Rasberry pi 2, what do you do with yours?

Damien King · 07-02-2016 9:40pm #1

Hi all, just picked one of these up friday and had a quick mess around with the included rasbipan operating system. Have retropie installed on another sd card and had a little look but am going to hold off doing anything more until i get a proper 2.1 v power supply. I couldnt transer media via the usb method so methinks the 0.5v charger im using isnt helping matters either.

Goes without saying that this has been bought with retro gaming in mind so just wandering what is working out well for everyone?

Any pitfalls to watch out for?

CiDeRmAn · 07-02-2016 10:08pm

Well, I've just spent 3 hours trying to set the thing up!
A pain in the backside getting Retropie going!

CiDeRmAn · 07-02-2016 10:08pm

Well, I've just spent 3 hours trying to set the thing up!
A pain in the backside getting Retropie going!

Steve X2 · 07-02-2016 10:19pm

Older versions of retropie had a bug that killed USB transfer after 30 seconds or so, fixed in 3.5.

https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/releases

So, grab the sd card image, burn it to sd, ftp over the roms and happy days

Damien King · 07-02-2016 10:30pm

So its not just me having that problem then? I saw the newer version with the bugfix was released over the weekend...at work now but will get stuck in this week, i'll keep you posted

thanks for replies folks

Dr Bob · 07-02-2016 11:37pm

I've a few dead old consoles/computers at home so ..
Stuck mine in an old c64 breadbox and used a keyah adaptor to hook up the c64's keyboard and joystick ports on it fantastic for running commodore stuff but ..running ps1 games on a breadbin c64 is kind of weird mind you.
I've a NES and a Megadrive simiilarly set up with a Pi 1b ,al running retropi tbh I was half thinking of sticking those 2 up on adverts (minus the games and with appopriate usb NES and meg controllers ) .

CiDeRmAn · 08-02-2016 12:16am

Does Raiden DX work on it yet?
I am shocked that there is such choice

A whole bunch of Mame editions.
A couple of Final Burn ones,
All reading from the same dir.

Steve X2 · 08-02-2016 12:31am

You can see how I put my c64 raspberry pi machine together below. Although, the most fun stuff I've done on the Pi is not retro related at all, so not suited to this forum.

http://www.retrovia.ie/showthread.php/42471-Commodore-64-Raspberry-Pi-Mod-(The-Purple-Nurple)

Damien King · 08-02-2016 12:33am

Dr Bob wrote: »

I've a few dead old consoles/computers at home so ..
Stuck mine in an old c64 breadbox and used a keyah adaptor to hook up the c64's keyboard and joystick ports on it fantastic for running commodore stuff but ..running ps1 games on a breadbin c64 is kind of weird mind you.
I've a NES and a Megadrive simiilarly set up with a Pi 1b ,al running retropi tbh I was half thinking of sticking those 2 up on adverts (minus the games and with appopriate usb NES and meg controllers ) .

I was thinking of gutting out an old console and doing something similar but have decided to make a little 80's style box from scratch and compliment it with 2 joysticks with full size arcade sticks and buttons. will make a nice change to build something small...

Thargor · 09-02-2016 3:06pm

So the Pi2 is a viable candidate for a retro box loaded with everything from 2600 to PS1 under the tv? My 360 is set up the same way but I never play retro on it, doesn't feel right.

If I gutted my old C64 like Dr Bob though...

um7y1h83ge06nx · 09-02-2016 3:20pm

Yeah I'm happy with it.

Bought it along with a heatsink and black case from Ali Express for under €40 delivered.

Have 2 Playstation style pads configured on it with USB extenders so I can hide behind the TV and sit on the couch with the joypads.

I have it emulating Megadrive, Sega CD, SNES, N64 and PS1 without issue. Had to switch the N64 emulator to get Mario Kart 64 working correctly but everything seems fine. It can emulate so much.

I would highly recommend it.

The Last Bandit · 09-02-2016 3:23pm

All my Pi's (B+, 2, Zero) are doing the same job these days - taking up space in a drawer, at least they're not alone as there are a couple of ARM devkits to keep them company

crasy dash · 09-02-2016 3:40pm

Hi guys hope you don't mind but have one of these as well in a drawer at home.

What's the easiest way of adding a on off switch to power it down properly looked before but got confused hence its in the drawer.

Thanks guys

eddhorse · 09-02-2016 3:59pm

Here ya go : Simple Raspberry Pi Shutdown Button
http://www.instructables.com/id/Simple-Raspberry-Pi-Shutdown-Button/

Obviously you would add a proper button rather than the piece of wire.

crasy dash · 09-02-2016 4:12pm

Cheers for that link:)

CathalDublin · 09-02-2016 5:14pm

Mine is unused until The Last Bandit comes out with a JAMMA adapter to use it on my cab

Duggy747 · 09-02-2016 5:19pm

It was running a Kodi / EmulationStation setup for a good while connected to an old CRT I keep upstairs. Ran a large amount of emulators up as far as the PS1 / N64.

Decided to turn it into a straight Kodi machine for the aul lad to introduce him to Android boxes, like a test run before buying a dedicated one for him.

Did the business over Xmas while I was home and he got used to Kodi.............until I returned to my own home and the SD card suddenly crapped out leaving him tweaking like a junkie without his fix. My own fault, it was a crappy SD card even to begin with.

It did it's job introducing him to that so getting him a proper one, going to take the RPi2 back and probably do the Kodi / EmulationStation setup again.

CiDeRmAn · 09-02-2016 6:44pm

CathalDublin wrote: »

Mine is unused until The Last Bandit comes out with a JAMMA adapter to use it on my cab

Eamonn to that brother CathalDublin!

I appear to have egged myself all over the face as I was tearing what little hair I've left trying to figure why emulators installed weren't onscreen!
Turns out you've to add legally held "files" into the respective folders on the system, then the emulator will pop into menu existence.... Bugger....

The Last Bandit · 09-02-2016 9:22pm

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Eamonn to that brother CathalDublin!

I appear to have egged myself all over the face as I was tearing what little hair I've left trying to figure why emulators installed weren't onscreen!
Turns out you've to add legally held "files" into the respective folders on the system, then the emulator will pop into menu existence.... Bugger....

Yes and the opposite also holds true, remove all files from the default emulators to remove them off the list

Oh ya the raspberry pi thing, its on the long finger behind the back burner at the moment

Tomo.Murphy · 09-02-2016 9:52pm

I've been putting off setting up RetroPie for ages. Haven't had the time to sit down and get it sorted. I have 2 Raspberry Pi 2s set up in the house with Kodi on them. Super handy for Airplaying Twitch, music and other randomness to the tv too.

CiDeRmAn · 10-02-2016 12:27am

Spent the evening popping files onto the RP2, good fun.
I have a HDMI to VGA cable, courtesy of Kerbdog, and a doodad for hooking the controls up.
All I need now is a decent filtered set of "files" to make Mame work.
Also, I noticed Starfox was choppy, is this fixable?

eddhorse · 10-02-2016 8:34am

Maybe a boards.ie RPi fully configured image would be a good idea. Have to be without roms. Ah damn im lazy

um7y1h83ge06nx · 10-02-2016 10:54am

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Also, I noticed Starfox was choppy, is this fixable?

Maybe. If you hit what you mapped the X button to as the "file"

loads you should enter a menu. In this menu you can change the default SNES emulator or (I think) assign a specific emulator to a specific "file".

PocketSnes is recommended for Super FX games, you might also look to overclocking your Pi.

CiDeRmAn · 10-02-2016 11:31am

Ali Rapping Stomachache wrote: »

Maybe. If you hit what you mapped the X button to as the "file" loads you should enter a menu. In this menu you can change the default SNES emulator or (I think) assign a specific emulator to a specific "file".

PocketSnes is recommended for Super FX games, you might also look to overclocking your Pi.

I had hoped that the whole process would be fairly transparent, but there probably isn't enough on the SNES that would make me want it running on my cab.
The MD, on the other hand, has masses of Shmups that are going to look damn fine on the AWSD screen.

Dr Bob · 10-02-2016 12:57pm

Anyone have an issue with retroarch not saving controls...I setup the latest retropi and i can configure controls and save but it resets to default on closing and reopening...

Damien King · 10-02-2016 1:32pm

eddhorse wrote: »

Maybe a boards.ie RPi fully configured image would be a good idea. Have to be without roms. Ah damn im lazy

Thats pretty much what you get from the official retropie image file, you just need to config the joypad in first boot. While being a great idea, the usb transfer method just wasnt working out for me even with version 3.5 but FTP is working like a charm so far, its also a handy way of getting used to the file structure and is hopefully going to be the way to edit config files and all that jazz.

Started over fresh yesterday as a full binary update seemed to affect performance and sound quality so I whatever I did, I wont be doing it again in a hurry.

I'm actually trying to make an image from what i have so far before I go configuring shaders and other advanced stuff just in case i completely balls it up and need to go back, First time doing anything with a PI so dont really have a clue what I'm at, anyone set up scanlines etc yet?

win32 disk imager seems to be the software of choice for making a backup, but when i go to select the source its only seeing the small boot folders and not the retropie installation. Some forums are saying that not all card readers will read that partition but I can see it if I run minitool partition wizard - am i missing something here?

Using HDD raw copy tool 1.10 I was able to get a complete image file that win32 disc imager can see so maybe that'll do. I dont have another 16gb sd card to test this with though. The good news is it didnt mess up anything on the SD card...

Really impressed so far, Only tested a few neo geo games, megadrive and one psx (crash bandicoot) but like what I see so far!

um7y1h83ge06nx · 10-02-2016 2:01pm

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

I had hoped that the whole process would be fairly transparent, but there probably isn't enough on the SNES that would make me want it running on my cab.
The MD, on the other hand, has masses of Shmups that are going to look damn fine on the AWSD screen.

It's honestly pretty handy, what I like about it is that it doesn't require the use of a keyboard, that would be a pain, particularly when the Pi is hidden away in a cab.

The default emulators for each console work well with most games, it's rare enough you need to change them. I did have an issue with Mario Kart 64 so needed to try a few emulator options until I found one that worked well.

As regards the MD have tried around a half dozens games with the default option, no problems at all.

Shapey Fiend · 10-02-2016 9:25pm

I spent 4 or 5 hours trying to get retropie working right, I forget what the issue was in the end I think some games were crashing and it was making me configure the controler on every reeboot which after 50 times got tedious. Ive feck all free time between work and a baby so I've been putting off going back to it because id much rather play games with retroarch on my laptop than configure my RP2.

CiDeRmAn · 10-02-2016 11:06pm

Little more time and I have a decent, working romset installed with Mame4all, now to configure the hdmi to vga and the resolutions for the cab and wire up the buttons to my ipac-type thingy to give me control.
Not looking forward to a few hours of crimping but, sure, it'll all be worth it in the end!
Hoping to have it quite neat, the RP2 tucked away under the CP in fact, get shot of the ugly PC next to the cab, and have ready to dazzle at the upcoming Beers!

CiDeRmAn · 10-02-2016 11:06pm

Little more time and I have a decent, working romset installed with Mame4all, now to configure the hdmi to vga and the resolutions for the cab and wire up the buttons to my ipac-type thingy to give me control.
Not looking forward to a few hours of crimping but, sure, it'll all be worth it in the end!
Hoping to have it quite neat, the RP2 tucked away under the CP in fact, get shot of the ugly PC next to the cab, and have ready to dazzle at the upcoming Beers!

Amalgam · 10-02-2016 11:15pm

Amazing how things have progressed, going from needing an 'able' X86 PC to having something the size of a credit card, sipping a few hundred milliamps, at most.

The D&D arcade games on a Pi Zero blows my mind, loafing around Quirkey's in the early 90s.. I can finally have a go at finishing them.

CiDeRmAn · 11-02-2016 8:25am

Amalgam wrote: »

Amazing how things have progressed, going from needing an 'able' X86 PC to having something the size of a credit card, sipping a few hundred milliamps, at most.

The D&D arcade games on a Pi Zero blows my mind, loafing around Quirkey's in the early 90s.. I can finally have a go at finishing them.

I'm probably going to put my Zero into a NES controller, unless something else pops up in the meantime.

eddhorse · 11-02-2016 8:35am

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Little more time and I have a decent, working romset installed with Mame4all, now to configure the hdmi to vga and the resolutions for the cab and wire up the buttons to my ipac-type thingy to give me control.
Not looking forward to a few hours of crimping but, sure, it'll all be worth it in the end!
Hoping to have it quite neat, the RP2 tucked away under the CP in fact, get shot of the ugly PC next to the cab, and have ready to dazzle at the upcoming Beers!

What do you use to connect the RPi to the cab?
Ipac? Jpac? Hdmi->vga?

CiDeRmAn · 11-02-2016 9:06am

eddhorse wrote: »

What do you use to connect the RPi to the cab?
Ipac? Jpac? Hdmi->vga?

No, its some Chinese one, basically it appears as a pair of joysticks on your device when plugged in, you just have to crimp in the button and stick inputs.
There were some issues with it in past versions of Retropie but they've been ironed out.
Best of all, it cost about €20 and works well, apparently...
We shall see.

eddhorse · 11-02-2016 9:07am

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

No, its some Chinese one, basically it appears as a pair of joysticks on your device when plugged in, you just have to crimp in the button and stick inputs.
There were some issues with it in past versions of Retropie but they've been ironed out.
Best of all, it cost about €20 and works well, apparently...
We shall see.

Link me up !

CiDeRmAn · 11-02-2016 9:25am

eddhorse wrote: »

Link me up !

http://r.ebay.com/SYo7KR

eddhorse · 11-02-2016 2:40pm

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

http://r.ebay.com/SYo7KR

Thanks, i already have one it turns out.

Steve X2 · 11-02-2016 2:45pm

For those having some problems or difficulties with retropie, definitely checkout raspicade. Much easier to setup, and much better in many ways.

Or, piplay.
http://piplay.org/

CiDeRmAn · 11-02-2016 3:01pm

Steve X2 wrote: »

For those having some problems or difficulties with retropie, definitely checkout raspicade. Much easier to setup, and much better in many ways.

Or, piplay.
http://piplay.org/

I'm looking for something that'll look good at VGA resolution.

Steve X2 · 11-02-2016 3:05pm

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

I'm looking for something that'll look good at VGA resolution.

Have a go at PiPlay.
You can config everything and upload roms via a web based interface if that's what you want.

eddhorse · 11-02-2016 3:20pm

Steve X2 wrote: »

Have a go at PiPlay.
You can config everything and upload roms via a web based interface if that's what you want.

How do you connect the controls then if you already have jamma setup?

Steve X2 · 11-02-2016 3:25pm

eddhorse wrote: »

How do you connect the controls then if you already have jamma setup?

You mean for MAME and the other Emu's?

Just do it via the onscreen setup, MAME should be good to go if you used defaults.

eddhorse · 11-02-2016 3:51pm

Steve X2 wrote: »

You mean for MAME and the other Emu's?

Just do it via the onscreen setup, MAME should be good to go if you used defaults.

I meant physically connect to the microswitches,

You have a jamma harness going to standard pcb and then an IPAC also connecting to your buttons and joysticks.

Would a JPAC not work to Rpi?

Steve X2 · 11-02-2016 3:58pm

eddhorse wrote: »

I meant physically connect to the microswitches,

You have a jamma harness going to standard pcb and then an IPAC also connecting to your buttons and joysticks.

Would a JPAC not work to Rpi?

JPAC works fine on the Pi. Just connect it and MAME works out of the box. You might have to config the other emu's.

Here's a vid I did a year or two ago on the Pi B+ connected to a JPAC with a fresh unmodded Raspicade install.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQNTG51FelE

um7y1h83ge06nx · 11-02-2016 5:30pm

Anyone on Retropie 3.5?

I'm no 3.4 and wondering if I should update.

Some people have had issues, see the comments here:

link

eddhorse · 11-02-2016 5:37pm

Steve X2 wrote: »

JPAC works fine on the Pi. Just connect it and MAME works out of the box. You might have to config the other emu's.

Here's a vid I did a year or two ago on the Pi B+ connected to a JPAC with a fresh unmodded Raspicade install.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQNTG51FelE

Great , JPAC it is , thanks steve.

Alcoheda · 11-02-2016 5:38pm

I have a model B+ which I mainly use for IRC logging. The power consumption is almost nothing so It's nice to have a machine that's always available and that you can ssh into from your phone.

KeRbDoG · 14-02-2016 12:54pm

One Pi2 working as;
- Weather Station - working as a weewx weather station by connecting to a WH1080 weather station
- House Room Temperatures - using a USB-WDE1 receiver and compatible wireless units, now makes nice client side graphs via highcharts
- FM Transmiter - a USB soundcard with its output connected to an integrated FM transmitter which can transmit around the house/garden whatever I play via the command line on the Pi (none of your GUI for me!)
- Wireless 'smart' home receiver WiP - have another USB adapter for more wireless sensors I've yet to get working, picks up my electricity monitors on my heating system and whole house. Proved to me that 1/3 of my house electricity use was my heating system (heatpump yokie)

Another Pi2 as a Kodi media player, CEC works great allowing me to use the little TVs remote to control everything. I really should sell one of the Apple MacMini units I have that do the same function, really overkill

Yet another one, a Pi B+ I think - it needs work again but acts as a games menu for a Sega Naomi NetDimm to allow yea select a game via a special wifi network that just displays a list of games, tap on a game and BAM! It pushes the ROM to the Naomi

Dr Bob · 15-02-2016 1:20pm

vaguely relevant but always had a few power problems with the older pi b+'s ..ie getting the undervoltage warning ( rainbow square) and the occaisional brown out ('fnaaaar')..I always figured the usb psu adaptor was the fault...turns out it was actually the cables..I got a highspeed charging cable and tried it and immediately eveything improved..eurogiant sell a "juice bank samsung charger cable" for €3 which is the one I used.

CiDeRmAn · 16-02-2016 10:18pm

Steve X2 wrote: »

JPAC works fine on the Pi. Just connect it and MAME works out of the box. You might have to config the other emu's.

Here's a vid I did a year or two ago on the Pi B+ connected to a JPAC with a fresh unmodded Raspicade install.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQNTG51FelE

Could you give me the raspian config to output properly across a HDMI to VGA convertor?
I'm having zero luck with this one here

Steve X2 · 16-02-2016 10:46pm

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Could you give me the raspian config to output properly across a HDMI to VGA convertor?
I'm having zero luck with this one here

I don't have it setup anymore. But basically set the config output to hdmi at 640x480 @ 60Hz.

What type of VGA converter do you have? Active or passive?

Edit:
This is the sort I used
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/HDMI-to-VGA-15-Pin-Converter-Adapter-Cable-Digital-Analogue-006824-/191417779035?hash=item2c9163835b:g:pb0AAOSwmrlUvX2x

$_57.JPG

Rasberry pi 2, what do you do with yours?

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