Bacteria's project: "Project Unity"

[bacteria]

Hit a problem, an interesting one.

Apart from the wiring of the controller part of the Amiga to the switch, etc, the rest of the wiring was completed; so I tested the GameCube again. I got no audio, the image was monochrome and very shaky indeed. Removed the audio and video connections from the shared terminals to the SCART, and of course things got back to normal and fine again. Out of curiosity, pressed the composite line from the Amiga to the SCART and the video quality although in colour was really wavy and bad; removed the connection and all fine again.

What this means of course is the video and audio from the Amiga is clashing with the GameCube video and audio lines, even though of course the Amiga is off. This is a similar scenario to the controller issue of course originally.

Ages ago I tried using a variety of diodes on the composite line to see if the image would retain, however it didn't, at best, quality got bad, most of the attempts however resulted in no video at all. There is no option therefore - I need to use two 8P2T switches per console system. It will be cleaner to therefore use the two switches as follows:

first 8P2T switch:

1: controller line 1
2: controller line 3
3: controller line 4
4: controller line 5
5: controller line 6
6: controller line 7
7: controller line 8
8: controller line 9

second 8P2T switch:

1: Rgb
2: rGb
3: rgB
4: C-Sync / composite
5: left audio
6: right audio
7: voltage to select if in composite or RGB mode
8: voltage for LED to illuminate that system is on

The on/off switch will need to be a 2P2T switch, one part of it to power the console system (using ground connection) and the ground for the controller, the other part to connect ground to the SCART to activate the SCART.

This is a pain, as i've got 20 x 8T2P switches, and i've have to get another 20 now!

I was kinda hoping the video and audio lines would have worked ok together - no, they don't - so using this extra switch will keep them separated totally and get the job done. Not much of a set back.

[bacteria]

Tried various types of diodes, one type nearly worked however there was a slight quality loss in picture and also the sound was quite bad. So, wired up a second 8P2T switch as detailed above, works fine. This is clearly the way I have to do the work now.

On the positive side, it means I can have an LED showing now, to show which system is working; I am thinking about making custom button tops for the two 8P2T switches so they press together, and the LED shines through, not sure if can make them reliably working enough to do it though.

Going to have to try and get more of those 8P2T switches at a reasonable price if I can, normally they go for about £3 each on ebay, and I need 20 more... won my original 20 for £15 on auction, lucky - probably won't be lucky again. Have enough of these for the first 10 consoles, no no immediate rush, however I need more!

[bacteria]

These switches aren't that small as you can imagine. One thing I needed to do was cut off the pin legs on the other side of the switch, and join two sets together, to do that, sandwiched them with hot glue and a 1mm thick piece of styrene. I now have 2 x 8P2T switches together making 1 x 16P2T switch.



By overlapping one set over another via their screw holes, I can have a row of 17 switches taking up 31.5 cms in height; in a case that's going to be 35 cms high, so will work! Pic below represents 3 sets of switches (ie 3 console's worth of controller and A/V connections).

[bacteria]

This took a couple of hours only; secured two 8PdT switches together after removing the long pins on their reverse side and sandwiching with 1mm thick styrene to stop shorts; then secured wood with hot glue between each set of the switches, so a strip of wood can be inserted into the back to keep strength - that wood strip will be secured to a stronger piece of wood of course.

My measurements are fine - 9 sets of the switches bank = 18 cms; I have 17 different consoles, so that means 34 cms tall; the case will be 35cms tall, of which 1cm will be taken up by a top and bottom of combined 1 cm thick; in other words, works out exactly right! 17 unique systems, however the Atari 7800 plays Atari 2600 games, PS2 plays PS1 games and the GameCube with the GC Player installed plays GBA; so 20 systems in one system using original hardware (no emulation or clones); plus maybe some plug,n,play, not decided yet.

[CRTGAMER]

On my custom Zaxxon controller, I used an IDE connector to swap between systems. It gave me fourty wires to jump all the buttons I like those switches, a cleaner arramgement.

[bacteria]

Sure, that would work fine however would mean a long cable running to plug and unplug into one of 17 places here; the method i'm using is simply going to be one push button per system which will also have an LED to signify which one is on.

[bacteria]

Mounted the switches onto a mini stand, that way, I can move it around to get to the solder joints to get the wires into position.



There will be more switches, and will just fit top to bottom. The line drawn represents the top of the case, the wooden struts need trimming down at some point.

[bacteria]

Wired up the block of 9 banks of switches and connected up the GameCube to it. All works fine, just been testing. Tried to use these switches for the on/off but as expected, they don't have the ability to work with the amps for the console; so using normal switches instead.



Will test once more, then when happy, will finish off the Amiga CD32 connections (controller).

[bacteria]

Hit a problem, *this whole project is fraught with "problems" BTW*

Wired things up for both the GameCube and Amiga CD32 as mentioned, found for no logical reason the Amiga wasn't interested in loading many game discs I had, ran a small number of games, and the menus on the discs, if they did load, were mostly empty. Sometimes the multi game discs were saying an issue with the OS or similar. On some discs the menu and some games work fine, on others even the d-pad doesn't function. (?)

Then thought i'd load up the GameCube again, ran fine, but the controller doesn't respond at all.

What this means is the controller lines or something else is conflicting and causing the errors on the Amiga from working properly and the GameCube from the controller - has to be the controller connections conflicting, it makes sense from the symptoms too.

Issue now is getting a solution, especially as i've just shelled out 100 bucks for more 8PDT switches. Going to have to remove the controller connections, test both systems to make sure they work fine, then add a connection at a time to see what the problem is. Troubleshooting is a painful time and a real time-waster, but has to be done!

I'll report back when done the work, might take a day or two. I will get the solution.

I know I could have used female IDE type connectors and plugged in a male IDE connector that completed the circuit to make a system work, yes; however that would look "hobbyist" and not the way I want to do it - a push button switch per system.

Three steps forward, two steps back; so many times. When this system is finally finished, i'll have to test every system in turn to know it all works fine.

[bacteria]

Right, tests are interesting - for some strange reason, I think the issue is with the on/off switches. Removed the power from the Amiga totally (ie cut the wire to its switch), although kept all the controller wiring in place, GameCube didn't boot, and the on/off switch when off still had a reading on the continuity testing, even though when switch is off it should be off...removed the switch and connected the wires together so "permanently on", and GameCube booted fine, game worked, all controls worked fine and properly.

Tomorrow i'll do the same for just the Amiga, ie remove the grounding wire to the GameCube and if the Amiga works fine, as expected, then the problem will be identified as being the on/off switches. The ones I was using were normal switches; the ones i've ordered off ebay are rated at 6 amps at 125v and 3 amps at 240v and also rated to work fine at 12v; given my systems need a max of around 3 amps, should be ok - i'll know when they arrive in about 3-4 weeks and can test - in the meantime, no issue, if my system works fine with wires connected directly, will work fine with proper rated switches; if I can't get them working on smaller switches i'll just have to get larger ones, will be an issue but will have to get around it if needs be.

At least this proves no issues with controller connections or my wiring.

My original thought process was to have the on/off on the grounding wire and not the voltage line as there are multiple voltage lines in this system not just one; and wanted to keep grounding separate. If I continue to get issues like i've had, and not easily solvable, I might need to use the on/off on the voltage line and use the spare connection on the 8PDT switches to toggle grounding. It's an option anyway.