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Custom JVS I/O - MEGA JVS

I'm kicking myself for not thinking of this when I submitted the v3 board, but I went ahead and submitted a v3.1 revision to PCBWay that has a new header that contains the pins to drive the display as well as the switches for profile, start, and test. I also submitted the design for the pcb that will go into the coin door display setup I showed in an earlier post. It has a matching header to the new one added to the main board, so wiring in the display and buttons should be relatively simple.

If all of that works out, I'll be about wrapped up with my personal goals for this project and can maybe get back into my FFB translator project. :thumbsup:
 
winteriscoming said:
There have to be a couple other known working Megas...

@freddiefiasco, you've got a V2 board, right? Any feedback on the brand of Mega 2560 you've had success with?
Click to expand...
Yep. The V2 works beautifully with the MEGA2560 R3 from Elegoo. I had to switch back to the non OLED display, I had to use the display for another project.

Elegoo MEGA2560 R3: https://www.amazon.com/Elegoo-EL-CB-003-ATmega2560-ATMEGA16U2-Arduino/dp/B01H4ZLZLQ

I currently have the V2 connected to this specific MEGA2560 board: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OH21CRM

Both of these boards work just fine for what @winteriscoming has shared with me for the V1 and V2 boards in testing.

I'm currently rocking the V1 with the sporadic debouncing issue until I can find some time to add your recommended fixes from a while back.

Here is a crude video of the V2 with OLED that I have plugged in to an ID2 Cab:
The debouncing issues are hardly noticeable and not related to the V2 board whatsoever, just on the V1: (watch the steering wheel closely)

I'll be happy to help answer any questions anyone may have in my testing.

V2_MEGA2560R3.jpg
 
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freddiefiasco said:
winteriscoming said:
There have to be a couple other known working Megas...

@freddiefiasco, you've got a V2 board, right? Any feedback on the brand of Mega 2560 you've had success with?
Click to expand...
Yep. The V2 works beautifully with the MEGA2560 R3 from Elegoo. I had to switch back to the non OLED display, I had to use the display for another project.
Elegoo MEGA2560 R3: https://www.amazon.com/Elegoo-EL-CB-003-ATmega2560-ATMEGA16U2-Arduino/dp/B01H4ZLZLQ

I currently have the V2 connected to this specific MEGA2560 board: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OH21CRM

Both of these boards work just fine for what @winteriscoming has shared with me for the V1 and V2 boards in testing.

I'm currently rocking the V1 with the sporadic debouncing issue until I can find some time to add your recommended fixes from a while back.

Here is a crude video of the V2 with OLED that I have plugged in to an ID2 Cab:
The debouncing issues are hardly noticeable and not related to the V2 board whatsoever, just on the V1: (watch the steering wheel closely)

I'll be happy to help answer any questions anyone may have in my testing.

V2_MEGA2560R3.jpg
Click to expand...
drrroooooool :thumbsup:
 
I think I got the control and output mappings correct for the Namco FCA header on the V3 board. So far I've only booted Mario Kart Arcade GP 2 in my WMMT cab with one of these boards, but the controls worked like the stock Namco FCA board and I was able to make use of a mapping profile to get controls and outputs aligned a bit better with Mario Kart.

I probably should have tested this before submitting the V3.1 revision to PCBWay, but I think I'm good to go with the way the Namco header is routed. It's possible that I mixed up a couple of outputs used in Mario Kart for the camera (I don't have a stock camera setup to test and my DIY camera solution doesn't make use of the 3 outputs that the stock camera uses), but that can be fixed with a simple change to profile mappings for outputs.

I'll be sending a V3.1 board to a Mario Kart owner, so I should be able to confirm that outputs are either working as they should or if profile changes are needed to re-order them.
 
When I was testing the V3 board in my WMMT cab for the first time, I started getting anxious about the fact that the view change lamp wasn't lighting, and the mode change lamp was misbehaving.

I looked through the code and realized I was only initializing the 2 outputs used in my OR2SP cab. WMMT's mode change button light is on an output that OR2 doesn't use. I've updated the code in github to initialize all potential outputs on the MEGA JVS. That fixed the misbehaving mode change lamp, but I still wasn't getting anything on the view change lamp... ?(

I took out the board and started troubleshooting, buzzing out traces, and referencing my board schematics and other notes on what controls what. I had only installed MOSFETs for the outputs I'd be using. I had a note that I needed to install MOSFETS Q6 and Q7 for these 2 lamp outputs and then I realized Q6 wasn't populated at all! I soldered a MOSFET into that spot and the WMMT cabinet outputs are good to go. :thumbsup:

In my limited play of Mario Kart in the WMMT cab using the MEGA JVS, I'm realizing my approach to button mappings is lacking the ability to assign multiple buttons to one input (i.e. assign something on the WMMT shifter to be the item button as well as the view change button). The way button mappings currently work is that you get to decide one button that controls a given input. So the profile manager is basically asking what one button should be used to control this input. You can choose that same button for multiple inputs, so one button can be read as multiple simultaneous buttons, but there's no means of saying multiple buttons should control one input. It will complicate things in profile management code and the arduino code, but it may be worth exploring. I have no idea when I'd get around to this, but it will just be a software fix that can be done at any point without hardware changes.

Another interesting topic is with regards to designing a PCB and planning for a 3D printed housing around it. In this case, I already had a starting point with my first attempts at 3D printing a coin slot housing to fit one of the OLED displays I'm using. So I was able to use that to figure out appropriate dimensions for the PCB. It's a relatively simple circuit that just routes buttons and display pins to an 8 pin header, but the pcb will also be the main support for the display and the buttons. What's cools is that you can do simple printouts of boards to get an idea for fitment. I'll end up tweaking the housing design a bit to better accommodate the PCB, but this initial fitment test was a success! I'm excited to get the real PCBs in and finish this up.
coin door display pcb paper test.jpg
 
i want one of these mega jvs displays and coin slot housing. so far that looks nice
 
DHL delivered my MEGA JVS v3.1 and display PCBs late this evening. I'm printing out a re-tooled coin slot housing to match up with the mounting holes in the display PCB, so hopefully I'll have something to show tomorrow.

Some software updates are going to be needed because I had to mount the display upside down, and I was thinking how it could be nice to have the option to invert the display so that the text is black and the background is lit. Both of these would ideally be configured via a file on the SD card. That shouldn't be too hard to implement.

I also have created a 3D-printed mounting bracket for the MEGA JVS that matches up with the holes on the Namco FCA JVS I/O PCB, so this board will be able to be mounted in my WMMT cabs using stock mounting hardware. I'll probably do something similar to match up with a Sega Type 1 JVS I/O.

Oh, and for these new boards, I went with black solder mask, and I'm pretty pleased with the outcome! :thumbsup:

I'll share pics of all the fun stuff when I can.
 
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just read about the project. how is it going? impressive on the ability to id the cabinet and switch to the game you want.
 
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@rocket Whats this ability to ID the Cabinet you talk about rocket? Couldn't find it in the thread? I'd be super interested in adding it to OpenJVS if you've managed to somehow detect the game running/platform through JVS @winteriscoming?

Also what you've come up with looks really good - maybe down the line we could swap one of your MegaJVSs for one of my Pi's with OpenJVS on to see how each others compares! I was wondering if you'd tried any of these boards on systems with the sense line connected strait to ground? For me the Naomi runs the games fine with sense grounded, however the Lindbergh does not - I'm unsure about the Chihiro and Triforce though.
 
There must be a misunderstanding based on my hopes in earlier posts. There is nothing happening that auto-detects a game. What I had hoped was happening during JVS initialization, where the motherboard CAN send the game name, isn't happening.
 
Ah makes sense. I'm experiencing the exact same thing as you, and have never seen the command that sets the game name called.
 
I never attempted simply grounding sense, but the motherboard I was initially testing was Chihiro. Once I got it working there using the method I ended up with, I never had sense issues on any other boards.
 
Ya sorry trying to conceptualize how the board knew what cabinet it was in.
 
There are profiles saved to it. If you had an off-the-wall cabinet outside of the 2 driving cabs I have, you'd have to create profiles for various games to work for your cab. Then you can manually swap profiles with a button to work for a game you've booted.

A more complex method would be for the netboot device to swap the profiles over usb during the loading process, which is a supported feature, but I don't currently have a permanent netboot solution in place and the the work would have to be done there for it to send the expected packet over usb to change profiles. Of course that only works for netbooting, so CF booting is out as well as motherboards that aren't NAOMI, Chihiro, and Triforce.
 
That sounds similar to my solution. I have netbooting in OpenJVS and it swaps the map/profile depending on what game is started and what controller you’ve got plugged in.

My issue is I can’t be bothered to make up all the profiles/maps
 
In my case there aren't all that many driving games, so there aren't too many profiles.

Do other games deviate all that much, though? I was thinking shooters were all relatively standard, and other games generally work within a 2p 6 button configuration.
 
Most games are similar but some have differences, for example:

Games with fixed guns generally have the Y axis flipped like Let’s Go Jungle
Things like Sega Airline Pilots are strange, lots of buttons
House of the dead 4 has accelerometers
Let’s Go Jungle Special is completely different in Button etc.
Ninja Assult is completely different
Monkey Ball - Analogue Joystick

So they’re all mostly the same, but with a few tweaks needed
 
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I've had a couple of interesting trades for MEGA JVS boards.

I'm not interested in selling them outright, but I can be convinced to put one or more together for the right trade.

The intent behind the MEGA JVS is pretty niche, and I expect a lot of people who have expressed interest might not fully understand. Basically you would really only want one if you've got a driving cabinet that uses a SEGA Type 1 or NAMCO FCA JVS I/O board and you want to boot and play other driving games with control mapping so that other games' controls work in your cab. I think it *could* work in a SEGA Type 3 JVS cabinet, but it will be lacking the capacity to accommodate the extra header on the Type 3, resulting in the loss of some outputs (and perhaps some other stuff, too).

There may be a use-case for a gun cabinet that uses a Type 1 I/O, but I have no experience with JVS gun cabs and any challenges presented when trying to boot other shooting games.

If you're interested because you like playing games outside of a cabinet and wiring in controllers and steering wheels, this is probably not the solution for you. If you want to plug in USB controllers for playing any JVS games, this is definitely NOT the solution for you.

My goals with this project are basically concluded. I may update software features as the need arises, but the current hardware iteration (v3.1) meets all of my needs. As always, this will be the place I'll announce any updates.
 
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