Jag Link Problems

[jamiemcclain]

I just recently picked up a second Jag and a second copy of Doom so I could use my Jaglink. I messed with them for about half an hour last night until we finally got a connection. The connectors seem to be extremly touchy, and only will work when in the perfect position on one of my machines. I have cleaned the connection very well, even buffing it with a little sandpaper. It is clean, and the Jaglink adapters were brand new out of the box. So what's the deal? Everyone else seems to be having fun, and enjoying what seems to be a fairly simple network connection. Has anyone experienced this? Are there any solutions? Did some models of Jaguars not work well with the Link? When it did work, we had very frequent network errors also, so it seemed like we just had a very poor connection. I don't know what to do, I've jiggled all I can jiggle, and after an hour, I don't even want to play anymore. Can anyone help?

[jaysmith2000]

I just recently picked up a second Jag and a second copy of Doom so I could use my Jaglink. I messed with them for about half an hour last night until we finally got a connection. The connectors seem to be extremly touchy, and only will work when in the perfect position on one of my machines. I have cleaned the connection very well, even buffing it with a little sandpaper. It is clean, and the Jaglink adapters were brand new out of the box. So what's the deal? Everyone else seems to be having fun, and enjoying what seems to be a fairly simple network connection. Has anyone experienced this? Are there any solutions? Did some models of Jaguars not work well with the Link? When it did work, we had very frequent network errors also, so it seemed like we just had a very poor connection. I don't know what to do, I've jiggled all I can jiggle, and after an hour, I don't even want to play anymore. Can anyone help?

 

Yikes, sandpaper on the connector? It's always possible you got a bad Jaglink. If you got it from a dealer return it for another one. I have never had any problems with mine other than the common DOOM Network errors that occur every once in a while.

 

Jason

[Thunderbird]

I just recently picked up a second Jag and a second copy of Doom so I could use my Jaglink. I messed with them for about half an hour last night until we finally got a connection. The connectors seem to be extremly touchy, and only will work when in the perfect position on one of my machines. I have cleaned the connection very well, even buffing it with a little sandpaper. It is clean, and the Jaglink adapters were brand new out of the box. So what's the deal? Everyone else seems to be having fun, and enjoying what seems to be a fairly simple network connection. Has anyone experienced this? Are there any solutions? Did some models of Jaguars not work well with the Link? When it did work, we had very frequent network errors also, so it seemed like we just had a very poor connection. I don't know what to do, I've jiggled all I can jiggle, and after an hour, I don't even want to play anymore. Can anyone help?

 

 

Jagdoom is known for having a lot of errors. I guess if you say how often you get the errors it might help indicate if it's normal. I believe the errors were worse in co-op mode from what people say.

[jamiemcclain]

I understand from reading other posts that DOOM is plagued by Network Errors, but I am not experiencing normal Network Errors. I can't even get there. One Jag will seem to work, after some jiggling and fidgiting with the Jaglink, and try to load. The other Jag just simply will not go to the loading screen. I did once last night, and we played for about an hour. In that time we had probably 6 network errors. Tonight we tried again, but were completely unsucessful. The good Jag tried to load, but the other Jag only showed the loading screen for about 3 seconds after an hours worth of jiggling, re-connecting, and powering on and off. We were not successful in networking at all. So if anyone has experienced this, please leave a comment. If no one knows anything, I guess I could just have a bad Jaglink.

[Matthias]

Hi,

 

wasn't there saying that DOOM works more reliable with one type of Jaguars than with the other type (K and M-modells)?

 

Regards

Matthias

[Thunderbird]

I understand from reading other posts that DOOM is plagued by Network Errors, but I am not experiencing normal Network Errors. I can't even get there. One Jag will seem to work, after some jiggling and fidgiting with the Jaglink, and try to load. The other Jag just simply will not go to the loading screen. I did once last night, and we played for about an hour. In that time we had probably 6 network errors. Tonight we tried again, but were completely unsucessful. The good Jag tried to load, but the other Jag only showed the loading screen for about 3 seconds after an hours worth of jiggling, re-connecting, and powering on and off. We were not successful in networking at all. So if anyone has experienced this, please leave a comment. If no one knows anything, I guess I could just have a bad Jaglink.

 

Sounds like you have an unsoldered connection inside one of your Jaglinks. If you have a small phillips screwdriver, you can take thr back off each one and inspect the solder on the PCB for loose connections.

 

I bet that's the problem from the symptoms.

 

Good luck!

[jamiemcclain]

Well, with a renewed hope after your comments, I checked connections inside the Jaglink and everything looks fine. I messed with them a little more and got a connection for about 5 seconds, and then they just wouldn't do it. I am about out of ideas.

 

I did check the serials, and the problematic Jag is a K serial number. The Jag that works is an M serial number.

 

So I guess I'm hoping someone else will read this post an have another suggestion.

[Thunderbird]

Well, with a renewed hope after your comments, I checked connections inside the Jaglink and everything looks fine. I messed with them a little more and got a connection for about 5 seconds, and then they just wouldn't do it. I am about out of ideas.  

 

I did check the serials, and the problematic Jag is a K serial number. The Jag that works is an M serial number.

 

So I guess I'm hoping someone else will read this post an have another suggestion.

 

 

If you say that one Jag works and the other one doesn't and you only have 2 jags and are using a 2-console game like Doom, how can you say which one "works" and which one does not?

 

It's like if you had two telephones and one phone you can talk into and can't hear on the other one, but that one you can talk into and hear on the first. How do you know which one is "bad"? The first one could have a bad microphone or the second one could have a bad speaker...

[jamiemcclain]

When I say the "Good Jag", I mean the Jag that attempts to start network DOOM, and goes to the loading screen. The "bad Jag" will not get to the loading screen in the network game, it just sits at the screen that says "Attempting to connect, press option to abort." When I switched Jaglinks around, the "Good Jag" was unresponsive, and stayed on the "Attempting to connect" screen. The "Bad Jag" was still unresponsive with the Jaglink that had been working properly. This is what was confusing, because it seemed like one Jag wouldn't work and one Jaglink wouldn't work.

 

I am growing tired of this problem, and I will have one last whack at it with my father, who is very good with electronics. I hope we can run some tests to determine what is actually the problem.

 

I posted this problem in hopes of finding someone with a similar experience, or someone who could point me in the right troubleshooting direction.

 

I found it interesting that the Jaglink itself comes with next to no instructions, telling you to see the game for details, and the DOOM instructions tell you to see the Jaglink instructions for details. Nice run-a-round.

 

I just don't want to spend more money on another Jaglink if this one isn't malfunctioning. I did that with my Team Tap. I couldn't get the first one to work, then I found out you had to hook it up in the second controller to make it work. The Tap itself had no instructions like that, only a picture on the back where 2 Taps are hooked up on both controller ports showing 8 joypads.

 

If anyone knows of any special instructions, like you must power off your Jag before you attatch or reattach the Jaglink, or both Jags must be linked before they are powered, or one must be at the Loading screen before the other is powered...etc. Anything that I might be overlooking would be appreciated. Thanks,

 

Jamie

[Matthias]

Hello Jamie!

 

When I say the "Good Jag", I mean the Jag that  

attempts to start network DOOM, and goes to the loading screen. The "bad Jag" will not get to the loading screen in the network game, it just sits at the screen that says "Attempting to connect, press option to abort." When I switched Jaglinks around, the "Good Jag" was unresponsive, and stayed on the "Attempting to connect" screen. The "Bad Jag" was still unresponsive with the Jaglink that had been working properly. This is what was confusing, because it seemed like one Jag wouldn't work and one Jaglink wouldn't work.

 

You are right, it is almost impossible to track down such a problem

without enough comparable, known-to-work items.

 

Can someone else confirm my idea with the two Jag-models reacting different? I don't have DOOM, or a JagLink-network-test program, so i can't help you with this.

 

I am growing tired of this problem, and I will have one last whack at it with my father, who is very good with electronics. I hope we can run some tests to determine what is actually the problem.

 

Ok, if the JagLink-PCBs look ok, then it might still be a broken wire inside the cable (The short JagLink-cable, not the telephon-cable like).

 

I posted this problem in hopes of finding someone with a similar experience, or someone who could point me in the right troubleshooting direction.

 

Good idea.

 

I found it interesting that the Jaglink itself comes with next to no instructions, telling you to see the game for details, and the DOOM instructions tell you to see the Jaglink instructions for details. Nice run-a-round.

 

That's because you normally don't have to care about it too much.

Just plug it in, and start your Jaguar and the networked game should do the rest.

 

I just don't want to spend more money on another Jaglink if this one isn't malfunctioning. I did that with my Team Tap. I couldn't get the first one to work, then I found out you had to hook it up in the second controller to make it work. The Tap itself had no instructions like that, only a picture on the back where 2 Taps are hooked up on both controller ports showing 8 joypads.

 

The TeamTap works with both joypad-ports. But probably the developers were too lazy to implement a functionality allowing to tell the users which Joypad in which Teamtap they wish to use. But the WhiteMenCan'tJam manual is nice enough to tell you what the developers want you to do to be able to play in more-player mode.

 

If anyone knows of any special instructions, like you must power off your Jag before you attatch or reattach the Jaglink, or both Jags must be linked before they are powered, or one must be at the Loading screen before the other is powered...etc. Anything that I might be overlooking would be appreciated. Thanks,  

 

Jamie

 

Of course you should always power off your electronic devices before you attach new parts!

 

Regards

Matthias

[Thunderbird]

When I say the "Good Jag", I mean the Jag that attempts to start network DOOM, and goes to the loading screen. The "bad Jag" will not get to the loading screen in the network game, it just sits at the screen that says "Attempting to connect, press option to abort." When I switched Jaglinks around, the "Good Jag" was unresponsive, and stayed on the "Attempting to connect" screen. The "Bad Jag" was still unresponsive with the Jaglink that had been working properly. This is what was confusing, because it seemed like one Jag wouldn't work and one Jaglink wouldn't work.  

 

If they had only put some Transmit and Receive LED indicators on the Jaglink, it would have made all the difference in the world here because it would tell you exactly what side the data was getting lost. I can't imagine why they would make a networking device and fail to include such a useful, yet inexpensive feature. Is there no end to the cheapness of Atari? Just trying to get every cent out of their customers!

[Stone]

If they had only put some Transmit and Receive LED indicators on the Jaglink, it would have made all the difference in the world here because it would tell you exactly what side the data was getting lost. I can't imagine why they would make a networking device and fail to include such a useful, yet inexpensive feature. Is there no end to the cheapness of Atari? Just trying to get every cent out of their customers!

 

You can add them yourself for 60 cents or so and 10 minutes of free time

 

Stone

[LinkoVitch]

DO the 'good' and 'bad' jags switch over if you swap the Jaglink around?

 

IE if you have 2 Jaglinks A & B, and Good and Bad jag you have initially

 

Good has A and Bad has B... try swapping so

 

Good has B and Bad has A.. see if the same behaviour continues, or if the bad jag becomes good. This will indicate a problem in the link hardware.

 

If the problem does change the good and bad jags. swap the cable around (NOT the jag links). if the behaviour changes again you know it's a bad cable. If it doesn't then it's probably a bad Jag Link unit.

 

hope thats understandable. and of help

[Stone]

DO the 'good' and 'bad' jags switch over if you swap the Jaglink around?

 

IE if you have 2 Jaglinks A & B, and Good and Bad jag  you have initially

 

Good has A    and Bad has B... try swapping so

 

Good has B and Bad has A.. see if the same behaviour continues, or if the bad jag becomes good.  This will indicate a problem in the link hardware.

 

If the problem does change the good and bad jags.  swap the cable around (NOT the jag links).  if the behaviour changes again you know it's a bad cable.  If it doesn't then it's probably a bad Jag Link unit.

 

If it turns out that the Jaglink units are bad, PM me; I can still use the bits

 

Cheers,

 

Stone

[Thunderbird]

If they had only put some Transmit and Receive LED indicators on the Jaglink, it would have made all the difference in the world here because it would tell you exactly what side the data was getting lost. I can't imagine why they would make a networking device and fail to include such a useful, yet inexpensive feature. Is there no end to the cheapness of Atari? Just trying to get every cent out of their customers!

 

You can add them yourself for 60 cents or so and 10 minutes of free time

 

Stone

 

What if you don't own a soldering iron, solder, a drill bit, a drill, or mechanical skills?

 

Besides, if it's so darn easy, why didn't Atari do it???

[LinkoVitch]

Besides, if it's so darn easy, why didn't Atari do it???

 

You answered this earlier

 

Is there no end to the cheapness of Atari? Just trying to get every cent out of their customers!

 

[Thunderbird]

Besides, if it's so darn easy, why didn't Atari do it???

 

You answered this earlier

 

Is there no end to the cheapness of Atari? Just trying to get every cent out of their customers!

 

 

Don't get me going. Back in 1993 you should have seen the online riots I started on GEnie when Atari was promoting the Falcon030 as a "32-bit" system!

 

I'm surprised they ever let me develop for the Jaguar. LOL!

[+rdemming]

Don't get me going. Back in 1993 you should have seen the online riots I started on GEnie when Atari was promoting the Falcon030 as a "32-bit" system!  

 

Didn't the Falcon use a 16 bit databus effectively cripling any 32bitness of the system?

 

B.T.W. I still have a Falcon brochure from the time the Falcon was launched and there is no mention about any bitness whatever. Except that the digital sound is 16bit. Maybe they listened to you

 

Robert

[Thunderbird]

Don't get me going. Back in 1993 you should have seen the online riots I started on GEnie when Atari was promoting the Falcon030 as a "32-bit" system!  

 

Didn't the Falcon use a 16 bit databus effectively cripling any 32bitness of the system?

 

B.T.W. I still have a Falcon brochure from the time the Falcon was launched and there is no mention about any bitness whatever. Except that the digital sound is 16bit. Maybe they listened to you

 

Robert

 

That was the problem. They were calling it "32 bit" when it was announced, and someone had saw that the databus was 16-bit. So there was much rioting.