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MiSTerAddons MiSTercade - MiSTer for JAMMA cabinets

thatbshar said:
Hey all, I'm a complete noob so I'm hoping someone can help.

I recently got a Mistercade to put in my New Astro City. I set up Mister correctly, and followed the quick start guide. It's confirmed working via HDMI and everything appeared to be in order.

There is one issue though. When transferring the 15khz YOKO mister.ini file, the instructions say to replace the existing mister.ini file on the SD card.

No file exists, and when I transfer the 15khz file, it doesn't seem to display anything beyond some vague and rolling imaging of the mister snow, but not a full image.

Am I transferring the wrong ini file? Should I remove the mister_example.ini? Is it something else?

Any help would be much appreciated
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In recent installations I haven’t had the prompt to “replace” a file either. No worries, as long as your MiSTer.ini is named correctly, you’re in the clear.

The static screen is a good sign, at least. If you press any buttons do you get the menu? How about a keyboard? I’d try to plug one in and hit F12 to see if the menu pops up.

Also, could you provide pictures of what you’re seeing on the screen?
 
Huh, is the default MiSTer installer not including a MiSTer.ini file anymore? If so then I'll need to update the MiSTercade instructions.

@thatbshar If you could post a screen shot of the file listing of your SD card then that would be helpful.
 
Great to know.

I'm not getting a full screen of static, its only partially displaying the image on the monitor.
20221221_231225.jpg
 
ShootTheCore said:
Huh, is the default MiSTer installer not including a MiSTer.ini file anymore? If so then I'll need to update the MiSTercade instructions.

@thatbshar If you could post a screen shot of the file listing of your SD card then that would be helpful.
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It may not be. I’ve also been messing with my mister so maybe it was something I did, lol. Don’t quote me 😅
 
thatbshar said:
Great to know.

I'm not getting a full screen of static, its only partially displaying the image on the monitor.
20221221_231225.jpg
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Have you adjusted the monitor at all for brightness, vertical hold, etc? (I can’t say vertical hold completely makes sense in this instance, but it can’t hurt). I’d also check to make sure your 12v line is getting proper voltage.
 
TodoRojo said:
Have you adjusted the monitor at all for brightness, vertical hold, etc? (I can’t say vertical hold completely makes sense in this instance, but it can’t hurt). I’d also check to make sure your 12v line is getting proper voltage.
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I'll need to check the 12v line tomorrow but I've fiddled with all of the monitor settings without any luck.
 
ShootTheCore may have some other ideas, as well. Hopefully we can get you up and running without too much fuss
 
TodoRojo said:
ShootTheCore may have some other ideas, as well. Hopefully we can get you up and running without too much fuss
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Really do appreciate the help. Entirely possible it's the cab, too. I have a test PCB arriving in tomorrow which should also rule out a few things.
 
thatbshar said:
Really do appreciate the help. Entirely possible it's the cab, too. I have a test PCB arriving in tomorrow which should also rule out a few things.
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If you haven’t played any other games on it yet, it is definitely a good idea to check 12v and 5v. Sorry if you already know, but the 5v is adjustable on the PSU.

Could you take a look inside the cab as well? We had someone just last night with a weird isolation transformer that wasn’t necessary and kept their machine from starting up.

Hoping for the best!
 
TodoRojo said:
If you haven’t played any other games on it yet, it is definitely a good idea to check 12v and 5v. Sorry if you already know, but the 5v is adjustable on the PSU.

Could you take a look inside the cab as well? We had someone just last night with a weird isolation transformer that wasn’t necessary and kept their machine from starting up.

Hoping for the best!
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Please don't apologize, I'm absolutely new to this hobby and I can't stress how much the support means.

I did not know you could adjust the voltage. I'll need to look at the psu for a switch.

In the meantime, here's a pic before I sign off for the night.
 

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thatbshar said:
Please don't apologize, I'm absolutely new to this hobby and I can't stress how much the support means.

I did not know you could adjust the voltage. I'll need to look at the psu for a switch.

In the meantime, here's a pic before I sign off for the night.
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1937D848-185C-469B-822E-EF0A96743DD5.jpeg

Happy to help.

I’d be interested to know what’s on the other side of these circled wires.

Let us know how it goes tomorrow 👍
 
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TodoRojo said:
1937D848-185C-469B-822E-EF0A96743DD5.jpeg

Happy to help.

I’d be interested to know what’s on the other side of these circled wires.

Let us know how it goes tomorrow 👍
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Here's a snap from the coin slot
 

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Looks like you have a NVS-4000 PSU, so your adjustment pots are the "V. Adj." section on the middle-left of the power supply. You have two on yours, labeled 3.3V (used by JVS boards like Naomi), and 5.0V (used by JAMMA boards). "POW" is the power LED that lights up when the power is on.

IMG-20221221-WA0010.jpg

Don't go adjusting the power yet though - since you can see the MiSTer's "snow" background rolling your MiSTer is booting up fine. Your problem is video configuration, not MiSTer power.

Let's step through a few things:

- Your "MiSTer.ini" file looks to be named correctly on the SD card, so you're good there.

- Can you open up the MiSTer.ini file and confirm that line 3 has the scan doubler set to 0, and line 5 has composite sync set to 1?
Code: 
forced_scandoubler=0   ; set to 1 to run scandoubler on VGA output always (depends on core).
composite_sync=1       ; set to 1 for composite sync on HSync signal of VGA output.

- Make sure you don't have the AC adapter connected to the MiSTercade. The MiSTercade should only receive its power from the JAMMA harness in the cabinet.

- Do you have access to a regular JAMMA game board so you can be assured that this cabinet's monitor is operating correctly? All you need is to borrow one that you can plug into the cab for a few minutes.

- You're using a Mac to setup your card which can sometimes cause weird problems since they like to sprinkle hidden files all over the card. If you have access to a Windows computer, I'd try reformatting and setting up the card again with that.
 
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ShootTheCore said:
Looks like you have a NVS-4000 PSU, so your adjustment pots are the "V. Adj." section on the middle-left of the power supply. You have two on yours, labeled 3.3V (used by JVS boards like Naomi), and 5.0V (used by JAMMA boards). "POW" is the power LED that lights up when the power is on.

IMG-20221221-WA0010.jpg

Don't go adjusting the power yet though - since you can see the MiSTer's "snow" background rolling your MiSTer is booting up fine. Your problem is video configuration, not MiSTer power.

Let's step through a few things:

- Your "MiSTer.ini" file looks to be named correctly on the SD card, so you're good there.

- Can you open up the MiSTer.ini file and confirm that line 3 has the scan doubler set to 0, and line 5 has composite sync set to 1?
Code: 
forced_scandoubler=0   ; set to 1 to run scandoubler on VGA output always (depends on core).
composite_sync=1       ; set to 1 for composite sync on HSync signal of VGA output.

- Make sure you don't have the AC adapter connected to the MiSTercade. The MiSTercade should only receive its power from the JAMMA harness in the cabinet.

- Do you have access to a regular JAMMA game board so you can be assured that this cabinet's monitor is operating correctly? All you need is to borrow one that you can plug into the cab for a few minutes.

- You're using a Mac to setup your card which can sometimes cause weird problems since they like to sprinkle hidden files all over the card. If you have access to a Windows computer, I'd try reformatting and setting up the card again with that.
Click to expand...

I don't have a PCB on hand and my friends who do are on vacation for the holidays. I've ordered a Pandora's box for personal use that I'll test once it arrives today.

As for the ini line, all seems to be correct. Sorry for cam pics, my Mac is mostly offline for uses such as these.

If the Pandora's box works, I'll revisit from a windows machine. Also open to any other ideas.

On the topic of the "snow" showing up - I did try the mistercade sans SD card and got the same output. This suggests to me that it could be a power issue. How would I adjust the 5v line?
 
The first revision of the MiSTercade ran off the 12V line only so that users wouldn’t have to worry about adjusting their supplies. The later revisions added a jumper setting to let you choose whether the MiSTercade is powered by the 5V or 12V line. Check the jumper on yours and see how it’s set. If it’s been on the 5V setting until now, try it on the 12V setting. There‘s a photo in the MiSTercade manual (linked in the first post of this thread) of the jumper.

You’ll need a multimeter to adjust the 5V line, and a small Philips head screwdriver to turn the 5V adjustment dial inside the cab’s PSU. Here’s how to adjust it:

1) Make sure MiSTercade is set to use the 5V supply. Connect it to the JAMMA harness in your cab.
2) Set your multimeter to measure DC voltage.
3) Poke the Positive red multimeter probe into one of the 5V lines (Pin 3 or 4) of the JAMMA harness and the Negative black probe into one of the GND lines (Pin 1, 2, 27 or 28 ) of the JAMMA harness. See pic and JAMMA pinout diagram below.
4) Turn the power on.
5) You should see some kind of power readout on the meter. Use the Philips head screwdriver to slowly adjust the 5V dial on the PSU until the meter reads as close to 5.0V as possible.

With original JAMMA game boards, the PSU should be readjusted every time you switch games because different game boards draw different amounts of power. Obviously it‘s a headache to connect a multimeter each time you change boards, so if you get into JAMMA board collecting I recommend buying a JAMMA pass through board with a voltmeter power readout - it’s very convenient! For example:
https://www.arcaniac.com/products/wingman-jamma-volt-meter

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@thatbshar, I'm 100% going to defer to @ShootTheCore here since he's the guy I have learned a lot of what I know from. Hopefully you guys get this sorted! If there's still no luck after troubleshooting here, I would suspect that transformer sitting behind your coin-box could be causing the issue. ShootTheCore is right to do the due-diligence here :)
 
Amazing, y'all are the best. I'm trying to find out how to switch the 5v/12v jumper but I'll dig in more when I'm home later.

I know this is very 101 so I appreciate your patience.
 

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