Strange Things Happen with Retro-Bit Genesis Controllers

Discussion of keyboards, gamepads, joysticks and other input related peripherals.
TLoMatt
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Strange Things Happen with Retro-Bit Genesis Controllers

Unread post by TLoMatt »

Hi,

I wanted to tell you something super strange that I'm not still able to fix.

I got a Mister Fpga as well as almost every SNAC there is for the cores (except NEOGEO) , I was very excited about getting the Genesis/Megadrive controllers from Retro-Bit so I can use it with my Mister cause I've never owned a real genesis.

Once I got my two pair of DB9 controllers I've tested and both was working. One of my problems is that from time to time I've noticed that my Mister have electric discharges whenever I plugged a USB or even the SNACS one day the same thing happened and some of one of my genesis controllers buttons stopped working like A,B,X,Y,Z,mode, and start.

This was exactly after another electric discharge happened again , I was very upset and worried about the same would happen to my other genesis controller which unfortunately in the end happened as well so both controllers apparently because of electric discharges stopped working at first I though the controllers were already half dead and malfunctioning but in one of my tries plugging and unplugging the 2 controllers at the same time in the DB9 SNAC I saw another electric discharge an this time one of my controllers was working again like nothing happened and the other controller was still malfunctioning but some buttons working again but some others not so I've realized the electric discharges makes my controllers buttons not working but the same discharge can make them return to normal , also I've disassembled my mister fpga what I discovered is that I didn't built it with the same screw height size so after fixing that the frequent electric discharges disappeared

Another thing I've noticed even though I fixed the screw sizes is that every time I plugged some USB or SNAC into the Mister when a game in a was already running afterwards the game give me some kind of error so I got to restart again the core and the game in order to not having the same error again (but this time with the usb or snac connected before , I've realized that when I plugged something into the Mister the IO Board for a second it turn off itself and then turn on itself again I'm aware of this cause my IO Board whenever I connect something red led lights turn on to tell that usb is being used I wonder if this is normal in every other Mister ?

My main problem and my main concern is about my genesis controllers does anybody know what is happening ? How is possible electrical discharges make a controller stopped working and also bring it back to life ?

How can I make my genesis controller work again without putting it through electrical discharges again ?
rhester72
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Re: Strange Things Happen with Retro-Bit Genesis Controllers

Unread post by rhester72 »

If you didn't set IO6 on the IO board to I/O (and it is instead set to 3.3V), you're quite literally sending power (that shouldn't be there) into the controller. Don't do that.
grizzly
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Re: Strange Things Happen with Retro-Bit Genesis Controllers

Unread post by grizzly »

Most if not all consoles can behave strange if you unplug/plug in a controller, mostly it´s depending on what game is running, and most likely where the game is at can cause problems.
So that mister has problems unplug/plug in controllers is only expected, ESPECIALLY for SNAC which is the same as a controller plugged in to the console.
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