Help with first attempt on consolizing an MVS! (MV1FZ)

[Wolfie79]

First of all,
would really like to thank furrtek, channelmaniac, and Neo-Geo Man on the help in general info and regarding the trouble (still haven`t got a another chance to take another look at what`s wrong with it) with my 2 lot MV2FS, didnt do any modifications on this board (yet ) but hopefully soon, first I need to find the culprit for the graphics problem and a real big thanks to Xian Xi, thanks a lot man for the prompt replies and simple answers , although the tutorials over Jamma Nation X and MMMonkey and some threads over here are awesome, i`m a total newbie in this (I just love collecting retro games and playing them that`s all ! the only 2 mods I have ever done are to my Asian I-pal megadrive fitting a 50-60Hz mod and to my Pal SNES again removing region lock out and fitting as well a 50-60Hz toggle switch).
So in the past years (well more than a couple i`m 33 yrs old ffs )I have always played neogeo games, on other console ports, arcades and emulators, and lately I thought hmmm why not add a NeoGeo to my collection, after looking at the prices of the AES carts (freakkkking insane!!) I got an AES just for "collection" purposes and decided to get an MVS and consolize it since its the same thing, apart that MVS carts are much cheaper (although tbh I have noticed that even MVS carts are getting expensive, I dont know if its because I`m after them now, people try to convert MVS to AES carts or because everyone now is turning to CMVSs to play there games on.
So...to sum up the problem with my consolization project, I did all the modifications on the board (battery mod, tapped rbg+sync), connected 2 D15 connector for the joysticks, removed the rechargable battery and replaced with a standard CR2032 + holder, did the little board for the stereo (followed a great tutorial by MKL which can be found on MMmonkey and over here), and converted to 5v, now only thing done left to do is make a scart cable from the DIN8 "C" type cable to a Scart and off we go, however, when I finished all the work on the board yesterday I switched it on (although not connected to a tv just to test the new led + voltage to confirm its fine) and...


nothing ... I checked via multimeter to check if there`s current going 2 d the board (ground and +5v) and nothing...now i`m not sure if its the female wall mounted port I used...it seems a bit loose....the psu is giving 5v fine, always connected +5 to the centre and ground on the edge (- centre), so problem could be from the female port i`m using it feels a bit loose, any hints what I could do to confirm its from it (I damn hope so its from the port....however prolly knowing my luck....I fucked up somewhere )

Edit: At first I thought it was just the LED not lighting up, but since I checked there`s no voltage going to the board, guess its not.

 

[Xian Xi]

Can you post pics of the wiring?

 

[Wolfie79]

Geez thanks once again for the prompt reply, sure just took some pics, tell me if you need anything in particular or cose ups or anything, not the best digital camera in the world but can get some decent closeups (sometimes lol)

http://www.use.com/6498979b41c557816518
http://www.use.com/09157434ff327416084e
http://www.use.com/f1fbc040c5ea227e67d0
http://www.use.com/e3b58f5094901bfaba54
http://www.use.com/6b2310b81fee86dc984e

thanks once again

 

[Xian Xi]

Connect the 3rd pin on the power jack to the brown wire (ground).

 

[Wolfie79]

Connect the 3rd pin on the power jack to the brown wire (ground).

http://www.use.com/08920040606f3293d223

 

[Wolfie79]

Still can`t believe my eyes now just gotta do the 8in to scart for the crt and hopefully no more f$£% ups :P
btw any hints to connect the wire to the 8pin (socket) my soldering skills suck and its a real pain :S

 

[Wolfie79]

Ok somehow managed to do it, now other side of the cable (scart plug side) which plugs in the tv, but that doesn`t look too hard

two quick questions the 180ohm resistor in the scart plug is a MUST? and for what is it used?

Also was noticing in one of the tutorials on Jamma Nation X on the 2 slot, that on each rgb signal a 150ohm resistor was placed (says something due to colours not looking washed out or something like that), how come there is no need for the 1FZ? I know its a different revision board, but on the arcade cabs don`t they just connect normally via jamma to any monitor? (or the 15K monitor of cabs can handle rgb differently?)

 

[Xian Xi]

The 180ohm resistor is to trigger RGB mode for SCART, +5v goes to pin 8 then put the resistor between pins 8 and 16.

For scart wired systems it's best to put the resistors in the cable itself as some TVs might look different then others.

 

[Wolfie79]

The 180ohm resistor is to trigger RGB mode for SCART, +5v goes to pin 8 then put the resistor between pins 8 and 16.

For scart wired systems it's best to put the resistors in the cable itself as some TVs might look different then others.

Exactly what I did yeah, got the picture, but have random white short horizontal lines and the picture if flickering....also got no sound, will checkout later the connections to double check that I did everything correctly when it came to the 8pin "C" connector to Scart, however since all the colours are correct (no mvs cart, and after cross hatch went to the RedGreenBlueWhite boxes) I think its more something to do with the TV CRT unit being European....and the tutorial I followed maybe is US?


Ok problem solved, the crt has 2 scarts = their osd = av1 and av2 however since I connected them to a multiscart adaptor (6 consoles attached to the same tv) that did not fully support rgb, full screen, full colour, full glory and sound too Now just gotta confirm that stereo l and R are correct (scart 2 and 4).
Thanks a lot

 

[Wolfie79]

OK ok thats quite early for maintenance (the CMVS MV1FS I started working on around 5 days ago) my 1 slot mvs has already started giving problems....as soon as I sorted the scart issue (putting the rgb directly cos the multiscart was just composite prolly) I check out a quick metal slug and found very low volume, i.e. have to put the volume up 3/4 when usually for other consoles 1/3 or 1/2 (of the bar these fractions i.e) is fine, but thats a minor concern, then yesterday after testing it for about 2 mins, I switched off, and this morning went to "close" the mobo, since everything seemed fine, went to switch on and it worked fine, closed the board (the pvc part that slides on top, just to be 100% that I didnt cos any shorts or cut any wire (since i`m still new at soldering too) I retested and nothing -_-, after fiddling around I found the R from the rgb signals tapped from underneath the board to the 8 C type was detached due to crappy soldering skills (although I think 99% it was ok...it got detached when I starting checking wires here and there and moving the board etc), fixed that, also found out that the battery had the - and the + touching, the battery holder is so crap that the metal parts are very close to the other and a bit off center the battery and the top part (+) touches both sides (even the negative from the side) fixed that too.
Re-tested, without a cart and it booted in crosshatch but only black and white....then after keepin on pressing start (rotating to all the menus) once did a complete rotation colour came up (wtf!!) switched off and on...and nothing...a black screen, flickers some big pixels with lots of colours and a 1 sec flash of white.
Anyone ever came up with this problem?

Edit: here is a quick video I posted on you tube with sound clicks of power on and off, maybe its better seeing the 30 seconds video rather than reading !

 

[Wolfie79]

So I really dunno what to say now....so I had problems with my 2 slot board, still unresolved, and decided to consolize the 1FZ to get playing at least, but worked only for 2 mins, I re-checked the DIN 8pin "C" cable to the scart, confirmed it is wired correctly and working fine, so problem is def with the mobo only, with or no cart it still does not work, I cant manage to get to crosshatch, don`t know if it might give a clue, (and not sure if I mentioned already) but 2nd time I managed to get it running it booted in black and white, and after rotating tru the menu (pressing start per page) returning back to crosshatch came in colour :O
Now what I did I also noticed there are switches 1, 2 and 3 which are not working on the DIP switch, sO I temporarily hard wired them to be able to run the work ram test or se any difference but nothing stuck on WORK RAM TEST for over 10mins nothing popped up.
With the Universe Bios 2.0 removed and no bios in placed it displays "garbage" sort of...lots of squares in different colours and moving around, I think this is normal since there is no bios in the socket.
With the standard bios, it displays that bios briefly ( 1 - 2 seconds ) then goes to the famous green screen.... anyone has ever encountered this....and with the universe bios the green screen is not popping up (if it was just a calendar error the unibios would have just skipped tru that)

 

[Xian Xi]

For the sync, try adding a 500 ohm resistor inline to pin 20 of the scart.

 

[Wolfie79]

For the sync, try adding a 500 ohm resistor inline to pin 20 of the scart.

there`s an 180ohm resistor in the scart from pin 8 to pin 16 (thats on the +5v)
as for the 500ohm where do I have to place it? in the scart as well or near the board after I took the signal?
but if it requires a 500ohm resistor on the sync wire. how come the first two times it displayed perfectly clear (actually amazing rgb quality) and also when all 8 dip switches are on "work ram test" is displayed correctly??

Also btw shall I get the dip switch thingy replaced? I think only time it`s needed is when you have trouble in the board, but might as well get it fixed right? some problem will occur sooner or later right?

 

[Xian Xi]

The FZ, some people believe it has a stronger sync output. By reducing the strength people have said it stabilizes the image.

 

[Wolfie79]

Yes I think I read that somewhere actually, found the problem James, small piece of resistor leg, gut stuck under the bios, making contact between 1st and 2nd leg from the bottom row! Damn spent over an hour re-checking my work and looking for tiny bent legs underneath checking and any shorts or anything corrupting the image, then it had to be something that simple! but better off that way. Thanks once again Hopefully all sorted now, just need to sort out a base and something to cover the top part (jamma side) was thinking of using a black vhs box i think its actually fit enough to cut the extra and fit in nicely underneath to hide the board + wiring

 

[dragonpt]

The FZ, some people believe it has a stronger sync output. By reducing the strength people have said it stabilizes the image.

So true

From my past experience i recommend an 1k pot on the sync line (thank you James )

@ Wolfie79, just add the 1k pot on the sync line, the mv1fz sync signal is so strange, that you can not find an resistor that works 100% for every tv you got.

with the 1k pot you can simply adjust the sync for your needs, no more troubles.



sync input ----> to the middle pin
the other 2 pins are output and Ground




On the RGB lines, i'm now using 75 Ohm resistors, so the colours are not too bright

 

[NEO-GEO man]

Yes that is no sync.

The reason monitors in arcade machines dont need the resistors is they are calibrated for the levels they are expected to receive from the board. You could calibrate your TV to take the signal with no resistors, but then everything else will be out, and adjusting white balance isnt as simple as turning a few pots if you want it to be correct.

I use 220 ohm resistors in series on the RGB lines, and that makes it very close to my 3-5 and 3-6 AES consoles.

 

[Wolfie79]

Ok so basically (lets see if I got this right) when there is no sync, with a standard Bios the error is manifested in the green screen (just like a calendar error...and in fact I got the calendar error problem with the battery, the battery holder is defective, sometimes the - and + are connected with the battery in place, w/o the battery is fine, so atm to avoid any shorts i`m not powering on with the battery in place, thus the green screen error with standard bios, while on the universe bios 2.0 what i`m getting is sometimes it works just fine, to crosshatch and switch on and off and works fine, and then after 1min I try that again and it doesn`t work, is that 100% due to the sync? in that case i`ll just go buy 1k pot like the one pictured above and do the mod tonight after work...
thanks again for the help everyone, really appreciate it

It could not be the bios right? the standard is manifesting the calendar error (will need to checkout the tutorial about changing the res and crystal or whatever it is) and the universe bios 2.0 going crazy(sometimes works fine and sometimes not)

and as for the pot will come in handy just in case i`ll change crt (these things are not forever) so which one should I get? http://www.gemalta.com/?subcats=Y&t...&cid=0&q=pot&x=0&y=0&dispatch=products.search or from http://www.fabian.com.mt/POTS.HTM (although no pictures here so dunno what to look for but there are 2 linear models which say 1k!) thanks!

 

[NEO-GEO man]

The calender error has nothing to do with the sync issue.

The board should work with or without a battery. It just wont save settings without it.

Did you remove the resistor from the battery charge circuit?

 

[Wolfie79]

The calender error has nothing to do with the sync issue.

The board should work with or without a battery. It just wont save settings without it.

Did you remove the resistor from the battery charge circuit?

yes I know that calendar error(stuck on green screen or sometimes says cal error) has nothing to do with the sync but just to double check thats it has nothing to do witht he bios (since the standard bios gets stuck at calendar and stops there and the universe bios 2.0 skips ok the calendar but gets stuck on the black screen, just want to make sure if I should keep the universe 2.0 or ditch it and get a new one)

yes in fact i`m running without battery, dunno if you can short anything but since i`m not technical i`m not risking!

Yes there where 3 resistors (small silver rectangle ones) very small actually and removed them so there is no charge going on, its the battery holder thats crap and flimsy so its the culprit but without battery its fine there`s no touching anywhere.

as for the pots I linked which one do you suggest NEO-GEO man? tomorrow its weekend (and wife` bday) so no chance in hell i`m gonna work on it, so hoping could finish off 2nite

 

[NEO-GEO man]

P00230 1K for the sync as suggested by DragonPT. You want linear curve. If you get a log curve itll still work but its not the one for this job

 

[Wolfie79]

P00230 1K for the sync as suggested by DragonPT. You want linear curve. If you get a log curve itll still work but its not the one for this job

Thanks will get one on my way to work, and on my way back hopefully will put it, its just 3 simple wires no ground, sync in and sync out and ground I can get from any ground point and sync in to sync out I`ll get from the cable going to the din8 "C" type so wont take me that long to do. Then is it ok to turn the pot while the machine is on? or do you switch off, turn a bit and test ? then re-do the same thing till picture is stable?

 

[NEO-GEO man]

Turn it while its on yes

 

[Wolfie79]

Just did the 1k pot, ground sync in and out, 1st time it works (as usual when switching on after a long time) then the pot i adjusted d picture it is not in sync only at the very sides of the twisting, so the crt can handle the rgb/sync quite well, switched on and off and same problem again nothing pops up black screen again, i got switches 1,2 and 3 broken on d dipswitch but i think it has nothing to do right? Really puzzled....

 

[NEO-GEO man]

The DIP switches wont be the cause.

Need to see a picture of what youre refering to, and maybe even a high res picture of the board too.