GSL
n00b
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2005
- Posts
- 28
So there I was, finished. Close to two months of planning, ordering parts, reordering the CORRECT parts, soldering connections when it was 103F outside and I didn't want anything to do with anything remotely warm, and the supergun was finally finished. Everything fit properly in the case, the only thing left was to tighten down the screws after establishing that the blue power LED and the 2P controller port I had just finished soldering were solid and had no shorts. From the moment I had hooked the Jrok up (at that point it was just the power connector, power switch, and the encoder) I was testing things to make sure I didn't have any shorts or loose connections, both with the multimeter and with live testing on the TV and my MV-1F. Boy was that a happy moment when the screen flashed a few garbage patterns and then the Neo-Geo logo popped up. Ditto for when I got the sound wired in and heard the chimes.
Anyways, I had everything wired together, and just wanted to test and make sure no connections were disturbed by closing up the case. I don't have a joystick yet, so I was using a female DB15 connector plugged into the P1 controller port, and then just using a length of solid wire to connect ground to the various buttons through the solder cups. I was going through the hardware test, pleased as punch with myself, when I think my hand slipped. Or I could have stuck the wire in the +5v connector instead of ground when I went to change buttons. I don't really remember. All I remember is the screen going blank, and no more LEDs on either the supergun or the MVS board. I switched everything off in a hurry and took the supergun back to the workbench, where I discovered there seemed to be a weak connection somewhere between the +5v wiring and the ground loop. I discovered this tapping the sections at the terminal strip I used as a grand junction for all the parts, and after a few continuity tests I managed to isolate the problem as something wrong with my Jrok v3.1 (incidentally, the 12v line was actually reading as 6 or 7.something, but I'm not sure that is the immediate problem here). I thought I might have inadvertently grounded something when I was soldering on the connections for the panel-mount RCA connector, or maybe I had somehow bent one of the long wires to the S-video connector where I soldered them through the Jrok hole. Eventually, I've found that, using a continuity tester, there seem to be very few spots on the board that AREN'T connected to each other in a very weak fashion. For example, just testing at the pins for the connector to the R, G, B, and sync lines, not a one of them seems to be isolated from the others. I'm thinking that whatever screwup I pulled possibly fried the encoder chip on the Jrok, which is why everything is reporting as part of a weak closed circuit. Does this sound right to anyone else, or could there be some possibility I may have missed? Thanks in advance, and apologies for the rambling.
Anyways, I had everything wired together, and just wanted to test and make sure no connections were disturbed by closing up the case. I don't have a joystick yet, so I was using a female DB15 connector plugged into the P1 controller port, and then just using a length of solid wire to connect ground to the various buttons through the solder cups. I was going through the hardware test, pleased as punch with myself, when I think my hand slipped. Or I could have stuck the wire in the +5v connector instead of ground when I went to change buttons. I don't really remember. All I remember is the screen going blank, and no more LEDs on either the supergun or the MVS board. I switched everything off in a hurry and took the supergun back to the workbench, where I discovered there seemed to be a weak connection somewhere between the +5v wiring and the ground loop. I discovered this tapping the sections at the terminal strip I used as a grand junction for all the parts, and after a few continuity tests I managed to isolate the problem as something wrong with my Jrok v3.1 (incidentally, the 12v line was actually reading as 6 or 7.something, but I'm not sure that is the immediate problem here). I thought I might have inadvertently grounded something when I was soldering on the connections for the panel-mount RCA connector, or maybe I had somehow bent one of the long wires to the S-video connector where I soldered them through the Jrok hole. Eventually, I've found that, using a continuity tester, there seem to be very few spots on the board that AREN'T connected to each other in a very weak fashion. For example, just testing at the pins for the connector to the R, G, B, and sync lines, not a one of them seems to be isolated from the others. I'm thinking that whatever screwup I pulled possibly fried the encoder chip on the Jrok, which is why everything is reporting as part of a weak closed circuit. Does this sound right to anyone else, or could there be some possibility I may have missed? Thanks in advance, and apologies for the rambling.
