I have posted this over on klov but wanted to post here to get some more eyes on it to see if maybe someone else has any ideas...
I recently converted my Maximum Force cabinet to use a PC instead and run a bunch of light gun emulators on it.
I did keep my switcher in play as well so that I could have an external JAMMA port to connect any of my boards to without going inside the cabinet.
All of that is working perfectly fine, however I have noticed some tracking issues ONLY when using PC. I have to turn the brightness/contrast up more than I'd like to in order for it to track. I mean it still looks fine and dandy but again, it is just not quite as sharp as I'd prefer with the contrast/brightness being set down a little bit more.
When I play my real Maximum Force PCB, the tracking works just fine if I lower the brightness/contrast down a bit - it is only when I'm using the JPAC.
I started trouble shooting this evening and have found some weird results.
First I completely took the switcher out of the picture. My JAMMA harness is plugged directly into the JPAC, and then the light guns are plugged directly into the USB2GUN board (which in turn is connected to the PC via VGA and USB), so there is no switching in the picture.
When I did this, I could lower the brightness/contrast to a more reasonable setting that I'd prefer and everything tracks perfectly.
I checked the voltage at the JAMMA edge on the JPAC and it was 5.15v.
I then got the switcher back into play and have my JAMMA harness connected to the switcher, and then the switcher runs a ribbon cable and power cable to the interface board that connects to my JPAC. I still kept the guns hard wired to the USB2GUN board so the guns are not on the switcher at all.
This time when I tried to use the guns, with the same exact brightness and contrast, the guns do not track.
I figured I'd check the voltage at the JAMMA edge of the JPAC thinking maybe it was getting less power, but nope, it was exactly 5.15v as it was before.
I tried to get some pics/videos of it but I couldn't even really tell a difference between them, and getting good pics of screen flash and CRT monitors with my phone is just a tough thing to do. I don't think there is actually any difference with brightness or anything on the screen when I go between the switcher or direct to JAMMA harness - it's just the tracking so maybe it's the flash. It's hard to tell just eye balling it.
I really want to keep the switcher in play so I can keep that external JAMMA port, and I'd probably just sacrifice image quality to do so if that is the worst case scenario, but if I could figure out what is causing this and fix it, that would be ideal.
My buddy also pointed me to the ATOM-15 bios that you can put on video cards that keeps the bios/loading screen in sync but was also supposed to possibly help with some voltage being in better sync, so I did that last night, however I am still seeing the same tracking issues when hooked up to the switcher. I did not however reinstall crtemudrivers or run vmmaker after I installed those bios, since I had all of that already done prior to this, so could that have anything to do with it?
Does anyone have any ideas on what could be causing this and how it can be fixed? If you have any more questions feel free to let me know as well.
I recently converted my Maximum Force cabinet to use a PC instead and run a bunch of light gun emulators on it.
I did keep my switcher in play as well so that I could have an external JAMMA port to connect any of my boards to without going inside the cabinet.
All of that is working perfectly fine, however I have noticed some tracking issues ONLY when using PC. I have to turn the brightness/contrast up more than I'd like to in order for it to track. I mean it still looks fine and dandy but again, it is just not quite as sharp as I'd prefer with the contrast/brightness being set down a little bit more.
When I play my real Maximum Force PCB, the tracking works just fine if I lower the brightness/contrast down a bit - it is only when I'm using the JPAC.
I started trouble shooting this evening and have found some weird results.
First I completely took the switcher out of the picture. My JAMMA harness is plugged directly into the JPAC, and then the light guns are plugged directly into the USB2GUN board (which in turn is connected to the PC via VGA and USB), so there is no switching in the picture.
When I did this, I could lower the brightness/contrast to a more reasonable setting that I'd prefer and everything tracks perfectly.
I checked the voltage at the JAMMA edge on the JPAC and it was 5.15v.
I then got the switcher back into play and have my JAMMA harness connected to the switcher, and then the switcher runs a ribbon cable and power cable to the interface board that connects to my JPAC. I still kept the guns hard wired to the USB2GUN board so the guns are not on the switcher at all.
This time when I tried to use the guns, with the same exact brightness and contrast, the guns do not track.
I figured I'd check the voltage at the JAMMA edge of the JPAC thinking maybe it was getting less power, but nope, it was exactly 5.15v as it was before.
I tried to get some pics/videos of it but I couldn't even really tell a difference between them, and getting good pics of screen flash and CRT monitors with my phone is just a tough thing to do. I don't think there is actually any difference with brightness or anything on the screen when I go between the switcher or direct to JAMMA harness - it's just the tracking so maybe it's the flash. It's hard to tell just eye balling it.
I really want to keep the switcher in play so I can keep that external JAMMA port, and I'd probably just sacrifice image quality to do so if that is the worst case scenario, but if I could figure out what is causing this and fix it, that would be ideal.
My buddy also pointed me to the ATOM-15 bios that you can put on video cards that keeps the bios/loading screen in sync but was also supposed to possibly help with some voltage being in better sync, so I did that last night, however I am still seeing the same tracking issues when hooked up to the switcher. I did not however reinstall crtemudrivers or run vmmaker after I installed those bios, since I had all of that already done prior to this, so could that have anything to do with it?
Does anyone have any ideas on what could be causing this and how it can be fixed? If you have any more questions feel free to let me know as well.