Cloning the Gamecube component cable

[bobrocks95]

CodeJunkies IS the manufacturer of them, so...

[lev11]

Yep, and they're quite crafty with their disks too. It's the only Wii/GC disk not able to dump via cleanrip.

[lev11]

Ok, I'll try to package just the essentials in a few Zip files to avoid that problem.

I don't think there is a real need, the full zip is small, it was just a warning for others in case they had the same issue.

I'm sure SPDIF could be turned on and off in a PS2, so assumed there'd be an associated overhead, thanks for clarifying.

[RGB0b]

Hopefully its a legit site-- Im curious to run some forced progressive, 16:9, and emulators on my GC.

I just ordered one of those. The site's legit and the device works great. A cool trick: If you name a .dol file "autoexec.dol", it'll boot directly to that game and skip the launch menu.

[Josh128]

Hopefully its a legit site-- Im curious to run some forced progressive, 16:9, and emulators on my GC.

I just ordered one of those. The site's legit and the device works great. A cool trick: If you name a .dol file "autoexec.dol", it'll boot directly to that game and skip the launch menu.

Cool thanks, thats good to hear.

[Lord of Pirates]

About Swiss-- the only problem with that is how do you mod GC without the PSO trick or other hard mods? Maybe things have progressed since I last checked, if theres an easy way to mod GC to force widescreen on non-widescreen games I'd love to try it.

Datel SD Media Launcher. Plug in an SD card, use a boot disc, and load Swiss.

Just ordered one of these from here: http://us.codejunkies.com/Products/GCNW ... 00589.aspx

Hopefully its a legit site-- Im curious to run some forced progressive, 16:9, and emulators on my GC.

I ordered one from them a few years ago and didn't have any problems. It did get shipped from the UK though.

[Einzelherz]

I was all excited to get this but $12 shipping

[lev11]

Check this out: http://imgur.com/gallery/qIeRB/

Booting via Extrems Game Boy Interface from gc-forever, compared to Game Boy Player, DSLite and Game Boy micro. The photos are a bit over saturated, but you can clearly see with the Game Boy Interface (3rd image) how well the colours are matched and the image is more faithfully reproduced, check out the blue circle near the heath bars. Using Unseen's OSD turn off the 480p mode and the Game Boy Interface boots straight into 240p. Just need to ask someone nicely over on gc-forever to do a build with a 3:2 aspect ratio.

[BitFaced]

Check this out: http://imgur.com/gallery/qIeRB/

Booting via Extrems Game Boy Interface from gc-forever, compared to Game Boy Player, DSLite and Game Boy micro. The photos are a bit over saturated, but you can clearly see with the Game Boy Interface (3rd image) how well the colours are matched and the image is more faithfully reproduced, check out the blue circle near the heath bars. Using Unseen's OSD turn off the 480p mode and the Game Boy Interface boots straight into 240p. Just need to ask someone nicely over on gc-forever to do a build with a 3:2 aspect ratio.

You can boot the GameBoy Player in 240p with Swiss?

[lev11]

Yes, but that requires one disk swop and a few button clicks to get there. With the Game Boy Interface you could have it as autoexec.dol so it boots directly to Game Boy Player mode, and with correct colours. The only issue is at the minute there is no option to manually adjust the aspect ratio in the software, it needs to be booted with arguments set via a loader and the broadband adapter, or another user FIX94 has created a tool so you can re-build the .dol with your arguments of choice. Both of which are currently beyond me.

[BitFaced]

Yes, but that requires one disk swop and a few button clicks to get there. With the Game Boy Interface you could have it as autoexec.dol so it boots directly to Game Boy Player mode, and with correct colours. The only issue is at the minute there is no option to manually adjust the aspect ratio in the software, it needs to be booted with arguments set via a loader and the broadband adapter, or another user FIX94 has created a tool so you can re-build the .dol with your arguments of choice. Both of which are currently beyond me.

Still sounds like it beats getting a really expensive component cable.
Does it work for the PAL copy of the GBP start-up disc?

[lev11]

Not sure which 'it' you referring to?

With the Game Boy Interface you don't need a GBP start-up disc, just a way to boot dols, eg the SD Media Launcher from Datel.

Unseen's GCVideo works with every Gamecube game and region, as its an alternate video out that uses the pins at the Digital AV Out port. It also provides digital audio, which is very impressive, and you can tell there's less 'noise'* than the analogue out. Its particularly noticeable via the Gameboy player, I'm fairly sure no-one will have heard better sound from Gameboy Advance or Gameboy cartridges simply because there are very limited options for modding Gamecube for digital audio and the original hardware suffered from crappy speakers and noisy headphone outs.


*/interference? Not sure what the correct term would be for the kind of low level hum/hiss that isn't present via digital.

[BitFaced]

I meant Swiss's 240p forcing with a PAL copy of the GBP start up disc?
Is Unseen's GC Video going to cost as much as one of the component cables?

[ApolloBoy]

Is Unseen's GC Video going to cost as much as one of the component cables?

What do you think?

[lev11]

Yes swiss forces 240p with PAL GBP no probs.
I think it costs quite a bit less than the silly prices on ebay for the component cable, about £70 for the hdmi fpga board including customs charge, and £2 for the SPDIF connector, plus a bit of wire and a resistor, but it takes time to assemble (I took a while to do it with triple checking right connections etc before soldering). Also if your TV doesn't support 240p on HDMI (like my Panasonic) you can line double 240p and add scanlines so the TV sees 480p, and it looks awesome

[lev11]

Unseen I get strange behaviour if using one of these http://www.retrousb.com/index.php?cPath=22 to connect a NES controller.

If the adapter is in port one the GCVideo OSD pops up and resets the scanline setting. The NES controller cannot then do anything with the OSD. If the adapter is on port two GCVideo is fine, which is great for gameboy player, but not FCE Ultra GX, as FCE Ultra GX ignores the controller in port 2. NES games in FCE Ultra GX are looking amazing with scanlines on.

Is this anything that can be addressed in GCVideo?

[Unseen]

Unseen I get strange behaviour if using one of these http://www.retrousb.com/index.php?cPath=22 to connect a NES controller.

Oh well, I feared something like this might happen - I only have original pads and one Hame clone, so there was always the chance that other clone pads behave in a way that the decoder doesn't understand.

Can the controller still control the Gamecube "behind" the OSD when it is inserted in port 1?

If the adapter is in port one the GCVideo OSD pops up and resets the scanline setting.

I suspect it gets read as a continuous "all buttons pressed", which would trigger the OSD and reset all settings back to default.

Is this anything that can be addressed in GCVideo?

Yes, but I need some measurements from your controller. If you happen to have a logic analyzer that you could use to record the data on the controller snooping line (the one connected to the via) that would be really great, if not I can create a GCVideo test build that will show the data I need on the screen.

[Unseen]

I can create a GCVideo test build that will show the data I need on the screen.

...and that's done too: gcvideo-padanalyzer.bit. It's not recommended for general use because it will cover the screen with hex numbers. =)

Flash/upload it to the FPGA (if you need an .mcs/.svf file, just ask), plug the problematic controller into port 1 and turn the Cube on. The screen should be covered with lots of hex numbers. If you don't see a ">" in the top left corner, your TV is in overscan mode and cuts off the borders of the image - please make sure you use a display that shows the entire image. The screen should refresh every 15 seconds with another data capture which will likely have minor differences - try to take a few (readable!) photos of the data or run it into a video capture device and I should be able to reconstruct what the controller is sending.

For the technically minded: The analyzer counts the number of 54MHz clock ticks between each level change of the controller data line. The data capture starts after the line has not changed for at least 262144 clocks, so unless the controller is doing something weird the first pulse length on-screen should be the first low-pulse on the controller's data line. Any sample that exceeds 262144 clocks is shown as "--". I hope that's enough to figure out what the NES adapter does...

[lev11]

Nice one, I'll run it tonight hopefully.
Yes the controller still works behind the OSD.
I don't have a logic analyser, but I'm willing to have a go with something cheap like this if you don't mind bearing with me while I get to grips with it: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hobby-Component ... B00DAYAREW

For info this adapter works no probs: http://www.raphnet-tech.com/products/sn ... /index.php

[Unseen]

Yes the controller still works behind the OSD.

Good, then it should only be a decoding problem and not something on the hardware level.

I don't have a logic analyser, but I'm willing to have a go with something cheap

That hopefully won't be necessary, the test firmware can do the same job - the only difference is that I may need to type in a list of hex numbers from your screenshot to get a visual representation.

[lev11]

Shots here: http://imgur.com/gallery/izbtR/

First is with no controller, then three in sequence after each update following connecting the NES controller, then the last two are immediately after disconnecting the NES controller.
Is this enough for you?

[Unseen]

Shots here: http://imgur.com/gallery/izbtR/

First is with no controller, then three in sequence after each update following connecting the NES controller, then the last two are immediately after disconnecting the NES controller.
Is this enough for you?

Thanks, that looks rather useful. I don't see a glaring "this must be it" problem right now, but it appears that the timing I coded into GCVideo is slightly off. Should be fixable, but I need to crunch some numbers first (or invent a clever way to adjust it dynamically).

[Unseen]

Should be fixable, but I need to crunch some numbers first

Numbers crunched, timing modified, your adapter should work with the new version 1.2 on GitHub

(Todo: Add more automation to the release process)

[lev11]

Awesome work, nailed it, thanks

[lev11]

I've found a device that is incompatible with the spdif output: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/390685768725
I was hoping to capture and record some digital streams, the device is ok as it works fine on my TVs spdif output. I opened it up for a nosey, perhaps running it at a higher or lower voltage might effect it, but its powered by USB.

[Unseen]

I've found a device that is incompatible with the spdif output: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/390685768725

Are there any markings on the chip?

[lev11]

I can just about make out cmedia's logo: http://www.cmedia.com.tw/ProductsIndex/ ... no-26.html
The driver disk it comes with reports its CM6206: http://www.cmedia.com.tw/ProductsDetail ... no-23.html
That same driver is used in this: http://www.terratec.net/details.php?art ... WD8yUaX83h

[Unseen]

I can just about make out cmedia's logo: http://www.cmedia.com.tw/ProductsIndex/ ... no-26.html
The driver disk it comes with reports its CM6206: http://www.cmedia.com.tw/ProductsDetail ... no-23.html
That same driver is used in this: http://www.terratec.net/details.php?art ... WD8yUaX83h

Thanks. I found one with that chip that is reasonably cheap and doesn't ship from China. I hope it's not due to the jitter (requires additional hardware to fix and is bad for sound quality) but rather something in the status bis (easiest, no quality loss).

[lev11]

My ebay one actually came from the Netherlands and got here within 10days.

[Unseen]

My ebay one actually came from the Netherlands and got here within 10days.

Unfortunately the one you linked to doesn't want to ship to Germany