It is currently Fri Mar 29, 2024 2:00 am


All times are UTC [ DST ]




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 6 posts ] 
Author Message
 Post subject: Dragon's Lair Testing of the DEXTER Ver. 3b Board
PostPosted: Thu Apr 23, 2015 4:47 am 
DAPHNE Tester
DAPHNE Tester
User avatar

Joined: Sun May 12, 2002 8:37 pm
Posts: 183
Location: Yuma, Arizona
Hi Everyone,

FYI. I got my DEXTER Ver. 3b Prototype Board.

I am Testing using one of my Rev. C Logic Boards, In LDV-1000 Mode. using Shuan Wood's Merlin 1000 Rom Board. I also did a quick Test using an Original Rom Board with the DLE 2.0 Roms, as well. And I am using it with a Space Ace Complete Bench Test Set Up.

When I first got everything hooked and tried DEXTER out using the F2 Roms, the video would Freeze Up between every search. It would show a Freeze Frame of the next Scene, Freeze Up, move Up two Frames slowly, then the Game and Video would Sync Up and continue Playing. The Game seemed to play fine, but it would do this between every single search. And I mean every single search, even during the Demo, as well.

But after turning everything off, and checking All of the Connectors, on DEXTER, Raspberry Pi, my Rev. C Logic, and turned it back on, the problem went away. Probably a Bad Connection. But I just thought I would mention it in case someone else has a similar issue in the furture. It has worked perfectly ever since.

I have Tested it using the F2 Roms, DLE 2.1 & DLE 2.0, both in Standard and Protoype Modes. Played Single and Two Player Games. Everything seems to be working Great!

The Boot Up of DEXTER is much improved. I see that there are still no Pause Blanks when DEXTER searches. Which I think that it is much better this way, anyhow.

Yours Truly,

Tony M Victorino

_________________
End of line...


Top
Offline Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Dragon's Lair Testing of the DEXTER Ver. 3b Board
PostPosted: Fri Apr 24, 2015 9:25 pm 
DAPHNE Tester
DAPHNE Tester
User avatar

Joined: Sun May 12, 2002 8:37 pm
Posts: 183
Location: Yuma, Arizona
Hi Matt,

Below is a Video of the above problem that I talked about before. I did put your Diagnostic Mode to Good use in this Video, as well. I don't know what causes it. But it might be a Merlin-1000 or Compatibility issue between Merlin-1000 and DEXTER. Or still might be a Connection Problem on my part. This only has happened when I was using the Merlin-1000 and seems not to happen when I use an actual Original Rom Board. But after swapping Items back and forth, even the Merlin-1000 works fine thereafter. It has since fixed itself, once again, BTW. And I can't seem to reproduce it at will. Maybe you can tell more than I can what DEXTER is doing or not doing by this Video with the Diagnostic Mode On.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHKxvSeC6E4

Yours Truly,

Tony M Victorino

_________________
End of line...


Top
Offline Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Dragon's Lair Testing of the DEXTER Ver. 3b Board
PostPosted: Sat Apr 25, 2015 7:22 am 
DAPHNE Tester
DAPHNE Tester
User avatar

Joined: Sun May 12, 2002 8:37 pm
Posts: 183
Location: Yuma, Arizona
Hi,

I asked Shaun Wood to look at the Freeze Frame Bug Video and here was his reply:

I just watched the new video of the freeze bug.
It's definitely a player return code mis-read.
When a search is executed, the player gives a return status code of 0x50 during the search, followed by a 0xD0, when the search is completed, followed by a 0xE5 when the player is in still frame.

Once a search is started, the DL board waits to catch that one instance of 0xD0 to begin playing again. My guess is that Dexter may be searching too fast for the DL Board, or you have a poor connection on the ribbon cable/board socket.
-Shaun

My Ribbon Cable has seen better days. I think that the Ribbon Cable or the Socket may be the problem and not DEXTER or the Merlin-1000 Board at all.

Yours Truly,

Tony M Victorino

_________________
End of line...


Top
Offline Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Dragon's Lair Testing of the DEXTER Ver. 3b Board
PostPosted: Sun Apr 26, 2015 9:36 pm 
DAPHNE Tester
DAPHNE Tester
User avatar

Joined: Sun May 12, 2002 8:37 pm
Posts: 183
Location: Yuma, Arizona
Hi Everyone,

After re-crimping my Laser Disc Player Connector Cable, I have not had any more issues with the Video Freezing Up. Even when I have swapped Rom Chips, Rom Boards, or Switched Between Roms using the Merlin-1000 Board. So, I am more incline to believe my trouble was with my Cable and not DEXTER nor the Merlin-1000 Board.

Testing on Rev. C Logic with DEXTER's LDV-1000 Mode & Hi-Tech Card in Sony 1450 Mode.

I have tested DEXTER Ver. 3b Board with a standard Rom Board with no problems. The Merlin-1000 Board seems to work just fine with DEXTER Ver. 3b Board, as well. Even after Swapping between the Multi-rom Chip and the Merlin-1000 Chip and Testing the different Rom Version of Dragon's Lair on each Chip.

I have also Tested the Hi-Tech Card with the DEXTER Ver. 3b Board set on Sony 1450 Mode, with no problems, either. The Hi-Tech Card works perfectly with a Standard Rom Board and the Merlin-1000, as well. Even when I set the Hi-Tech Card to PR-7820 mode with the Logic, it works with no problem.

Before, I use to have issues with getting the Hi-Tech Card to Sync with the Logic and the DEXTER Ver. 2 Board. This was because I had to Manually Boot Up the DEXTER Board, and found that if the Hi-Tech Card does not sync up with DEXTER at the Correct Time, it errors and won't work without turning Off and On the Hi-Tech Card, again.

The DEXTER Version 3b Board does not have this problem and Syncs Up perfectly with the Hi-Tech Card, when All Boards, Logic with or without Merlin-1000 Rom Board with the Rom Selection Menu turned On or Off, DEXTER, & Hi-Tech Card are turned on at the same time. After each one finally Boots Up, eveything syncs
in the end, and the Game is ready for play.

So, I would say that my preliminary testing of the DEXTER Ver. 3b Board with my Bench Set Up, is complete. I know that everything works as it should and how it works.

When I have the Time, I may try to Test it in my Actual Dragon's Lair Cabinet.

I would love to see how this DEXTER Ver. 3b Board Updates itself. Matt showed a Video of how you just hook it up to an Ethernet Cable to the Internet and let it do all of the work. So, when an update is available. I would love to test this out, as well.

Well, that's all for now.

Yours Truly,

Tony M Victorino

_________________
End of line...


Top
Offline Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Dragon's Lair Testing of the DEXTER Ver. 3b Board
PostPosted: Mon Apr 27, 2015 7:07 am 
DAPHNE Creator
DAPHNE Creator

Joined: Sat Jan 20, 2001 1:00 am
Posts: 2127
Location: Salt Lake City,Utah, USA
Lord_Victorino wrote:
Hi,

I asked Shaun Wood to look at the Freeze Frame Bug Video and here was his reply:

I just watched the new video of the freeze bug.
It's definitely a player return code mis-read.
When a search is executed, the player gives a return status code of 0x50 during the search, followed by a 0xD0, when the search is completed, followed by a 0xE5 when the player is in still frame.

Once a search is started, the DL board waits to catch that one instance of 0xD0 to begin playing again. My guess is that Dexter may be searching too fast for the DL Board, or you have a poor connection on the ribbon cable/board socket.
-Shaun

My Ribbon Cable has seen better days. I think that the Ribbon Cable or the Socket may be the problem and not DEXTER or the Merlin-1000 Board at all.

Yours Truly,

Tony M Victorino


I am glad I checked these forums as I did not know (or had forgotten) that you were posting feedback here.

I agree with Shaun, this looks like a problem with the DL board not getting the return code from Dexter. Having played Dragon's Lair with Dexter extensively, I am pretty confident that unless Shaun has further modified DLE v2.1 from its original form (where I believe the LD-V1000 I/O code was left alone), then it is a hardware problem. Dexter actually does return a few 0x50 codes (ie search busy) no matter what in order to satisfy the requirements of other games like Astron Belt, which freak out if they don't see that the search is busy. So even though the searches in Dragon's Lair appear instant, they are actually taking a few frames, which should be long enough for the Dragon's Lair ROM to not miss the 0xD0 when it comes back (although I believe that the 0xD0 will get spammed indefinitely until a new command like a play or search is received, which is different from what Shaun has said. I could be wrong about this).

re: the cable problem, the success response is 0xD0 while the error response is 0x90. I am pretty sure that Dragon's Lair does the "increment frame and retry the search" if it is getting a 0x90 response back. This suggests that D7 (assuming the data lines are numbered D1-D8) is bad on your cable, which would be quite a coincidence. But as you've said, you have replaced the cable, so this is just an interesting "what if" discussion at this point.

_________________
Check out my cool projects!


Top
Offline Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Dragon's Lair Testing of the DEXTER Ver. 3b Board
PostPosted: Mon Apr 27, 2015 7:56 am 
DAPHNE Tester
DAPHNE Tester
User avatar

Joined: Sun May 12, 2002 8:37 pm
Posts: 183
Location: Yuma, Arizona
Hi Matt,

Just that you know, the problem seemed to follow that Hardware. I had this same Problem with all of the Roms, when it was doing it, and not just the DLE 2.1 Roms. So, I knew that it could not be a Rom Problem. Like I said above, I gave my Cable a Re-crimping and the problem is completely gone, now. I have since tested different Rom Boards, the Merlin-1000 Board with the Merlin-1000 Chip and Multi-Rom Chip, as well as switching between the different Roms of Dragon's Lair. And everything is working Great!

There is always a chance that when I find a problem, it might not be DEXTER at all, but being manufactured by faulty old equipment. This is why I test and retest. As well as ask advice on my findings to be sure. Knowing what DEXTER does and what it is suppose to do, helps in figuring out what the problem may be, even if it is not actually DEXTER that is the problem. In this way, it actually shows how Great DEXTER really is, because of all the Hard Work you have put into it.

I will continue my posting here for you to look at your leisure. This way you can keep track of my Testing Progress, while at the same time focusing on adding more features and getting DEXTER finalized, A.S.A.P. with out any interruptions.

Let me know if there is any particular Testing you want me to do. Or if and when there is an update for DEXTER.

Yours Truly,

Tony M Victorino

Matt Ownby wrote:
Lord_Victorino wrote:
Hi,

I asked Shaun Wood to look at the Freeze Frame Bug Video and here was his reply:

I just watched the new video of the freeze bug.
It's definitely a player return code mis-read.
When a search is executed, the player gives a return status code of 0x50 during the search, followed by a 0xD0, when the search is completed, followed by a 0xE5 when the player is in still frame.

Once a search is started, the DL board waits to catch that one instance of 0xD0 to begin playing again. My guess is that Dexter may be searching too fast for the DL Board, or you have a poor connection on the ribbon cable/board socket.
-Shaun

My Ribbon Cable has seen better days. I think that the Ribbon Cable or the Socket may be the problem and not DEXTER or the Merlin-1000 Board at all.

Yours Truly,

Tony M Victorino


I am glad I checked these forums as I did not know (or had forgotten) that you were posting feedback here.

I agree with Shaun, this looks like a problem with the DL board not getting the return code from Dexter. Having played Dragon's Lair with Dexter extensively, I am pretty confident that unless Shaun has further modified DLE v2.1 from its original form (where I believe the LD-V1000 I/O code was left alone), then it is a hardware problem. Dexter actually does return a few 0x50 codes (ie search busy) no matter what in order to satisfy the requirements of other games like Astron Belt, which freak out if they don't see that the search is busy. So even though the searches in Dragon's Lair appear instant, they are actually taking a few frames, which should be long enough for the Dragon's Lair ROM to not miss the 0xD0 when it comes back (although I believe that the 0xD0 will get spammed indefinitely until a new command like a play or search is received, which is different from what Shaun has said. I could be wrong about this).

re: the cable problem, the success response is 0xD0 while the error response is 0x90. I am pretty sure that Dragon's Lair does the "increment frame and retry the search" if it is getting a 0x90 response back. This suggests that D7 (assuming the data lines are numbered D1-D8) is bad on your cable, which would be quite a coincidence. But as you've said, you have replaced the cable, so this is just an interesting "what if" discussion at this point.

_________________
End of line...


Top
Offline Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 6 posts ] 

All times are UTC [ DST ]


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 7 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
cron
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group
Theme created StylerBB.net