*UPDATE* info about ultimarc PSX adapters

[jonny5]

no.....its an issue with the chips in the adapter....email andy and he will send you some replacement chips

[emphatic]

Thanks. Will do that.

Emph

[emphatic]

Emailed Andy, but he's not really familiar with the freezing of controls as much as the "pausing/unpausing" bug. Hope I've not piled more problems on his desk. At first he thought I'd be an ideal candidate to try the new chips, but now I'm not sure what'll happen.

I really do have issues with the movement switches hanging/freezing. Very frustrating as you might understand while playing a CAVE shump.

Emph

[JimSifu]

hmmmmm....maybe a bad set of something........the image quality with the video cable is phenomenal.....

and with the new chips in the control adapters they work great now too....

as for the 9v power adapter hack.....heres is what i did following andy's instructions.....

i took a 9 volt power adapter and cut of the end and split the + and - ends apart.....

now open up the control adapter and you will see in the connector block for each controller a grey wire....cut both and tape the controller ends with electrical tape....

you now have 2 exposed ends...one for each controller.....tape one up, and to the other connect the + end from the 9v adapter....close up the control adapter feeding teh wire out along beside one of the controller wires....might have to notch the case a little...

now just connect the - line from the 9v adapter to one of the ground blocks on the JPAC and you are done

plug in the 9v adapter and your control adapter and JPAC are fully powered and no longer feed the power from the PS2

i can post pics of how it should look when finished if you need em

hi jonny5,

can you post some pics for this ? thanks

[jonny5]

what do you need this for...is the force feedback blown in your ps2?

because otherwise you shouldnt need to do this...i had to do it cuz my ps2 didnt have a working force feedback circuit, which is what the JPAC draws it power from

lmk and i can post some pics tonight....its a really simple mod

[JimSifu]

yes jonny5 this is for this , the force feedback is out

"now just connect the - line from the 9v adapter to one of the ground blocks on the JPAC and you are done " don't forget this pic please with the others



thanks !

[jonny5]

not a problem....i will post some pics when i get home from work....

its super easy......all you will need is some electrical tape, a 9volt ac adapter and you are good to go....

and thankfully i have another adapter that hasnt been modded so i can show a before mod and after mod picture to illustrate how it should look when you are done....

[TalkingOctopus]

I got my PS2 installed in the cab yesterday and did notice the controls "hanging" sometimes in both DDP-DOJ and Mushihimesama. Mainly going left with player 1 I think. Is this an issue known to be due to the PSX adapter? If yes, then I might have to mail Andy and get a test chip.

Or could it be that the gamepad socket is dusty?

Emph

Those are the same problems I experienced years ago.

[emphatic]

I got new chips from Andy and that completely solved all my controller issues. However, there are still some video issues that needs to be fixed. Some reds appear near-black (The Konami logo in Gradius V is a good example). Currently under investigation.

Emph

[jonny5]

i thought it was established that this was a chassis issue with your monitor rather than a JPAC issue?

and sorry i forgot to post those pics last night...got distracted by futari

will post them tonight

[emphatic]

After careful testing on my three cabinets, it's not really clear if it's a chassis deal or not. Just wanted to put it out here if anyone else has issues with the reds not showing correctly. It could help narrowing down what the cause is. Andy has been contacted and is investigating btw.

Emph

[jonny5]

have you tried adjusting the red pot on the chassis/adjustment board?

could also be a cap issue on the neckboard....

definitely keep us posted on your findings

[JimSifu]

not a problem....i will post some pics when i get home from work....

its super easy......all you will need is some electrical tape, a 9volt ac adapter and you are good to go....

and thankfully i have another adapter that hasnt been modded so i can show a before mod and after mod picture to illustrate how it should look when you are done....

ah yes , thanks , i'm waiting for this

[jonny5]

oh man...im so sorry JimSifu.....totally forgot last night

but i will have it all out this evening so i will take some pics and throw together a quick written walk through on the whole procedure

sorry again for the wait

[antron]

I got new chips from Andy and that completely solved all my controller issues. However, there are still some video issues that needs to be fixed. Some reds appear near-black (The Konami logo in Gradius V is a good example). Currently under investigation.

Emph

I had the red color problem, also noticed in on that logo.
does your Jpac have the video amp?

[emphatic]

I had the red color problem, also noticed in on that logo.
does your Jpac have the video amp?

I have two J-Pacs, one is brand new and bought very recently, but both gives me this issue. Apparently it's a capacitor issue that acts up on some monitors. Andy is aware of it and currently investigating (afaik).

Perhaps if this is a common problem for PS2 -> J-Pac users. It's kinda hard to notice exactly what's wrong on the screen until someone tells you what to look for, so most people don't ask Andy about it.

Emph

[dmauro]

I'm using a PS2 to VGA cable (without video amp) on my freshly try-synced monitor and I can't get it to work with progessive scan. I hooked up my PC and that came up fine non-interlaced, so I'm pretty certain it's not a problem with my installation of the chassis. I emailed Andy, but I thought this problem might have a simple solution someone here would know about. Thanks.

[emphatic]

I'm using a PS2 to VGA cable (without video amp) on my freshly try-synced monitor and I can't get it to work with progessive scan. I hooked up my PC and that came up fine non-interlaced, so I'm pretty certain it's not a problem with my installation of the chassis. I emailed Andy, but I thought this problem might have a simple solution someone here would know about. Thanks.

Is this an Ultimarc cable? I use that in my Tri-synch with great success, even though I have to adjust the synch manually (cheap china-made chassis) when going from PAL -> NTSC.

Emph

[dmauro]

I'm using a PS2 to VGA cable (without video amp) on my freshly try-synced monitor and I can't get it to work with progessive scan. I hooked up my PC and that came up fine non-interlaced, so I'm pretty certain it's not a problem with my installation of the chassis. I emailed Andy, but I thought this problem might have a simple solution someone here would know about. Thanks.

Is this an Ultimarc cable? I use that in my Tri-synch with great success, even though I have to adjust the synch manually (cheap china-made chassis) when going from PAL -> NTSC.

Emph

Yes, it's an ultimarc cable. Andy emailed me back "Progressive scan will not work on an arcade monitor," even though I explained I was using a tri-sync chassis. Have you tried progressive scan modes to see how those work? (specifically I tested it with Shadow of the Colossus so that I could test from the menu option).

update: I wrote him back again explaining the tri-sync chassis situation and he said "But this will not handle 100 Hz progressive TV signals." Anyone know what exactly this means?

[emphatic]

Sorry, I misunderstood you somewhat. I've only used 240p from PS2 and 480p (from Dreamcast using a real VGA cabel). I think that to play with progressive resolution from a PS2 you'll need some other cable than Ultimarc's. If/when I use my Ultimarc cable in my Tri-Sync, it only outputs 15kHz 240p/480i.

If you have access to some component->VGA or whatever solution you'll need to use those PS2 games that actually support progressive scan it *might* work.

Sorry
Emph

[dmauro]

I think that to play with progressive resolution from a PS2 you'll need some other cable than Ultimarc's.

Any ideas where to find one? The thing that's annoying is that he had suggested that 480p on the PS2 wouldn't be a problem with a tri-sync in a previous email.

I would love to play Gradius V in 480p (it can be forced), which is the primary reason for this. For the most part I'm going to be playing 240p games, but 480p capability would be awesome.

edit: Any wrote Re: 480p:

We dont have this TV standard here in Europe.

Looking at this; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/480p it seems that it might
be a 30Hz resolution. Do you know any specs of the signal the PS2 sends?

Does anyone know about the PS2's progressive scan signal and its frequency?

[emphatic]

If he said that in a previous e-mail, just remind him. Have you re-read it first though, so it wasn't a simple misunderstanding on your part? Sometimes we read what we want to read.

I found some interesting reading about PS2 and resolutions here: http://www.hdtvarcade.com/hdtvforum/ind ... topic=6308

Emph

[dmauro]

ME: Does the PS2 to Jamma adaptor (video) allow for 480p games to send a 31KHz signal, or will it just get dropped to 15KHz? (I can force Gradius V into 480p and it would be awesome to have that in 31k on a tri-sync)

ANDY: The adaptor does not do any scan conversion at all, it will just pass through whatever is sent so this should work.

While it doesn't sound like he knew for sure, he certainly didn't warn about progressive scan on a PS2 not being compatible with the monitor. He's being good about emailing me back though and it sounds like he wants to figure this out.

About xploder, the thing that's weird is that you'd think that VGA cable is the same thing as what Andy is selling. But I have tried the xploder software with Andy's VGA cable and it doesn't work (tested and working with component cables to get 480p previously). The only signal I can get to display in the xploder menu are PAL and NTSC interlaced signals. Is the xploder VGA vastly different from Andy's cable?

[emphatic]

ME: Does the PS2 to Jamma adaptor (video) allow for 480p games to send a 31KHz signal, or will it just get dropped to 15KHz? (I can force Gradius V into 480p and it would be awesome to have that in 31k on a tri-sync)

ANDY: The adaptor does not do any scan conversion at all, it will just pass through whatever is sent so this should work.

While it doesn't sound like he knew for sure, he certainly didn't warn about progressive scan on a PS2 not being compatible with the monitor. He's being good about emailing me back though and it sounds like he wants to figure this out.

About xploder, the thing that's weird is that you'd think that VGA cable is the same thing as what Andy is selling. But I have tried the xploder software with Andy's VGA cable and it doesn't work (tested and working with component cables to get 480p previously). The only signal I can get to display in the xploder menu are PAL and NTSC interlaced signals. Is the xploder VGA vastly different from Andy's cable?

I don't know, but it sounds like it could be. I know that if I use my DreamCast with my Ultimarc cable, it sure doesn't output 480p, but my VGA cable does. If no conversion is going on outside of the PS2, it'll output whatever you tell it, right? RGB or component. The xPloder cables convert the component to VGA, right? And component is a higher res than RGB.

Emph

[jonny5]

maybe you need to change the video output settings in the ps2 settings menu......try setting it to component or VGA.....see if that helps....

post back and let us know either way

[emphatic]

jonny5: Is VGA an available option? Afaik it's either RGB or component. Hmmm, maybe with the slim PS2's? Do I have an ancient console?!

Emph

[dmauro]

jonny5: Is VGA an available option? Afaik it's either RGB or component. Hmmm, maybe with the slim PS2's? Do I have an ancient console?!

Emph

I have a PSTwo and I'm pretty certain it only does component and RGB.

I might buy an Xploder just to see how it compares with Andy's cable in 240p, 480i, and 480p, and then sell the loser.

[emphatic]

So, the xPloder can do 240p? If that's the case, let us know how that looks compared to Ultimarcs cable. Do you have a low res cab as well that you can try this in with a J-Pac? Would be interesting as all hell.

Emph

[dmauro]

So, the xPloder can do 240p? If that's the case, let us know how that looks compared to Ultimarcs cable. Do you have a low res cab as well that you can try this in with a J-Pac? Would be interesting as all hell.

Emph

I don't know if the xploder can do 240p. I emailed them asking about it, but it would be nice to test.

The cool thing is that I can do side by side tests because I have one Astro with a tri-sync chassis, and a jamma adapter with the ultimarc VGA video amplifier in the other Astro with the stock Nanao low-res chassis. So I can test side by side with the same cable on a low-res and a hi-res chassis.

[emphatic]

Yes, that's very nice. Make sure you have them calibrated using JAMMA games running 240p before you do your "ultimate cable challenge". When I run 240p from my PS2 with J-Pac in the EGRET II I really have to crank up the brightness/contrast to get a decent picture (Nanao MS9 15/24kHz). Would be nice to know how the xPloder "does things".

Emph