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Damn you, SNK and your Neo Geo pads!

12/05/2009 – 14:35

Yesterday was really, really annoying.

I built a prototype of the Neo Geo adapter board. Took about an hour. Plugged it in, realised all the button mappings were wrong. Looked at the 74hc157 datasheet again and noticed that I had connected all the multiplexing backwards. That means the schematic and PCB are both wrong… Built a NOT gate out of an NPN transistor to invert the data select line on the prototype.

All looks good except that the down and left d-pad directions don’t work.

Checked all relevant connections. Re-flowed a lot of solder just in case of dry joints. Gamepad clicks nicely so sounds like the switches are okay, but a multimeter test proves otherwise. Google the problem, see that it’s pretty common, in fact 75%+ of these pads suffer from the same issue. Turns out SNK used switches that re-define the meaning of “cheap and crappy”.

Apparently you can open the switches up and clean them. They ever never designed for that though, so it’s not easy. Tried it anyway, after all what do I have to loose? Ended up with mostly-working-if-you-push-hard-enough d-pad which doesn’t click in either of the repaired directions, making it feel rather weird.

I wish I had bought a Neo Geo joystick instead now, but it was too large to bring back from Japan with me. Should have posted it.

By mojo | Posted in electronics | Comments (0)

Retro Adapter update 11/05/09

11/05/2009 – 14:39

The circuit board designs for the Retro Adapter have been finished and sent off for manufacturing at Seeed Studio. Hopefully everything will be fine and I can then do a larger production run, and start selling kits and finished units.

This is the first PCB I have had professionally made, and the first time I’ve tried to do a kit or sell anything. Fingers crossed all will be well!

As well as PCBs for the main Retro Adapter, I have designs for the individual controller adapters too. These are needed for controllers which do not use a 9-pin female sub-D type connector such as the Famicom/NES/SNES or PC-Engine, and for controllers which require extra circuitry such as PC Gameport joysticks, Atari Paddle controllers and Neo Geo controllers.

I’m still trying to work out the best way to do some of these adapters. PCBs make construction a lot faster than having to wire the connectors up by hand, but sometimes it’s unavoidable due to PCB mount connectors not being available (e.g. Sega Saturn / Playstation). Where PCBs are possible the question becomes how big to make them. Smaller PCBs save money on manufacturing but don’t fit in a case so have to be used “bare”, while larger ones cost more to produce but will fit in standard cases like a DB9 shell.

There are other issues still to be resolved. The way I am going to implement multi-taps is going to need some experimentation to find the best solution. At the moment I’m thinking that the best thing might be to use a dynamic HID config, and when a multi-tap is plugged in have the Retro Adapter disconnect, change the config and re-connect. The implementation of Atari driving controllers is dependent on emulator support and I’m waiting back to hear from the authors about that. I need to test out bootloaders as well for firmware updates, so I can add more controllers as I acquire them.

Things are moving along well and I’ve now proven that the modular design can cope with pretty much any controller imaginable. It is also possible to connect DIY controllers using a variety of methods, which could either replace the “pad hack” method or complement it by offering dual console/USB support.

By mojo | Posted in avr, electronics, microcontrollers | Comments (0)

I'm really upset with Subaru's attitude

08/05/2009 – 21:02

The government scrappage scheme for 10+ year old cars seems like a good opportunity to replace something that will probably need replacing in the next few years anyway. Sure, I could get another few years out of my Suzuki, but I won’t get £2000 for it and won’t get the 2.5% VAT reduction either.

I sat down and did my research. Spent hours checking specs, reading reviews, blogs and forums. Eventually decided I’d like a Subaru Justy. It’s a “Kei” car, a sort of taller super-mini. Having arthritis the extra height makes it much easier for me to get in and out, and it’s pretty spacious on the inside too. The 1 litre rubber band is economical, if not particularly exciting. The Twin Cam version really looks the part too.

So off I went to the local dealer, had a test drive and was impressed. I tried out the Suzuki Splash but was not particularly taken with it, and although I like the Mitsubishi Colt it doesn’t have that Kei car hight advantage. So, decision made, I check my finances and decide to accept a loan from my mum so I can give the dealer the full amount in cash, and avoid paying interest on a loan since Subaru are one of the few manufacturers not offering 0% finance. Actually, that last point should probably have rung alarm bells in my mind, but I figured Subaru are a performance oriented brand and so maybe didn’t think they needed to go that far.

Actually, it turns out Subaru won’t budge even an inch. The dealer told me that Subaru instructed them not to offer any discount what so ever to anyone taking up the scrappage scheme offer. That £2000 is supposed to be on top of any existing deals or offers. To add insult to injury, Subaru are keeping the £250 from the VAT reduction. This at a time when every other manufacturer is disparately trying to entice the customers by offering massive deals and nothing-to-pay-for-a-year-then-0% finance.

How the fuck Subaru expect to sell any cars is beyond me.

By mojo | Posted in idiots | Comments (0)

Opt your web site out of Phorm / WebWise

21/04/2009 – 20:32

Phorm is being rolled out so webmasters need to opt out as soon as possible, or face having their visitors monitored. Imagine someone watching everything a visitor to your site does and then selling that information to other companies.

To opt out, don’t bother with the form on their web site as they ignore it, just send an email to website-exclusion@webwise.com

By mojo | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Retro Adapter V2 update

21/04/2009 – 18:43

This evening the Retro Adapter V2 site will be updated.

There are two major changes. I have abandoned the idea of using a DB25 in favour of a DB9, with a DB9-DB9 jumper box being used as the case. I managed to cram everything in to the space, with only one surface mount component (the microcontroller). The µproc has changed to an ATtiny861.

Due to the code being written in C, the code size has increased. I was originally using an ATtiny461 but ran out of code space.

An LED changes colour to show the current mode

I have tested all of the controllers that the original Retro Adapter supports. I have also added support for MegaDrive 6 button pads and Playstation 1/2 controllers in both digital and analogue modes. PSX arcade sticks and dance mats also work. I have some more controllers (PC-Engine, FM Towns, N64, Atari 2600 paddles, Saturn Analogue (NiGHTS) pad) ready to go and am looking for some others (X68000/MSX, Gamecube, Virtual Boy etc). I am particularly interested in getting a Playstation train controller and Saturn arcade/steering wheel controllers. I saw a train controller in Japan, but it was too large to bring back :(

For Dreamcast pads, I’m sure it’s possible but I really need a logic analyser to do it. There are also issues with the amount of code space it could take up.

By mojo | Posted in avr, electronics, microcontrollers | Comments (0)

Four step business plan finally solved

14/04/2009 – 18:20

Some genius on /. finally figured out the third step of the four step business plan! Instead of “3. ????” it now reads:

1. Start company
2. Fail
3. Get government bail-out
4. Profit!

By mojo | Posted in genius | Comments (0)

Avoiding British surveillance with alternative DNS?

03/04/2009 – 11:02

In the UK ISPs are required to keep logs of the domain name of every site you visit (e.g. “bbc.co.uk” if you visit any page on the BBC web site).

This might suggest that the logging is done by DNS servers. If that is the case, the simply changing to use alternative DNS server (e.g. OpenDNS) would avoid this monitoring. Of course, OpenDNS is itself an unknown quantity. I am looking for better alternatives.

It seems likely that this is how the monitoring works. The Cleanfeed censorship system works by matching IP addresses at edge routers and sending hits to a proxy server for testing of specific URLs. The overhead of trying to log actual HTTP accesses and then do a reverse DNS lookup would appear to be too high to make it realistic.

By mojo | Posted in networking, privacy, security | Comments (0)

Long haul flight experiences and tips

03/04/2009 – 10:34

I got back from Japan on Tuesday, after a 12+ hour flight on Virgin Atlantic.

Previously I have flown with KLM and JAL to/from Japan. I couldn’t really recommend KLM, because while the service was okay you can’t go direct from the UK with them, making your trip take 16 hours or more. JAL are by far the best I have ever used. Their in-flight entertainment entertainment isn’t as good as Virgin’s, but somehow the flight itself was a lot more pleasant. Maybe the food was better or they had more fresh air in the cabin.

First thing to be aware of is weight limits. In my experience being a few kilograms over with your luggage is no problem, and they don’t charge you excess baggage. Carry-on is a bit different. Generally they don’t even bother to weigh it if you have just one bag and can lift it. If you have more then one though, they might take notice. JAL didn’t, and most of the time Virgin didn’t either, but this last time they did. Best thing to do is probably to get one of those mini suitcases with wheels. The size limits on carry-on items are never enforced IME.

If you are over the limits, the best thing to do is go to the post office and ship the excess back to yourself. Japan Post is very, very efficient and will treat your package well, but be aware that on the UK end it will be delivered by Royal Mail or Parcelforce. Generally they are not too bad, certainly nothing like the US Postal Service who seem to go out of their way to smash everything up, but it’s still worth packing things with bubble wrap. Delivery can take up to a few weeks by EMS, but my package arrived the day after I did. I must have been lucky.

I have to say that it was a bit annoying that Virgin didn’t just let me take the stuff as carry-on. The plane was half empty and there was plenty of space. JAL were very helpful when I had an oversize poster tube to bring back. Also, I was only 15KG over, which is easily less than the difference between me and the fat guy ahead of me in the queue. They should use a step-on scale and weigh the passenger, luggage and carry-on all at once.

On the flight, the best thing to do is to sleep. That’s easier said than done, but even just sitting there with your eyes closed and only half awake is better then being fully alert and distracted by the in-flight entertainment. Sleep is by far the best way to beat jet-lag.

I would avoid sleeping pills. I tried them but they didn’t make me sleep, just very tired when I got off the aircraft. Alcohol is supposed to be bad too. I tried having a single can of 88kal grapefruit alcoholic drink before the flight once as it does help me sleep some times, but in that case it didn’t seem to make much difference.

Closing your eyes as soon as you sit down and are strapped in is worth a try. The motion of the plane as it takes off and climbs to cruising altitude helps some people sleep. Of course it means missing the safety announcement/video…

Virgin provide a sleeping mask which is well worth using. Ear plugs are not a bad idea either. Even better are noise cancelling or in-ear headphones. Noise cancelling ‘phones tend to be full sized cans, but since you have to sleep sitting up it’s not usually a problem. In-ear monitors (IEMs) don’t suit everyone, but if you can live with them they are obviously even better. I find that listening to an audio book helps me sleep too. Again, somehow JAL make sleeping a lot easier… I find the air on VM flights is very dry. I have heard that a damp cloth places over the nose and mouth can help but have not tried it so far.

I was not feeling too good on the return flight. The cabin staff graciously set up a row of four seats for me to lie down on. If the flight is not heavily booked, you can do this yourself or ask the crew about it. The arm rests usually fold up out of the way.

As for upgrades, I did once pay £75 for an exit seat. Basically that gives you unlimited leg-room, although you cannot stow anything under the seat in front (because there isn’t one) and they are usually high traffic areas due to being next to the toilets and the place people wait in to use them. I’m 182cm (6′) tall and find that my knees are wedged against the seat in front when my seat is reclined, but I’m still not sure if it’s worth going for an exit seat. I have never tried an upgrade to a higher service level (Premium Economy on Virgin).

All said and done, flying long hall is never a particularly enjoyable experience, but you can do a lot to make it more bearable.

By mojo | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Review: Audio Technica ATH-EQ66 headphones

21/03/2009 – 15:02

I originally bought the ATH-EQ66 to use when travelling. They were cheap (about ¥2000/£10) and I wasn’t planning to do any serious listening with them (I have Yuin PK1s for that, or Shure EC3s which I still can’t decide if I like or not.) I listen to audio books a lot and have been using the Nokia Labs Audiobook application, which is probably the best “feature” of my N73.

I was pleasantly surprised at how good these clip-ons are. While the sound is nothing special for music, it is listenable. The clip-on design is not well suited to high quality sound, it’s more about convenience. For the spoken word they perform quite well. Despite having little to no isolation you can understand what is being said even on a noisy train or aeroplane. They don’t seem to leak sound too much either, important if you use public transport.

Best of all they are very easy to carry around, having a build in cable reel that the main cord zips up into, with a socket to store the plug all built into the left can. Despite this they don’t seem bulky at all, don’t weigh much and are rugged enough to just put in your pocket. They are comfortable too, and don’t have any problem staying one. The single cord is easier to work with than a y-split too.

The only issue I have with them is that they do seem to be marginally harder to drive than the Yuin PK1s, although perhaps it’s just that they are not as direct. Either way, I need the volume a bit higher than with the PK1s, and on some very quiet audio books that means pushing my phone to the maximum level when in a noisy environment.

By mojo | Posted in audio, hardware | Comments (0)

Change of design for Retro Adapter V2

22/02/2009 – 23:12

I decided to change the design of the Retro Adapter V2. Instead of using the centre pins of the DB-25 for extra option “jumpers”, I changed to using a three position switch (on – off – on).

The main reason for doing this is that it frees me from just having to use a DB-25. While it is still the plan to use one, the new design also allows for the use of two DB-9s. Using DB-9s allows the use of two female DB-9s for connecting controllers, as with the DB-25 only moulded ones without screw tabs will fit.

A sub-miniature switch should fit in the enclosure, or could easily be attached to a length of wire or substituted for a pin header and jumpers. It also frees up an extra I/O pin so I decided to attach a dual red/green LED. At the moment there does not seem to be enough space on the board for the two resistors it would need, but I’ll add holes for it anyway in case anyone wants to use an alternative case, or simply attach them underneath the board. The LED currently changes colour depending on the position of the switch.

By mojo | Posted in avr, electronics | Comments (0)

たとえ溺れても梦はゆめでしかない