Arcade & Retro Repairs & Mods, all new recipe, with no added MSG...

McDermotX

I suppose the biggest issue with Fenrir comes down to the model Saturn its going into. I'd certainly think they would be working on revising the board to accommodate Model 2s if that's not already in the pipeline. Definitely an option though.
Don't have any experience with it myself, even though I have a launch Model 1 (apart from the battery changes, its never been tampered with), so will be sticking a Mode into a Model 2 with a SSD.

It's great to see all efforts being made to support optical drive replacements all the same.

eddhorse

McDermotX wrote: »

I suppose the biggest issue with Fenrir comes down to the model Saturn its going into. I'd certainly think they would be working on revising the board to accommodate Model 2s if that's not already in the pipeline. Definitely an option though.
Don't have any experience with it myself, even though I have a launch Model 1 (apart from the battery changes, its never been tampered with), so will be sticking a Mode into a Model 2 with a SSD.

It's great to see all efforts being made to support optical drive replacements all the same.

Yes it is in the pipeline alright, hopefully bring the prices down for all options

Colonel Panic

My switched PAL Saturn's CD Drive is toast so I might get one. I'd miss using my physical games though in this instance... Might finally get around to buying a Japanese version and use an Action Replay to handle booting US games, of which I own exactly one.

McDermotX

McDermotX wrote: »

They're always probably going to be a few euros more than you'd like to pay, if only for the engineering and design of such a niche item, but user accounts of late suggest a fairly high quality finished article.
Still in the air for me, but will chime in whenever they turn up.

Well impressed by these replicas, near perfect recreations with modern material from what I can see. Quite sturdy and well built, even without the added weight of the transplanted system.
Not the cheapest granted, but certainly made with a lot of care (even provides the bottom label with correct model no etc).
Was having second thoughts about the metal badge on the black one, but looks well in the flesh.

Have to drill out a mini-HDMI in one of them, but no big deal.

McDermotX

Yeah.....can't wait to test one of them out over the weekend. The original in the middle isn't actually being touched. Its a bit tinged alright, but is in better shape than another couple that are in more need.
Gone on a bit of a Sega bender of late, haven't even got to try out the Retro Fighter pad that showed up last week, so need to let the wallet recover and put some time into actually fixing them up.

eddhorse

Colonel Panic wrote: »

My switched PAL Saturn's CD Drive is toast so I might get one. I'd miss using my physical games though in this instance... Might finally get around to buying a Japanese version and use an Action Replay to handle booting US games, of which I own exactly one.

Do you need a Saturn disc drive?

Colonel Panic

eddhorse wrote: »

Do you need a Saturn disc drive?

Yeah, I think it might come to that alright!

eddhorse

Colonel Panic wrote: »

Yeah, I think it might come to that alright!

I have a spare if you want it, depends on the model or pinout i think.

Colonel Panic

eddhorse wrote: »

I have a spare if you want it, depends on the model or pinout i think.

Ah deadly, it got oval buttons so MK1, I believe. I’ll open it up this evening and see what the drive is.

Steve X2

A little project I'm working on. A 15" wide LCD setup to display arcade artwork powered by a Raspberry Pi. I can stick a clock overlay and whatever I want on it, but I'll probably keep it clean and simple with arcade marquee's only.

Currently 3D printing the case/mount for it, loads to do on the software side and also have some batteries to test to see if its worth adding battery power as well as mains.

Optimus Prime

That’s a great idea , looks cool.

KeRbDoG

Steve X2 wrote: »

A little project I'm working on. A 15" wide LCD setup to display arcade artwork powered by a Raspberry Pi. I can stick a clock overlay and whatever I want on it, but I'll probably keep it clean and simple with arcade marquee's only.

Currently 3D printing the case/mount for it, loads to do on the software side and also have some batteries to test to see if its worth adding battery power as well as mains.

Oooooo, more info on the LCD?

Steve X2

KeRbDoG wrote: »

Oooooo, more info on the LCD?

LTA149B780F 14.9 inch 1280X390 LCD Screen

Oh thats very cool !!!
Have you ever seen the pinball DMD clocks?

Steve X2

BrownFinger wrote: »

Oh thats very cool !!!
Have you ever seen the pinball DMD clocks?

I've got two of those run-dmd pinball clocks, one i built from aliexpress parts myself and another full kit i bought from some pinball forum. They are pretty class looking things, this LCD display is a good bit smaller.

o1s1n

I think you had a multi coloured one Steve didn't you?

I've had my one stored away for a few years now, it's an amazing yolk, just can't seem to find a place in the house where it works! Gives off a huge amount of light.

Steve X2

o1s1n wrote: »

I think you had a multi coloured one Steve didn't you?

I've had my one stored away for a few years now, it's an amazing yolk, just can't seem to find a place in the house where it works! Gives off a huge amount of light.

The one in my office is multi colour, but only in the sense that there's dip switches on the back to select what colour you want to display. There are more recent ones with proper RGB. I think the first one i built myself was just green, but still looks great.

Jack burton

Have a bit of a strange problem on my crazy taxi.

Had a few friends playing it the weekend and when I went on for a game it started in reverse. Went to change it to forward drive and wouldn't stay in that gear, when I held up the stick into that gear it would go forward but not pick up any speed, once I let go it went back into reverse then.

Checked all the connections etc and seem to be grand. Ran test mode and all its saying is that game is in reverse gear.

Gear stick itself is fine physically, switchers not jammed or anything.

Anyone have any idea?

BGOllie

check the switches on the shift gear aren't shorted, swap em around or change them altogether if you're not sure.
Could also be an issue with the I/O board. have you a spare one to test ? (think I have another one somewhere if you need a spare )
Failing that try the Jambo Safari cart I sent you and check if it runs fine (will need to swap a couple of inputs on the i/o board) .

Doge

Steve X2 wrote: »

LTA149B780F 14.9 inch 1280X390 LCD Screen

Wow the price for that is much much cheaper than the ones that were around one that project was first started.

I remember them being several hundred euros as there wasn't much LCD panels in that specific size.


Now it's very affordable.

Jack burton

They were working in the test mode but took your advice and just changed them for some micro switches from the pinball parts drawer.

Seems to be working a charm. I'll give it a few games tomorrow and see how they hold up with some newer larger switches.

I have that Jambo Safari wrapped up in a box along with other stuff for you, probably in the corner of my room for ****ing months now! I'll get it posted Thursday. Have a coin door for Cathaldub too that's the sake story. I'm actually ****ing useless haha

Doge

Shame that the pi powered Marquee looks absolutely awful on an Arcade1up cab with the display protruding a good bit from the top of the cab.
Don't think it's worth doing on them, but a normal cab it looks the business on.

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

Steve X2

Doge wrote: »

Shame that the pi powered Marquee looks absolutely awful on an Arcade1up cab with the display protruding a good bit from the top of the cab.
Don't think it's worth doing on them, but a normal cab it looks the business on.

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

I think it's way too small for a normal cab. It'd be lost in the marquee section.
It is a nice screen for messing around with other projects though, and the price isn't terrible.

McDermotX

McDermotX wrote: »

A couple Modes from Terraonion finally showed up yesterday for the Dreamcast and one of the Saturns. Despite their dual-use, I wanted separate installs just to have things squared away - though I'd never rip apart my original launch purchases.
Couple of later console pickups will be getting the works (Dreamcast is actually off getting the HDMI mod right now so that'll have to wait).

Got around to a bit of work last couple evenings.
Very positive first impressions of the Modes on both the Saturn and Dreamcast. Lot of work has obviously gone into the thinking behind the operation, so fair play to Terraonion. Couple minor caveats regarding the folder structure and caching when using the cover view option, but features for firmware down the line so nothing to get in a huff about - having said that, the cover view option is probably more useful for the DC as opposed to the Saturn due to performance issues, something Terraonion readily admit themselves due to bandwidth issues.

Saturn - ended up playing 'musical Saturns' one evening in the install. Primary use system is a switchless modified PAL, but the Mode doesn't get on with modified systems. It can work with some workaround but not worth the potential issues down the line, so ended up installing it in a Japanese model, and transplanting a PAL PSU into it. Grand for the pure 60Hz, but need to run a wire to enable auto 50/60Hz switching via Mode - not fully convinced I'll bother yet though, as there's not many PAL only releases off the top of my head that require going back in just yet - perhaps Shinobi X for the soundtrack. Other wiring option is to enable a reset to menu, but might hold off again, as a button-shortcut firmware option may be in the offing soon. Case on the Japanese model is a little scuffed though, so might do something with that.

Dreamcast - painless install, bar coming across the realisation that I've a couple DCs that'll need the hacksaw taken to em to fit Noctua mods, but that's a problem for another day. No issues here, bar trimming a support stand for the Mode to have an easier fit. Plenty of storage options with a SSD and microSD able to run concurrently.
DCHDMI mod is a game changer though, freeing up the DC from the scaler setup, and has a reset functionality that works together with the Mode to essentially operate as a reset to menu. Not a cheap option, but being free of the various video/VGA incompatibility/OSSC shenanigans that can happen with some DC titles and just having a crisp 960p output is refreshing. Soon as I have some more free time, I'll hope to move it into a black case and fit the Noctua properly.
Finally had a chance to checkout the Retro Fighters pad as well.....not bad in the couple hours I tried with it. Dont really have a problem with the original pad design bar the cable location, but nice to have a modern option.

Steve X2

Just in case anyone is using that LTA149B780F screen with the Raspberry Pi. You need to manually enter the HDMI detail in the config.txt file. It seems to pick up the screen as a 1280x720, which will work, but isn't the native resolution(1280x390).

hdmi_group=2
hdmi_mode=87
hdmi_timings=1280 0 8 128 64 390 0 1 3 24 0 0 0 67 0 42009500 8

Edit:
No time like 1.30am to be mixing up Gorilla epoxy to hold the marquee display frame together
A lot of sanding and priming in my near future to get this done for the weekend. The frame is meant for the Arcade1Up cabs, but a few small adjustments and it will do nicely as a standalone frame for this thing.

Steve X2

Done at last(I hate sanding PLA plastic so much!)
Software side is 100% complete on the Raspberry Pi 4, with image slideshow setup on boot. There's an FTP server running should I need to add or remove images and SSH is there as well for monitoring or changing the Raspberry Pi config(slideshow settings and transition effects can be changed here too).

I've got a super short and slim HDMI cable on the way to replace the standard one I have as its a bit bulky for this type of thing. I also found it a little front heavy, so added some balance weights from amazon into the back base section, which has worked well and it wont topple easy now.

So I'm pretty much done, the only other thing i might do is paint up the metal parts of the screen to match the frame.

Jack burton

So how much are you selling the limited run of them for? :P

Steve X2

Jack burton wrote: »

So how much are you selling the limited run of them for? :P

A limited run of one

The screen is very nice for what it is, but i cant help but wish it was a bit larger and higher resolution to really show off the artwork. Next one maybe as aliexpress has a few potential displays at reasonable prices.

Jack burton

BGOllie wrote: »

check the switches on the shift gear aren't shorted, swap em around or change them altogether if you're not sure.
Could also be an issue with the I/O board. have you a spare one to test ? (think I have another one somewhere if you need a spare )
Failing that try the Jambo Safari cart I sent you and check if it runs fine (will need to swap a couple of inputs on the i/o board) .

Got a pack of new switches this morning. Gave it a test and worked ok but then went back to the way it was. Must be a problem with the IO board.

It's pretty wierd really. When it's forced into D is like a car driving in first gear, odd.

Steve X2

Well I guess i know the first mod I'll be doing to this thing. I get about 3.5-4 hours on a full charge with just this single battery cell. Should cost about 10 euro to stick in 8 cells or more without much work(and there sure is plenty of space inside).