Mushihimesama Futari Black Label PCB sound debugging

[je_apostrophe]

I bought this PCB from Georg in Switzerland. The board is a CV1000-B and the chip reads MFBA-8008.

http://imgur.com/a/BNIwm

The visuals are beautiful but I am getting no music or sound effects.

My set up is:
- PCB
- MK30 ADCAP SuperGun by Jasen's Customs - http://www.thesupergun.com/superguns/mk ... available/
- DB8 connection to XRGB-mini
- HDMI connection from XRGB to receiver
- Receiver goes to sound and TV

I've checked each component separately. (i.e. I tested the receiver with my PS4 via HDMI; I tested DB8 from a SNES to the XRGB; I tested a different board (US Classic) with the SuperGun) And everything works except for the PCB.

When I turn the volume up very high on my receiver and boot the PCB, during the ROM checking phase there is a high pitched sound. It turns off in between the two phases of the ROM checking and then totally turns off once the actual game starts. The sound is there in all three of the ADCAP's audio settings.

The board has a little dial on it that Georg says it the audio, but it has no effect as far as I can tell. I have tried it with a variety of settings, adjusting it while booted and adjusting it while it was not. I am nervous that it does nothing. I am also nervous that I can't tell which direction is on versus off.

http://imgur.com/a/CmNvh

I would appreciate very much if someone on the forum can give me debugging advice and could tell me which direction is on for their CV1000-B.

Thanks!

[supabok]

cranking that volume knob clockwise would increase the volume to it's maximum!

Wonder if it's getting enough power to the board?? (just a suggestion as i don't know much)

[zak]

Do you know anyone locally who can test the game in their cab? It would certainly rule out your setup as the problem.

[_rm_]

Do you know anyone locally who can test the game in their cab? It would certainly rule out your setup as the problem.

You should definitely try this. I've seen many sound/image weird problems related to superguns depending on the hardware.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

In my experience, it's the CV-1000 pcbs that are well known to have video issues crop up from time to time but with audio issues (they're quite solid and working 100%). Of course, it does depend on what type of supergun you're using as well. Take for instance, if you use a Matt Ross produced supergun setup (they're built quite solidly after all these years -- harken back from 2002 era and a few years afterwards). Of course, if your supergun is using a dedicated arcade power supply unit (PSU) or a PC ATX PSU (that can make a huge difference as well).

You might try using a different supergun setup and see if the audio issue is working or not.

Of course, the Matt Ross superguns are known to have a pair of speakers wired up for sound internally from within the supergun body itself (even though it's presented in mono format, it's all gravy/cool nevertheless).

On the Cave CV-1000 series PCB itself, the single volume pot goes like this: rotate it clockwise to increase the volume & turn it counter-clockwise to decrease the volume. Easy as pie. Since you mention that the audio is being fed into a A/V receiver and then piped into the HDTV setup (that could be the issue right there). Why not just use the RCA L & R output jacks from the back of the supergun and just feed it into a good pair of external speakers and get audio in going that particular route. It's a given that most HDTVs have subpar internal audio speakers to begin with. You'd be better off with a good pair of externally powered or passive speakers rated up to 100w at 8 ohms and you're good to go in that department. As it is, the Cave CV-1000 series pcbs are all mono sound output to begin with & and is already being amplified (you don't want to increase the volume pot to it's max setting and have that fed into the A/V receiver -- it's certainly is asking for trouble down the road).

Edit:
Upon looking at the further specs on the supergun setup that you're currently using, it does mention that it's using a real bona-fide arcade PSU setup -- so no worries in that particular department. It's your daisy-chained setup that is the culprit. Unless you can gain access to an old-school CRT-based TV monitor with a minimum of S-Video and/or Component Video inputs at best or even go with an Amiga 1080 or 1084 RGB monitor (and use the DB-9 RGB input), that'd be the best solution with an CRT-based RGB monitor. Audio would be handled by a pair of external passive speakers rated at 8 ohms.

The general rule of thumb is to use a CRT-based RGB monitor with the low-res 15.7kHz arcade jamma pcbs (including the Cave CV-1000 series like Ibara, DDP-DFK 1.5, DDP-DFK BL, SDOJ, etc) for best results in terms of visual quality (of course, the bigger the CRT-based monitor, the harder it is to dial-in the geometry to get the overall picture to look at it's best). Use a 31kHz type of CRT-based monitor for the high-res arcade motherboards like Taito Type X, Type X2, X2+, X3, Sammy Atomizwave, Sega Naomi, Naomi 2, etc.) -- heck you can even use one of those old-school 4:3 SVGA PC monitor with 640 x 480 res with them and the graphics portion will still look mighty fine.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[je_apostrophe]

I made two videos to demonstrate my situation:

Testing the setup with another board:
https://youtu.be/9z1JJhiOam4

Failing with this board:
https://youtu.be/hWT-8m4SnZ0

Thanks for the advice so far!

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Upon viewing both uploaded YT videos, my recommendation is to entirely bypass the Sony A/V receiver altogether and just use a pair of passive speakers rated at 20 to 30 watts (would be more than ample enough for those mono-audio output jamma pcbs for both BGM & sound effects) hooked up to said supergun setup. Then it'd be a simple matter of adjusting the single volume pot on said arcade jamma pcb to your heart's content/desire. That's all there is needed to be done to get the audio portion back to working at 100%.

Also, use a handy plastic based screwdriver to adjust the volume pot on an arcade jamma pcb rather than using your fingers is your best bet without the potential for touching a portion of the pcb & thereby causing a possible short or worse, static discharge (and thus rendering your expensive Cave PCB useless). It's always a good idea to wear an anti-static wriststrap when handling those expensive and rare arcade pcbs as static discharge can render them useless. I've had to deal with a static discharge issue with one of my Taito G-Net arcade motherboards (by inserting a Taito G-card at an odd angle) and it would not boot up properly the next time I powered it up. So to remedy that particular pressing issue at hand, I had to reflash the Taito G-Net motherboard (by using a G-Net version 2 upgrade eprom) and got it back to working at 100% again -- true story. Learned my lesson the hard way when dealing with arcade jamma pcbs and static discharge.

A rotating HDTV stand would be cool in your case if you do want to play those cool tate'd arcade pcbs -- it's worth looking into and is a viable option to consider down the road.

It's a given that the Taito G-Net arcade motherboard will easily handle a pair of passive speakers rated at 100w @ 8 ohms and not even get hot (or break a sweat for that matter) if sound is output in stereo mode. How cool is that?

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[geosnow]

any news?

[Muchi Muchi Spork]

Do you have any pcbs other than these 2? Is this a brand new setup? Ever had a pcb have loud sound on it? Where is the volume pot set at on the golf pcb, is it maxed out? If so it should probably be blasting your ears out. Do you have anything else with RCA audio-in like some PC speakers where they connect to each other with an RCA wire? Did a cap on the pcb have a side come loose in shipping, have a cap side show this when you thumb it around?

[zak]

Check the solder on the big cap near the sound section. Is it broken?

[je_apostrophe]

Thanks for the ideas.

I don't notice anything off with any of the caps or solders.

This is a new setup that I've never used with any PCBs other than these two. (I bought it for getting a CAVE PCB, but it took a while to get one.) I did a buy a few other PCBs which all had working sound, although I have since resold those online, except for the golf game.

[je_apostrophe]

I tried connecting it to my Sony PVM as a "passive" option, but it made no difference.

I made another high-res photo of the PCB, in case anyone can see something strange.

http://imgur.com/VIXHGTB

[Muchi Muchi Spork]

My first guess is maybe the speaker negative line not connecting, something not grounding? I doubt the sound went bad during shipping, these boards are always way overpacked because of price. Sound doesn't look to be working properly on either board (is the sound maxed out on the golf pcb volume pot?).