Looking for Help With My MT32 Pi

[t2dxk0]

I have tried 2 pi hats 3 cables 2 sd cards and I cannot get this thing to work. I have a pi 3a+. I got the pi hat from ultimate mister, complete with a ready to go sd card. I copied the mt32 roms to it. When I plug it in the pi itself lights up but the pi hat screen does not. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I plug the short cable from the user port to the hat, tried it on the AO486 core and nothing.

[Vsquad]

I remember on some boards there are pins that require a jumper near the port… to allow data transfer

[mubert]

Probably the same issue I had. Look here:
viewtopic.php?t=7427

[rickdangerous]

Send me a direct message from the site and we'll follow up. It's something to do with the configuration or even the I/O card (I/O 6 jumpers etc). All products, including cables, sdcard, are tested and validated before shipment. The last customer who had "a lot" of problems with the MT32 was because he was connecting the USB cable to the Pi and not to the HAT as he was supposed to.

Ricardo
/ultimatemister.com

[mubert]

Newer 3A+ Pis (like within the last year) require different firmware files on the SD card to work. This is due to a hardware revision that changed one of the power management chips. This has not been corrected in the official MT32-pi repository. The fix is dead simple, though. You just overwrite a few files on your SD card. See the link I posted earlier.

I know they're popular, but sites like ultimatemister profit off of the open source work of others without giving credit (in this case, both the MT32-pi software and the open source hardware designs available at https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Hardwar ... r/releases). I'm about certain he also illegally includes Roland's MT32 ROM files in the SD card he sold you.

I'd wager that Ricardo sold you an SD card that did not include newer 3A+ model firmware files, and that is likely the issue, or one of the issues.

[t2dxk0]

The firmware files are on there and I did have to add the roms myself. I went that route just because i had tried everything already.

[mubert]

Well, I stand corrected then regarding the rom files. If you've updated the firmware files (meaning overwritten the originals) and used a jumper on the user port pins, I'm not sure what's up. I would recommend installing the official raspberry pi OS onto a separate SD card and see if it boots. Doing that successfully signaled for me that the issue was software.

[mubert]

I think you can also conclude that you have an issue different from the jumper pins, as the MT32-pi should boot successfully even when disconnected from the MiSTer. That means the OLED should turn on and show you the boot screen, etc.

[t2dxk0]

SO I overwrote the firmware files and that fixed it. Thanks for your help!

[mubert]

Awesome! Glad it's working.

[rickdangerous]

Newer 3A+ Pis (like within the last year) require different firmware files on the SD card to work. This is due to a hardware revision that changed one of the power management chips. This has not been corrected in the official MT32-pi repository. The fix is dead simple, though. You just overwrite a few files on your SD card. See the link I posted earlier.

I know they're popular, but sites like ultimatemister profit off of the open source work of others without giving credit (in this case, both the MT32-pi software and the open source hardware designs available at https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Hardwar ... r/releases). I'm about certain he also illegally includes Roland's MT32 ROM files in the SD card he sold you.

I'd wager that Ricardo sold you an SD card that did not include newer 3A+ model firmware files, and that is likely the issue, or one of the issues.

What are you talking about? Without giving credit and include illegal rom? You must be talking of someone else We don't just give credit for products based on open source projects, we also sponsor the developers. The SDCard is included in the package, it's not exactly for selling illegal roms. It's best to report and moderate this post so as not to confuse people about this.

[mubert]

Wow, someone criticizes your business and you immediately call for them to reported and moderated. You're a cool guy, Ricardo.

It's a fact that you profit off of the work open source projects. Nowhere on your site do I see a link let alone mention of the fact you are selling open source hardware designs made available to everyone via an official MiSTer github repository: https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Hardwar ... r/releases.

[rhester72]

Wow, someone criticizes your business and you immediately call for them to reported and moderated. You're a cool guy, Ricardo.

It's a fact that you profit off of the work open source projects. Nowhere on your site do I see a link let alone mention of the fact you are selling open source hardware designs made available to everyone via an official MiSTer github repository: https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Hardwar ... r/releases.

You seem a little confused, I think.

First, you outright accused him of fraud and violating the law...and were horrifically wrong in both cases. You're trying to actively damage somebody's business, and you wonder why you were reported? It wasn't "criticism", it was outright accusation.

Second, the hardware is open source. There's zero legal or moral issue with having boards printed, populating them with components and selling them for profit, neither with the license nor the creators. It was expected and in fact needed.

What on earth are you on about and what is your objective?

[rickdangerous]

Wow, someone criticizes your business and you immediately call for them to reported and moderated. You're a cool guy, Ricardo.

It's a fact that you profit off of the work open source projects. Nowhere on your site do I see a link let alone mention of the fact you are selling open source hardware designs made available to everyone via an official MiSTer github repository: https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Hardwar ... r/releases.

We do have links to the original developer in most projects, but even so, we've been producing MiSTers since day one, and it's always been clear that we JUST sponsor the developers directly, unlike other vendors who sponsor Youtubers for self promotion. That's all said and done. Just to clarify, which I don't even owe you any justification for, we directly sponsored Sorgelig, Heber, Dopefish, Ash, Jotego, José etc and many others who have helped us and collaborated on projects to make MiSTer what it is now. We've been here for 7 years and curiously I've never had any problems and we'll certainly continue to work and produce the best we can.

PS. I'm not the one who cut the line in the post, but I wouldn't mind doing it

[mubert]

I'm not confused. And I don't appreciate your false accusations.

I did not "outright accuse him of fraud". I wrote that he probably includes the MT32 ROMs with his SD card. I was wrong, and I corrected myself.

Further, I criticized him for profiting off open source work of other people without giving due credit. I will ask again where he on his website he links to the MiSTer hardware repository? Where on his website does he mention even using open source designs? I do not allege this is illegal. I allege it is scummy.

Because none of the companies who engage sell these open source designs ever give credit or link to the source, it's unlikely most people are even aware of them. Google MT32-pi hat and you will not find the official hardware repo in at least the first couple pages of results. I would never have learned that there was an open source option had I not chanced upon a youtube video explaining it.

So no, I think it's completely valid to criticize a company profiting off of the free work of others without crediting them or in any way informing consumers of their work.

[rhester72]

So no, I think it's completely valid to criticize a company profiting off of the free work of others without crediting them or in any way informing consumers of their work.

And I think it's completely valid that you take some time to actually come to understand the community you've entered before committing libel and slander. Had you done so, you would have known that the original creator of the MT-32pi directly collaborated with Ricardo on that module.

There's a Marketplace forum for reviewing sellers (where you won't find a whiff of anything you've said to Ricardo about ANY of the sellers), and there's a LONG understanding of the open-source nature of MiSTer and related hardware projects. In seven years, you are the first and only person to come here and start mud-slinging people that have been responsible for producing the hardware that has grown the community to what it is today.

Read, educate yourself, and then comment please, or he won't be the only one requesting the moderators to help you find the door. This sort of behavior is not welcome here.

[mubert]

So no, I think it's completely valid to criticize a company profiting off of the free work of others without crediting them or in any way informing consumers of their work.

And I think it's completely valid that you take some time to actually come to understand the community you've entered before committing libel and slander. Had you done so, you would have known that the original creator of the MT-32pi directly collaborated with Ricardo on that module.

There's a Marketplace forum for reviewing sellers (where you won't find a whiff of anything you've said to Ricardo about ANY of the sellers), and there's a LONG understanding of the open-source nature of MiSTer and related hardware projects. In seven years, you are the first and only person to come here and start mud-slinging people that have been responsible for producing the hardware that has grown the community to what it is today.

Read, educate yourself, and then comment please, or he won't be the only one requesting the moderators to help you find the door. This sort of behavior is not welcome here.

Oh, I didn't realize that you represent the entire MiSTer community!

You accuse me of committing libel and slander. Show me where. Please.

It is indeed news to me if Ricardo helped design the MT32-pi hat, because the actual hardware design of every variant shows one name on the pcb: Alexey Melnikov. (https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Hardwar ... i_Main.pdf).

As for me being the first person to make a criticism (or as you like to call it - "mud slinging") - first of all, so what? Second, you're just wrong. People have criticized MiSTerAddons on Twitter and YouTube for the exact same reason and others, including one person who complained he did not give credit for comprehensive tests of VGA output. Not everybody in the community thinks the same way you do, and vendors are not above criticism.

I will ask again why there is no mention or link to the open source designs on the ultimatemister website?

[Sorgelig]

mubert
Ricardo (Ultimatemister) is indeed long term (many years) sponsor of MiSTer project. I can't tell about others selling MiSTer boards designed by me. Probably some of them are my subscribers on Patreon and support that way silently. But I'm in close contact with Ricardo and he helped me financially a lot! He helps from his heart and don't demand anything in return. And he sponsors not only me, but other MiSTer developers. Some times it's hundreds of bucks at once.

[mubert]

Well I stand completely and utterly corrected. Thank you for the clarification, Sorgelig, and for all of the hard work.

Ricardo, you have my apologies.