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Darksoft Neo Multi Help thread

Thanks for detailed feedback. The cart draws more current than a regular cart, so many things can happen. The track that you severed helped with some models that had issues, but that MV1F sometimes worked, sometimes didn't. Could you share a picture of your PCB and your setup? Going so high to 5.25-5.7V is too much. I don't where you are measuring the Voltage, but it should be measured on the cart slot, right before it goes to the multicart.

I'll have a look at the firmware files again, but they should be OK.

About the romsets, I can't comment on those as you can imagine.
 
Ohhh, you want the measurement from the cart connector? Sorry I’d literally been measuring from the 5v dc output on the MeanWell, right next to the voltage adjustment. My bad.

I just cleaned the whole motherboard the other day, so I can share some pics of the PCB…but it isn’t pretty 😅.
Immediately you’ll notice all the enamel wiring/magnet wire I used to connect to the mainboard, as it was much easier to route and work with.
While it’s worked perfectly well for actual MVS games, I’m guessing that may not be great for the multimvs? I don’t know if it would lead to more interference?
I did the job about 20yrs ago. I know I tapped all the points that Jeff Kurtz said to use on the instructions, but I’ve now lost them and they’re apparently gone from the internet.
I was going to recap the board and redo any connections that had gone flakey, but they’re all still solid to my amazement 😂.
(I was really using some junk soldering gear back then). Also all the caps I tested were still in the same range as the new caps I’d brought, so I didn’t see the point in recapping at the moment.
The spider nest of wires on the bread board, is where I built the sync circuit, as it gave me easy points to run the connecting wires to the pcb. It seemed easier to me back then than installing it in the location that Jeff had provided on his pcb.

Also when I wired up the Mean Well I just replicated the wiring from my old Sony power supply. Is it ok having the common rail tied to ground? I was always told we should, but don’t see anyone doing that now days 😅.
 

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I know I tapped all the points that Jeff Kurtz said to use on the instructions, but I’ve now lost them and they’re apparently gone from the internet.

You can probably find a backup of it at archive.org

The spider nest of wires on the bread board, is where I built the sync circuit, as it gave me easy points to run the connecting wires to the pcb. It seemed easier to me back then than installing it in the location that Jeff had provided on his pcb.
Yeah, that doesn't look bad but also not good. It could be a source of problem if it's interfering with the board somehow.

Anyways, let me know those V that you get on the cart slot and let's take it from there.
 
Tested all firmware with CPLD file that you added with two mv1fz board with stock bios.
R1173 and 1102 have the same audio problem while 1040 gets stuck on the installation screen.
(black screen)
I also tried cutting the trace at r193 resistor.Unfortunately the audio suddenly disappears after a few minutes of playing.
 

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The download link for the older menu is showing up as having been removed for me.
@Rizzardi84 @Skulmonky in order to run r1040, you also need to update the firmware:
PREVIOUS MENU April 1st (Needs FW 1040 or lower, available in the attachmen of this post): https://mega.nz/#!Vow1QapY!BDwTV-eK2_-qpQK8F-7L2hxYkKUJsiyCr5Dqqi9Ewp8
Thanks djsheep, I’ll try getting these voltage readings on the cart slot and everything chased down on my end first.
@Darksoft @Skulmonky -- If you guys want me to have a look at that cart on known working hardware, let me know.
 
Thank you @Darksoft for explaining about the V and where to measure it from. Makes much more sense now.
So I took the V at the Jamma connector and at the solder point directly under the cart slot.
I took them at 3 different times and what you said immediately made sense.
With no cart loaded and at the crosshatch screen both points read 4.758v (while the power supply was still at 5.25v)
Then I measured again with Metal Slug 5 MVS cart playing in attract mode, and both points read 4.646V.
Then I measured them again with the multimvs loaded, and even at the options menu with no games loaded it was already reading 4.514V.
So it made sense to me that once any of the games loaded I started getting sound issues, and other random glitches the longer I let the games run.

I then rebooted into the multis option menu, and changed the voltage to 4.7V at the Jamma edge and cart slot. Still had immediate sound issues upon booting metal slug.
Rebooted, changed to 4.75V, and again still sound issues upon booting into metal slug.
Final stable performance seems to be when Jamma edge connector reads just over 4.8V
I adjusted to 4.804-4.816V.
That seems to keep it above 4.796V. It seems like if the voltage sags too much below 4.8V during gameplay that’s when I start getting sound issues, and random glitches.

Seems like there can be a small difference between the voltage at the Jamma edge connector and the cart connector. Cart connector voltage can be the same or sag to 1/4-almost 1/2V lower than the Jamma side. Does this seem right?

At this point fingers crossed, it seems like everything’s good now 😁.
Played a few games of each, and have had Last Blade running on demo loop for nearly an hour now.

End result: mv1f board, latest bios and menu, the point on the multimvs cart cut, and the voltage at the connector adjusted to 4.8V and it all seems great now.
 
I installed the r1040 firmware with the menu you posted, unfortunately the scenario is always the same. I also tried to set the voltage between 4.7 and 5 volt with several attempts. (measurements taken under the card). the audio disappears in an absolutely random way during the game. However I do not notice any voltage drop. I also tested another multi that has graphic defects for about 2 hours and the problem never occurred.
now I'm making a last attempt with a third base that a friend will borrow me next week.
I attach the link to the video
View: https://youtu.be/aajaW-ISwjU?feature=shared

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I had a similar problem on a classic 161 in 1 (not multi)
I have a 5v adjustable power supply. When I set it exactly to 5V .12V it jumps to almost 13.8 to 14V.
When I set it to 4.8V .12V it has approximately the correct voltage of 12V.
Neogeo uses 12V for sound.
Since then it has worked fine, the sound no longer drops out..
I don't know if that was the problem..
 
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