Using alternative SDRAM board, please advise

[Rog]

So after two tries at getting a working SDRAM card off amazon, I have gone with misterfpga.co.uk - first place literally sent an empty packet, second one failed the mem test...

In the mean time, I am stuck in the house over the bank holiday with a partner who came down with C19 this morning, so could so with something to occupy myself.

The ask: I have a Mojo v3 HDMI/SDRAM shield - can I wire with up to my DE10 with simple jumper wires - the ones I have are about 20cm and I have M-F, M-M & F-F.

Schematic for the shield can be found here: https://www.tinyosshop.com/mojo-sdram-hdmi-shield

I don't know the equivalent pins to use on the DE10, and any advice/pointers would be appreciated.

I understand that these wires might not be suitable for Mhz signals, but this is only a bodge for a few days so I can have a play with NES roms, if it is worth trying in the first place.

What do you think? Thanks in advance.

P. S. As this is my first post, I must say what a fantastic project MiSTer is! I am amazed at all of the work that has gone into this, kudos to all who had a hand in making it

[jca]

Forget about the Mojo shield and wait for your SDRAM from misterfpga.co.uk.
1. The MISTer SDRAM is 128MB while the one on the shield is 256MB.
2. Jumper wires will be too long, even the MISTer SDRAM is at the limit of what can be used.

There are some cores which do not need SDRAM, there is a list somewhere, so you can enjoy some games but not NES.

[Rog]

Thanks, I'll take your advice.

Got the GBA archive downloading now

[AngelicLiver]

It sounds like fiddling with the Mojo shield would be an exercise in futility but if you want to dig deeper please go and read the wiki and study Terasic's DE10-Nano documentation (there are full pin-outs).

And are you sure the RAM test failed outright or did it just fail at higher clock speeds? A module only really needs to pass at 130MHz, I think Jotego's arcade cores are among the only cores that push anything close to those speeds.

[Rog]

The SDRAM test dropped to 70, then displayed 0001 0000 in yellow, while the red counter just kept going up. I understand that to be a complete fail, but am happy to be corrected.

[Xbytez]

Just to tide you over if you want to have a play with setting up your MiSTer and get into some gaming, these are some of the popular console cores which do not require an SDRAM module to play.

Game Boy Advance
Sega Mega Drive
PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16

[Xbytez]

The SDRAM test dropped to 70, then displayed 0001 0000 in yellow, while the red counter just kept going up.

Yes this is indeed indicative of a memory test failure.

[Rog]

And after nearly a day of downloading an archive, org gave me a corrupt file:-( would just love it if anyone knows of an alternative comprehensive source. Pm would be cool. If not, that's understandable.

[DiamondDave]

A corrupt file of what? If you want assistance you need to provide more details

[Rog]

A corrupt file of what? If you want assistance you need to provide more details

Erm. Is an archive. Org of GBA roms. I do appreciate your point, not sure of forum etiquette here though.

[DiamondDave]

A corrupt file of what? If you want assistance you need to provide more details

Erm. Is an archive. Org of GBA roms. I do appreciate your point, not sure of forum etiquette here though.

The GBA Collection posted by Ghostware that has horrible reviews saying it doesn't work, or was it a different one?

Try googling "no intro ROM set GBA"

[Rog]

it was the 12GB nointro GBA file on archive.org, took /many/ hours to download then was corrupt. Will have another look, but was hoping for a recommendation of an alternative source. Thanks for taking the time to respond though.

[DiamondDave]

Try just downloading a smaller number of games (the top 25-50?) and see if they work. If you are on a poor internet connection and are downloading a 12GB file, there is a chance an error can occur which ruins the whole download.

The no-intro romset is arguably the best, so any problems with downloading aren't due to it.

[MostroW]

torrent sets would minimize that risk

[Rog]

Try just downloading a smaller number of games (the top 25-50?) and see if they work. If you are on a poor internet connection and are downloading a 12GB file, there is a chance an error can occur which ruins the whole download.

The no-intro romset is arguably the best, so any problems with downloading aren't due to it.

I can believe it, I suspect it is archive being slow, rather than my connection. Might well give that a try if the torrent thing doesn't help. Thanks.

[Rog]

torrent sets would minimize that risk

Is there a particular specialist site, or is it a case of just trying the usual suspects for such things? Thanks!

[MostroW]

i'd say the usual suspects, most of the time the high seed ratio ones tend to be good.