Lei Shen Zhuan / Battle Garegga hack - Help / Advice needed

[twistedsymphony]

Speaker + and - are reversed on this board

not exactly correct. Speaker - is hooked up properly on this PCB, the problem is that Speaker + is tied to ground.
you can fix the PCB by disconnecting speaker + from ground and hooking it up to the speaker + output on the amp, but it also requires the addition of a resistor and a capacitor between the amp and the pin that have no locations on the PCB.

details are here: https://www.arcade-projects.com/thr...ck-help-advice-needed.8151/page-4#post-212586

 

[qushuang]

@qushuang accepted the return of my original board with no issues, full refund, and then gave me a killer deal on another one which I accepted.

THE GOOD:

Tested with my HAS and It boots, however it only displays on my 20L2MD PVM and not on the 20M2MDA PVM. On the 20M2, image is displayed once I turn on my monitor then slowly fades out to black over about 8-10 seconds. Anyone know what that could be?

Board is fairly clean, compared to the last one which was pretty gross. There's some grotty gunky flux at the top which will need a bit of cleaning, but hey, it's a bootleg.

This board has no JAMMA notch, and came with a Yamaha Sound chip

EPROM labels here might help identify what version this was:

THE BAD:

There's no sound whatsoever (haven't tested on a cab yet), I'm assuming this is accepted as "normal" when using this board with a Supergun?

Also, I have some screen curl to the top left (in TATE) on the monitor, it seems to get worse the longer the board is left on... might be something PVM/sync related though?

The ugly:

These resistor arrays need to get changed out at some point!

So, can anyone suggest a on-board method on the PCB to enable sound outside of using a JAMMA pass through adapter? I've only given it a quick play but it does definitely feel a lot "snappier" and less laggy than the OG PCB.

How much current are you using to power up the board?

 

[djsheep]

5v and 12v are just fine @qushuang

 

[djsheep]

Have you checked if the "regenerated" CSync setting on the HAS changes anything with the screen curl?

That fixed it! And it also now works on the PVM that would “fade out” to black previously… another reason I’m glad to be using HAS now over any other Supergun, thanks!

The only issue outside of the non-working audio I am facing are these green artifacts around the text on the title screen (see around the “F” and other letters in the picture below):

I’ve noticed is that the “test” button only brings up play data, not settings. Pressing “start” after viewing them just reboots the board. “Service” doesn’t seem to coin up either.

Will look into the sound fix for the Supergun. I can’t currently test this in a cab, but if sound works there, I might not bother. I’ve read through your explanation of the fixes @twistedsymphony — outside of the cap replacements, I assume doing a +/- reversal fix on a pass through connector would be the easiest “quick fix” option?

 

[twistedsymphony]

outside of the cap replacements, I assume doing a +/- reversal fix on a pass through connector would be the easiest “quick fix” option?

if your goal is to hear something with this board on a HAS. yes.

 

[dexa]

I just got a Garegga boot of the "first batch" / without the correct jamma edge:

as others reported, sound output is "switched" to speaker -. Conveniently speaker + and - is handled by to toggle switch on the Jammafier.

Gameplay and video seem to work correctly with this board version but the sound is "mixed" differently. Nothing like the reported humming of the second board revision.
Listen here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vqMsCm4YsuomdESCIoskDdDkES4H0Rly/view?usp=share_link
Explosions are very quiet .. music sounds a bit off .. and the voice samples arent played at all.

Is this related to the bootleg sound chip which requires exact 5.00v? I am running it at 5.03v .. which I cant change easily with my cabs psu.

Can I replace the marked "KA51 JBCK" chip with a YM2151 chip to avoid the 5.00v problem?
Should I replace the caps as well?

Thanks for your help

 

[twistedsymphony]

Is this related to the bootleg sound chip which requires exact 5.00v?

I doubt that this is having any significant impact on the sound

Can I replace the marked "KA51 JBCK" chip with a YM2151 chip

no ones stopping you, but I don't think it will have any noticeable impact.

Should I replace the caps as well?

The way I solved the audio issues on the other board is I looked up the data sheets for all of the analog chips in the audio circuit (amplifier, and D/A converter) then I used the schematics and CAP values listed there and compared it to the board; fixing the board to be like the schematics.

this involved changing caps out for different value caps, cutting some traces and adding some wires. to correct the circuit.

 

[Hatsune Mike]

If any sounds are missing or wrong then something may be wrong with the implementation of the ADPCM bankswitching, or the MSM6295 clone itself. Levels between ADPCM and FM may not be perfect but it shouldn't be so far off.

Try popping the upper actel out of its socket gently, cleaning it and the socket with isopropyl alcohol, and putting it back in. You can drench em both and squish it back in while it's still wet even.

You can just swap a genuine OPM (YM2151) in there, yeah.

 

[Hatsune Mike]

The only issue outside of the non-working audio I am facing are these green artifacts around the text on the title screen (see around the “F” and other letters in the picture below):

The board has some crazy fast and glitchy address line transitions for the palette RAM. What you're seeing is a speed related issue but it's not simply fixed by using faster RAM. Socket the palette RAM and just keep trying different brands and speeds of the same time until these go away. It sounds stupid and hillbilly to fix something that way, but the board is stupid and hillbilly to begin with. Garbage in, garbage out.

The test menu behavior is normal for Garegga software.

 

[dexa]

Try popping the upper actel out of its socket gently, cleaning it and the socket with isopropyl alcohol, and putting it back in. You can drench em both and squish it back in while it's still wet even.

You can just swap a genuine OPM (YM2151) in there, yeah.

thanks for your reply. Cleaning the actel with isopropyl did not change anything.

I doubt that this is having any significant impact on the sound

I thought about it because of this video:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nh28azaj0I

 

[GeekMan1222]

I had one of these boards and I actually had to change the entire PLCC socket for one of the ACTEL chips because it was warped or the pins were worn out and making poor contact to the chip

 

[dexa]

I had one of these boards and I actually had to change the entire PLCC socket for one of the ACTEL chips because it was warped or the pins were worn out and making poor contact to the chip

That could be the case on mine as well. The socket looks very bad if you check my picture. Does the socket have a specific part number / name?

 

[snakeGrave]

My replacement socket was
A-ccs 084-G-T
An 84 position plcc socket

I thought I was making progress on this hunk of junk but I never ended up getting it to a point where it was really playable. I hate this board

 

[GeekMan1222]

The PLCC sockets I used were kinda cheap, dont make the same mistake as me and just buy any old random one try to get something at least high quality. Because the ones I used started to warp on the edges and the same issue happened to me again where I would start getting some sprite garbage unless I pushed around the edges of the socket or pushed on the chip. Then the issue would go away for some time LOL

you might also want to take like a pin or exacto blade and very gently pull the pins on the ACTEL chip back out some too, very gently though dont need to do much and thats up to you if you wanna try that.

 

[GeekMan1222]

I have come to the conclusion that at least with my board, it is far to finicky about the PLCC sockets for the graphics and audio FPGA chips.
I had to replace the socket for the chip responsible for graphics and that fixed a ton of issues then later the sound was having issues and the game would just freeze. I pulled the chip responsible for sound wiped off the pins with deoxide and resocketed the chip for a second time since owning the board and that fixed it. Now the graphics are having issues again but clean up if I apply pressure to the PLCC chip socket edges.

So heres what im gonna do if I ever get the time to do it.
Screw the finicky PLCC sockets we can buy a solder adapter and I can just solder the chip to the board directly.

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/chip-quik-inc./PA0111C-R/15973940

If anyone else wants to try this too your welcome to.

 

[GeekMan1222]

I ordered the PLCC to PGA solder adapter boards and also some PGA sockets that I can make work. I dont really like soldering and desoldering for these sockets with these PCB's theres alot of heat and work that happens so my goal is to put a socket in and never have to desolder them again.

Just a reminder this isnt a solution for everyone its just something im doing because I found alot of issues involved with the PLCC FPGA chips and the socket maybe the FPGA is extra sensitive with these circuits and any kind of poor pin contact or tarnish to the PLCC chips pins causes issues. That said if you have sound or graphics issues reseating your FPGA chip may fix it.

So im crossing my fingers this fixes my board almost entirely again and then I have a second board that needs repair I was given as a donor some time ago.

 

[dexa]

so to give my nightmare an update:
1. replaced the "KA51 JBCK" chip with a YM2151 (i guess clone) chip -> changed nothing
2. replaced the actel socket -> changed nothing
3. replaced the U6295 (after waiting 1.5 months for the component) -> changed again ... nothing

I am still missing sound effects / vocals / explosions .. and the music itself is still too slow / is off beat in comparison to the original mix

any other ideas?