Issue with screen distortion and P2B2 not working

[Macs]

Hi I installed the Raspeberry Jamma board on my RPI4 a couple of days ago
and I familiarizing with the software, till now the issues I had resolved already but there are a couple where I could
need some help.

My setup has arpicade 4.3.1 on a cab with original CRT monito and one of the issues is that all vertical games and the screen of the front-end suffer from a slightly distorted image on the top. Normal 4:3 games seems fine.
The vertical games also have the bottom part of the screen cut. I tried to adjust the image but is activity not there so it's not a monitor issue but configuration, maybe some overscan value?




The other issue is that button 2 of player 2 is not working. I tried various games with the same result.
I'm sure that the he part of good because I reconnected a pandorabox to see if something was broken and it has worked fine.

I still have to familiarise with the box and the software so some tips to what to look to help with the problem solving would be much appreciated.

[dee2eR]

Sounds like the 480i mode is curling at the top. If you can't get it to look right with your monitor adjustments it's probably worth trying the '240p only' mode from the service menu. The 480i mode will be changing at the next release due to other reasons so hopefully the new one works out better for you.

For the input issue I'd recommend checking it on the command line as it will remover emulator setup from the list of potential causes. Exit all menus with 'f4' on a keyboard and at the command line type:

jstest /dev/input/js1

to test all the p2 inputs. When finished ctrl+c to exit the test and type:

sudo reboot

to reboot and get back to the menus.

I've also had a couple of reports lately of low voltage causing input issues so it's well worth checking your 5v at the JAMMA edge while the board is attached, you'l want about 5.1V at the JAMMA edge for a Pi3 or 4 based setup.

[Macs]

I tried all hw the monitor controls but could not fix this distortion and it seems that the 240P only does not help, I was already in this mode anyway.

For the test on the P2 controls shows that the b2 is always on for some reason.

Code: Select all

Driver version is 2.1.0.
Joystick (GPIO Controller 2) has 2 axes (X, Y)
and 9 buttons (BtnA, BtnB, BtnX, BtnY, BtnTL, BtnTR, BtnSelect, BtnStart, BtnMode).
Testing ... (interrupt to exit)
Axes:  0:     0  1:     0 Buttons:  0:off  1:on   2:off  3:off  4:off  5:off  6:off  7:off  8:off

I tried also to deconnect the wiring from the button, but it stays on anyway, I will have to check the board an the jamma connector.

[Macs]

Do you have a schema of the pin out on the 40 pin ribbon so I can test if everything is fine there?

edit: nevermind, I tested all 40 pin of the ribbon with the multimer and are ok.

edit2: I have 5.4v with the board attached, too much?

edit3: lowered to 5.14v, still the issue present

[Macs]

I think I have a broken GPIO on the 18 (pin12) that from what I see on the board is exactly the one the button with the issue

Code: Select all

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ ./gpiotest 
This program checks the Pi's (user) gpios.

The program reads and writes all the gpios.  Make sure NOTHING
is connected to the gpios during this test.

The program uses the pigpio daemon which must be running.

To start the daemon use the command sudo pigpiod.

Press the ENTER key to continue or ctrl-C to abort...

Testing...
Pull up on gpio 18 failed.
Skipped non-user gpios: 0 1 28 29 30 31 
Tested user gpios: 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 
Failed user gpios: 18 

[dee2eR]

It does sound like your Pi has a stuck GPIO hardware issue. If it is fairly new you should return it for a replacement, a Pi with hardware issues should be covered by warranty.

It must then be the 240p@60 mode that you're having the picture issue with. I will try to replicate it on my monitors and see if I can improve it.

[Macs]

Do you have alternative hdmi timings I could test to see if something changes?
How is deciding which resolution to adopt depending on the game?

[dee2eR]

It checks what spec the original game used, using a reference file, then picks res based on number of scan lines and refresh rate. See /boot/launchers/resSwitch.sh and /boot/launchers/mameinfo.txt

Unfortunately changing the boot res without changes to other files will cause issues, excepting the three resolutions that are already in config.txt. It may be worth trying the regular low res mode instead of the 240p only mode if you haven't, although as it's the default setting you've probably tried it already and it wouldn't change anything for 240p games...

You could try some games that run at different refresh rates to see if the issue is with all res/refresh or only particular ones. If you let me know one that works well on your monitor I'd be happy to make the required adjustments to have you booting at that res/refresh as a workaround until I find a better solution. I'm pretty sure I can find alternate timings that will be better. I can confirm I have a slight curl on my test monitor at 60hz (although it's very slight, not nearly as pronounced as you have it) - I have worked through a similar issue with 57.444855hz recently (another one that seemed to work better on my test bench than on some other monitors).

If you're happy to test some things with me I can post up some things to try sooner than the next full release (which has hit some new unexpected issues and become delayed while I work them out...).

[Macs]

more or less all the horizontal games display well :
bubble bobble
black tiger
city connection
crazy climber
ghost 'n goblins
toki
ect..
maybe because the image does never extend till the top of the screen where is the problem.

all the vertical games that reach that point and the main menu of attract mode that is full screen instead have the defect:
1943
psychic 5
gyruss
karate champ
etc..
the screen is also cut on the lower part as you can see from psychic 5


and does not matter if I play with the screen controls, the hidden part does not appear and the upper distortion does not disappear if I lower the image.

can't try others because I still have to find a full compatible romset for 0.172, and probably set the bios files in the correct path as all the neogeo ones do not start.

[Macs]

well I noticed one thing, if I play on mame174 (retroarch) the vertical games are a displayed on the right and still have the distortion on top but the image is not cut on the bottom, so will have a look on what are the differences there.