Han's NintendoPi Project

[hansolo77]

Day 6

Nothing really new to report here, as I had to work.  I'm still waiting to hear back from the forum posts I made at RetroPie.  I did however find their IRC chat room and joined up to ask there.  Apparently they don't really like to talk support there, and really only use IRC for gossiping.  Makes me wonder why WE don't have an IRC chat room.  We just have a "chat room" running on the website.  Anyway, one of the @mods there said it's probably a better idea to post new topics, rather than keep replying to same one with new questions.  So I'm going to do that later tonight.

There is one good thing.  I got an email, while I was reading my email, that said my Mausberry power circuit had shipped and is on it's way here.  Apparently it had just been picked up, so the tracking number doesn't work yet.  I'll check where it's at tomorrow and report back as to it's expected delivery.

One other thing.  I'm definitely going to have to buy a different USB hub.  I tried disconnecting everything from this one, and just plugged the USB Keyboard into it, and it still didn't "power on" the keyboard.  The keyboard doesn't power on, but apparently it draws enough amps that the USB is unable to provide it's requirements after splitting it's available power 4 ways.  So I'm probably going to need to get something Powered.  This brings me to another issue...  Should I get one that runs on the same power requirements of the Pi, and just splice off the power coming to the PI and then run the plug to the HUB, or would I be better off getting something different?  One thing I was thinking was "do they make USB hubs that can draw power from the USB (like mine does) but have it actually connect to 2 ports and get double the power?"  Chances are they probably don't.  If they did, I'd look for something like a 7-port hub, to replace the ports I'd lose to the 2nd plug.  But I doubt they make such a thing.  The other thing I'm thinking of is maybe just getting a standard polarized extension cord (nothing crazy like industrial (orange) but something black if I can find it), chop off the 3-way out plug, and connect the PI and HUB to inside the NES case, then get myself some kind of plug that I can mount to the case, run the wires internally to the plug, and make the male (or female) plug for the other chopped of end of the extension cord, then connect that to the case and the wall.  It'll give me just the 1 cable, and provide the power I need.  What do you guys think?  I don't know much about electrical engineering, but it's my understanding that a typical wall outlet (in the USA at least) just provides 2 prongs (3 if you want ground).  2 wires should be easy enough to play solder with and some shrink tubing.  Is there more to it than that?  I mean, obviously I'm going to want to make sure the cables line up correctly and don't switch.  But that sounds a lot lot nicer.  The other issue with that is finding the room for it lol.

[Draco1962]

You may be able to get some inspiration from this project for the power, etc.

http://raspberryretro.com/all-in-one-raspberry-pi-powered-x-arcade-tankstick/

It is actually a duo stick, but similar to a project that I had considered in a previous post and may still consider.

[stigzler]

I had to lookninto all this for my ataroid project, hans. in reality, uoure gonna have to do some soldering. its all about amps. cant remember the details, but on my ataroid, I have a single switching psu that supplies enough amps for the odroid, usb hub and a hdmi to hdmi with optical out. uou then split this with some gadgetry. on mine had to produce a 12v and 5v rail, so I got this tiny psu splitter. however, if your usb hub ran at same voltage in as your pi, then shouldnt be too difficult.

YOu have to be careful though. these sbcs are sesative little buggers and any over or under voltage or ampage has to be in strict thresholds.

Interesting thread...

[tthurman]

I ran into a similar issue on some lighting project I was doing for my pedestal (this part is still in planning), because when you plug in that hub to a single port, it simply divides that one USB port power into X amount of available expansion ports on the hum.  I went with a power strip with full power USB ports, but in your application it may be to large.

Like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Upow-3-Port-Travel-Charger-Outlets/dp/B01GY3B834/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1477762091&sr=8-1&keywords=upow+power+strip

 

This is the one I got, but it's not currently available:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00Z082HQW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Quote

18 hours ago, hansolo77 said:

Makes me wonder why WE don't have an IRC chat room.  We just have a "chat room" running on the website.

Would you really sit in an IRC channel all that much?  The chat room here has gotten going on a couple occasions over the years, but it always seems to drift away back into obscurity eventually, that is until someone else reinvigorates it for a while,  

[hansolo77]

@Draco1962 - Thanks for that video, that's definitely a nice way to do it.  If I didn't need 2 power inputs, I would certainly go that route.  But since I'm going to have to have 2, I don't think that's very feasible.  I don't really like the idea of cutting the power supply's apart and directly soldering them to the line-in AC from the wall.  Plus, with 2 AC adapters, won't I run into some kind of interference?  I guess I'll just have to wait and see what my options are.  I'm going to the computer store tomorrow to buy a different HUB. 

@tthurman - I'm not sure that's what I need.  Those look like pure USB chargers, with built in AC plugs.  I can't connect my hub to that because I need something to get the data to the Pi. 

Day 7 Update...

I checked on the tracking information for my Mausberry Power Circuit when I got home.  It's coming from Boca Raton, Florida and is expected to be delivered on Tuesday.  Can't wait!  In other news, I played around a bit with my ROMs last night.  I had to re-learn how to use ClrMAMEPro.  I wanted to go through my romsets and remove all the crap I'll never play.  I thought I remembered seeing something about a quick and easy way to remove things like Japanese and European ROMs when you already have a working USA version.  So rather than have 3 or more copies of a game, you just have the 1, and the sorter would prioritize USA>Euro>Jap>etc.  I just couldn't remember how I did it before.  Then after doing a Google search (love that site!) I found where somebody had asked that same question and the solution was with CMP.  Then I found on the GameEx forums where somebody was trying to do that too, and posted up a walkthrough of how he did it.  It was a bit wrong towards the end, where he said simply scanning the ROMs will clear out the "crap", but I actually had to use the Rebuilder tool to get rid of them.  Got that all cleared up though, and now I have a nice clean NES set.  I'm going to try and migrate ROMs over one system at a time and test them before adding another one.  Before, when I was learning the software, I had moved everything over at once.  That caused a lot of issues with figuring out which ones worked, which ones didn't, etc.  This way I can be sure the systems I have installed will be working.

[tthurman]

2 hours ago, hansolo77 said:

Those look like pure USB chargers

Doh!  You're correct, I got completely consumed in the "USB power" aspect.  

[Kustom Kid]

@hansolo77 In response to the cross thread conversation about double sided tape. This doesn't leave a residue. I've used it for a number of projects. It does stick like hell though, so removing whatever you stick can be a laborious process. Food for thought.

This is a great thread, and I'm enjoying very much watching the process. Thank you.

[hansolo77]

Thanks @Kustom Kid.  That was my intention.  I wanted to break it down, and show my process.  That way if I decide to build another one for like my brother, I'll know what I did, and what works. 

Day 8 Update

Woe is me.  WOE IS ME!!!   So I went back to the 'ol MicroCenter today to exchange my non-powered USB2.0 hub.  I came back with a full on powered USB3.0 hub.  Plugged it in, and wouldn't you believe it.. same damn issue.  Keyboard and Xbox 360 dongle work fine in the Pi's USB slots, but don't get recognized in the HUB.  This really aggravated me because this thing was 8x the cost!  As a test, I went ahead and tried plugging it into my computer.  It detected itself as a generic USB hub as it should.  Then I connected the USB keyboard to it, and it detected just fine too and worked.  Then I connected the Xbox dongle, and..yup worked fine too.  So something is wrong on the Pi side.  I tried everything, up to and including completely formatting the SD card and rebuilding a scratch version of the OS with manually updating drivers.  Nothing helped.  Then I got smart and used Google.  There are so many Linux things I just don't know yet because I've not trained myself in the OS.  But anyway, there is this command lsusb that gives you a listing of all the USB devices on the Pi.  The hub is listed.  That's a plus.  But it doesn't show anything that's connected to it.  I was, however, able to get the WD drive to run on it.  So that got me to dig deeper.  There is another command dmesg that basically gives you a log of the device's hardware operations.  Linux detects all the attached hardware as it boots, every time.  So this is a nice way to see where something goes wrong.  I disconnected the hub and reconnected it, and it gives you better details as to what is happening.  The problem isn't necessarily with the HUB.  There is one major hardware issue I was unaware of.  The "VIA" chipset is known to have difficulties working with the RPi's.  I did not know this.  This 2nd Hub I have, although not notated anywhere on the package, runs on the VIA chipset.  So that fact alone means the probability of this hub working is about 50/50.  Then the REAL cause of the problem was discovered.  Apparently, the Pi is unable to detect and enumerate low-speed devices if they are connected to a high-speed hub.  Seems like a silly restraint, as most devices you see say "Compatible with 1.1, 2.0 and (maybe) 3.0 Standards".  PC's as far as I know, don't have this problem.  Or if they do, they're probably fixed in drivers.  With the Pi it's different.  I dunno why, something to do with the architecture of how the whole system works.  All I know is, a keyboard, mouse, joypad, etc, are all USB1.1 devices.  They're low-speed, basic input type things.  USB2.0 devices would be like my Hard Drive here, which works great through the hub.  They're classified as full-speed.  High-speed 3.0 devices are the latest/greatest thing and would be your TV-Tuners, Sound Cards, Data Transferring, and some Hard Drives.  So these 2.0 and 3.0 devices work fine with the Pi and a Hub, but the 1.1 devices are just too slow.  They work great plugged into the Pi directly though, so that's what was bothering me.  The final "proof" as it were, was to add a line to the Pi's /boot/cmdline.txt file (think of it as the autoexec.bat file in old DOS days, or your system.ini file in Windows).  By adding dwc_otg.speed=1, you're telling the Pi during bootup to run everything like it was made in the 90's.  USB ports are all 1.1/low-speed.  The SD card slot, LAN, and Wifi (pi3 models) are all 1.2mb speeds.  This one change enabled the Keyboard to get instantly detected and enumerated on the Hub.  However, the hard drive was no longer able to run, and the Xbox dongle only showed power, but communications were non-existent.  So what did this teach me?  Well, the Keyboard is low-speed 1.1.  The Hard Drive and Xbox Dongle require at least full-speed 2.0.  And the Hub is basically just a collection of charging ports unless I drop the speed to the point where it's unusable.  So while the whole VIA chipset could have been an issue, and the non-powered USB2.0 hub I had previously bought wasn't able to supply enough power, my ultimate discovery was that I still have to work to do.  I need to find a POWERED USB2.0 hub that will fit in the cartridge slot, and be compatible with the Pi.  There are some examples that people have used, though this list is extremely out of date (they're using the original Pi as reference, not the super-powered Pi3).  So I guess I need to shop around.

For a somewhat un-helpful thread reference, here is the link to my request for help on the RetroPie forums.  Nobody really helped me, and I discovered the problem on my own.  But I still need help finding a replacement that works!

I also picked up a nice little pig-tail 1ft HDMI extension cord.  It has male on one end and female on the other.  Plug the male into the Pi, and mount the female to the NES case.  Then I have an outside-accessible HDMI port.  I couldn't find anything as far as a good PC power plug like @Draco1962 found.  I'm probably going to end up having to order that online.  The best I could find a was a cable with the right reciprocal, but the other end was a simple female AC plug.  So that's not going to help.  It was $20 too, not worth it to just chop off the plug.  The only other thing I bought was some 7-inch Female Jumpers.  These are basically wires with the jumper plug already attached to the ends, so I can use them to attach wires to the GPIO on the Pi.  My plan now is to wire up the RESET switch as a way to exit a game and return to the menu.  This can be done easily enough with the right button combination on a gamepad, but if I'm going to use an Atari joystick, there's only 1 button.  This will help with that, and make the RESET button usable.  Trouble is, I can't remember the website that had the instructions on how to do it!  If anybody can find it for me, let me know!

The struggle carries on!

[hansolo77]

Had to rename the thread.... Pintendo sounds too much like a Pinball Machine made in the shape of a Nintendo.  LOL   NintendoPi sounds like all the rest of the Nintendo products... Nintendo Game Boy, Nintendo N64, Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo Switch.. NintendoPi.  Fits better.

[Draco1962]

In searching for combination PI case and housing for the external HDD, I found this.

https://www.amazon.com/Limited-Raspberry-MEDIAPI-integrated-Remote/dp/B00SEGYY7C/

[hansolo77]

Yeah I saw that while searching too..  Not exactly ideal, but that would make for a pretty game console should somebody decide to want to build their own without a pre-existing case.

Day 9 Update

Absolutely nothing to report today.  Well, I take that back.  I stayed up really late last night copying more ROMs over, then went to bed while the built in scraper grabbed all the metadata (box art and descriptions) for the systems I currently have installed.  I will make a minor suggestion.  The only reason I went with the 1tb hard drive was because my current GameEx drive is 1tb, and has roughly 100mb remaining.  In reality, the RetroPie system doesn't utilize so much of the extra stuff GameEx has the ability to offer.  RetroPie only does Box Art, where as GameEx does that, and carts, and titles, and snaps, and manuals, and EmuMovies.  The high quality video snaps I have takes up a lot of space.  It looks great on the PC, but RetroPie isn't there (yet).  There's actually a thread that is picking up momentum where a guy is working on a theme that uses an arcade cabinet with changing marquee's per game, and a video snap for each game.  This is a MAME centered theme right now, and it's just in the baby steps.  But the way things are going, it looks like a lot of people are (rightfully) interested.  So it'll be nice to see an official update get pushed out that includes full support.  But until that happens, you're probably safe with a MUCH smaller drive.  I don't have any CD-images on the drive yet (PSX, SegaCD), so right now I have 900mb still free, out of the 1000mb originally available, and that includes box arts.

The Mausberry Circuit must be traveling by ground rather than air.  The tracking updated today at around 7:30 this morning when it was in Pennsylvania.  So it's 1 state over as of earlier today.  USPS still shows an expected delivery of tomorrow, so that'll be something nice to come home to and play with.  I'll include photos and stuff when I have the chance to mess around with it.  Chances are though, I won't have time until Thursday, due to work and sleep.  Also, if transportation is available, I'm going to make that final trek back to MicroCenter to return this working yet unusable USB Hub.  Then it's on to Amazon to find a good alternative.

Still looking for support from everybody if you care to help...

• Help me find the link with instructions on wiring up the NES reset button to the GPIO pins, and the script I need to run that returns to the game list (rather than RESET the Pi)
• Still looking for a good replacement Powered USB2.0 Hub (at least 4 ports on the front, and thin enough to fit in the cartridge slot)
• Would like somebody to do the work for me (since I'll be AT work lol) and find the Amazon links for the "C14"? plugs to add to the case for easy power hookups. (thanks drac!)

Lastly.. I saw a cool YouTube video where somebody had replaced the LED with a color changing one.  Sure, replacing it with BLUE is what a lot of people are doing, but having it color change would be awesome.  Does such a thing require a special kind of circuit to control the timing/changing, or is it also just a simple 2-pin connection?  I found some Tri-Color LEDs at MicroCenter, but they had 3 pins, so probably not what I need.  This is just a cosmetic bonus, nothing at all immediate. 

[hansolo77]

Day 10 Update - Nothing

The package didn't arrive yet.  So no Mausberry circuit to play with.
https://tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfirmAction_input?qtc_tLabels1=9400110200828189250732
The tracker says it's in transit to the destination, with an expected delivery of TODAY but it wasn't here.  I came home and asked if we even got any mail today, and they said there was an Ad, and a Box.  The Box wasn't for me though lol.  So hopefully it'll arrive tomorrow.  At least USPS doesn't show it's been delivered yet.  Since I had to update all the GOTM threads in the High Score Competition forum today, I didn't really have time tonight to do anything with my project.  I haven't even eaten dinner yet, so I'm going to go do that now, then go to bed.  Tomorrow is a night shift, so I won't be home until late again, so don't expect any new updates then either.  But at the very least I'll let everybody know if the package shows up.  

[hansolo77]

Day 11 - Bummer

Man I must really have the worst luck of anybody.  Order this Mausberry Circuit, wait and wait, then USPS updates the tracking to say it will be delivered today rather than Tuesday.  Then I get home, have it, take pictures, get all excited.  I go through a 90-minute ordeal trying to install pin header posts to it.  My soldering iron sucks, and the tip is all corroded beyond good use (there's like 1 little millimeter available that is still silvery and not black (and yes, I've tried to clean it)) and the only solder I can find is this really crappy thick stuff that is used more for a soldering GUN than a needle iron.  Anyway, 90-minutes out and everything is soldered on.  Hook up the appropriate wires, plug it in, and 'SNAP!'... there goes the USB plug.  The connector on the circuit itself snapped off right when I plugged in the power.  So this thing is now completely useless.  $20 total spent including shipping, and I have nothing to show for it.  I sent Mausberry an email, maybe they can replace it for me.  I also asked if they would be willing to attach some pin headers for me since I had such a hard time with this.  They probably won't, but hopefully they can at least replace it.  So now it's another waiting game. 

Before I went to work today, I added some more ROMs to the drive.  Sega Genesis and 32x.  When I play tested them though, I discovered the default mapping of the controller wasn't right.  The Sega's A button is supposed to be mapped to X on the Xbox controller.  Instead it was mapped to Y.  The C button is supposed to be mapped to B, but instead it was mapped to Right Bumper.  I don't know what happened, but I had to remap the controller.  Rather than do it in RetroArch (which would make it only work that one time because for some reason (superuser requirements I'd imagine) it doesn't save the config when you exit) I decided to remap it from EmulationStation's side.  Every time I mapped it correctly, it came back in the various games as incorrectly mapped for Sega.  So I had to re-think the way they do their mapping.  They say "press a button for A" and I press button A on the controller.  In fact, this is backwards.  They want you to press a button for A as if you were using a Super Nintendo controller.  I don't know why that is, because Nintendo has their controller buttons backwards.. BA, YX.  And they're the only system (out of a lot of others) that does that.  So in my opinion, this is a stupid way to map controllers.  But by reversing them, I was able to get the Sega games to be mapped properly.  The negative side of this now is that all the button mappings for everything else is wrong.  I might ask in the forums if there is a better way.

[hansolo77]

Day 12 - I spent the day yesterday adding in some more ROMs and testing them out.  Then I got sidetracked and didn't do much else.  I did get a reply back from Mausberry though, and the guy (if it's only 1 guy or a full staff, I don't know) said it was probably a faulty solder joint on the USB connector, and he had no problem sending me a replacement.  I asked him if he could add some jumper pins and he said that was no problem.  So I got that happening.

[hansolo77]

Day 13 - Today I play tested some PSX and Sega CD games I copied over to the Pi's drive last night.  They all work great, and are now being metadata scraped.  As for everything else, I did some searching and decided I'm going to go with the PiHut 7-port USB hub and ordered it.  I've read some reviews and watched a couple of review videos, and everybody seems to really like this thing.  You can't beat the cost, and it's pretty much guaranteed to work with my Pi.  It's powered too, so my under-voltage or under-amp issues I was having should go away.  Only downside is, it comes from Europe, so it might take a little longer to get here.  But as I've said from the beginning, I'm not really worried about how long it takes.  I'm taking my time so it comes together right and looks good.  I also ordered from Raphnet the Dual NES controller to USB circuit to replace the existing NES plugs on the console.  I've seen where people have done this, and have had no issues.  It converts them to USB, so I can just plug in 1 cable and get 2 controllers out of it.  The nice thing is, he includes 2 NES plugs but doesn't have them connected.  So I'm going to experiment and see if I can get the existing plugs connected first, rather than try and mount on his (you actually have to file down one of the corners on his plugs because of the way they go inside the console).

I'm still looking for assistance on finding the script/instructions to wire up the NES's RESET button to send a keypress to the Pi for "ESCAPE" so it will return to game list...

 

[stigzler]

How you approaching storage, Hans? I'm looking into building a number of unit using an Odroid C2. This has USB2 ports. Ideally, I would look to have the OS + emus on an emmc card (which would connect to the odroid) and then ROMS and assets on a separate storage medium which the user can change. HOwever, I'm not sure what to go for - 'passports' (essentially an ssd?), memory sticks or otherwise. 

[Draco1962]

I don't have the link but if you search a bit, I think there is a script or scripts you can run that will force the Pi to load the OS from an external drive instead of the SD card . 

[hansolo77]

Yeah, by default, the OS boots off an SD card.  That's how I'm running it.  All of the ROMs (and their artwork) are stored on the HD.  The WD Passport Ultra I have was bought more or less as impulse based on price.  I didn't really plan on buying a Hard Drive at the time, but that price was amazing and I didn't want to pass up on it.  The Passport is essentially an external HD that connects via USB3.0.  Even though the Rpi3 is USB2.0, it still works.  It receives the power via the USB as well (so no extra external power supply needed).  It is equivalent to a laptop drive (2.5 in) in appearance, but is definitely built as an external drive.  There are no screws (unless they're hidden under the rubber footpads) and no apparent way to take the drive apart to use just the drive inside without the case.  It also has a (in my case) White LED to show it's powered on, blinks slowly if it's in standby, and stays on/flashes quickly when there is activity or the drive hasn't "shut down" yet.  The response time is great on the Pi with this drive.  The only downside I have isn't due to any communication or power dropouts, but because of the way EmulationStation builds the game lists.  If you have a lot of systems and a lot of ROMs for those systems, it can sometimes take about 30 seconds or so for the system to be fully booted.  The reason it does this is because by default, the system is checking for any new ROMs/Systems when it boots up.  Once it's booted, the thing flies.  But first boot takes a while.  You can disable that, and have it just parse what it knows you have, rather than scan each time.  Shutting down can also take a while if you have the "Save MetaData on Exit" feature enabled.  This is your list of things like "Last Played".  If you don't care about "Last Played" or "Times Played" stats, you can disable that to make shutdown really quick. 

Day 14 - Sick

Spoiler

I went to work today and the day just dragged.  I've been taking some over the counter allergy medications to help fight the onslaught of attacks I'm getting from the outside weather.  This time of year is almost as bad as Spring for me.  I have a severe allergy to ragweed.  That's more of a Spring/Summer issue.  My 2nd biggest allergy (beside my food allergies) is Mold.  Mold spores are in full throttle during Fall, and a lot of it comes from decaying leaves from trees.  And it's also the big "mating season" for lack of better terms when Mold is everywhere getting ready for the Winter dormancy.  With summer taking nearly forever this year, Fall really kinda feel behind.  We typically see a snow (although not necessarily accumulated) before Halloween, but this year we're still waiting for our first snow.  In fact, this morning was pretty much the first morning I've gone outside and actually seen frost in the shaded areas, but nothing on the windshields to scrape yet.  When a late Fall happens, it's usually very tough for me, and the turn about to Winter is usually really quick.  So probably here in another week we might actually have our first snow.  Once that happens, if I survived the Fall allergies, I'm clear sailing till Spring.  But, like I am now, if Fall is late, Mother Nature pushed everything out all at once and gives a full blow to the head.  So I'm "sick".  I'm not throwing up, but I'm definitely getting the whole head cold/flu stuff.  Runny nose, body aches (probably due to a fever), clogged up ears, scratchy throat.  It all sucks, and really makes you not want to get out of bed.  But I'm on a 90-day probation right now since I called off the first day I was scheduled after "Sweetest Day" due to depression.  So I can't call off again until like January 15th.  I jokingly say "Well, if I call off because I'm sick, and they give me a 3-day suspension because of it, that's just an extra 3 days I can have to recover".  Of course, I don't want that to really happen.  It looks bad, and that's 3 days of pay I won't get.  We don't get paid sick days here.  My department head told me though that if I at least come in and work a tiny bit, even 30 minutes, and then go home, it won't count as a call-off and I shouldn't get in trouble for it.  My problem is that I'm such a hard worker unless I just can't move anymore, so I'm "in the trenches" struggling the whole time.  I lost count after about 40 nose blows today.  My nose is so red and irritated because of the crappy tissues we have at work.  But that's what I got to live with.  Good thing though is I'm off tomorrow, so maybe I'll go to bed tonight and wake up tomorrow feeling great.  Here's hoping at least!

I got confirmation today that my order for those C14 plugs was shipped.  I looked and looked when I was at the computer store on Thursday returning my Hub, and couldn't find them.  They still had a nice supply of those expensive cables that I thought I could just chop the end off of.  I'm glad I decided not to though.  There was an Amazon 3rd Party seller who was selling them in sets of 5 for like $3.  It includes screw mounting holes too, so I don't have make a nasty looking setup with hot glue.  Although, hot glue is still going to happen eventually, because I need a way to mount the HDMI cable jack.  But the plugs are on their way, and according to Amazon they'll arrive sometime between December 1st and December 16th (coming from China).  I wish I knew where they were coming from first, so I could have ordered from somebody closer.  But they had the best price.  One guy was selling just 1 set for $8.  Compare that to 5 sets for $3, and it was no contest.  This way I have 4 extras to use if I screw something up, or need more for other builds or any other reason.

Nothing new has happened on the build side.  Since I'm still waiting for other parts to arrive, there's not much TO do.  I'm waiting for Mausberry to send me a replacement power switch circuit.  I'm also waiting for raphnet to send me the NES/USB circuit.  Then I'm also waiting for those C14 plugs.  Lastly I'm waiting for the hub.  So once I get all the parts, it's build time.

Software side I've gone through and now have complete sets for most of the consoles and handheld systems up to the 16-bit era.  I have the PSX, Sega 32X, Sega CD, and N64 all working nicely.  I don't have a complete Sega CD set since they're about 500mb each and would take a lot of space.  Instead, I just have copies of the games we actually bought installed on the drive.  For the PSX, right now I just have all the Final Fantasy games on there.  Eventually I'll have copies of all the games I had on there for old-times sake (all the JetMoto's, all the Crash Bandicoots, Parasite Eve's, DinoCrisis, Resident Evils, Lunars, Legend of Mana/Legaia/Lagoon, etc).  Sega 32X is just 40 games, so no big deal there.  The N64 is a complete set.  I've run each system through ClrMAMEPro to rebuild a parent/clone set with the 1G1R (one game one rom) filters set so I don't have any duplicates, with priority set to USA>Canada>Europe>Japan>everything else.  On my PC, I included all the Computer systems as well, but my Pi build doesn't have these (yet?).  I'm not sure I want them or not.  Getting the Atari 5200 console to work was a chore due to how the emulator is made.  It runs both Atari 5200 and Atari 800.  The first hurdle was getting the emulator to find the BIOS files, and have it save their locations.  Since this emulator isn't part of RetroArch and is rather standalone, I had to manually configure it.  This was an issue due to ownership permissions, etc.  You have to sudo everything or the things won't save or be editable.  The other crappy thing with this emulator is that there is no way to have it automatically run the ROMs you load into it.  The system comes up with the ROM "loaded" in the slot, but you have to tell it what is actually running in the slot (such as Atari 800 cartridge, Atari 5200 cartridge, what romsize it is (4k, 8k, 16k etc) and so on).  So it's a pain in the neck to run when you want to play something, because you're always being prompted to tell the emulator what kind of ROM you're playing.  I might ditch this altogether.  This brings me back to the Computer systems.  The Atari 800 computer is THE computer we had when I was growing up.  So hell yeah I want to have it set up and running.  But if the process of selecting what system the ROM loaded into the slot is required for each game I play, I almost feel like it's not worth it.  The RetroPie system is capable of running lots of different computers "out of the box" and via addons.  Thing like various Sinclair systems, Amstrads, MSX, etc.  I may experiment with them in the future, but right now those are very low on my priority list.  I also don't want to have to have a keyboard and mouse always plugged in.  There are other things you can do with RetroPie too, like Ports.  They've ported a lot of game engines into "emulators" that you can install into RetroPie.  Right now I have PR-BOOM installed, which is a port of the original Doom engine.  It plays Doom, Doom 2, Ultimate Doom, Final Doom.  Of course, you have to supply the required .wad files for each one if you don't want to run the demo/shareware versions, and then write a separate script for each title.  I had that all figured out before I started over.  I also have TYR-QUAKE installed, which is a Quake 1 engine.  This too requires you to use the full version .wad unless you just want to play the demo/shareware version.  Control in Quake is difficult with a controller though since they added the up/down look functions that Doom was lacking.  The controls just aren't meant to be played with a controller, but rather a mouse.  The same is true with the Quake 3 Arena port.  I also have SUPER MARIO WAR, which is sort of like Super Smash Brothers, but uses sprites from the 8-bit genre.  They have a lot more ports too that I've not set up yet.  Things like a superior Outrun game engine, a port of SimCity type games, a game called Cave Story which is actually really good, and even some Decent/Decent 2 ports.  Lastly, that I'm interested in setting up (if nothing else than for the fact that I can) some ports of the Warcraft/Starcraft engines, and an engine designed to play many of the Forgotten Realms RPG games like Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate 2, Icewind, Morrowind, etc.  I own those games, and never finished them.  These of course would require a keyboard/mouse setup, but if I get the system that far, it won't be that big a deal to do.  If I decide to go that far with it, there are other things you can run too, like ScummVM for your point-and-click games like Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle, etc.  They even have a ZMachine interpreter that will let you run those classic text adventures like Zork, etc. from Infocom.  ALL KINDS OF POSSIBILITIES!!!

For a complete list, check out the RetroPie Setup Wiki and pay special attention to the Emulators and Ports categories!

[stigzler]

Thanks hans. All informative stuff. get well soon, and dont forget those paragraphs (makes reading easier for people) and pictures.

[hansolo77]

Yeah could you imagine if I ever wrote a book?  My English teachers would cry.  Some of them said all my stories are just dialog, and then the others said I have paragraphs that are too long, and I tend to create run-on sentences.  Dialog stories are great if I ever wanted to be a comic book writer.  But page long paragraphs are a no-no I've always had trouble with.  I think one of my teachers was trying to drive home that you need to separate paragraphs when you have different subject matter in each one.  In my last post, that's how I did it.  One for me being sick, one for hardware, and one for software.  I just need more practice I guess. 

And yes, pictures will come once I do more with the hardware.  I'll probably make some Youtube video too showing it all working.

[hansolo77]

This dude here is still so freaking sick.  Haven't done aything with this thing in days.  But I did just manage to find the reddit (never really used that site) post with the scripts I needed to run with the wired up RESET button.  Anybody out there good with Pi's and electronics?  I need to know if this will work "out of the box" or if I need to get a resistor or something.

https://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/comments/2yw4fn/finally_set_up_retropie_complete_with_a_gpio/cpdhtpu/

[hansolo77]

Finally feeling better.  Spent 2 whole days at work Friday and Saturday.  Paycheck is going to be TIGHT, so I might have to cut into my car savings to pay rent this week, but you can't help it.  If you're sick, you're sick.  At least I didn't waste money going to the doctor.  It's a $45 copay, and he'd probably just tell me "Nothing I can do, has to run it's course", like he has the last 3 times I've been sick.  There's been an extremely virulent strand of pneumonia going around, and some people have died from it.  So I figured if I wasn't feeling better in a week, I'd go.  Apparently, Wednesday was my WORST day.  I had a fever of 103f and had to drag myself in to work because I couldn't call off.  Went home like 15 minutes later.  I was so pale everybody said I actually was starting to look green.  They said my eyes were puffy and my forehead was swollen.  My nose was completely stopped up, and I've been coughing with a rattle all week (still am).  But sometime Thursday afternoon, my fever broke or something.  I could breathe through my nose, and laying in bed (not standing/sitting up at the computer) really helped calm my coughing.  I had a late shift Friday so that gave me a chance to go to bed early and sleep in.  I still woke up around 9:00am but I was feeling a lot better and decided to try to work through the day.  Then I did the same yesterday, and I'm "officially" off today, so things are looking much better.  I no longer have a fever, and sinus's are still kinda wonky but clear enough to breathe through.  I still get a cough fit every now and then, but my color is back and I feel great.  So it's time for an update to my project!

Day 15 (didn't count the sick days)

Got a confirmation email that my replacement Mausberry Power Circuit was shipped.  However I just have the Tracking number, the package hasn't actually left their facility yet.  No biggie.  I also have confirmation that the C14 plugs I ordered are on their way, though coming from China so may not be here till December 1-16.  I might have mentioned that before.  Again, no biggie.  I also have my "guaranteed compatible" USB hub on the way.  Coming from the UK, they don't offer any kind of tracking information.  I also got a confirmation from Raphnet that my NES circuit (to convert the NES plugs internally to USB) has shipped.  I've not received anything yet, but they're all coming.  So that's a good thing.

I found a really cool video online that was used for the MTV Video Game Awards in 2009.  Somebody had modified it slightly by increasing the speed and changing the music (and added sound effects).  I took it a step further and added a screenshot at the end of the "EmulationStation Loading" screen so it ties in smoothly with the last screen you see when the Pi is booting up before you get the menu system.  I'll post a video on Youtube for all to see of my setup soon.

I've got a few more ports working, and added a bunch more PSX games.  I've also been trying to scrape more metadata for games.  EmulationStation (RetroPie's "frontend") has a very limited capability as far as their options.  You get either NOTHING (just a centered list of games) or a list with BOX ART and some simple details about the game.  If you change to a more detailed theme you can get icons and such for the game type (fighter/shooter/platformer), the number of players, etc, bu it can cause the system to lock up on a WHITEOUT screen due to the memory capacities.  So that's it.  You don't have any way to have screenshots, or video snaps.  There's something in the works, but it's going to require a completely new branch of the software and will probably be a long way out still.

Today, however, I did some shopping, and have now got my RPI3 mounted inside the NES case!  This was actually more difficult than I thought it would be.  I had an idea of how I wanted to do it, but the actual buying of the hardware was the most difficult thing.  I knew I needed some screws and nuts to hold it down, and some nylon spacers to lift the Pi up off the bottom of the case.  I found the documentation to the actual layout of the Pi, with measurements of the screw holes.  According to that, I needed M2.5 screws.  Now I didn't know this at the time, but that M means Metric.  So I'm at the hardware store looking all over the place for screws marked M2.5 and couldn't find anything.  Everything is labeled like #6, #8, #10, etc with various types of heads and lengths.  That's because the good ol' US of A has to be different than the rest of the world and changed the measurements to inches, and then got lazy and gave them code numbers instead.  I gave up and just went with the smallest diameter I could find (#4 (larger is thicker)) and got the 1.5 inch length.  I then went to the end of the aisle and found their drawers for METRIC (doh!).  Surprisingly, the smallest diameter they had there was like M4+.  So I just went with my #4 screws and then dug in their spacer drawers and found the 1-inch nylon spacers I needed.  Total cost, around $2.50.  Total time spent, nearly an hour lol.

Got everything home, and the first thing I did was take a screw and spacer and made sure they fit together, which they did.  I was also smart enough to grab a bag of screws that had matching nuts in it, so that worked.  The next thing I did was try the screw in the Pi holes.  Of course they felt too big.  But I gave it a little twist with the screwdriver and it actually fit perfectly.  So I screwed in all 4 screws then added the spacers, and placed it inside the NES case.  I wanted to mark where to drill holes for them, so I had to have the spacers on it and everything to make sure I had clearance.  Once that was all done and marked, I grabbed my Dremel and drill bit, and drilled 4 holes.  The last hole is actually hidden under the NES's false bottom, and because of that the screw hole is raised about a half an inch.  So I had to cut one of the nylon spacers in half to make it fit right.  Once I had the size right, and everything in place, I used the nuts and tightened everything up.  I then had to use the Dremel's cut off wheels to cut of the extra bits of screw on the bottoms, because they were taller than the footpads and caused the NES to not sit flat.  Everything looks great now, and the Pi is fully mounted in place!  The location I put the Pi is the most appropriate.  I still have access to the SD card if I need to take it out.  And the USB plugs have enough room out the side for anything I attach to it.  With it being closer towards the front of the case, I also have room in the back for the power adapters coming.

Until I get the rest of the hardware, about the only thing left for me to do is figure out how I want to mount the HDMI plug.  I see a lot of (bad) cut outs for the plug, where people just use hot glue to secure it to the back the case.  I'm probably going to have to go this route too.  I decided to return the HDMI cable I bought at MicroCenter, and ordered THIS instead.  It has screws for mounting, which will look better than having hot glue.  I just have to wait for it to be delivered too.  My plan is to have both the C14 power plugs and the HDMI plugs on the back of the case.  I'd love to do something with the holes in the back that were created by the old power and A/V ports.  Maybe somebody out there has a way to 3D print a cover for those?  If not, I will probably just leave them.

My next post will have a video showing the boot up (so you can see my spiffy splash screen!) and the menu system.

[hansolo77]

Here is that video I promised.  Sorry it looks all pixelated.  Before I started the recording, I had focused it using automatic focus, then switched the camera to manual so the auto focus wouldn't change it.  I guess between the time I switched it, and the time I started the recording, I must have bumped the camera and caused the focus to shift.  So its a little messy.  Hopefully you get the gist of it all.  Oh, and ignore that large white blob on the right when the screen goes dark lol..That's me.  It's hard to sit for so long without moving.  And I tried not to talk because being sick my voice is all puberty-croaking. 

 

[tthurman]

Impressive, this is coming together very nicely!

[stigzler]

Nice work, Hans!

Having recently done some similar work (see Ataroid: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,149221.0.html) I'd recommend using xlr-type panel mounts. E.g for your hdmi:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,149221.0.html

then using this to cut the hole:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3-Pcs-Large-HSS-Steel-Step-Cone-Drill-Titanium-Bit-Set-Hole-Cutter-4-12-20-32mm-/272422588843?hash=item3f6da6d1ab:g:jXoAAOSwgHZYC1wh

Gives a result like this:

 

Also - for any other standoffs - i'd recommend using hot glue. Sure - leaves the insides a bit messy, but saves any traces on the outside.