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MiSTer FPGA

I've been a MiSTer user for a while now but I just had my first candy cab arrive this afternoon fresh off the truck from KC. I'm planning on using MiSTer -> J-PAC -> Jamma which seems straight forward but the J-PAC installation guide goes out of its way to mention that you should disable the 12v game power. Is this really necessary, or advisable in an Astro City setup?

Thanks for any help!
 
What the best source for the mister add-ons? Trying to see if I put one of these together.
 
suverman said:
JPAC works fine that two player issue was fixed by a kind user a week back through a pull request. You need an IO board for the VGA out though.
Click to expand...
Ugh, the 'fix' is basically copying the jamma-sd hack using the USB id of the j-pac. I really wish they could just implement this in a normal way without pr-device workarounds. Spent a little time today to set up a virtual linux machine to compile main mister to see if I can add a workaround that applies to the JVS-PAC 2.

Using a HDMI->VGA dongle myself and works great.
 
Raph_friend said:
Derick2k said:
What the best source for the mister add-ons? Trying to see if I put one of these together.
Click to expand...
Misteraddons.com
Click to expand...
I was going to order from misteraddons, but man, he wants about $80 USD to ship to Japan.

Found ultimatemister.com and spoke with the owner there. Told me he could ship to Japan for $10 or so. So I'm on a waiting list there. Supposedly will ship out this month.
 
Welp - I've got my Mister and J-PAC setup and I've got a very "yellow" display. I'm hoping I have a Mister ini config problem rather than something has gone awry with this monitor in shipping.

Had working pictured of it with good colors last week before a long truck ride.

Any suggestions for me?
 
invzim said:
suverman said:
JPAC works fine that two player issue was fixed by a kind user a week back through a pull request. You need an IO board for the VGA out though.
Click to expand...
Ugh, the 'fix' is basically copying the jamma-sd hack using the USB id of the j-pac. I really wish they could just implement this in a normal way without pr-device workarounds. Spent a little time today to set up a virtual linux machine to compile main mister to see if I can add a workaround that applies to the JVS-PAC 2.
Using a HDMI->VGA dongle myself and works great.
Click to expand...
Yeah, sorry. I threw that together to unblock the J-PAC for myself. The change should really work with any USB "keyboard" device. Take a look at https://misterfpga.org/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=448 and see if the JVS-PAC 2 "automagically" works with the proper VID/PID (assuming I haven't given you this info elsewhere). I agree it's a hack and would love to see someone implement true key mapping support for devices like this.
 
bdlou said:
Yeah, sorry. I threw that together to unblock the J-PAC for myself.
Click to expand...
Not criticizing the author of the fix (seriously), but more miste main in general and the architect of the input system specifically :D

I didn't see the cool stuff you did about setting the vid/pid via config - I'll give it a go for sure!

My current opinion on the matter here, https://misterfpga.org/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=94
 
rewrite said:
bbickell said:
Any suggestions for me?
Click to expand...
Test another source. That's the quickest way to see what's up with the monitor.
Click to expand...
That's the trick I suppose - since it's my first cab, I also don't own any pcbs. I could try a PC out to the j-pac, but I'm not sure how I'd go about generating a 15khz signal on it.

The best way I can describe what it looks like is that everything just has a yellow filter applied over it. Stuff that is supposed to be white is yellow.
 
bbickell said:
That's the trick I suppose - since it's my first cab, I also don't own any pcbs. I could try a PC out to the j-pac, but I'm not sure how I'd go about generating a 15khz signal on it.

The best way I can describe what it looks like is that everything just has a yellow filter applied over it. Stuff that is supposed to be white is yellow.
Click to expand...
Time to borrow a board from a local. Or buy your favorite game.

You could setup crt_emudriver, but that's more mucking about with things rather than just trying something known-working like a JAMMA board.
 
bbickell said:
rewrite said:
bbickell said:
Any suggestions for me?
Click to expand...
Test another source. That's the quickest way to see what's up with the monitor.
Click to expand...
That's the trick I suppose - since it's my first cab, I also don't own any pcbs. I could try a PC out to the j-pac, but I'm not sure how I'd go about generating a 15khz signal on it.
The best way I can describe what it looks like is that everything just has a yellow filter applied over it. Stuff that is supposed to be white is yellow.
Click to expand...
Is your sync on green turned on? You sure its yellow not green?
 
Here is a quick video without Sync on Green enable first and with it enabled second: https://imgur.com/a/wIkh80m

What is totally bizarre about watching that video without SOG is that I can see that the yellow effect only shows on video as an artifact moving up the screen but in person the whole thing just looks yellow. That makes me think the monitor is probably fine and this is something about my mister setup + the jpac. I guess my next step is to get some gear to try direct video hdmi->vga into the jpac.

Or, haul off and buy my first pcb. :)
 
Hmm could be a video DAC issue. Best to use JPAC only for controls and feed the video directly. Not sure if you are using the IO board or HDMI to VGA. If the IO board wasnt assembled well the maybe a resistor (video DAC) near the VGA port might be not installed/failed/is loose. I have never seen that tbh. If you are using a convertor that could be an issue. If using JPAC make sure you jumper it to pass through.

Can you post your Mister.ini here?
 
Last edited:
suverman said:
Hmm could be a video DAC issue. Best to use JPAC only for controls and feed the video directly. Not sure if you are using the IO board or HDMI to VGA. If the IO board wasnt assembled well the maybe a resistor (video DAC) near the VGA port might be not installed/failed/is loose. I have never seen that tbh. If you are using a convertor that could be an issue. If using JPAC make sure you jumper it to pass through.

Can you post your Mister.ini here?
Click to expand...
I'm using the I/O board (6.0) connected to the J-Pac with the provided vga cable.

MiSTer I/O -> J-Pac -> Jamma connector -> Astro City are the only things in the chain. When I tested the VGA out via I/O on a dell fp2001 monitor the colors were fine. I did notice that when I tried ypbpr=1 that produced a green coloration on everything on the dell monitor test.

Here is my mister.ini:

[MiSTer]
key_menu_as_rgui=0 ; set to 1 to make the MENU key map to RGUI in Minimig (e.g. for Right Amiga)
forced_scandoubler=0 ; set to 1 to run scandoubler on VGA output always (depends on core).
ypbpr=0 ; set to 1 for YPbPr on VGA output.
composite_sync=0 ; set to 1 for composite sync on HSync signal of VGA output.
vga_scaler=0 ; set to 1 to connect VGA to scaler output.
hdmi_audio_96k=0 ; set to 1 for 96khz/16bit HDMI audio (48khz/16bit otherwise)
keyrah_mode=0x18d80002 ; VIDPID of keyrah for special code translation (0x23418037 for Arduino Micro)
volumectl=0 ; enable audio volume control by multimedia keys
vscale_mode=0 ; 0 - scale to fit the screen height.
; 1 - use integer scale only.
; 2 - use 0.5 steps of scale.
; 3 - use 0.25 steps of scale.
vscale_border=0 ; set vertical border for TVs cutting the upper/bottom parts of screen (1-399)
;bootscreen=0 ; uncomment to disable boot screen of some cores like Minimig.
;mouse_throttle=10 ; 1-100 mouse speed divider. Useful for very sensitive mice
rbf_hide_datecode=0 ; 1 - hides datecodes from rbf file names. Press F2 for quick temporary toggle
menu_pal=0 ; 1 - PAL mode for menu core
hdmi_limited=0 ; 1 - use limited (16..235) color range over HDMI
; 2 - use limited (16..255) color range over HDMI, for VGA converters.
direct_video=0 ; 1 - enable core video timing over HDMI, use only with VGA converters.
fb_size=0 ; 0 - automatic, 1 - full size, 2 - 1/2 of resolution, 4 - 1/4 of resolution.
fb_terminal=1 ; 1 - enabled (default), 0 - disabled
osd_timeout=30 ; 5-3600 timeout (in seconds) for OSD to disappear in Menu core. 30 seconds if not set.
; Background picture will get darker after double timeout

; 1 - enables the recent file loaded/mounted.
; WARNING: This option will enable write to SD card on every load/mount which may wear the SD card after many writes to the same place
; There is also higher chance to corrupt the File System if MiSTer will be reset or powered off while writing.
recents=0

; lastcore - Autoboot the last loaded core (corename autosaved in CONFIG/lastcore.dat) first found on the SD/USB
; lastexactcore - Autoboot the last loaded exact core (corename_yyyymmdd.rbf autosaved in CONFIG/lastcore.dat) first found on the SD/USB
; corename - Autoboot first corename_*.rbf found on the SD/USB
; corename_yyyymmdd.rbf - Autoboot first corename_yyyymmdd.rbf found on the SD/USB
;bootcore=lastcore ; uncomment to autoboot a core, as the last loaded core.
bootcore_timeout=10 ; 10-30 timeout before autoboot, comment for autoboot without timeout.

; Option to load the custom font. Format is plain bitmap 8x8.
; Supported sizes of font:
; 768 bytes - chars 32-127 (only alpha + numeric)
; 1024 bytes - chars 0-127
; 1136 bytes - chars 0-141
; up to 2048 - only chars 0-141 will be used.
; if first 32 chars are empty (for sizes 1024 bytes and more) then they are skipped.
font=font/myfont.pf

; USER button emulation by keybaord. Usually it's reset button.
; 0 - lctrl+lalt+ralt (lctrl+lgui+rgui on keyrah)
; 1 - lctrl+lgui+rgui
; 2 - lctrl+lalt+del
; 3 - same as 0 (lctrl+lalt+ralt on keyrah)
reset_combo=0

dvi_mode=0 ; set to 1 for DVI mode. Audio won't be transmitted through HDMI in DVI mode.

; 0 - 1280x720@60
; 1 - 1024x768@60
; 2 - 720x480@60
; 3 - 720x576@50
; 4 - 1280x1024@60
; 5 - 800x600@60
; 6 - 640x480@60
; 7 - 1280x720@50
; 8 - 1920x1080@60
; 9 - 1920x1080@50
;10 - 1366x768@60
;11 - 1024x600@60
;
; custom mode: hact,hfp,hs,hbp,vact,vfp,vs,vbp,Fpix_in_KHz
; video_mode=1280,110,40,220,720,5,5,20,74250
video_mode=0

; set to 1-10 (seconds) to display video info on startup/change
video_info=10

; Set to 1 for automatic HDMI VSync rate adjust to match original VSync.
; Set to 2 for low latency mode (single buffer).
; This option makes video butter smooth like on original emulated system.
; Adjusting is done by changing pixel clock. Not every display supports variable pixel clock.
; For proper adjusting and to reduce possible out of range pixel clock, use 60Hz HDMI video
; modes as a base even for 50Hz systems.
vsync_adjust=0

; These parameters have the same format as video_mode.
; You need to supply both PAL and NTSC modes if you want vsync_adjust to switch between
; predefined modes as a base. This will reduce the range of pixel clock.
;video_mode_ntsc=0
;video_mode_pal=7


One other thing, I emailed Andy at Ultimarc and got this response from him:

"The J-PAC is designed to be used with a VGA card which has DC coupled outputs. The change in brightness or color would indicate this source has AC coupled video so is not compatible, if that’s the case. It might be necessary to add 220uF capacitors in series with each video signal and also resistors might be needed to set the DC level."

I have heard from other folks I've tracked down with this setup that the I/O board might not play nicely with the J-Pac. If that's the case, I'll do direct video once my adapter arrives tomorrow and get back to the thread.

Thanks for all of your help so far.
 
meybarra said:
@bbickell

Have you tried turning on composite sync?

composite_sync = 1
Click to expand...
My problem ended up being something totally different - I had a monitor with a problem!

However, from what everyone tells me, and what I've observed also - color is still a bit funny through the IO board + J-Pac on arcade monitors. Direct video/HDMI adapter + J-Pac -> arcade monitor looks good.
 
bbickell said:
meybarra said:
@bbickell

Have you tried turning on composite sync?

composite_sync = 1
Click to expand...
My problem ended up being something totally different - I had a monitor with a problem!
However, from what everyone tells me, and what I've observed also - color is still a bit funny through the IO board + J-Pac on arcade monitors. Direct video/HDMI adapter + J-Pac -> arcade monitor looks good.
Click to expand...
I haven't really dug in here but the sync levels are different between the IO board and direct video so maybe that's the issue. Glad you got it working!
 
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