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ST-V multicart game selector with LCD screen

miisalo

miisalo

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******** UPDATE************

Currently these are build by stt1 and he has For Sale thread for this. I'll just provide support and updates and supply the parts for him.

This turned to solution that I build. This first message contains waiting list and sent list for the "product". Current price is 25 euros and 30 euros ordered after 24. of March 2016 + shipping & packing. Economy to the Europe is normally 6.90euros + 1eur for the packing materials, priority is 8.50 eur + 1 eur.

For now on mitsurugi-w will distribute these in US, contact him for buying one from there. If I pack these well, postage can go as high as 22.50 to US, it's much cheaper me to send lot of these at time.

Mitsurugi-w has sold all the selectors I sent to him, so people from US can inquire these directly from me. We'll figure how to keep the postage low.

To order, reply to thread and I'll add you to the waiting list and contact you to ask if you are still interested when I have selector ready to be sent.

Installation manual https://www.dropbox.com/s/if4km71yvg3g624/multicart_manual_fix.pdf?dl=0

One addition to the manual. Some pcbs blue reset connector has text CONN_1 instead of RESET.

Latest source code https://www.dropbox.com/s/960gdkpupdahv17/GAMESELECTOR_V3_0C.ino?dl=0

UPDATE!!!! Smokemonster has updated the source with latest game list, it can be downloaded from

mega.nz/#!lBwnkBKS!n9Y4qv5qPmA…HWT6I2Ect4RvkT7Zub9Ap9Z5k




Video about the selector

Current waiting list etc...


WAITING LIST
1.
2.
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******* ORIGINAL MESSAGE *****

I have been thinking that it would be nice to have small lcd with buttons to choose the game. I have different screens, with buttons and not, and lots of different microcontrollers. Game selector jumpers seem to just connect pull downs so I was thinking just to ground the signal using the microcontroller (or using couple of 4066 as switches). Or is it pull ups?

In startup, microcontroller could read the previous selection from eeprom and set the game selection after that. Problem could be that is microcontroller fast enough to initialize pins before multicart polls the game selection? This has to be first checked that they are not floating in that point. If they are, I think they must be either pulled up or down and not have game for that number in the sd card. Then after delay, user could choose games and press starts and board could be resetted.

Is it that simple or am I missing something? Its 4AM and I'm ready for bed :D
 
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I did this exact thing with my ST-V cart with an arduino. Works great, but t does have to be powered on before you actually turn on the ST-V. Just some NPN Transistors and some resistors. I did etch a PCB that uses a Arduino Nano, but never tested it. This worked great on my ST-V and XXX in 1 multicart.
 
NeoTurfMasta said:
I did this exact thing with my ST-V cart with an arduino. Works great, but t does have to be powered on before you actually turn on the ST-V. Just some NPN Transistors and some resistors. I did etch a PCB that uses a Arduino Nano, but never tested it. This worked great on my ST-V and XXX in 1 multicart.
Click to expand...
That is too freaking cool. Great work NTM!
 
NeoTurfMasta said:

I did this exact thing with my ST-V cart with an arduino. Works great, but t does have to be powered on before you actually turn on the ST-V. Just some NPN Transistors and some resistors. I did etch a PCB that uses a Arduino Nano, but never tested it. This worked great on my ST-V and XXX in 1 multicart.
Click to expand...
That's almost exactly I was thinking about doing, even got same LCDs. Although I was thinking about using pure atmega328 in 8Mhz mode to enable 3.3V operation and use hct4066be's instead of transistors and powering them from the multicart or the motherboard. Actually I also should have somewhere arduino micro's that are 3.3V version, I remember that they were cheaper than just buying the microcontroller chip.

This gave me idea that if multicart boots always the game its has if the selection is invalid, why not let it, I anyway boot the last game most of the time. Then when choosing new game to load, set the selector and reset the mb.

EDIT: actually LCD need 5V, so using 5V part + 2x4066 seem ok solution.
 
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I'm getting there....

IMG_0888.jpg
 
Awesome! I also used a bank switched bios on the ST-V instead of the multibios and let the Arduino control the region. That way it would save the settings I wanted every time on each game and didn't have to hold any button.
 
Damn, can't test it. Again there is some connection problem with the ST-V board and some chip and it didn't even boot up without cart. I did reflow slave processor last week because again it had problems. It did boot today after I did inspected it quickly and moved back to other table but nothing now. Board is so bent that I'm considering buying another instead of reflowing all the chips...
 
Mounting it on piece of MDF have been on my mind but never actually did it. But today the board works again... I did some cleaning and I had it without battery for night, boom...it works. Maybe its corrupting the backup memory, maybe it was the flux/glue/shit that was on the back of the board, I bought another board anyway (from Italy, we'll see what I actualle get :D ).

I'm going to test the selector with external power, then I'm going to solder the reset wire.

Speaking of which...how does the reset work? It seems that the wire for the auto reset is connected to chip that is some sort of voltage monitor and there it goes to SMPC. Line is pulled down to ground by resistor and jumps to 5V once board boots. So reseting would be grounding the signal (through resistor for safety)?
 
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I made prototype board last nigh. Had plenty of time because our drains water pump failed and I had to use reserve pump "half manually". Unfortunately I was bit too hasty with uv and etching failed. Going to try again today and then if its ok, order 10 pcbs from iTead.
 
Wow, that is incredible miisalo. Very finished and high-end looking. Great work.
 
I have been busy with work and fixing one mvs board, but I'm back to this. I'm going to add some generic pins there, example for reading autoreset pin, so I can later add support for autoreset firmware etc and then order 10 pcb. I'm going to make 4-5 for these for testing (I have limited number of screens) and inform when they are available - one will go to my friend) If someone wants them, its going to cost the parts + postage, this is just hobby project.
 
very interesting hobby project then :p
Would be interested in one
Have you an idea about total price?!
 
I think you'll find a lot of people will be interested in these (myself included!) I think you could easily sell quite a few of them if you did a second production run...
 
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