GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

[SGGG2]

GBS2HDMI boards available now

https://www.retrorgb.com/gbs2hdmi-adapt ... ntrol.html

[Myshra]

@Razzlin I can't be much help but I'm standing by eagerly to see where you go with this.

@Myshra
1) you should use arduino ide to flash the esp. There's a how-to on the github showing how it should be configured for the esp8266.
2) For dreamcast - did you try a 480i and 480p game? I don't think there's a limitation on the GBS C scart input, but worth a check
2a) Do you have a vga cable for dreamcast that you can test with
3) The component inputs on the GBS do not accept composite video

Thank you for your answers! Let me explain myself a little better:

1) I do and now is working fine again as recently unboxed. Item Check.
2) The issue happens without any game, just in the console menu ...
2a) Nope, maybe I will buy one.
3) Well, not exactly. The Yellow input of the Composite, could be inserted in the Y of the Components row, and displays the video image without color (black and white)

Will answer Lukk in the recent answer to properly give more info. Thank you again, NoAffinity

[Myshra]

Hey community

Let me explain the bunch of problems Im having, introducing myself and the recently purchased GBS C unit into the next madness.

First of all, this was a gift from my wife and because of that, I am not very familiar with the system.
So, after unboxing and plugging the system by 5V, my first console to test was the Dreamcast, by SCART, had perfect audio by HDMI but a grey faded screen for the Video, unable to see the video image correctly. After connecting the yellow connector directly to the Composite green plug, hada white signal but somehow not working properly.

Where is this yellow connector coming from? You sure it's an RGB SCART cable, instead of composite->SCART where you plug three RCA's in an adapter or something along those lines?

Dreamcast works fine on my GBSC (both VGA and SCART) but the DC video output is weird with it's pillarboxed DTV signal and whatnot. There are also a couple of games that straight up won't do RGB, like Skies of Arcadia.

This yellow connector comes from the normal Dreamcast wire, from EU Composite (Red and white for both audio channels, and yellow for video9. With and special Euroconnector, or SCART adapter, I am connecting it via SCART IN port.
The signal, displays blurred and very very black and grey, no colour. Let me explain more tests;
1) PSX -> SCART Adapter for composite video (RCA 3 wires with euroconnector via SCART IN) Audio ok, video grey and very low contrast. Not playable
2) PS2-> SCART Adapter for composite video (RCA 3 wires with euroconnector via SCART IN) Audio ok, video grey and very low contrast. Not playable
3) Nintendo64 -> Fully black finished RCA cable (no adapter) Audio ok, video grey and very low contrast. Not playable

Strange issue happening with the above consoles, because:
1) Super Nintendo -> Special SCART fully finished (not separated wires) working like charm. Totally playable via SCART IN
2) MegaDrive -> Special dedicated SCART fully finished (not separated wires) working like charm. Totally playable via SCART IN
3) Game Cube -> Special dedicated SCART fully finished (not separated wires) working like charm. Totally playable via SCART IN.
Note: This Gamecube special SCART wire, doesnt works with the N64. Only for the Gamecube itself, kinda strange.

Maybe I have any kind of curse related to 32 bits? All the consoles of the 5th gen are not working, unlike 16 bits and DC being 6th gen ...

Hope this new info could help to know what is happening, or if I can solve this issue via software ... Maybe I have to buy a Dreamcast -> VGA IN special wire via AE ...

[lukk]

You just need RGB SCART cables for your 32-bit consoles (or VGA for DC), those are composite cables you're using and GBSC doesn't support composite input.

Some of the Aliexpress units have an extra PCB for composite and S-Video, but apparently they're crap.

[NoAffinity]

And n64 outputs luma sync and sync via composite video only I believe. Not sure what your gc cable is wired for but if it is csync, then that explains why it doesnt work for the n64.

[Myshra]

Thank you @lukk and @NoAffinity for your answers.

At this moment, I have purchased a VGA Dreamcast cable. I will let you know about the progress!

[KnightNZ]

Can someone help me modifying the VGA-HDMI converter to receive the 5v from the VGA connector?
I saw a spanish video showing that, but no info to how to.

He says that needs to mod the GBS and the VGA-HDMI converter.

See if you can find 5V on the board after the output side of a voltage regulator somewhere and run a wire to pin 9 on interface going to the VGA connector. But only if that pin isn't connected back to something else!

That does seem like an awfully obvious mod though, there must be a reason that this isn't a standard feature of the GBS-C AiO build.

[joshjzx]

Hey everyone,

new to the project and ive looked a little bit into it but i am having issues with running a gbscontrol setup with scart connectivity to the 8 pin RGBS header

I am trying to connect up say a non rgb modded console so it would be over composite (Yellow, Red, White) connection

Is this something that will work over a scart adaptor like the following or do i need to add additional hardware to convert the signals out
https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/32988186659.html

Is that what the sync splitters do? which i am guessing is used in the following
https://tomdalby.com/other/images/GBS8200_v2.png

Component connections work fine as would be expected, however with the scart connection it appears i see sync and the GBSControl debug log shows that it is detecting via RGB and appears to set the sync rate however i just get a black screen (this also occurs over the S-Video input)

Connections appear to be ok and i can tone out all the grounds being connected and signals from the AV jack to the Composite Input sync pin (20)

Just wondering if there is something additional i need or if this just isnt something i can make work without RGB mods to all consoles (which isnt ideal for other mates who wanted the same setup)

Appreciate any Info

[NoAffinity]

Hey everyone,

new to the project and ive looked a little bit into it but i am having issues with running a gbscontrol setup with scart connectivity to the 8 pin RGBS header

I am trying to connect up say a non rgb modded console so it would be over composite (Yellow, Red, White) connection

Is this something that will work over a scart adaptor like the following or do i need to add additional hardware to convert the signals out
https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/32988186659.html

Is that what the sync splitters do? which i am guessing is used in the following
https://tomdalby.com/other/images/GBS8200_v2.png

Component connections work fine as would be expected, however with the scart connection it appears i see sync and the GBSControl debug log shows that it is detecting via RGB and appears to set the sync rate however i just get a black screen (this also occurs over the S-Video input)

Connections appear to be ok and i can tone out all the grounds being connected and signals from the AV jack to the Composite Input sync pin (20)

Just wondering if there is something additional i need or if this just isnt something i can make work without RGB mods to all consoles (which isnt ideal for other mates who wanted the same setup)

Appreciate any Info

RGBS, RGBHV and YPbPr are the only supported inputs. Composite input is not supported.

A Retrotink 2x mini is a good option for a relatively low price point, if composite output is the only option for your/your mates' consosles.

[joshjzx]

isnt that what the LM1881 does though breaks out the composite signal to RGBS?

[kitty666cats]

isnt that what the LM1881 does though breaks out the composite signal to RGBS?

LM1881 strips the composite video (or luma) out of an RGB signal that uses composite video for sync, providing ‘clean’ RGBS. It won’t convert composite to RGB though

[joshjzx]

so the only way to run old NES/SNES PS1 etc is to either RGB mod the consoles or run retrotink instead?

[kitty666cats]

so the only way to run old NES/SNES PS1 etc is to either RGB mod the consoles or run retrotink instead?

NES yes, SNES and PS1 don’t need to be modded

[NoAffinity]

so the only way to run old NES/SNES PS1 etc is to either RGB mod the consoles or run retrotink instead?

NES yes, SNES and PS1 don’t need to be modded

Depends on the model of SNES tho. Mini/jr. do required mod for RGB output.

[natas]

Hi,

I bought this ESP board:

and I want to use the two buttons to control it.

So I adjusted the sketch accordingly.
That works so far but only if I use D5 or D7 to connect an external button.
I modded that board in a way that the 2nd button is not connected to Reset but to GPIO16 aka D0 (by moving a 470 Ohm resistor from R14 to R15) so it's not a hardware problem I added a 10K resistor as pullup as input_pullup does not seem to work on this pin.
If I upload a test sketch it works perfectly fine but when I change my hacked variant of the GBS-Control firmware and use D0 instead of D5 or D7 it stops detecting button presses.
I assume D0 (GPIO16) is already used somewhere, I did not find anything can someone tell me if the use of D0 is possible.

Thanks
Natas

[natas]

Solved the issue by connecting button to D7 instead of D0.


short demo of two (3) button hack https://imgur.com/lspODUU

[k1t3]

Was thinking of building this to connect some consoles to my VGA CRT but wondering how I get audio out if I use something with scart? Since VGA shouldnt be able carry audio what modification will I have to do to be able to get audio into headphones or speakers? Thank you!

[kitty666cats]

Was thinking of building this to connect some consoles to my VGA CRT but wondering how I get audio out if I use something with scart? Since VGA shouldnt be able carry audio what modification will I have to do to be able to get audio into headphones or speakers? Thank you!

https://a.co/d/8GNl3tq



You could use one of these - someone else may have a better suggestion, but these have worked fine for me.

[Gunstar]

Solved the issue by connecting button to D7 instead of D0.


short demo of two (3) button hack https://imgur.com/lspODUU

This is really cool, would it be possible to add the screenshot function from the original firmware under say misc? would be interested to swap to one of these for the physical controls

[TheRetroCarrot]

Reposting this here as it probably didn't deserve its own thread:

Example video: https://youtu.be/nJ5TXbfRE94
I'm having behavior I don't believe is normal with a GBS-C I recently built. Anytime a new system syncs or changes resolution (tested Dreamcast, PS2, Xbox, Wii, GC), all using component cables, it takes a while for the horizontal image to stabilize. This only occurs with FTL enabled, it will do as shown in the video above, and then usually 1 small shift about 30 seconds later, then it's stable forever. When my preset is toggled so FTL is enabled it reads:
"
clock gen reset: 81000000
Active FrameTime Lock enabled, adjusting external clock gen frequency

preset applied: 720x480 (custom) for EDTV 60Hz

source Hz: 59.93941 new out: 59.93946 clock: 80987928 (-12072)
"

I'm using the following clock board: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B09DM96KGS?psc ... ct_details. I do have an adafruit Si5351 on order that will arrive in a week or so just in case this board is problematic. Anybody have any ideas? It's not a big deal, it does however make PS1 games that change resolution often unplayable though.

[natas]

Was thinking of building this to connect some consoles to my VGA CRT but wondering how I get audio out if I use something with scart? Since VGA shouldnt be able carry audio what modification will I have to do to be able to get audio into headphones or speakers? Thank you!

Neither VGA nor DVI (what the HDMI actually is) does have audio.
Actually already someone hacked the board to support audio. https://github.com/ramapcsx2/gbs-control/issues/165

[natas]

This is really cool, would it be possible to add the screenshot function from the original firmware under say misc? would be interested to swap to one of these for the physical controls

It is possible to change the menu and add functions that are already existing in the firmware.
But my goal was different I just wanted to have the menu working without an encoder and minimal changes to the code. I usually control the device with my smartphone, there is Freeze function in the web control I guess that is what you are referring to?
There is also code for the 4 buttons on the scaler PCB but I have no idea how that part gets activated.
The code mentions some kind of Shift(register?) maybe someone else knows here how to activate that?

[natas]

I'm using the following clock board: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B09DM96KGS?psc ... ct_details. I do have an adafruit Si5351 on order that will arrive in a week or so just in case this board is problematic. Anybody have any ideas? It's not a big deal, it does however make PS1 games that change resolution often unplayable though.

I don't have a dreamcast so I can not really compare. The clock board you linked looks exactly like mine. I am also still not 100% sure if my board is working properly is there an (easy) way to verify function 100%?

[Gunstar]

This is really cool, would it be possible to add the screenshot function from the original firmware under say misc? would be interested to swap to one of these for the physical controls

It is possible to change the menu and add functions that are already existing in the firmware.
But my goal was different I just wanted to have the menu working without an encoder and minimal changes to the code. I usually control the device with my smartphone, there is Freeze function in the web control I guess that is what you are referring to?
There is also code for the 4 buttons on the scaler PCB but I have no idea how that part gets activated.
The code mentions some kind of Shift(register?) maybe someone else knows here how to activate that?

Yes that's the function, I think that and the move/scale options really benefit from physical buttons, sadly I don't have programming expertise but it's great to see what you've done here. Is your custom firmware uploaded somewhere?

[TheRetroCarrot]

I'm using the following clock board: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B09DM96KGS?psc ... ct_details. I do have an adafruit Si5351 on order that will arrive in a week or so just in case this board is problematic. Anybody have any ideas? It's not a big deal, it does however make PS1 games that change resolution often unplayable though.

I don't have a dreamcast so I can not really compare. The clock board you linked looks exactly like mine. I am also still not 100% sure if my board is working properly is there an (easy) way to verify function 100%?

It's just the horizontal shift of the image that happens in the intro, happens on all systems I have connected though not isolated to the DC.

I posted a thread for this issue and was told it's not normal behavior, so I'm trying to find if anyone knows the cause. If nobody has any ideas we'll see if the adafruit board fixes it when it arrives. Other than what the wiki says should display when you enable FTL "Active FrameTime Lock enabled, adjusting external clock gen frequency", I'm not really sure how to tell it's working entirely as intended. This only occurs with FTL enabled, with it disabled the image syncs immediately. That being said I haven't tried actually playing with it disabled to see if I have any of the tearing issues the clock gen is supposed to fix, with my limited time to play I've mainly wanted to just sit down and play rather than looking for more problems at the moment.

[natas]

Yes that's the function, I think that and the move/scale options really benefit from physical buttons, sadly I don't have programming expertise but it's great to see what you've done here. Is your custom firmware uploaded somewhere?

There is a new update from 3 days ago with new Menu and OSD function.

I just changed that in the .ino:

SSD1306Wire display(0x3c, D1, D2); //inits I2C address & pins for OLED
const int pin_clk = D7; //D5 = GPIO14 (input of one direction for encoder)
const int pin_data = D5; //D7 = GPIO13 (input of one direction for encoder)
const int pin_switch = D3; //D3 = GPIO0 pulled HIGH, else boot fail (middle push button for encoder)

Nothing is connected to D5 in my case.

Beside the OSD everything seems to work with two buttons.
Unfortunately I did not find out how to get the 4 buttons on the scaler working.

I think I found out how to do it correctly:
"#define HAVE_BUTTONS 0" needs to be changed to "#define HAVE_BUTTONS 1" when you want to use buttons instead of encoder.
That also swaps Up and Down so from the mod above only the first line is needed for my D-Duino with OLED.
"SSD1306Wire display(0x3c, D1, D2); //inits I2C address & pins for OLED"
I need to comment out the following line:
"attachInterrupt(digitalPinToInterrupt(pin_clk), isrRotaryEncoderRotateForNewMenu, FALLING);" otherwise the Up-Button does not work properly.

It supports 3 buttons everything beside the OSD can be controlled just with Down and Enter. For the OSD Up is needed as well, in the OSD Up/Down moves the sliders right and left.
Connect to button you want to use for Down to D7, the button you want to use for Up to D5 and the Button for Enter/Select to D3.
The buttons need to connect to GND.
B right, B down, B up and B left should work don't have PLCC socket right now, will try later.

If you use the buttons on the GBS-board, there is no need for an encoder and you do not need to do the resistor mod to the D-Dunio I did so the lower button will reset the D-Dunio the upper button will have same function as Enter/Select (D3).

[kugu]

Hey guys, just finished, followed Voultar's guide. Trying YPbPr on snes, only passthrough mode works. Also have some wavy lines in the background like signal interference or something. Here are closeups of my wiring job:

[NoAffinity]

^As for wavy lines, have you done the copper tape mod on the ram traces (bottom of gbs pcb)? interference is a known issue, not noticeable on some boards, pretty noticeable on others. The copper tape mod helps.

[kugu]

^As for wavy lines, have you done the copper tape mod on the ram traces (bottom of gbs pcb)? interference is a known issue, not noticeable on some boards, pretty noticeable on others. The copper tape mod helps.

Disabling external clock generator fixed my issue, not getting the lines at1080p.

[CatMachete]

I just finished building my gbs control but my external clock generator is not working. I'm using a wii with component cables.
This is the log:

2345678
Format change: 3 <stable>
ADC offset: R:43 G:44 B:40
clock gen reset: 162000000
HTotal Adjust: -5
Active FrameTime Lock enabled, adjusting external clock gen frequency

preset applied: 1280x960 for EDTV 60Hz

Error: trying to tune external clock frequency while clock frequency uninitialized!
sync skipped ofr wrong: 106.72
Error: trying to tune external clock frequency while clock frequency uninitialized!
Error: trying to tune external clock frequency while clock frequency uninitialized!
Error: trying to tune external clock frequency while clock frequency uninitialized!
Error: trying to tune external clock frequency while clock frequency uninitialized!
Error: trying to tune external clock frequency while clock frequency uninitialized!

I fixed it. I just got a bad clock generator so I installed a new one and it works great!