Unable to get a MT32 Pi hat working

[Solskogen]

The PSU I use for the MiSTer is not powerful enough to run both the MiSTer and the MT32 Pi-hat at the same time, so I have to use an additional power source for the MT32 Pi. The Pi-hat turns on and by the looks of it, it seems to work fine. The buttons work, and I can change between soundfounts and MT32. But the MiSTer doesn't see the MT32 Pi. There's nothing in the menu that even indicates that the MT32 Pi is connected.
Am I doing something wrong or is something my Pihat DOA?

[darksakul]

How long is your USB 3 cable?
Also did you get your IO board from Aliexpress or eBay?

[Solskogen]

The USB3 cable is approx 10cm long. It's the one I got from misterfpga.co.uk together with the MT32-Pi Hat. Not sure where the IO board is from, I bought the MiSTer from a friend a couple of years ago.

The USB-port on the MiSTEr (or should I say "USB") does work-ish, because if I do not use the external PSU on the Pi, as it tries to power up the MT32 hat(it loops due to low voltage)

[FPGA64]

Just to confirm you have

a) connected the MT32 Pi to the "not" Usb port on the IO Board
b) made all the edits to the config files as stated on the MT32 PI github ?

If the IOBoard is from unknown sources. IE maybe Ebay, Amazon on Ali Express. Its sadly common for the headers to not be soldered in place rendering the IO port on the board non functional

Good High Res Photos would be needed of the IO Board

[Solskogen]

a) yes
b) yes

[FPGA64]

The Io Board is fairly old. There is no jumper header on the VGA power selector which is common on the "Bargin" IO boards. Also the pins on the lower right appear to have no header pins in them.

I would say you do not have a functioning IO Port and hence the Pi isnt seeing the MT32.

if you look at this board from a Good seller ( Disclaimer I have purchased from him and am a happy customer)

https://misterfpga.co.uk/product/mister ... -with-fan/

you can see the header that are soldered here. I would remove your IO board and compare it to the pictures from that website to determine what hasnt been soldered on your IO Board or replace the IO Board

In the Uk I would use misterfpga.co.uk
in the States https://misteraddons.com/collections/all
in Europe outside the Uk https://ultimatemister.com/

all 3 are reputable and have a reputation for quality

[Mr. Encyclopedia]

I had this same problem, I had to solder pins to my I/O board because my generic board did not come with the pins populated. The good news is once I did that my MT-32 Pi worked great. I soldered pins into the ten holes closest to the user port (labeled P7) as well as one more pin in the empty hole (labled P9) near the GPIO header which apparently is important for the secondary SD slot.

[Solskogen]

Thanks for the tip. Since my solder skills are way under par I ordered a new IO board.

[Solskogen]

All good with new IO board!

[rickdangerous]

All good with new IO board!

Would be very easy to install the pins. If you need details pm me and I show you how. 2 mins solder job.

[TimeJockey]

All good with new IO board!

I'm having the exact problem you have, but a new IO board didn't solve it for me

I've run out of ideas about why my MT32 won't load (black screen, red flashing light). I've tried so many things but alas, no luck.

Might make a new thread with a complete rundown and photos later, see if anyone can point me in the right direction. I wish I knew someone else with a mister so I could test if I've got a dud MT32 Hat/USB Cable.

[Sliff2000]

All good with new IO board!

I'm having the exact problem you have, but a new IO board didn't solve it for me

I've run out of ideas about why my MT32 won't load (black screen, red flashing light). I've tried so many things but alas, no luck.

Might make a new thread with a complete rundown and photos later, see if anyone can point me in the right direction. I wish I knew someone else with a mister so I could test if I've got a dud MT32 Hat/USB Cable.

Take a look at the following picture- those 15 holes need to have pins and solder in them ((not all 15....but...)). I had a new analog board and they were missing the pins. You can actually bi pass the mt32 board all together and create jumpers between the pi and the mister to see things work. The mt32 just makes it look pretty. I have included the pinout from the wiki. You can Just use a female to male breadboard (dupont) jumper wire between the pi and the mister. Good luck!

[TimeJockey]

All good with new IO board!

I'm having the exact problem you have, but a new IO board didn't solve it for me

I've run out of ideas about why my MT32 won't load (black screen, red flashing light). I've tried so many things but alas, no luck.

Might make a new thread with a complete rundown and photos later, see if anyone can point me in the right direction. I wish I knew someone else with a mister so I could test if I've got a dud MT32 Hat/USB Cable.

Take a look at the following picture- those 15 holes need to have pins and solder in them ((not all 15....but...)). I had a new analog board and they were missing the pins. You can actually bi pass the mt32 board all together and create jumpers between the pi and the mister to see things work. The mt32 just makes it look pretty. I have included the pinout from the wiki. You can Just use a female to male breadboard (dupont) jumper wire between the pi and the mister. Good luck!

Thanks for the reply, but I actually figured it out! And of course it was a stupid mistake on my part. The new board I got has the required pins, but of course when updating the MT32 ini file I changed the width value of the display instead of the height Once I got the display working I could see it was getting a low voltage warning, and disabled it as per the instructions.

Now Monkey Island 2 sounds amazing

[Sliff2000]

Glad it's working. Monkey Island 2 really does sound good.

[d0pefish]

I had this same problem, I had to solder pins to my I/O board because my generic board did not come with the pins populated. The good news is once I did that my MT-32 Pi worked great. I soldered pins into the ten holes closest to the user port (labeled P7) as well as one more pin in the empty hole (labled P9) near the GPIO header which apparently is important for the secondary SD slot.

Hi there,

I'm improving the documentation in the mt32-pi wiki and I was wondering if I could use your photo as an example of a badly-assembled I/O board.

Would you be okay with me using your photo?

Cheers!

[Mr. Encyclopedia]

I had this same problem, I had to solder pins to my I/O board because my generic board did not come with the pins populated. The good news is once I did that my MT-32 Pi worked great. I soldered pins into the ten holes closest to the user port (labeled P7) as well as one more pin in the empty hole (labled P9) near the GPIO header which apparently is important for the secondary SD slot.

Hi there,

I'm improving the documentation in the mt32-pi wiki and I was wondering if I could use your photo as an example of a badly-assembled I/O board.

Would you be okay with me using your photo?

Cheers!

Absolutely! If my pain can help other people in the community then it will all have been worth it. I also have another picture I took of the pins installed, but before I soldered them. Nobody would benefit from seeing my soldering job (but it did the trick!)

[H6rdc0re]

Perhaps the low voltage problem? This can be solved by adding a line in the config file.

[d0pefish]

Absolutely! If my pain can help other people in the community then it will all have been worth it. I also have another picture I took of the pins installed, but before I soldered them. Nobody would benefit from seeing my soldering job (but it did the trick!)

Thankyou!

I've added your photo (with a slight edit) to the wiki.
https://github.com/dwhinham/mt32-pi/wik ... -io-boards

Much appreciated.