GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

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Dacide
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Jan 31, 2019 9:36 pm

Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by Dacide »

Hi Rama,

Your firmware looks awesome! Difference with stock firmware is unbelievable.
My setup is MVS 4 slot to LG UK6300 (component input and original aspect) and my problem is that GBS is cropping horizontal. With crosshatch image from mvs lose one blue column enterly. I tried with mame displaying on the same tv and configuration with success.

Log:
userprefs.txt opened
loading from preset slot 1: /preset_ntsc.1
Output Format: Component
post preset done (preset id: 4)
already at bestHTotal: 866 Fieldrate: 59.186
h: 431 v: 527 PLL.00 A:7f7f7f S:8f.00.02 I:00 D:0585 m:1 ht:1705 vt:264 hpw: 124 s:1a u: 0 s: 8 W:-44
h: 431 v: 527 PLL.00 A:7f7f7f S:8f.00.02 I:00 D:0588 m:1 ht:1705 vt:264 hpw: 124 s:1a u: 0 s: 8 W:-44
h: 431 v: 527 PLL.00 A:7f7f7f S:8f.00.02 I:00 D:0585 m:1 ht:1705 vt:264 hpw: 124 s:1a u: 0 s: 8 W:-44
rama
Posts: 1373
Joined: Wed Mar 08, 2017 3:15 pm

Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by rama »

Thanks, it's great you like it :)

First of all, I'm actually impressed that the Component out option still works.
I kind of assumed at least one of the later changes totally broke it :p

So the Component out option had some limitations, if I remember correctly.
What you describe sounds like there isn't enough overscan to display all the active pixels, is that it?
If so, try the "enable overscan" option in the web ui. It doesn't apply to all formats but maybe the one you use is included.
This should fix the issue, if it was indeed it.

Also, always try to revert to default settings if there are issues. From the logs I can see that you're loading a custom preset.
These are meant for when users have finished tweaking stuff, so that the changes can be restored at will.
If there's pixels missing, then it's definitely not ready to be made permanent :p
Dacide
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Jan 31, 2019 9:36 pm

Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by Dacide »

I tried with oversampling and do nothing

https://i.imgur.com/EzD1aMw.jpg

with MAME

https://i.imgur.com/igMk9gK.jpg

Thanks for your help!

Oh yeah, i chose that custom preset because i have to fix brightness (gain adjusted to FF)
rama
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Joined: Wed Mar 08, 2017 3:15 pm

Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by rama »

Also try different presets. Some have more active pixels shown by default.
Otherwise, it doesn't seem too bad from the picture. Your games may not even use this area.

Edit:
Your RGB is coming in too hot, by the way.
You probably know that but maybe your setup has a way to attenuate RGB to 0.7Vpp / TV levels.
Once it's attenuated, you won't need to lower the gain to 0xff anymore.
Solo761
Posts: 16
Joined: Mon Jan 26, 2015 5:29 pm

Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by Solo761 »

Possibly off topic now, as it seems project switched to ESP boards, but it all started here long time ago :). And I think this could be hardware issue, so where better to ask what to solder/desolder to the board and have it solved.

To cut longer story somewhat shorter I started messing with it with first incarnation when dooklink first managed to control tvia chip rPi and later with arduino based ones. My goal was to have settings suited for converting Amiga signal to VGA. I chose two settings and made small PCB that hosts ATTiny and these two settings that can be toggled via switch.

One setting was with deinterlace disabled for games and low res workbench (this was main problem with vanilla GBS, it always deinterlaced, even when input singal was progressive) and the other with enabled (for Amiga's higher resolutions which are interlaced). I t didn't make these settings/configs, just chose two that were best suited to my purpose and set up Arduino code to use one of these two, depending on switch toggle.

It worked, but after some time one problem wiggled it's head in first config (with deinterlace disabled)... There are some ghosts/artifacts in the image, not everywhere, but on these spots, for example:

https://imgur.com/CgLYbyv

If I move the window/icons they move with it, so they're not fixed in one spot on the screen. Another issue is if I close the window it's "ghost" still remains on the screne. Even after reboot, so it seems that GBS is retaining this in memory, here's the image just after reboot. This is not only closing the window. It's faint, but you cane see window frame.

https://imgur.com/CGqiR27

Another thing that sometimes occurs is green color waves, they travel across the screen, plus this gray "line" I circled that travels with them. When it "exits" the screen it starts from beginning.

https://imgur.com/Frh3x8g


When I switch to other setting (deinterlace enabled one) none of this is visible, image is clear, except deinterlace artifacts around moving objects. In case of "green screen" it also dissapears, and when I switch back to first setting green waves/lines are gone, only those first "glitches" are present.

https://imgur.com/1xadwHo

I know there are some hardware issues on vanilla GBS board, apart from soldering in jumper to disable on board control I haven't made any modifications. People mostly had issues with snow/grain on the image and like. Could my issues be related to some of these problems?




The reason why I'm using Attiny is because I started on this before ESP came to play :). This is what I'm working on:

https://imgur.com/oFemiIc

I had one A500 motherboard that was dead which I managed to repair. So to not let it go to waste I decided to put all kind of upgrades inside and make it standalone. I added kickstart switch to toggle between 1.3 and 3.1, Gotek drive instead of floppy, 8MB fastmem addon board with CF connector for "HDD", swapped Agnus with newer revision Agnus that supports up to 1 MB chip ram, 2.0 MB bay expansion with Gary Adapter so CPU can address it all (that makes it 1MB chip and 9,5 MB slow ram, PS/2 keyboard to Amiga keyboard converter, PS/2 mouse to Amiga mouse converter + keyboard/mouse switcher, mean well PSU that outputs needed voltages (+5V, +12V and -12V) and finally GBS-8200 board to be able to use any VGA monitor.

So far I got everything to work OK except GBS with these artifacts.
rama
Posts: 1373
Joined: Wed Mar 08, 2017 3:15 pm

Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by rama »

Hm, that must be a nice A500 by now. I really regret selling mine that I still got to buy for relatively cheap.
Nowadays even an A500 goes for ~ 100 Euros, too much for a barebones model, imho :p

So your problem is with the configuration of the read/write FIFOs and line buffers.
I can't tell what exactly is wrong, but it's impossible to give you a "quick fix" for the Arduino version.
You'll have to upgrade to the ESP8266 and the current gbscontrol.
This will solve this issue and provide a much better experience over what you have now, so it's worth it :)
Solo761
Posts: 16
Joined: Mon Jan 26, 2015 5:29 pm

Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by Solo761 »

Yes, in last few years prices skyrocketed. Before you could get one for 40€, and that was fully equipped. Today for in most cases you're lucky if you get power supply...

Thanks, that helps :). I was only wondering if these issues could be from some wrong capacitor, resistor, lack of decoupling or something like that in default configuration. Arduino code is too old to spend time on figuring out what is the problem.

Only problem with ESP is that now I'll have one button on case unused. It was to switch between these two settings and now they'll be configured via WiFi :D.
rama
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Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by rama »

You can remove the button.
The current version auto detects interlaced vs progressive sources and just switches in and out the deinterlacer based on that.
User avatar
Syntax
Posts: 1772
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Location: Australia

Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by Syntax »

Or change it to a momentary button on the GBS power input.
I find I need a hard reset every once in a while when hot swapping consoles.
Jasper
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Jun 28, 2019 9:49 pm

Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by Jasper »

Hello, first I wanted to thank you rama for this awesome project and for how you're still maintaining it!

So, I bought everything and since I'm really bad at soldering, I thought it'd be a good idea to buy a PLCC44 adapter and somehow fix it onto the microcontroller, so I bought this one: https://www.ebay.com/itm//352635493660 .

I think my adapter might have a slightly different size as the one shown in the GitHub wiki because if I just place it on the chip it doesn't even touch the microcontroller pins, or at least not all of them. And I have to push down on it like crazy to have at least all the required pins for this mode pass a continuity test. The bottom of the socket isn't even able to touch the top of the chip so I can't even use superglue to fix it down.

Here is a picture of the adapter and one of it on the board:
https://i.imgur.com/bhqkQlG.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/D07Khm3.jpg

Did you guys have such a hard time using a socket adapter?

I'm thinking I might have to solder after all. :cry:

Thank you.
Solo761
Posts: 16
Joined: Mon Jan 26, 2015 5:29 pm

Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by Solo761 »

That one I already have :). Idea was if I would use native amiga output (or amiga to scart cable) I could power GBS off.

Interestingly, I never noticed those artefacts when I tried running games or in Workbench 1.3, only in Workbench 3.1.

I finished with other stuff on ToDo list (I was lazy and when I stumbled on GBS issues last year I never finished gotek install and rerouting joy ports from backside to front).
So next is to solder jumper pins on another GBS, make socket adapter for tvia chip and most importantly remember where I put ESP boards :)
rama
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Joined: Wed Mar 08, 2017 3:15 pm

Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by rama »

Solo761 wrote: Idea was if I would use native amiga output (or amiga to scart cable) I could power GBS off.
There is a source bypass mode available (on the web interface) that replicates the input unmodified to the output.
It basically turns the GBS into a fancy cable adapter.
With this, it shouldn't be necessary to unplug your source :)

About the old artefacts, it probably just had the right (wrong :p) color content to show up as an afterimage.
This all had to do with the original firmware having a couple misconfigurations.
It took me ages to understand how the entire chip works but I fixed that stuff along the way.
I think the original firmware was just rushed to market, then never updated.
Solo761
Posts: 16
Joined: Mon Jan 26, 2015 5:29 pm

Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by Solo761 »

I noticed "Source Pass-through" button in UI, but that would mean making VGA to SCART cable so it's easier to just plug into original amiga DB23 connector with cables I already have. GBS power button is just there to turn GBS off when not in use, it doesn't affect original signal so basically it doesn't matter if it's off or on.

I flashed my ESP boards, two seem to be duds. I bought them last year for some other project and these two also didn't work. Very slow operation which seems that it's actually because it looses WiFi constantly. When I connected to them, either via PC or via mobile phone it would disconnect me within 10-20 seconds. I managed to open UI only once. I doubt it's the fluke board becuase both are behaving the same.
I flashed the second type I have (I think it's D1 mini clone) and it worked fine from start. Same as it's other "brother" in that project from last year.

Here's the bad one

https://imgur.com/KLvklDm

And here's the one that works fine

https://imgur.com/Xha2uXe

Now to solder PLCC adapter, and to test it :).
rama
Posts: 1373
Joined: Wed Mar 08, 2017 3:15 pm

Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by rama »

Hmm, those 2 ESP8266 boards look okay at first. On second look, I can't even see the pcb antenna :p
Maybe the form they're delivered in gives hints at worse WiFi performance, as they're not the typical modules with the FCC certification stuff.

Anyway, WiFi issues are common with gbscontrol (sadly). The issue is that the ESP8266 is too close to the big scaler chip.
Some antennas / boards will work better than others.
Solo761
Posts: 16
Joined: Mon Jan 26, 2015 5:29 pm

Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by Solo761 »

Who knows what it is, chip is ESP8266EX. It uses same chip for serial to USB as the one that works. And that part works OK, I never lost COM port it provided. My guess was that it's the same minus metal shell around the chips. The one that works has ESP8266MOD module soldered to PCB and this one has components soldered directly to PCB. There actually is antenna, I too was looking where it was :). It's under "WeMos" printed logo.

I think the other will work fine, this one doesn't work when it's within 10cm from PC's WiFi card. I tested both of them on the table, they're not yet on GBS board. I tried reflashing it with board set as WeMos D1 R1 (although it's not the same as that one) but it behaved exactly. I just flashed simply LED blink code to it to see if it freezes after some time and so far it's blinking fine.

But no matter, that something to play with when I'm done with this thing :).

*edit*

And I'm not the only one with this problem :D
zebius
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Dec 16, 2008 6:24 pm

Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by zebius »

I also have 2 of the "fake" boards that Solo761 claims are not working, but mine are working perfectly: They flash Ok and don't lose connection.
The boards from the http://www.esp8266.com thread seem a different product, with different silkscreening. Probably a cheaper copy with smaller flash chip (notice how the last few posts mention only 4Mbit memory size).

Anyway, using these "fake" Wemos with the GBS there's something I always wanted to ask: Would it be possible to change around some of the assigned pins?

If it was possible to move SCL from pin D1 to pin D5 and SDA from pin D2 to pin D4 then the ESP board would match the GBS idc connector.
The install would be much easier/cleaner, requiring only one wire to solder.
rama
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Joined: Wed Mar 08, 2017 3:15 pm

Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by rama »

Hm, I see where you're coming from but I'm a bit wary about different modules swapping pins around.
Pin naming is a big issue with all ESP development boards, so I wonder if the layout changes as well.
Also, the yellow button GBS variant has a different connector where I2C and UART are combined.

But if you want to try it for yourself, it should be just a change in startWire():
Wire.begin(D4, D5); // or similar :)
Solo761
Posts: 16
Joined: Mon Jan 26, 2015 5:29 pm

Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by Solo761 »

zebius wrote:I also have 2 of the "fake" boards that Solo761 claims are not working, but mine are working perfectly: They flash Ok and don't lose connection.
The boards from the http://www.esp8266.com thread seem a different product, with different silkscreening. Probably a cheaper copy with smaller flash chip (notice how the last few posts mention only 4Mbit memory size).

Anyway, using these "fake" Wemos with the GBS there's something I always wanted to ask: Would it be possible to change around some of the assigned pins?

If it was possible to move SCL from pin D1 to pin D5 and SDA from pin D2 to pin D4 then the ESP board would match the GBS idc connector.
The install would be much easier/cleaner, requiring only one wire to solder.
Unfortunately off topic from GBS, but I'm a tinkerer and now I'm puzzled about this board :).

Mine look the same as one in the first image on esp8266 forum, the one author was in the image on ebay listing. The ones he got have a bit different PCB (I see notch were USB port is which is absent mine, it's missing WeMos logo and has "HW-628 V1.1" written on it).
I tried flashing simple LED blink code to it, with 10 seconds delay on power up to see if it resets randomly and it blinked without problems for about an hour so it seems it doesn't reset. So I flashed WiFi AP demo code to it. Connected successfully and opened hello world page successfully, it worked for about an hour and a half (I refreshed hello world page every so often and it worked OK), but after that WiFi disconnected and I couldn't connect again, even after board reset. After I left it off for few minutes I could connect to it again.
Maybe it overheats (chip gets warm/hot, about 50°C, not that hot but again...), maybe there are problems with connections so when it gets hot (and I guess GBS Control gets it hot faster, because it actually tries to do something, unlike this AP hello world :) ) it looses connection with antenna so it ends in connection problems.

Do you perhaps know what's exact name of this board? I didn't find it on WeMos site, and I think listing where I bought it called it NodeMCU V3.

I also thought that maybe flash memory is fake, I checked flash chip and it's 32Mbit, I also flashed ESP tester example that tests memory and it also reported real 32MBit...
samsavell
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Joined: Sat Aug 07, 2010 3:15 pm

Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by samsavell »

hello! first of all: THANK YOU rama and all others who have brought this project to where it is today. I can't stop telling anyone who will listen to me just how excited I've been with integrating this mod into my setups.

I'm curious to understand what triggers, or what the guidelines of the RGBHV passthrough function are. For some background on my usage, I am running a few different devices over VGA cables to the GBS board through an Extron MVX - I mainly use the GBS however with my Konami System 573 and a PC set up with crt_emudriver.

On an earlier firmware (which I unfortunately do not have available locally anymore) this worked flawlessly on all of my devices that I was passing along a 15khz signal from. I updated the firmware last night and discovered that my crt_emudriver PC is no longer playing nice and is defaulting into the RGBHV passthrough mode. Was this something that has changed, or am I missing a piece of the puzzle here? My PC is outputting 640x480@30hz and 640x240@15khz, but the GBS doesn't seem to like either input resolution. I do remember reading something earlier in this thread about the way crt_emudriver passes along signal across the h/v sync lines, and am curious if that is part of my situation here.

Thank you for any advice and knowledge you can share!
zebius
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Dec 16, 2008 6:24 pm

Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by zebius »

Solo761 wrote: Mine look the same as one in the first image on esp8266 forum, the one author was in the image on ebay listing. The ones he got have a bit different PCB (I see notch were USB port is which is absent mine, it's missing WeMos logo and has "HW-628 V1.1" written on it).
Those I got look exactly like the picture you posted (the bad one), except that the ESP IC is marked "ECO plugs".

It may be that the disconnection problem is really caused by overheating, and the flash IC could be the culprit.
A similar Winbond SPI flash IC has been found to cause problems on some HP monitors:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oo54uf-aI1g
Solo761
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Joined: Mon Jan 26, 2015 5:29 pm

Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by Solo761 »

I finally finished making PLCC adapter board, it's a tight fit and I think I'll put a bit of hot glue on the corners to prevent it popping off, just to be sure.

It works great from what I tried, no more strange dots in either of workbenches and games also look great. WiFi isn't actually needed, everything works as is, although I tried playing with UI a bit :).

Since it works without WiFi I tried reflashing "bad" boards and try them just to see what happens and this was the result. For some reason it defaulted 1600x900@60Hz, at least that's what my monitor reported. Image is of course wrong aspect/size/whatever. I also tried to punt aluminum heat sinks on MCU and flash chip but there was no change. I think WiFi let me connect for a bit longer, but it wouldn't open UI and it could have just been placebo effect in the end. Who knows what's the issue with them, they're probably fake (I think real WeMos NodeMcu boards have that metal shell over chips, they're not "naked" like these ones), like the D1 nano that works, but who knows, maybe flash chip is fake, maybe boards are actually defective, but got sold anyway. That's the risk with aliexpress :).
rama
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Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by rama »

@samsavell
The logic right now is that if a sync signal appears on the RGB/S/HV port, it is either an RGBHV or RGBS signal.
So if on that port a VSync signal appears, I assume the source is RGBHV and do a signal bypass (no scaling).
The detection routine recognizes CSync on the HSync pin and decodes it, but it'll still be bypassed (because VSync was present).

If you don't want bypass mode, so your 240p source gets treated as NTSC and your 480p source gets treated as EDTV 60, you need to stop the VSync detection.
Either patch out that code, or maybe try setting this to 1 (line 4548):
uopt->preferScalingRgbhv = 0; // test: set to 1
samsavell
Posts: 12
Joined: Sat Aug 07, 2010 3:15 pm

Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by samsavell »

Gotcha, changing that variable to '1' very easily fixed my setup. :)

Thank you so much for your efforts and the explanation!
tomrev
Posts: 23
Joined: Tue Jul 02, 2019 4:31 am

Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by tomrev »

Does gbs-control support PS2 RGsB (RGB sync on green)? I tried to connect my RGsB to VGA port of GBS8200 but it looks like monitor can't detect signal.

Sorry for asking this questing. I couldn't find the answer in this thread.



P.S. I was disappointed when I bought GBS8200. PS2 component to VGA picture is not good, picture is not sharp and color is too warm. I am very happy when I found this project that Improve the Quality Dramatically. Thank you rama, doolink and everyone for making GBS8200 really great.
rama
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Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by rama »

Sure, you're welcome :)
And I can count one more user that wants this feature.
I've got to do something about it.. some day :p
joekenton
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Jul 03, 2019 4:52 pm

Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by joekenton »

Hi guys, this question is about a stock GBS 8200 but I thought this would be the best place to ask.

I have my GBS 8200 hooked into my projector which has various other inputs currently being used. The projector auto-detects signals and switches to the current input.

My problem is that the GBS 8200 always outputs a signal, even when itself has no input signal from any console. So if the GBS 8200 is on, my projector auto-detects and shows the GBS 8200 no signal screen, which is obviously pointless. I want to know if there is a way to have the GBS 8200 shut off itself if there is no signal, and turn back on if there is.
rama
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Joined: Wed Mar 08, 2017 3:15 pm

Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by rama »

samsavell:
It should work without "preferScalingRgbhv" now, I think.
I found / fixed some RGBHV bypass issues with low source resolutions.
Some boards apparently work without these fixes, some need them.
rigues
Posts: 27
Joined: Thu May 17, 2018 5:05 pm

Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by rigues »

Hi Rama,

Did you change anything related to Wi-Fi on the last few months? I updated my setup with the latest code yesterday, and I'm unable to access the Web UI. The connection keeps dropping constantly after a few seconds, and I'm unable to load anything. The same board (Wemos D1) works fine with software from March. Any ideas?

Regards,
rama
Posts: 1373
Joined: Wed Mar 08, 2017 3:15 pm

Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by rama »

I didn't change WiFi code itself, but WiFi stability is always affected by the preset's sampling (H-PLL) clock (due to EMI).
You'll probably be able to connect just fine if you keep your source off, so the scaler doesn't do any work.
Another way to avoid issues is to change your router's WiFi channel.
rama
Posts: 1373
Joined: Wed Mar 08, 2017 3:15 pm

Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by rama »

Hey guys,
I got to demo gbscontrol on an HD beamer today.
It performed well with very nice picture quality and all that, but I had 2 issues:

- 1280x960 and 1280x1024 presets cut off a bit from the top of the picture
- WiFi just refused to work at all once the console was powered. It immediately returned when the console was off.

Regarding the cut-off picture, do any of you guys get that from their displays as well?
It only affected 1280x960 and 1280x1024.

WiFi is a tough nut. It definitely didn't like doing AP mode in the demo. Maybe AP mode performs worse by default?
Going to investigate that.
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