Circuit Sword buttons issue

User avatar
Phiro13
Posts: 32
Joined: Mon Feb 05, 2018 4:53 am
Location: Germany
Has thanked: 3 times
Been thanked: 3 times

Circuit Sword buttons issue

Post by Phiro13 » Sun May 12, 2019 2:12 pm

Hello,

I newly have an issue with my Circuit Sword build and hope somebody can help me.
First, the back buttons didn't work perfectly especially in the menu I had to press very hard to have any input. Then I resoldered the buttons and cleaned everything on the back.
Now I have problems with all of the buttons and it behaves like that: In the menu everything works fine as it should, also the back buttons. But when I enter a game, no button work at all. I had a few times where they shortly worked but quickly started to act weirdly with ghost button pressing.
Also in the menu under input configuration the buttons acting weird and I can't reconfigure the button alignment.

I already changed the HDMI board with another one but same issue. Same with the ribbon cable and the pi itself. I cleaned the board and the rubber pads with alcohol but this had no effect as well. A fresh install of the image on a different SD card didn't helped either. Here I even couldn't define the buttons.

The board is not new, it's from 2 or 3 preorders ago. Could the board maybe some kind of faulty over time?

User avatar
kite
Posts: 972
Joined: Thu May 12, 2016 4:30 am
Location: UK
Has thanked: 246 times
Been thanked: 361 times
Contact:

Re: Circuit Sword buttons issue

Post by kite » Mon May 13, 2019 2:59 am

Hi, could you plug in a keyboard and run 'jstest /dev/input/js0' and see what the output is? You might be better off doing something like 'sudo jstest /dev/input/js0 > /boot/jstest.txt' so that it appears on the SD card as 'jstest.txt'
Stock clearance - CLOSED: viewtopic.php?f=38&t=12064
Kite's Mailing List: https://goo.gl/forms/e97uUvPOfUxPWdz82
Kite's FAQ: https://kiteretro.com/faq/


ImageImageImageImageImage

User avatar
Phiro13
Posts: 32
Joined: Mon Feb 05, 2018 4:53 am
Location: Germany
Has thanked: 3 times
Been thanked: 3 times

Re: Circuit Sword buttons issue

Post by Phiro13 » Mon May 13, 2019 10:06 am

Hello Kite,

thanks for helping troubleshoot.
I can't create a txt file with this command line, I get this:
pi@GameBoy2:~ $ sudo jstest /dev/input/js0 > /boot/jstest.txt
-bash: /boot/jstest.txt: Permission denied

With the only command, I get this:
pi@GameBoy2:~ $ jstest /dev/input/js0
Driver version is 2.1.0.
Joystick (Arduino LLC Arduino Leonardo) has 10 axes (X, Y, Z, Rx, Ry, Rz, Hat0X, Hat0Y, Hat1X, Hat1Y)
and 32 buttons (Trigger, ThumbBtn, ThumbBtn2, TopBtn, TopBtn2, PinkieBtn, BaseBtn, BaseBtn2, BaseBtn3, BaseBtn4, BaseBtn5, BaseBtn6, ?, ?, ?, BtnDead, (null), (null), (null), (null), (null), (null), (null), (null), (null), (null), (null), (null), (null), (null), (null), (null)).
Testing ... (interrupt to exit)
Axes: 0: 0 1: 0 2: 0 3: 0 4: 0 5: 0 6: 0 7: 0 8: 0 9: 0 Buttons: 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off 7:off 8:off 9:off 10:off 11:off 12:off 13:off 14:off 15:off 16:off 17:off 18:off 19:off 20:off 21:off 22:off 23:off 24:off 25:off 26:off 27:off 28:off 29Axes: 0: 0 1: 0 2: 0 3: 0 4: 0 5: 0 6: 0 7: 0 8: 0 9: 0 Buttons: 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off 7:off 8:off 9:off 10:off 11:off 12:off 13:off 14:off 15:off 16:off 17:off 18:off 19:off 20:off 21:off 22:off 23:off 24:off 25:off 26:off 27:off 28:off

The last part repeats very often and after a while, maybe a minute or so it constantly repeated this part pretty fast.
When I press any button, it switches from off to on, on every button even in games. But it doesn't take the input, I even can't go back to the menu where all weirdly works great.
I compared it with my other GameBoy which works perfectly fine and couldn't spot any difference.
Does this say something to you?

User avatar
kite
Posts: 972
Joined: Thu May 12, 2016 4:30 am
Location: UK
Has thanked: 246 times
Been thanked: 361 times
Contact:

Re: Circuit Sword buttons issue

Post by kite » Tue May 14, 2019 5:50 am

Hm, nothing clear there then.. i think it might be best to send me an email (kite@kiteretro.com) and I'll give you the return details and I'll take a look. I'm suspecting something to do with how the buttons are read by the microcontroller and there there is a hardware fault preventing it working!
Stock clearance - CLOSED: viewtopic.php?f=38&t=12064
Kite's Mailing List: https://goo.gl/forms/e97uUvPOfUxPWdz82
Kite's FAQ: https://kiteretro.com/faq/


ImageImageImageImageImage

User avatar
Phiro13
Posts: 32
Joined: Mon Feb 05, 2018 4:53 am
Location: Germany
Has thanked: 3 times
Been thanked: 3 times

Re: Circuit Sword buttons issue

Post by Phiro13 » Tue May 14, 2019 8:18 am

Do you think it makes sense when I try first to replace the back button boards. I have ordered new ones for my third build and could use them. Because the only thing I did was resolder these and nothing on the CSO except for unscrewing it after the issue appeared. Maybe something went to hot or so.
If that doesn‘t fix the problem either, I‘ll sent you an E-Mail and ship the board to you.
Could take a few days to receive the back button boards.

User avatar
kite
Posts: 972
Joined: Thu May 12, 2016 4:30 am
Location: UK
Has thanked: 246 times
Been thanked: 361 times
Contact:

Re: Circuit Sword buttons issue

Post by kite » Tue May 14, 2019 9:05 am

I suspect something got knocked. You can take a look at all the chips and perhaps use an old toothbrush or brush and clean around all the chips incase there is a bit of solder or something caught in between the legs. Quite unlikely but that's all i can suggest without seeing :) just email me if there is no improvement after your tests
Stock clearance - CLOSED: viewtopic.php?f=38&t=12064
Kite's Mailing List: https://goo.gl/forms/e97uUvPOfUxPWdz82
Kite's FAQ: https://kiteretro.com/faq/


ImageImageImageImageImage

User avatar
Phiro13
Posts: 32
Joined: Mon Feb 05, 2018 4:53 am
Location: Germany
Has thanked: 3 times
Been thanked: 3 times

Re: Circuit Sword buttons issue

Post by Phiro13 » Tue May 14, 2019 9:08 am

Ok thank you! I‘ll give it a try with the brush too.

User avatar
Phiro13
Posts: 32
Joined: Mon Feb 05, 2018 4:53 am
Location: Germany
Has thanked: 3 times
Been thanked: 3 times

Re: Circuit Sword buttons issue

Post by Phiro13 » Tue May 14, 2019 1:05 pm

I just tried it with the back button boards completely off and everything works just fine, the button configuration and the games. So it has to be an issue with these boards, I will replace them and the CSO must be ok. I'm glad I found this.

Sorry, I bothered you with this!

User avatar
kite
Posts: 972
Joined: Thu May 12, 2016 4:30 am
Location: UK
Has thanked: 246 times
Been thanked: 361 times
Contact:

Re: Circuit Sword buttons issue

Post by kite » Wed May 15, 2019 2:42 am

Ok cool, well that's something! I suspect one of the buttons is being held down? The buttons work by the 'signal pin' (e.g. R1 or L1 etc) should be at 3.3v (if measured with a multimeter). And when you 'press' the button, it connects the signal pin to GND. So with a multimeter you can verify the voltage of the signal pin when unpressed (3.3v) and pressed (0v/GND). You can see the labels for the pins on the connectors, they are the white text on the PCB and they line up with the cables.

You are welcome to show pictures here and I can see if anything obvious is amiss
Stock clearance - CLOSED: viewtopic.php?f=38&t=12064
Kite's Mailing List: https://goo.gl/forms/e97uUvPOfUxPWdz82
Kite's FAQ: https://kiteretro.com/faq/


ImageImageImageImageImage

User avatar
Phiro13
Posts: 32
Joined: Mon Feb 05, 2018 4:53 am
Location: Germany
Has thanked: 3 times
Been thanked: 3 times

Re: Circuit Sword buttons issue

Post by Phiro13 » Wed May 15, 2019 11:56 am

I meassured everything and recognized that one button droped about 150mV while it’s pressed. The other 3 had almost 0. So I resoldered the one button and cleaned it again, after that it still had about 50-80mV and I could not figure out why. I guess the thin lines in the PCB aren‘t completely isolated. But the important thing is everything works again :-) I‘ll test it for a while and hope it stays that way and I never have to touch it again.

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest