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The Ultimate Intellivision Flashback


Byte Knight

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I've been working on this project for a week or so and am about 80 percent done but have enough to share my progress. I've got the software side all set up, thanks in no small part to the instructions and files intvdave provided. On the hardware side, I've taken an approach somewhere in-between what Byte Knight and pimpmaul69 did. I wanted to be able to remove the Ultimate PC Interface easily to use, so I sacrificed a female-to-female serial cable to tie in to the Flashback's built-in ports and connect to the UPCI's cables. I needed a little more room inside the case to orient the Pi, so half of the Flashback's main board had to go

 

IMG_1610sm.jpg IMG_1611sm.jpg IMG_1612sm.jpg

I'm using an HDMI extender at the existing AV access and will be adding a USB port extender as well. I still need to wire in the power and reset switches, but it all fits and it all works!

 

This is a really cool project that I wouldn't have attempted without help from others on the forum, so thanks!

any pics of your extension cables coming out of the back of your finished product? Just curious how your cables look since you said you were doing both as extenders.
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Gang.

 

I ordered the Pi B+ and a nice case to put it in. I got it to play the Intellivision games, but I'm not going to attempt to put it all inside a flashback. What I wanted to ask is this....

 

Do we need to use the Ultimate PC Interface to use the Flashback controllers? Could we simply find a cable that has the db9 controller port on one end and a USB port on the other and then simply connect the cable to one of the Pi's USB ports? Would this work, or would there be problems with the Intellivision joysticks and their 16 way directional capability, etc...? I do have a Ultimate PC Interface but since its so big I thought it might be cleaner if a simple db9 to USB cable was used (if one exists that is).

 

Any info on this is appreciated.

 

Thanks,

John

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Gang.

 

I ordered the Pi B+ and a nice case to put it in. I got it to play the Intellivision games, but I'm not going to attempt to put it all inside a flashback. What I wanted to ask is this....

 

Do we need to use the Ultimate PC Interface to use the Flashback controllers? Could we simply find a cable that has the db9 controller port on one end and a USB port on the other and then simply connect the cable to one of the Pi's USB ports? Would this work, or would there be problems with the Intellivision joysticks and their 16 way directional capability, etc...? I do have a Ultimate PC Interface but since its so big I thought it might be cleaner if a simple db9 to USB cable was used (if one exists that is).

 

Any info on this is appreciated.

 

Thanks,

John

it doesnt quite work like that. You need an ultimate pc interface to use the flashback controllers.
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any pics of your extension cables coming out of the back of your finished product? Just curious how your cables look since you said you were doing both as extenders.

 

Here are a couple of shots of the finished product. I used a 6-inch male to female USB extender which just makes it out of the case, but that's how I wanted it. The HDMI extender is 8 inches, but that's the shortest I could find.

 

post-39531-0-10346100-1419878649_thumb.jpgpost-39531-0-91168300-1419878649_thumb.jpg

I'm real happy with how it came out. Tweaking the software has been "interesting," but that's part of what I wanted to learn. It's running great.

Edited by mthompson
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Here are a couple of shots of the finished product. I used a 6-inch male to female USB extender which just makes out of the case. The HDMI extender is 8 inches, but that's the shortest I could find.

 

finished1.jpg finished2.jpg

I'm real happy with how it came out. Tweaking the software has been "interesting," but that's part of what I wanted to learn. It's running great.

yeah i ordered the same hdmi extension. I really like that idea.
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So i started having communication problems between the raspberrypi and my pc using wifi. I was having power issues with the voltage dropping too low. The polyfuse is the issue. So i bypassed the polyfuse and usb power by using the pin header.

post-30773-0-38696800-1419892757_thumb.jpgpost-30773-0-07415900-1419892789_thumb.jpg

Edited by pimpmaul69
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Here are a couple of shots of the finished product. I used a 6-inch male to female USB extender which just makes it out of the case, but that's how I wanted it. The HDMI extender is 8 inches, but that's the shortest I could find.

 

I'm real happy with how it came out. Tweaking the software has been "interesting," but that's part of what I wanted to learn. It's running great.

 

Very clean looking! What are you planning on using the USB extender for?

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Thank you very much for the motivation with the project!

 

I will post pictures soon on what I am doing.

 

 

Question - Can someone please tell me how you got past the "black screen" on exiting from a game?

 

I have both the interface as well as a keyboard connected, and I am stuck at a black screen upon exiting a game.

 

Any advice would be much appreciated!!!

 

Lastly, has anyone considered using the Flashback's reset button to feed into the GPIO of the Pi as a "reset" command?

 

I Dremeled (if that is a word) the trace on the board to isolate the power ground from the momentary reset circuit. I then soldered a 2 conductor circuit onto it. I have it wound up at the Pi to be ready for when I am ready to connect them.

 

Thank you for your help!

 

 

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Very clean looking! What are you planning on using the USB extender for?

Thanks! Right now I'm using the keyboard all the time as I configure emulators, controllers, and game images. I've got lots to learn, but the progress is steady. After that, the keyboard use should be infrequent, but this way I won't have to open it up.
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Question - Can someone please tell me how you got past the "black screen" on exiting from a game?

 

Lastly, has anyone considered using the Flashback's reset button to feed into the GPIO of the Pi as a "reset" command?

 

As I recall, I had to add the resolution in the run command of es_systems.cfg file to prevent the screen from going black. My run command includes -z1280x768,16 for the TV that I use.

 

I have no idea how to interface with the GPIO port. Let us know if you figure it out!

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As I recall, I had to add the resolution in the run command of es_systems.cfg file to prevent the screen from going black. My run command includes -z1280x768,16 for the TV that I use.

 

I have no idea how to interface with the GPIO port. Let us know if you figure it out!

did that already. You dont use the pin header. There are two holes on the b+ next to the pin connector. The inner one is the reset. The other is ground. You dont need ground to be used as ground is already on the power board. You do want to use the pin header for power instead of usb due to voltage drops from the polyfuse. Here is a pic and diagram of pin header.

post-30773-0-94706700-1420003140_thumb.jpgpost-30773-0-51423400-1420003164_thumb.jpg

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Little update on my project. I soldered the 5V and ground wires from the switch to pins 2 and 6 respectively of the GPIO so I don't have the micro-USB power cord sticking out of the back any more. I also added a USB Wifi so there's no Ethernet cord needed. Looks much cleaner now!

 

post-16548-0-27565300-1420857300_thumb.jpg post-16548-0-53337500-1420857334_thumb.jpg post-16548-0-42245800-1420857335_thumb.jpg

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Hey guys, I am having a problem with my Ultimate Flashback setup. When I launch an INTV game I get this error and it goes back to the game selection screen.

 

gfx/SDL Error:Unable to set keyboard in raw mode

 

I did a search on that error and came back with nothing.

 

I've read through all the guides several times and not sure what I could be missing. I updated the Ultimate Controller interface and I know it is working with my flashback controller because I tested it with my PC and it works fine.

 

I did notice that the flashback controller sometimes acts erratically in the Emmulation Station interface. It goes up and down, left and right without my input.

 

Any thoughts of something I am missing?

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Hey guys, I am having a problem with my Ultimate Flashback setup. When I launch an INTV game I get this error and it goes back to the game selection screen.

 

gfx/SDL Error:Unable to set keyboard in raw mode

 

I did a search on that error and came back with nothing.

 

I've read through all the guides several times and not sure what I could be missing. I updated the Ultimate Controller interface and I know it is working with my flashback controller because I tested it with my PC and it works fine.

 

I did notice that the flashback controller sometimes acts erratically in the Emmulation Station interface. It goes up and down, left and right without my input.

 

Any thoughts of something I am missing?

did you update everything with the files from intellivision.us? Also how are your controllers setup internally? Did you cut and solder? Pics? Edited by pimpmaul69
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Hello pimpmaul69,

 

Yes I have followed the guide on intellivision.us and rechecked that I copied all the files several times.

 

Even though I just received my Ultimate PC Interface yesterday I upgrade the firmware to make sure I have the latest version. (now I see all units purchased after 12/1/2014 have the new firmware anyway) I have the interface set to Coleco / Auto Sense.

 

The interface works great on my PC.

 

I haven't cut or soldered anything yet. Just trying to get it to work first. So I have a Flashback controller plugged into port A of the interface, then a usb cable going from the interface to the PI. I also have a USB keyboard connected to the PI. That is it.

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Here are some pics of the error and my setup.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/ks2gqohuf08llze/AACv00JQ6aqJw6SIr5H-G_Hqa

 

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/6hm74i2p4nm3wks/AABeX0xhdt6o3NwwfWp0fNLZa

 

Any thoughts on this keyboard error would be greatly appreciated.

 

Do you actually have a keyboard connected when you see this message, or does it come up regardless? If you exit EmulationStation, does the keyboard work as expected? Maybe it's an issue between jzintv and the keyboard? Just guessing.

 

I've seen various error messages when connected to different TVs. In that case, I would try a different TV to see the result. I've never seen a keyboard error before, though.

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Yes I have a cheap USB keyboard hooked up. It works fine, able to type commands in the cmd prompt and use F4 to exit, etc.

 

I also tried it without the keyboard plugged in and the same error occurs.

 

Looking over the hackfile i see that for map 0 it says activate with F5 and map 1 activate with F6.

 

Do I have to do this? When would I? I tried pressing the F5 and F6 buttons on the keyboard when in the Emmulation Station Intellivision section but nothing happens.

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