GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

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rama
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Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by rama »

shingouki2 wrote:Does the programming jumper need to be set before the GBS is turned on? Or can you set the programming mode while its on?
It goes on before switching on power. In effect, it should be on all the time.
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AndehX
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Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by AndehX »

for the record, I can never get http://gbscontrol to work. I always have to use the ip address
rama
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Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by rama »

Hm, I don't remember the details but the new WiFi client should advertise its hostname to the router, then the router should translate the hostname to an IP.
Now when you enter http://hostname, that should make your browser try to reach that IP on port 80, and the ESP should reply.

Maybe the hostname isn't getting registered? Or the router doesn't translate hostname to IP? Maybe not for local networks only?

Basically, I followed the instructions, but added a hack that fixes my router not updating the hostname.
I spoof a slightly different MAC address before connecting. This is necessary because the ESP starts up with a wrong hostname, and nothing can be done about it (on the Arduino SDK, at least).
If all works well, you may be able to spot 2 very similar devices in your router's UI shortly after rebooting the ESP.
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Nodoan
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Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by Nodoan »

I'm having a similar issue to culexus, Also using a lulin/weimos board The Nodemcu "V3".

Anyway it's using the default name for the wifi module which in my case is "farylink" and part of the MAC address. As culexus. (ESP_4C5B13) It does not set either the SSID or the password. IP is the proper default that's in the "WiFiManager" library. I can connect to it as it's an unsecured network, but attempting to access 192.168.4.1 immediately rejects the connection.

I'm very new to most of this but reading through the WiFiManagers documentation I've come across a few things that seems interesting.
or if you want to use and auto generated name from 'ESP' and the esp's Chip ID use
```cpp
wifiManager.autoConnect();
#### On Demand Configuration Portal
If you would rather start the configuration portal on demand rather than automatically on a failed connection attempt, then this is for you.

Instead of calling `autoConnect()` which does all the connecting and failover configuration portal setup for you, you need to use `startConfigPortal()`. __Do not use BOTH.__
Looking at the code I'm seeing wifiManager.autoConnect used which explains why it's not named "GBS" but not seeing much for fixing the password configuration, or an explanation why I can't connect directly to the device. I'm probably going to spend most of today figuring this out but have little knowledge to actually fix it. Got to start somewhere Y'know?
rama
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Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by rama »

@Nodoan
The WiFiManager library has a lot of documented problems, both in itself and more importantly, in the underlying SDK.
It does work for me and a few testers but I'm not surprised it fails for you guys. Must be a different network setup or maybe even a NodeMCU board difference.
Can you post your Serial Monitor logs for the WiFi part?
el_codge
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Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by el_codge »

Hi all,

Just a quick couple of questions - is the firmware now working okay on the HDMI versions of the board?

The reason I ask is that my TV doesn't have a VGA port, and while it upscales 480i/p beautifully, 240p sources are treated as 480i, leading to all sorts of interesting effects. The OSSC and Framemeister are way out of my price range at the moment - i'm not £200-£300 bothered by interlacing issues, but for £50ish, i'd hate myself for not having a go. It'll also help me learn a bit about the Arduino, soldering etc.

Second question - I'm using a Super Famicom with a retrogamingcables.co.uk CSYNC scart cable at the moment. As the sync is taken directly out of the SFC itself from Pin 3, will I need to include a sync circuit when connecting it to the GBS 8220, or can I simply wire the supplied loom to the relevant pins on a female scart connector? I'm making the assumption that as the csync doesn't need to be separated from the composite video signal, I can get away without that circuit.

Thanks in advance!
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Nodoan
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Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by Nodoan »

I've have achieved proper function, I rebuilt the whole thing doublechecked it a few times. In the serial log I was getting "I2C error" and "5725 not responding" Reason for this is that the NODEMCU has a slightly different pinout and has "CLK" on the far side as well as "SDA" next to it. I ended up moving it to D1 and D2 which are GPIO 5 and GPIO 4 respectively. As it appears arduino encoding sorts arbitrary "pin" values to the actual function and that's where the functions were according to pinout. Translated through a few libraries as well.

Anyway It wont make it as far as renaming the SSID if it can't lock onto the GBS8220 clock and data leaving the default. Right now there's a new issue. Which is the SSID and password are named "AP_NAME" and "AP_PASSWORD" respectively. Seems function to attempt to rename it isn't working. Which is the attempted names for the ESP32.

Will try to connect it to my wifi and check it out a bit more.
TobiasRieper
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Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by TobiasRieper »

Rama,
After fiddling around for about an hour I managed to get my new WeMos board hooked up to the gbs online control panel. Excellent work, saves so much hassle. :D Way more intuitive then using the keyboard and PC. How do I unlock the ability to scale vertically and horizontally? I press the keys but nothing happens. I seem to recall you disabled it. Could you tell me what to do to enable it again?
Thank you. It's great now I can stick my slg gbs wemos and sync strike in a project box and control the scaler from my phone! So much cheaper than an OSSC or even a Framemeister.
rama
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Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by rama »

Tobias:
You are probably on a Feedback Clock preset (now named NTSC 640x480 and PAL 720x576).
They have scaling disabled on S3_24 bits 5+6 iirc.
For scaling, please use the 1280x960 presets. They're better suited to it.

Nodoan:
Ah yeah, the control flow in Setup() isn't the best. I need to add some fallbacks for improper WiFi config states.
The thing is, I'd like to first wait for the new WiFiManager library that supposedly fixes many issues and adds ESP32 support.

el_codge:
It will work without any sync stripper. Just wire your adapter straight through for RGB + Sync out of the cable.
Remember to use a few ground wires, ideally one ground wire per signal wire and both in close proximity.
Best example: Coax cables for the 4 signals would be best.
( You should be able to buy everything for much less than 50 quid ;) )
el_codge
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Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by el_codge »

rama wrote:It will work without any sync stripper. Just wire your adapter straight through for RGB + Sync out of the cable.
Remember to use a few ground wires, ideally one ground wire per signal wire and both in close proximity.
Best example: Coax cables for the 4 signals would be best.
( You should be able to buy everything for much less than 50 quid ;) )
Brill, thanks Rama.

I'll start getting the bits and pieces together. I'm sure i'll be back with plenty more questions.
TobiasRieper
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Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by TobiasRieper »

rama wrote:Tobias:
You are probably on a Feedback Clock preset (now named NTSC 640x480 and PAL 720x576).
They have scaling disabled on S3_24 bits 5+6 iirc.
For scaling, please use the 1280x960 presets. They're better suited to it.


Thank you Rama but unfortunately the only presets that work with my television is the PAL 720x576. I can't get the others to work for some reason :(

On another note my megadrive 2 picture shakes up and down on the stock GBS but not on the custom GBS firmware. Is it because I'm using a cheaper cable than my n64 and ps1 and getting a sync issue?

The pal 720 preset is great it's just too stretched. If you could help me getting the 1280x960 to work or enable me to alter the scale of 720 preset I'd be extremely grateful.
Best regards
Last edited by TobiasRieper on Sat Mar 10, 2018 7:06 am, edited 1 time in total.
el_codge
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Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by el_codge »

el_codge wrote:
rama wrote:It will work without any sync stripper. Just wire your adapter straight through for RGB + Sync out of the cable.
Remember to use a few ground wires, ideally one ground wire per signal wire and both in close proximity.
Best example: Coax cables for the 4 signals would be best.
( You should be able to buy everything for much less than 50 quid ;) )
Brill, thanks Rama.

I'll start getting the bits and pieces together. I'm sure i'll be back with plenty more questions.
Sorry if this is basic stuff, but something like this?:

From the included loom:
Red Video to Red Wire/P11 (R) > Scart Pin 15 (RGB Red)
Green Video to Green Wire/P11 (G) > Scart Pin 11 (RGB Green)
Blue Video to Blue Wire/P11 (B) > Scart pin 7 (RGB Blue)
H. Sync to Gray Wire/P11 (S) > Scart pin 20? (CSYNC, wiring the loom to a Female socket - the diagrams show that as composite input)
V. Sync to Yellow Wire/P11 (VS) > Ignore
Ground Ref to Black Wire/P11 (GND) > Scart pin 17? (or should I also wire Scart Pins 5 (Blue ground), 9 (Green Ground) 13 (Red Ground))?

I can worrry about the audio later :)
rama
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Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by rama »

el_codge:
That sounds about right but I always forget what pin of a female SCART socket is for the sync.
It's always the outermost pin on either the upper or lower row *but not the shielding pin!*.
On combined sync (csync) sources, you always connect to the hsync pin and ignore vsync. You got that right.
Connect your black ground wire to SCART 5, 9 and 13. Use your yellow wire for ground as well. Connect to SCART ground for Composite / csync.

Tobias:
Sorry, I got the register wrong last reply.
In your Serial Monitor, send this command when your working preset is loaded:
"t3t00t4 t3t00t5" (without quotes)
Now scaling is enabled and you can use the web ui buttons to customize the picture.
Save your settings and hit "prefer custom preset", so it defaults to this preset.
culexus
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Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by culexus »

Finaly got the gbscontrol over esp working:) is it possible to get a higher output ressolution? I now have 800x600.
Higgy
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Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by Higgy »

Hi all.

I've not looked at progress for years! Last time it was using a Raspberry Pi and the composite video output to power another screen to edit parameters! I think I have now got upto speed with everything.

I have ordered a ESP8266 to get upto speed with the latest developments ;)

rama - thanks for carrying this on (I will also remove the 3x resistor pots as mentioned in a previous post).

AndehX - it looks like you have your GBS in a case/project box? Any details please.

I have quite a few consoles/computers so I am keen for an 'all in one' screen. I am using a Commodore 1084S monitor with a sync-stripper to allow me to connect most things, but it is very old and smelly! A lot of my hardware has had 50/60Hz (PAL/NTSC) switches fitted and where possible RGB outputs added (AMIGA CD32, Master System Mk2).
Because of the RGB mods and my homemade cables, some of my hardware does not output 5V to power a LM1881 in the SCART housing, so I want to do an 'on-board GBS-82** csync stripper mod' - anyone have a wiring diagram? My GBS-8220 currently has a female SCART socket connected to allow me to plug my consoles/computers in.

I also ordered a 'scanline generator' off ebay - just over £10 delivered from China. I've got the chips to make one http://www.mmmonkey.co.uk/scanlines-do-it-yourself/ but for £10 it sounds good.

Cheers
el_codge
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Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by el_codge »

Well, made my first cable:) Judging by my soldering skills, I'll never be a top flight surgeon. It worked though, my to my surprise.

All working good so far - thought the picture was a bit washed out to start with, but all it needed was to set the HDMI range to TV range, rather than full range.

Noticing a bit of screen tearing now, but that's probably due to the 60.1hz of the SFC rather than any other issue. My TV doesn't tear, but it does go jagged as detailed in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=53610, so it's a case of picking your poison.

Next steps are to break the audio out the scart, get a 4 pin header for the programming connector and a jumper for the board.

Then hopefully it's onto 240p goodness...

Thanks for you help so far Rama - looking forward to ploughing on with this project.
TobiasRieper
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Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by TobiasRieper »

rama wrote:

Tobias:
Sorry, I got the register wrong last reply.
In your Serial Monitor, send this command when your working preset is loaded:
"t3t00t4 t3t00t5" (without quotes)
Now scaling is enabled and you can use the web ui buttons to customize the picture.
Save your settings and hit "prefer custom preset", so it defaults to this preset.
Thanks Rama :) everything works brilliantly now. All I need to do is install all these components in a box...the saving custom presets work brilliantly. No need to be able to flash the firmware permanently on GBS.

This project is fantastic.
I still have the problem with the shifted picture but I just use your old pal timings from Feb. Even using the Web UI to move left doesn't solve it fully as I lose picture before it gets centred.

The megadrive can't get a stable picture on stock even though I made a new c sync cable but your custom firmware has solved this. Its great just to turn it on and get a nice image without messing about with things. :D
rama
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Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by rama »

Glad everyone seems to be mostly happy. Always a few quirks here and there though, so yeah, some refinements still needed :p

It's good to know that the HDMI chip indeed puts out the wrong color range, and that you can fix it on the receiving TV.
My displays don't have a correction option, unfortunately, and limited range is wrong anyway, so I still have to pry that thing open and fix that single bit.
They just had to include this when designing the specs, so now even consumer grade stuff from Nintendo can get it wrong all the time. Thanks for nothing, HDMI group!

For the LM1881 circuit, I've been using the GBS 3.3V power for a while now. Works for me ;)
TobiasRieper
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Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by TobiasRieper »

We all need to spread the word of the awesomeness you can get with the GBS 8200 an your custom firmware. :D
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AndehX
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Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by AndehX »

Just got my scanline generator. I have to say, on my projector, this scaler looks phenomenal considering how much it costs.

Image

Image

Image
Higgy
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Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by Higgy »

I just upgraded to 2018 CFW!! ;)

Just an initial test with a Mk1 Megadrive to start with. I built a sync stripper circuit as per viletim instead of the usual one (I also upgrade the circuit for my Commodore 1084S monitor with viletim's design) and initially tried using a Pro Micro clone only to find it did not have enough space?! Re-reading you say a Pro Mini! So I dug out my genuine Uno and used that instead :)

A wireless Arduino turned up today, but not had a chance to programme or try the web interface. So hopefully I'll get it all packaged neat and then start trying all my systems to check compatibility.

Many thanks.
Higgy
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Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by Higgy »

Hello.

I got it all working with web interface etc. Not sure why compiling ESP8266 takes something like 10mins!?

A couple of questions. I am only testing with 1 PC monitor, so it could be that. But how long should it take to see a picture? Mine is taking 2mins.
Any special procedure? My sync stripper and ESP8266 is all powered off GBS so it gets power the same time as the GBS, i then power on the console.

I had issues with my PAL SNES, but last night I found it is a GameCube AV cable, so I need to remove a capacitor which has been soldered on the Composite Video line. I am hoping that is what caused my sync issues.

I know it is early days and things are happening fast, but a few updates on the Github would be useful. Can you add the web password for GBS Control (qqqqqqqq) I spent ages looking for it :) I can also give the pin out for a NodeMCU v3 as they are marked slightly different.

Thanks
rama
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Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by rama »

Hey, if you want to help, please create pictures that describe different pinouts and such.
Basically, I'd rather spend time on improving the software than work on guides.
I get it that guides, pics and co are important but that's just not my field.
Higgy
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Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by Higgy »

Sorry I did not mean to be offensive. I know your busy doing the main development stuff.
I will try and add a load of things together in a Word document and then this should be less work to add to the Github page.

Going back to my question, how long should I expect to see a picture after power on? I am powering on all hardware (GBS, Sync & ESP8266) as one unit?

Thanks
rama
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Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by rama »

Oh, no offence taken. I'm just trying to share the load a little :)
I recommend people just take a few pictures of their hardware. It should show where the cables go, maybe with a little annotations like on the Wiki.
Others are mostly looking for confirmation that they have their cables on the right pins.

It should not take minutes for a picture to appear.
What you see is probably your display getting majorly upset with the shifting timing while the frame lock routine does its thing.
The adjustment is over in a second but within that time, the display sees some conflicting information.

Anyway, this will change soon, as I've found a new debug port that allows a constant monitoring of the input timings.
Using that, I don't have to do the "bad" stuff on the output anymore.

It does require a new connection though, and soldering isn't simple on that one. But the benefit of it is too big to ignore, as it's a multi purpose debug pin, which is awesome!
rama
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Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by rama »

This will be the new pin to connect. I hope it's not too hard..
https://github.com/ramapcsx2/gbs-contro ... e#debugpin

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AndehX
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Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by AndehX »

Oh hardware mods that improve functionality! This is the stuff I love doing!

So what exactly are the benefits to us not-so-technical minded people, with this new debug pin?
rama
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Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by rama »

Right now you get faster preset changes, since I don't have to pass the input through to the display any more (to measure timings).
Timing measurement can be done all the time now, with no effect on the output.

Some of the test bus options put the extracted sync information on this pin, making it possible to tune sync processor settings on the fly / automatically.
This may solve some intermittent sync drop issues, I hope. But nothing of that is coded yet.

Also, one option puts the PLL clock on this pin. On the scope I can immediately see clock jitter there, and tuning it (with "n") is able to fix the jitter.
I don't know yet what this means ;p
TobiasRieper
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Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by TobiasRieper »

Excellent work on the Debug pin. I have soldered all my wires directly to the GBS and Arduino board. I used non conductive expoxy just for some extra support. Hopefully the pin assignments don't get change! If you like I can write up a little guide with pictures and annotations of hardware installation when I have time.
TobiasRieper
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Re: GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

Post by TobiasRieper »

rama wrote:This will be the new pin to connect. I hope it's not too hard..
I have the wemos D1 board could you tell me what the equivalent for pin 11 is on this one? Many thanks :)
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