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PGM single game PCB assembly and troubleshooting

That's really pricey.

There MAY be something on the 3D printed shell front that is affordable and looks good. Waiting to hear back. :)
 
Well I sent @bfontain plans to one of a my friend with a 3d printer and this is what I got back:

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Total cost: 20$ :)

He told me he couldn't do the ketsui name : it was blank when he converted to .sl something? anyone can help?

Note: The angled jumper connectors are in the way and needed to be straightened
 
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oooh, nice Mrhide. Does your friend want to make more? (for fun and profit!) haha
 
Mrhide said:
Well I sent @bfontain plans to one of a my friend with a 3d printer and this is what I got back:

Total cost: 20$ :)

He told me he couldn't do the ketsui name : it was blank when he converted to .sl something? anyone can help?

Note: The angled jumper connectors are in the way and needed to be straightened
Click to expand...
If he was able to use that much PLA for 20$ then we would potentially have a winner. I prefer the case snakegrave made over here : IGS PGM SHELL

Does your pal plan on making more for that price range? :)
 
Kavas said:
If he was able to use that much PLA for 20$ then we would potentially have a winner. I prefer the case snakegrave made over here : IGS PGM SHELL
Does your pal plan on making more for that price range? :)
Click to expand...
More of a favor then a production plant so no, no plan on making more!
 
It always feels a bit wrong to me when people make simple plates with a few holes with a 3D printer... wouldn't a laser cut piece be a lot cheaper and faster to produce?

(Though to be clear: It does look very good!)
 
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edit: Never mind, I'm dumb.
 
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I finally got around to building my first one of these today, made an Espgaluda cart but it gets stuck at the legal screen.

Not sure where to go from here, I assume it's an issue with the P1 ROM? But it's got to that screen so I'm not sure why it died there.
 
To add to that, it sometimes gives me an error message in the top left.

P1 has verified good
U5 initially did not verify good, so I erased and reprogrammed the GAL, same issue. Replaced the GAL, same issue.
 
The GALs are an "all or nothing" thing, so if you see legal text without corruption they should be fine. Any error would corrupt the graphics or prevent the code from booting.

Two things I could think of right now:
- maybe the NVRAM contains data that confuses the game? The switch next to the test button should erase it. You should be able to go into a test menu as well if you hold the button for ~1s
- maybe a solder bridge on the address lines, or dirty/bent pins on the slot connector?
 
NVRAM has been cleared, both with the switch and within the test menu

I've tried 2 different motherboards and both give exactly the same fault :(

It's throwing an error message sometimes in the top left with address and data lines listed, so it's definitely something code related.

The game should still boot even if the CHAR board is an issue (I tested that using a PROG board from Oriental Legend and the CHAR board)

Could it be an issue with the TILE ROMs since they're on the PROG board?
 
Yes, the CHAR board is independent. You can swap tile ROMs as well with the game still booting.
You could try burning P1 into a different EPROM, in case the one you've got is slightly dodgy.

The only other thing is the connection to the EPROM, either a loose pin on the socket or a bad solder connection.
 
I'll beep out the socket pins to the edge connector and see if any are missing.

What do the resistor arrays do? Could it be an issue there?
 
I think the resistor arrays are to prevent reflections on the data lines, so yes, if they are faulty you may get odd data.

The address lines on the socket may be slightly confusing: I labelled the address lines on the cart connector how the M68k sees them, which starts at A1 because it counts in byte. The EPROM starts at A0 (with A-1 in byte mode) as it counts in words.
 
Ok I'll meter out the resistor array to make sure it's doing what it should be and meter out the lines to the edge connector and see what happens.
 
Bah, ordered 10 EPROMs. Two of them give errors when writing despite trying to clear them several times.
Now I need to wait for like a week until I get two new ones. Lame.

Does anyone have a recommended source for EPROMs in Europe?
Last time I just went with some random ones from Ebay.

At least the rest is done now :)
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I tried a few different sellers, but you always seem to get the same bag with loose chips... I've got a stack of all the ones that failed to program by now.
 
I mostly get mine from eBay too. It is a bit hit & miss. I had big issues with the 27C160 where I would not be able to program whole batches of them. Turned out my GQ-4X was just a POS. Once I got a proper programer, they all worked. Fortunately I had not thrown them out.
 
The seller I buy from delivers everything in tubes at least.

The last batch several weren't blank and it took a lot of attempts at erasing to get them to erase, and 1 was bad.

It's only going to get more difficult unfortunately. They're not making new EPROMs so the quality of recycled chips will go down
 
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