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DARKSOFT [OLD VERSION] STV Cartridge instructions and trouble shooting

The fact that 2nd CPU shows bad, would m3an that one of the SH2 is actually bad, but the test is not so comprehensive so if it shows good, it doesn't mean that it's 100% good. The only good test is to try a different Mobo and do a rework on both SH2. If still happens, then the problem is the cart, which is unexpected if the cart is new as they are all tested one by one. If that is the case, PM me and I'll have a look.
 
Right on I'll have to try to get my hands on a extra board to test it out on. Thanks fellas appreciate the support!
 
Hey all. Just recently received the STV Multi but without the case (ordered that way), so I printed the case available on Thingiverse and it shows soldering a 3 pin header to the Multi board. It's soldered to Line Out and GND (with the 3rd pin being the reset hovering above). Is the Line Out actually used for anything? Is it the sound output connection to the Titan board? And finally, does the Gnd need to be connected when connecting the reset wire for the auto reset? I've searched this forum and other places and can't find it, so posting now hoping for more info. I'm also setting up the Multi-Pi, but I'll deal with that once I know what I'm doing with the cart first. Thanks in advance.
 
raynex said:
Hey all. Just recently received the STV Multi but without the case (ordered that way), so I printed the case available on Thingiverse and it shows soldering a 3 pin header to the Multi board. It's soldered to Line Out and GND (with the 3rd pin being the reset hovering above). Is the Line Out actually used for anything? Is it the sound output connection to the Titan board? And finally, does the Gnd need to be connected when connecting the reset wire for the auto reset? I've searched this forum and other places and can't find it, so posting now hoping for more info. I'm also setting up the Multi-Pi, but I'll deal with that once I know what I'm doing with the cart first. Thanks in advance.
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The Multi can play back a WAV file while a game is flashing - that’s what the Line Out is for. It doesn’t mix into the STV board anywhere-the assumption is that you’d run it to a stand-alone speaker.

More details in the documentation here:
https://www.arcade-projects.com/threads/stv-cartridge-instructions-and-trouble-shooting.512/

The Ground wire should be connected for Reset.
 
ShootTheCore said:
The Multi can play back a WAV file while a game is flashing - that’s what the Line Out is for. It doesn’t mix into the STV board anywhere-the assumption is that you’d run it to a stand-alone speaker.

More details in the documentation here:
https://www.arcade-projects.com/threads/stv-cartridge-instructions-and-trouble-shooting.512/

The Ground wire should be connected for Reset.
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Thanks for the info. I guess the lineout really isn't needed for me then as I can see the LEDs through the printed case. As for the GND, I'll connect it then.
Do you know if the current shipping STV Multis have the Auto Reset flashed onto the cart or is that still a separate process? I'm guessing it is still required as the guide is still up. Wanted to be sure before buying the discovery kit.
 
All the carts that ship now have the reset functionality flashed already. You do have to solder a line from the cart to a point on the STV board for reset to function.

The Discovery flashing instructions are still around for the folks with older carts that haven’t been updated with the reset functionality yet.
 
I encountered very similar problem last week as "9999 Damage" pretty previously did. I didn't have time to check better until yesterday evening, so writing up this post now... Maybe the solution found helps someone else too.

Symptoms: Multi does not respond correctly to the request for loading a new game. Multi/ST-V only resets to the same previously loaded game whether you're using selector or manually changing by jumpers to anything else.

Actions before the problem:

Fully working system was taken "apart": multi card removed from the cartridge connector and laid down on top of the ST-V. System put again in working condition in another location -> worked fine and last game loaded there was Shienruy. Multi taken off from the ST-V again and system moved home. Kept few weeks aside and put back together last week.

The problem shows up:

ST-V started up normally with Shienruy (which was expected in this case), but when I tried to change the game with the selector the game didn't change, board seemed to only reset. I tried another selector, but that didn't help. Checked the wires, nothing wrong there. Then noted that the SD card had risen up and pushed it just down (note: power was on, noted immediately myself that I should have removed the power before pushing the SD card down to the slot). That didn't help either, board kept resetting and same game appearing. Then I tried out using jumpers instead of game selector, but multi didn't care about that either, I still got Shienruy. Last action I had time to do back that evening: multi connectors were cleaned and multi put back into the cartridge connector and wires connected -> no help.

Solution, aka fast forward to yesterday evening:

As I already had tried out two game selectors (both proved working before) and neither jumpers worked, connector(s) cleaned, wiring was fine - I had only two obvious options left. Either the SD card corrupted or multi card itself had some malfunction. I started to check the SD card first - it looked good, was readable with PC and all files where they should be. This made me thinking if multi has some functionality to log the SD card as "bad" when it was pushed to the slot (and apparently glitched?) while powered on. I had another SD card ready for F3 multi (of course, should not work with ST-V at all, because of wrong files). I inserted that F3 SD card to the ST-V multi when the board was powered off. System powered on, let the Shienruy start properly and then I randomly tried to load one game -> board did reset, I let the Shienruy start again, then powered off the system. F3 SD card swapped to the original one I have been using all the time with my ST-V multi. System powered on and I let the Shienruy boot up properly. Then I changed the game from selector to Astra Superstars -> normal loading up sequence started and after waiting the normal period of the time Astra booted up. Tried out a bunch of other games too and all seems to work flawlessly again.

My best guess: there was some kind of a glitch in the multi for detecting the SD card as "good"
 
I can’t seem to get the multi seated in the cartridge slot properly. It either says cartridge error or it loads briefly before crapping out. I’ve used other STV carts on the board fine without this issue.

Any advice on making better contacts with the slot?
 
VenomXL said:
I can’t seem to get the multi seated in the cartridge slot properly. It either says cartridge error or it loads briefly before crapping out. I’ve used other STV carts on the board fine without this issue.

Any advice on making better contacts with the slot?
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I don't think it's a cart issue but rather a mobo issue. Can you try with a different one?
 
Darksoft said:
I don't think it's a cart issue but rather a mobo issue. Can you try with a different one?
Click to expand...
Unfortunately the other STV I have is a brick. I’ll hit up a buddy or two to see if they have one.

I don’t think it’s the cart so much as just how the cart is sitting, because my other carts are fine, I just wasn’t sure if anyone else had any issues with securing the cart properly since it wasn’t in a standard cartridge.

I have the printed cartridge case but it doesn’t seem to do much.
 
Resolved. User error. It had a partially loaded version of a pebble beach game from a previous not working bios and I managed to knock the SD card up and not see that I knocked it up, so it kept loading the bad version. Ugh.
 
I read about someone who had a similar problem to this before buying the stv multi cart, but now I can't find the thread. Sorry in advance if this is a known thing:

I've got a known working STV Mobo (works fine with my authentic Dynamite Deka cart) with multi-bios installed. I have a naked Darksoft Multi Cart purchased from hiscoresaves, and I'm using the SD card they provided, with the latest rollup pack on it. I set the jumpers to "5" to load Cotton 2, and it remained on 2 lights indefinitely (I waited over 5 minutes, I don't have a speaker hooked up to hear the start sound play). I restarted the system, same thing.

So, I took out the SD card, reformatted it to FAT32, copied the rollup pack over again. Tried loading Cotton 2 again, no dice. I switched the jumpers to "3" to load Batman Forever, and hey, it works! The programming light goes out, power light stays on. I power cycle the system, and it boots up into Batman Forever. No sound, but that's expected.

So OK cool, let's program it to Cotton 2 again.. Nothing, just hangs on the 2 lights forever. OK cool, let's set the jumpers to 6 to try to program Cotton Boomerang... nope. OK, let's try to take out the SD card and power cycle -- Batman Forever boots up.

So, what could explain the ability to flash game A but not games B or C? Anything I can do to troubleshoot? I might have another SD card somewhere, possibly in my SNES flash cart :thinking: (which is actually currently packed away :()

EDIT: For funsies I tried loading radiant silvergun. Same deal -- two lights on indefinitely.
 
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Some like to remove write protection before ejecting the drive.
 
So, today I turned on my blast city and Astra Superstars booted right up - one light, directly into game, no flash needed.

Can somebody look at my process to see if I'm messing something up? I have not yet soldered the reset wire, though I plan to once I have the cart working satisfactorily.
  1. Turn off power to game
  2. Change jumpers to the rom you want to load into the flash cart
  3. Power on game
    1. "Error on Cartridge" message is expected on screen
    2. Two lights should show during flash process
  4. Eventually (under a minute? two minutes?) the programming light turns off, leaving just one light
  5. Turn off power to game
  6. Power on Game
    1. One light should display
    2. Game should boot
The above is what I'm doing. The problem is with step 4, the 2nd light never turns off. Even last night when I gave up trying to flash Astra Superstars, the 2nd light never turned off and I just eventually quit and went to bed. Today, when I powered up the cabinet, the game booted fine. IDEK.

Anybody have any thoughts?
 
hindered said:
Windows 10, formatted as FAT32, copied using 7zip
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Hmm I'm not sure wtf I'm doing differently now, but it works.

Same SD card w/same loadout as yesterday. Popped out the SD card, booted up into whatever game was on the cart. Turned off the game, changed the jumpers, put the SD card back in -- working as expected through several flashes :it is a mystery:

BTW if anyone thinks their STV audio is crunchy/blown out, there is a volume pot on the PCB that isn't super obvious.

Edit: so the issue is back. With the game off, I switched the jumpers to load radiant silver gun. Two lights, then one light. Great! Power off, power on, I get two lights again and the error message on screen. I power down, pop out the SD card and powered back on — radiant silver gun boots up and plays. Is there an amount of time the programming light has to be turned off before power cycling? Is there an amount of time the game should be powered off before powering back on? I suspect wiring up the auto reset feature may help as well.
 
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