Harmony Cart Problems

[unhuman]

I just got my harmony cart and updated it's firmware to 1.04 bofore first use. Doesn't work. All my other carts work fine on 2 consoles (Atari 7800 and Hacked Flashback). Tried my harmony on both with no response. A few times I was able to get a spinny-wheel (once on each console) but it was very, very touchy - and never came back. I cleaned the contacts on the edge connector of the cart (they were very dirty, even though brand new). Still nada. I've been unable to get it to work again.

 

The memory card I am using is a 16MB Canon Memory card (Windows things it's a "Texas Instruments PCMCIA MultiMediaCard Controller"). It's amazing how many carts can fit on that thing.

 

Regarding the card. I formatted it, and then copied the file during the firmware upgrade process. I then copied all my cartridge directories in place.

 

Do I have a bad cart? I'm going to try a different SD Card as well, but the fact that the cartridge generally doesn't work at all (can't get spinny wheel anymore), I am doubtful that's the problem.

 

Thank you!

 

-Howie

 

Edit - few more notes:

1. My 16MB card is formatted as FAT (dunno if FAT12 or FAT16 - Windows doesn't say).

2. Just tried 2GB card (FAT32) - same issues - both consoles.

3. Tried a diff 9V adapter for Flashback (one it comes with is 200ma, I found one in house that's 300ma). Same issues. My Atari 7800 comes with a 1000ma (1A) adapter. Don't have another due to funny connector.

Edited February 19, 2010 by unhuman

[+batari]

I just got my harmony cart and updated it's firmware to 1.04 bofore first use. Doesn't work. All my other carts work fine on 2 consoles (Atari 7800 and Hacked Flashback). Tried my harmony on both with no response. A few times I was able to get a spinny-wheel (once on each console) but it was very, very touchy - and never came back. I cleaned the contacts on the edge connector of the cart (they were very dirty, even though brand new). Still nada. I've been unable to get it to work again.

 

The memory card I am using is a 16MB Canon Memory card (Windows things it's a "Texas Instruments PCMCIA MultiMediaCard Controller"). It's amazing how many carts can fit on that thing.

 

Regarding the card. I formatted it, and then copied the file during the firmware upgrade process. I then copied all my cartridge directories in place.

 

Do I have a bad cart? I'm going to try a different SD Card as well, but the fact that the cartridge generally doesn't work at all (can't get spinny wheel anymore), I am doubtful that's the problem.

 

Thank you!

 

-Howie

Harmony does not support MMC cards, and since your card comes up as "MultiMediaCard" this is clearly the problem. You need to use a genuine SD card.

[unhuman]

As I said in my edit, I tried an SD card - PQi 2GB - formatted fat32. Didn't work. Has the same issues. I will try another. Don't have high hopes at this point.

 

Edit: Trying another SD card... I'll update again when it's tested.

 

Edit: Kingston 512MB SD card - same problems. For this one I have hbios and some roms in the root, in addition to various folders, etc... Still nada. This one formatted as FAT, identifies as "Texas Instruments PCMCIA Secure Digital Controller"

 

Edit: Reformatted above card as FAT32. Has hbios.bin (from Harmony tool) and SI.bin (Space invaders) and that's it. Nothing else. Still same results.

 

-H

 

 

I just got my harmony cart and updated it's firmware to 1.04 bofore first use. Doesn't work. All my other carts work fine on 2 consoles (Atari 7800 and Hacked Flashback). Tried my harmony on both with no response. A few times I was able to get a spinny-wheel (once on each console) but it was very, very touchy - and never came back. I cleaned the contacts on the edge connector of the cart (they were very dirty, even though brand new). Still nada. I've been unable to get it to work again.

 

The memory card I am using is a 16MB Canon Memory card (Windows things it's a "Texas Instruments PCMCIA MultiMediaCard Controller"). It's amazing how many carts can fit on that thing.

 

Regarding the card. I formatted it, and then copied the file during the firmware upgrade process. I then copied all my cartridge directories in place.

 

Do I have a bad cart? I'm going to try a different SD Card as well, but the fact that the cartridge generally doesn't work at all (can't get spinny wheel anymore), I am doubtful that's the problem.

 

Thank you!

 

-Howie

Harmony does not support MMC cards, and since your card comes up as "MultiMediaCard" this is clearly the problem. You need to use a genuine SD card.

Edited February 19, 2010 by unhuman

[+batari]

I would download the eeloader to the cart again. Make sure you are using the 1.04 eeloader that came with the 1.04 BIOS or it will not work.

[Dauber]

Make sure you download the drivers, too...

[unhuman]

I've done this multiple times - each time I've swapped to a different memory card.

 

And, as Dauber suggested, I have the drivers for the harmony cart serial port interface - else it wouldn't detect the cart at all. Everything gets "green" and copied over. I put the cart on USB port (w/o memory card in it) and the memory card into a distinct card reader. Copy it all over. Doesn't work.

 

The Firmware I am using is: eeloader_104e_NTSC.bin (13.7 KB (14,072 bytes))

The BIOS I am using is: hbios_104e_NTSC.bin (93.0 KB (95,232 bytes)) - which gets copied to root of SD card.

 

And, I'm using v1.1 of the harmony software to do the uploads to the cart.

 

Thanks,

 

-H

 

I would download the eeloader to the cart again. Make sure you are using the 1.04 eeloader that came with the 1.04 BIOS or it will not work.

Edited February 19, 2010 by unhuman

[+batari]

Try loading a single game to the Harmony using the development tab.

 

Also, when you cleaned the edge connector, how did you do it? There is a chance that soldering flux got on it during assembly and this could cause the problems you have. Isopropyl alcohol applied with a Q-tip to the contacts should clean it off.

[unhuman]

Thanks for all the tips!

 

I used Isopropyl alcohol with a Q-tip. I do know what I'm doing

 

I'll try the single game using the dev tab tonight. Got a friend coming over tonight and hopefully he found his 2600 buried in his basement... We'll try that too if he did. I don't have access to a 2600 otherwise (at my parents house, 60mi away).

 

Are the carts all tested before shipment? I would assume so given the small nature of the operation. I'm just wondering when I should flip the "I've gotta be crazy" switch to "Yeah, it's busted." But again, I'll try more tonight.

 

Thanks!

 

-H

 

Try loading a single game to the Harmony using the development tab.

 

Also, when you cleaned the edge connector, how did you do it? There is a chance that soldering flux got on it during assembly and this could cause the problems you have. Isopropyl alcohol applied with a Q-tip to the contacts should clean it off.

[+batari]

Thanks for all the tips!

 

I used Isopropyl alcohol with a Q-tip. I do know what I'm doing

 

I'll try the single game using the dev tab tonight. Got a friend coming over tonight and hopefully he found his 2600 buried in his basement... We'll try that too if he did. I don't have access to a 2600 otherwise (at my parents house, 60mi away).

 

Are the carts all tested before shipment? I would assume so given the small nature of the operation. I'm just wondering when I should flip the "I've gotta be crazy" switch to "Yeah, it's busted." But again, I'll try more tonight.

The carts are tested 4 times at various stages of construction. I assemble the main board and program a single game in the Melody programmer to it and assure it works. I assemble the daughterboard and ensure it is detected by Windows, and program the USB chip before attaching to the main board. I attach the boards, install Harmony BIOS and test the bare board in the console. Then I put it in a cart shell, label, and one more test before packaging and shipping.

 

The reason I want you to load a single image is to see if the problem is the EEPROM chip. Not the chip itself but a solder joint on it. If one is bad, you could get the issues you see but single images will work perfectly. If this is the case, of course you'll get a replacement cart.

[unhuman]

Sure, I'm willing to try anything. My friend said he couldn't find his console Will try this tonite. Good to understand how your process is though - I rarely get insight into how stuff is made.

 

-Howie

 

Thanks for all the tips!

 

I used Isopropyl alcohol with a Q-tip. I do know what I'm doing

 

I'll try the single game using the dev tab tonight. Got a friend coming over tonight and hopefully he found his 2600 buried in his basement... We'll try that too if he did. I don't have access to a 2600 otherwise (at my parents house, 60mi away).

 

Are the carts all tested before shipment? I would assume so given the small nature of the operation. I'm just wondering when I should flip the "I've gotta be crazy" switch to "Yeah, it's busted." But again, I'll try more tonight.

The carts are tested 4 times at various stages of construction. I assemble the main board and program a single game in the Melody programmer to it and assure it works. I assemble the daughterboard and ensure it is detected by Windows, and program the USB chip before attaching to the main board. I attach the boards, install Harmony BIOS and test the bare board in the console. Then I put it in a cart shell, label, and one more test before packaging and shipping.

 

The reason I want you to load a single image is to see if the problem is the EEPROM chip. Not the chip itself but a solder joint on it. If one is bad, you could get the issues you see but single images will work perfectly. If this is the case, of course you'll get a replacement cart.

[unhuman]

Ok - I've used the Harmony cart software (v1.1) to upload ROMs directly to the harmony cart. I tried Combat, Space Invaders, and Asteroids. I pointed the "arm" dir to the "arm" subdirectory off where the Harmony software is installed. It appears to detect the correct bankswitching format (chose 8k for Asteroids and 4k for Space Invaders). It uploads the ROMs to the cartridge. I take the cartridge and put it into my Atari and get nothing. Black screen. Tried both my Flashback 2 and my 7800.

 

I presume for this, there is no need to have an SD card installed into the Harmony cart, right?

 

This mean anything? If there is a simple thing I can check by opening up my cart, I'd be willing to do that, but if it's something else, I'd certainly prefer you do it.

 

-Howie

[unhuman]

Oh... It just played space invaders... But then I powered off and powered back on and same problem. Repeatedly.

 

I found a post from long ago (last year) talking about how the cart needs some time to initialize and doesn't work a small percentage of the time... Could I be running into that? Of course for me, it's the inverse. A vast majority of the time it doesn't work.

 

Edit: More info... Switched to asteroids. That worked (unreliably) so switched back to the harmony software. Without the card installed, still unreliable, but tells me no SD card.... When it works. Seems to be working more frequently than before... but not reliable. My other carts all work first time. This definitely is hit-or-miss. And mostly miss.

 

Edit: Switched back to Asteroids - can't get it to work. Switched to Space Invaders - can't get it to work.

 

Thanks - Howie

Edited February 20, 2010 by unhuman

[+batari]

Oh... It just played space invaders... But then I powered off and powered back on and same problem. Repeatedly.

 

I found a post from long ago (last year) talking about how the cart needs some time to initialize and doesn't work a small percentage of the time... Could I be running into that? Of course for me, it's the inverse. A vast majority of the time it doesn't work.

 

More info... Switched to asteroids. That worked (unreliably) so switched back to the harmony software. Without the card installed, still unreliable, but tells me no SD card.... When it works. Seems to be working more frequently than before... but not reliable. My other carts all work first time. This definitely is hit-or-miss. And mostly miss.

 

Thanks - Howie

The preproduction carts might fail to boot properly about 10% of the time. We figured out what was happening with these carts sometime in October and made a slight hardware change to fix it. Production carts should be nearly 100% reliable. So what you are experiencing is not normal.

 

If you don't mind, can you try inserting the cart a few dozen times to see if this cleans up the edge connector? At the prototype stage, I encountered a few boards with a bit too much tinning on the contacts, and although I haven't seen any production boards that way, I can't rule it out. Anyway, doing so might allow for better contact.

 

Regardless, I will send you a replacement. I will let you know when it ships.

[unhuman]

Sure... Doing that now. I did clean it with alcohol and it was a bit dirty... But sure. So... That worked - space invaders started up... Turned off and on a few times... Then took out cart and re-put on the firmware and nada. Sending you my address separately.

 

Thanks - Howie

 

Oh... It just played space invaders... But then I powered off and powered back on and same problem. Repeatedly.

 

I found a post from long ago (last year) talking about how the cart needs some time to initialize and doesn't work a small percentage of the time... Could I be running into that? Of course for me, it's the inverse. A vast majority of the time it doesn't work.

 

More info... Switched to asteroids. That worked (unreliably) so switched back to the harmony software. Without the card installed, still unreliable, but tells me no SD card.... When it works. Seems to be working more frequently than before... but not reliable. My other carts all work first time. This definitely is hit-or-miss. And mostly miss.

 

Thanks - Howie

The preproduction carts might fail to boot properly about 10% of the time. We figured out what was happening with these carts sometime in October and made a slight hardware change to fix it. Production carts should be nearly 100% reliable. So what you are experiencing is not normal.

 

If you don't mind, can you try inserting the cart a few dozen times to see if this cleans up the edge connector? At the prototype stage, I encountered a few boards with a bit too much tinning on the contacts, and although I haven't seen any production boards that way, I can't rule it out. Anyway, doing so might allow for better contact.

 

Regardless, I will send you a replacement. I will let you know when it ships.

[unhuman]

Replacement arrived and works great! WOW! Will be sending back the busted one tomorrow.

 

What a great product - highly recommended. Best $50 I've spent in a LONG time!

 

Regardless, I will send you a replacement. I will let you know when it ships.

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

Replacement arrived and works great! WOW! Will be sending back the busted one tomorrow.

 

What a great product - highly recommended. Best $50 I've spent in a LONG time!

 

Regardless, I will send you a replacement. I will let you know when it ships.

 

Ah that is great news that they stand by the product with good support! I just ordered the deluxe pack eve though I cannot afford it now but I hope some day to think it was well worth it anyways lol!