enable beta updates. CPS2 is still considered beta, but it's public beta. There are other beta cores you will get that you will see but when you try to play them they will give you an overlay on the screen saying you need to be supporter and they won't work
There's an easy fix to make them work though. ;)

https://www.patreon.com/topapate/

Just saying, if you can addord to pay for cool hardware you can afford to throw a few bucks at the people making the software work. Consider being a patreon for a bit, $5 a month for a year only $60, cheaper than any hardware any of us buy around here.
 
Im curious, but has anyone had issues with flipping screens on vert games?

Like with Mercs and the 194X games, I'm able to flip the screen, but not rotate. And even if I go into the dip settings on something like Mercs, it does nothing. I don't know if my Blast will 'tate, but I honestly prefer not to do so if I don't have to. I honestly don't think this is a Irkenlabs issue, I think it's the MiSTer. It was working before when I had the device set up in my living room. But I can't seem to get it to rotate while in my cab.
 
Afaik rotation only works in digital/higher resolutions and you need to manually rotate your screen. Whenever I had my analog IO board attached and dual output a game, it would rotate on HDMI correctly, but stay put on VGA to my BVM. The output resolution would need to be downscaled to fit and have the scanlines in the wrong direction, so it probably wouldn't look very good either if it did work.

Blast Cities do support rotation, but its a rather annoying process, and almost certainly a 2 person job. I also recommend work gloves, since you need to support the weight of the monitor from a 1.5-2mm thick piece of metal right on your fingers when you lift and pull the monitor out.
 
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@invzim Looks like the jamma edge needs to be powered on before the usb powered hub. Is there a way to change the behavior (disable) via firmware update / menu option or something? I'm assuming this is part of the voltage guard thing?
WIth the current firmware, jamma edge needs power first, which then powers the DE10, which ultimately powers the expander.
I don't guard the voltages, it's only warnings/notifications. I'm leaning towards discouraging 'creative setups' (as I don't want the support :) ), but can probably make it configurable by editing the .ini file you get when you save the config on the Expander.

I'm making a few smalls changes for an updated firmware, so all input is welcome and appreciated.

What's the use-case?
 
WIth the current firmware, jamma edge needs power first, which then powers the DE10, which ultimately powers the expander.
I don't guard the voltages, it's only warnings/notifications. I'm leaning towards discouraging 'creative setups' (as I don't want the support :) ), but can probably make it configurable by editing the .ini file you get when you save the config on the Expander.

I'm making a few smalls changes for an updated firmware, so all input is welcome and appreciated.

What's the use-case?

ini file config would be fantastic :) use-case = powered usb-hub has to be turned on manually after powering on the cab, would be nice to have the cab and usb-hub on the same power switch. Not a big deal. Currently I'm powering on the cab, waiting a few seconds then powering on the usb-hub. Routed a powered usb-hub through the rear of the cab, I have external usb ports for wifi updates, keyboard, and gamepad. It's very practical and easy to manage the Mister this way, never have to open the cab.
 
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If you want to play vertical games you gotta tate, and if you only have one cab and you don't want to go through the effort I do not blame you.

But vertical games on a proper vertical monitor are great. I really appreciate the ability to rotate the main Mister menu, makes it much easier to use on a tated cab.
 
I thought the mister was just capable of making the monitor display what it tells it to display. I mean if the system can tell it to flip it horizontally, why can't it rotate?

That cuts a bunch of games out of the lineup. I've got two cabs, but one is a dedicated Neo. Rotating the mon just isn't of interest to me, especially if I'm gonna be swapping cores randomly.
 
Rotating the mon just isn't of interest to me, especially if I'm gonna be swapping cores randomly.
Then you just won't get the vertical games. Plenty of others to enjoy.

It's best to think of these jamma solutions (Expander, Mistercade, all the others too) as PCB replacements with some upsides and downsides, but fundamentally aimed at giving you basically the board experience. That will avoid confusion.

19XX on a real CPS2 board for example will happily let you change the monitor rotation 180° in the settings, because that's an easy thing to do. There's not really a standard for which way you tate your screen, different cabs will be "upside down", so that's handy. It will not let you rotate the monitor 90° because that's a radically different operation.

They might seem the same at first, but they're not.

If you're looking for a more MAME-like experience, where you can freely change through games at will and the monitor rotation doesn't matter you need to work with digital out to a high rez screen. None of these products transform your 15khz jamma monitor into that. (And has been noted, even if they somehow could, the resulting picture quality would be pretty garbage looking, and beside the entire point of going through all the trouble of having games on a cab in the first place.)
 
I made some adjustments here and there, but the case is pretty much done. You will need some fasteners (Four M3x16 bolts, eight M3 heat threaded inserts) to put this together. Small bonus, you can see my crappy solution for a Splitfire enclosure that I spent too much time on. Ignore the nightmare that is my work desk if you can.

I printed the case with some leftover woodfill PLA that I wanted to use up, which was a terrible idea that you shouldn't do for a variety of reasons that I found out after printing with it. Just stick with normal PLA/PETG/whatever high quality material you happen to use regularly.

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https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4974677
 
I have been testing, very quickly Mister and the Expander.
I did not have a mister before, and basically tested mister at the very same time I received the expander.

Feature wise, there is something I love a lot on the expander. « The magic switch » so that friends avoid messing with the system. Something I wish every board/multi had.

Two things I wish would be there but are not. Wifi on the expander and a usb port for keyboard (or two usb ports). This would make the expander update and operations on the long term way better.

Now the experience, nothing directly involved with the expander. I just find the Mister experience kind of « a-ok ».
It was advertised somehow here and there that mister was not designed and intended to run on cabinets for arcade games and well that’s just the fact. It is not.
So it kind of work, but not something I would consider as of today as a « game changer ».
Real pcbs and multi on original pcbs still have a long time before being « scared » of being replaced by such a setup.

Irken board is nice and I recommend it. It’s just I’m not sure I would recommend, as of today, the mister itself. What you get on accuracy (fpga) compared to software emulation you loose it on standardization (inputs, dip switch accesses, updatability).
 
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