RetroN 77

[Draxxon]

2 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Actually that's the opposite of a dead zone you are facing here.

I should mention "I'm no expert" and I dont know WTF Im talking about. Also why I haven't changed any settings yet!  

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Update: I always had tested with the OTG adapter. But when using the front ports, I became able to reproduce the issue 1:1.

 

@DirtyHairy Any idea what might happen here?

[+stephena]

11 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

@Stephena: Do you happen to have a Hyperkin Ranger for testing.

No, too expensive for me here in Canada as well.  $60+ last I looked.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

No worries, it's not the controller. The paddles work perfect via OTG and show the odd behavior via front ports.

[Draxxon]

$25 here in the states. Do you want one?

 

Amazon.com: Hyperkin "Ranger" Premium Wired Gamepad for Atari 2600 / RetroN 77 : Everything Else 

 

 

I also discovered, if I plug a ranger into the retron ranger adapter's left port and plug the adapter into P1 front port the same thing happens. If I plug a second ranger into the right adapter port, player one can only move on the left hand side of the screen. You stop moving right at the midpoint of the screen. If you unplug the second ranger, it goes back to jumping like it was before.

 

I also tried other paddle games, same thing.

Edited December 17, 2021 by Draxxon

[Draxxon]

28 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

No worries, it's not the controller. The paddles work perfect via OTG and show the odd behavior via front ports.

I totally get that. Maybe just going back to the previous community firmware is the answer for me.

Edited December 17, 2021 by Draxxon

[Thomas Jentzsch]

21 minutes ago, Draxxon said:

$25 here in the states. Do you want one?

Shipping and taxes kills it.

[Draxxon]

2 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Shipping and taxes kills it.

I was asking Stephena if he wanted one for testing. I would gift/send him one.

Edited December 17, 2021 by Draxxon

[DirtyHairy]

I have a suspicion 😏 @Draxxon Do you experience a deadzone with the ranger on the old firmware? The video looks to me as if Hyperkin actually tried to work around the deadzone in the controller firmware and deliberately programmed it to "jump" over the deadzone that is enforced by the linux kernel. That would explain what you are experiencing.

[Draxxon]

No. stock, and with the last version of the community build, the ranger did not jump like that.

 

you could play paddle games with 2 rangers and the hyperkin ranger adapter in the front P1 port.

 

they were lagged and worked about as well as the paddles on the AFBs. 1000 points max on kaboom, but they did not jump like they do now.

I have tried setting some paddle input mappings to default as recommended earlier here and it didn't change anything. I haven't tried settings for individual games.

Edited December 17, 2021 by Draxxon

[Thomas Jentzsch]

20 minutes ago, DirtyHairy said:

That would explain what you are experiencing.

Yes, but normal paddles behave the same.

[Rodney Hester]

20 minutes ago, DirtyHairy said:

I have a suspicion 😏 @Draxxon Do you experience a deadzone with the ranger on the old firmware? The video looks to me as if Hyperkin actually tried to work around the deadzone in the controller firmware and deliberately programmed it to "jump" over the deadzone that is enforced by the linux kernel. That would explain what you are experiencing.

Doesn't this supposition conflict with being able to reproduce with standard Atari paddles, so long as they are plugged into the front port vs. 2600daptor?

[DirtyHairy]

Och, I misread, thought only the ranger behaved like that.

[Draxxon]

[Draxxon]

Little update: Ive been messing with settings for the last couple days. I couldn't figure out how to resolve the issue.

 

I went back to the last revision and thats going to work best for me.

 

Gotta say, we have been playing a lot of Enduro with the ranger in stick mode. Its pretty nice.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

We will solve the problem, but it may take a while. 

 

What you see is the result of eliminating the paddle dead zone. Currently we are discussing how this change could result into this. In the next step we will analyse the port inputs and most likely find a solution.

Edited December 20, 2021 by Thomas Jentzsch

[Draxxon]

Thanks, man. And I totally get it. Changing one thing can affect another. I should get a 2600-dapter, also.

 

Should I get the "2600-dapter II" so I can use the ranger pads?

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Generally the USB ports of the R77 are better, especially when it comes to paddles. The 2600-daptor will allow you to use your ranger pads on the USB ports too.

[Rodney Hester]

57 minutes ago, Draxxon said:

Thanks, man. And I totally get it. Changing one thing can affect another. I should get a 2600-dapter, also.

 

Should I get the "2600-dapter II" so I can use the ranger pads?

I'd strongly recommend the D9 for maximum flexibility and future-proofing.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

4 minutes ago, Rodney Hester said:

I'd strongly recommend the D9 for maximum flexibility and future-proofing.

It does not work with the Ranger. Unlike the II.

[Draxxon]

i saw the website, and I understand what both you guys are saying.

 

decisions, decisions. Thanks for the help, all.

[Trouble for Turmoil]

Guys, I'm tired and am I'm asking for help. I saw that the recent update of Stella for the Retron 77 can turn off the overclock and it might finally get me off the 3.9.5 update that I have on the system. (I think that's what it was at least I can't remember well right now. I tried to figure out how to enable that setting but I can't figure it out. I've been up for a few days trying to do it myself but I keep going in loops and probably just have no idea what I'm doing. I'm sure this isn't hard honestly but I can't figure it out and want to ask if someone can send me an SD card with the overclock disabled so I can finally try and see if it works. I'll even pay someone if that helps, I just can't do it myself at this point. If someone can help let me know, as at this point I have no clue how to do it myself and would like to get more than 2 hours of sleep for now. Thanks.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

@Trouble for TurmoilLook here.

[Trouble for Turmoil]

On 1/24/2022 at 3:48 PM, Thomas Jentzsch said:

@Trouble for TurmoilLook here.

I saw this the day I tried to do it myself and tried it again today, and I have no idea what's going on here. I think I have to load up the SD card to the system, then put it in developer mode on the 77, then go to my PC & change the settings. But exactly where and how to change the settings I don't understand and I can only boot up the Retron 77 once before it locks up and either only shows a black screen or it doesn't output a signal at all and I have to flash it again. So I'm still left with no clue on what's going on, so if anyone has some assistance or could just make me a version with everything ready that would be great. The previous offer also still stands, as it seems more viable than me trying to figure this out currently.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

No developer mode needed (the doc is wrong). You only have to edit the sys/settings file in the SD cart and add DONT_OVERCLOCK on your PC. 

 

Then the R77 will start limited to 1 GHz (instead of 1.2 GHZ). If it still doesn't work, your hardware is buggy.