Hardware, manuals and OSX software questions

[Kimberley]

Hi,

What's the best resource/place to find guides for installing hardware and find its manuals, here? Even though I just found the instructions for the RTC board: Is there like a central website which focuses on those kind of installs? The Blisster board for instance seems to be absent from the main documentation website?

If I wanted to edit things on a Mac: which resources/programs are best to use? I see mainly Windows and sometimes Linux software and 'tutorials'. In non-related projects in the past I’ve had some small ‘difficulties’ when using a Mac, because it left OSX specific files on a drive or SD card that the project I was working on could not read and then failed to properly function.

Is anyone doing a multicart system for original cartridges similar to what Analogue is doing with some of their hardware? The dream setup would be to also have the ability to use 'any' cartridge.

Thanks for any answers

[muteki]

Hi,
A very useful place to start is https://mister-devel.github.io/MkDocs_MiSTer/
Most of your questions will be answered by reading the documentation.

Good luck

[Kimberley]

Indeed I overlooked that website, but some answers couldn’t be found yet. Like the mini toslink port on the digital I/O board: the main documentation website claims this is an optical port. But as far as I’ve been able to understand this is not a combo connector like found on Macbooks which can handle regular analog audio using mini-jack, but also digital optical audio using those long pinned optical connectors. The port on the Digital I/O board doesn’t seem to be able to output optical audio, just the electrical digital equivalent of toslink/spdif. There’s so much info, I gave up searching and just simplified my original post.

[AngelicLiver]

The docs are written in a largely OS agnostic way and usually list any software needed along with their OSX and Linux equivalents.

The mini toslink port is exactly that, mini toslink. It shares the footprint of a 3.5mm audio jack and can therefore be used as both an analog and digital audio source. You can purchase very inexpensive mini-toslink adapters for your bog standard optical cables if that's what you have. I think digital IO boards from MisterAddons and the like are full-size toslink, however I may be mistaken.

[Kimberley]

The mini toslink port is exactly that, mini toslink. It shares the footprint of a 3.5mm audio jack and can therefore be used as both an analog and digital audio source. You can purchase very inexpensive mini-toslink adapters for your bog standard optical cables if that's what you have. I think digital IO boards from MisterAddons and the like are full-size toslink, however I may be mistaken.

The Digital I/O board (the one I have) has both the regular Toslink port and the mini-Toslink port, next to each other.
Do I somewhere have to switch between the two or maybe activate the mini-Toslink port in the settings?
Because if I connect an optical cable to the regular Toslink port I do get a signal. If I unplug the other end that goes into the DAC/Amp I actually see light coming out of the cable like it should. Plugging no cable whatsoever into the regular Toslink port still makes it send out the optical signal which even can be seen without pushing the 'door' inside the front of the port, it shines through the plastic 'door' of the port.
But when I use the mini-Toslink port this never happens no matter what optical cable and/or adapter I use and I have quite a lot of them. If I test the same cable on the regular port there is a signal coming out of the cable. Also, plugging nothing into the port does not make it 'lit up' and emit an optical signal out of the mini-port like the regular one does.
This makes me think this port does not emit an optical signal, but sends an electrical one. SPDIF works with both an optical digital signal (which uses Toslink ports and optical fibre cables) and an electrical digital signal (which uses coaxial/RCA connectors and a 75 ohm electrical cable).

[Xbytez]

On the digital IO board, both the TOSLINK and mini TOSLINK sockets should be providing digital optical audio out simultaneously.

[Xbytez]

You might also find this useful for individual core setups on your MiSTer:

https://github.com/adreeve/MiSTerManual ... Manual.pdf

[Kimberley]

On the digital IO board, both the TOSLINK and mini TOSLINK sockets should be providing digital optical audio out simultaneously.

Then I will contact the seller about a possibly and partially defect board, because no matter what I can't seem to get a signal out of it unlike the regular Toslink port.

[Kimberley]

You might also find this useful for individual core setups on your MiSTer:

https://github.com/adreeve/MiSTerManual ... Manual.pdf

Thank you very much. But I actually came across and downloaded that document a few minutes ago while trying to find information about the mini-Toslink port

[Malor]

edit: removed long post, it's not really needed.

Short form: the mini-TOSLink may be digital only. You might need an analog I/O board if you want analog sound. Another possible way to work around the problem: some HDMI devices also have headphone jacks. This monitor does, for instance, so that's how I was getting sound until I got the digital I/O board, which is now driving my receiver.

I have a vague idea that analog audio out from the Mister isn't that great, so you might just want something that will decode the S/PDIF back to an analog signal. That'll probably be cheaper than an analog I/O board anyway.

One problem with using HDMI to carry sound is that when the monitor loses sync, the sound will usually drop until it stabilizes, which I found really annoying. Having an I/O board, of whatever persuasion, should prevent sound dropouts.