Problem setting up mt32-Pi hat

[metalfacemark]

Firstly, i need to say im a complete newbie when it comes to pi stuff, ive never used it before.

Ive purchased a pi-hat, and a pi 3, plugged in the pi hat to the pi, put power to the pi and connected the pihat to the mister interface port as stated in the tutorial.

Ive copied the mt32-pi.0.9.1-1.zip to a fat32 formatted sd card in windows. Copied some roms into the rom directory (MT32_PCM.rom) (CM32L_PCM.ROM) MT32_control.19998.rom) etc.

Ive added the lines to the config that it says to add for mister.

Im getting a load of noise when i turn it on, also it says low voltage (but tutorial says to ignore that unless you are having crashing issues, but it wont let me select anything on screen because of the low voltage warning)

Ive tried powering via the mister and also via pc - also also via 5v power socket.

Im a bit stumped!

[LamerDeluxe]

What isn't working? Apart from the noise, which doesn't seem normal. I can power mine from a 2 amp micro USB powersupply. And the USB cable needs to be very short < 50 cm but preferably 30 cm or shorter. Not all cables will work.

Don't have the hat power switch turned on at the same time as having it externally powered.

[Xbytez]

If you wish to suppress the low voltage warning displayed on the mt32-pi, just do this, edit your config.txt on the root of the MicroSD card and add the following line above the [pi3] section. This disables the warnings and the throttling:

Code: Select all

avoid_warnings=2

[metalfacemark]

If you wish to suppress the low voltage warning displayed on the mt32-pi, just do this, edit your config.txt on the root of the MicroSD card and add the following line above the [pi3] section. This disables the warnings and the throttling:

Code: Select all

avoid_warnings=2

great, thats bypassed the warning.

Im suspecting it may be the roms i found online that are causing the problem.

Is there specific roms i should be putting in there? I just found them randomly online.

[WiteWulf]

Where's the "noise" coming from? The mt32pi should be sending it's audio output back to the MiSTer over the USB cable, and MiSTer mixes that into it's regular audio output via HDMI or whatever you're using on your IO board.

You've got an IO board and the MT32pi connected to the User IO port that *looks* like a USB port (but isn't), haven't you? The mt32pi won't work connected to a regular USB port on a hub connected to the DE10.

(sorry if it seems I'm stating the obvious, too long working in support means I never make assumptions )

[metalfacemark]

Noise is coming from the speakers - ive got the the MTP32Pi connected to the port on the mister itself, the io port. (thats the only one on the mister right?)

[metalfacemark]

This is the noise.

https://streamable.com/nai0e5

[thera34]

Hello,

Received today my MT32-PI hat, worked with no issues.
Just plugged the hat on a PI 3 I had around, connected the USB (short cable) from MT32 to MiSTer I/O port and followed the instructions from https://github.com/dwhinham/mt32-pi#-quick-start-guide as :
-extracting the mt32-pi.0.9.1-1.zip to the root of a small SD card formatted FAT32
-modify the config.txt and mt32-pi.cfg files (as from here: https://github.com/dwhinham/mt32-pi/wik ... tion#setup)
-ROMs I got from first google search and copied to the /roms folder
-also, I do not power the PI externally, but rely on the Meanwell 5v/4A I have for MiSTer

Roms that worked for me in the attached pic

roland_roms.JPG (21.59 KiB) Viewed 12864 times

Hope it helps

[metalfacemark]

Thank you, thats what I did too.

I can see the hat working correctly, im just getting that terrible distorsion sound through the speakers that has left me stumped.

Am I being a bit thick or should my audio cable still be in the mister and not in the pi itself?

edit: out of curiousity, i tried it just on hdmi sound and i get the same distortion sound coming through the TV speakers.

Im stumped!

[thera34]

I use hdmi sound and have connected a 3.1 audio system to connect it to my monitor, sounds fine...

If you use a separate audio, I think the audio cable should be in MiSTer.

[metalfacemark]

I use hdmi sound and have connected a 3.1 audio system to connect it to my monitor, sounds fine...

If you use a separate audio, I think the audio cable should be in MiSTer.

Yeah, everything appears to be working as it should other than the noise.

[thera34]

I've no clue tbh. Try downloading the util,zip from eXoDos and use the roms/soundfont it provides maybe ?

[d0pefish]

Yeah, everything appears to be working as it should other than the noise.

What version is your I/O board?

[metalfacemark]

Yeah, everything appears to be working as it should other than the noise.

What version is your I/O board?

Hi, its version 6.1

[d0pefish]

There's not a whole lot left that could be causing this - I'm suspecting either a cable that is either faulty or too long (<30cm is the sweet spot), or the I/O board itself could be faulty.

Check your I/O board has all the pins installed and inspect it very closely around the User I/O port and look for shorts.
At least a few people with AliExpress I/O boards have had poorly-soldered boards or missing pins that cause these sorts of problems.

[metalfacemark]

Im going to try it with my other mister tomorrow, that should rule out either the mister or the hat thats causing the problem i guess ?

I just wasnt sure i was supposed to change any settings in the actual mister.ini - or do anything to the pi before sticking the hat on top?

I do get a thing saying "UART Break error" when its loading up.

[d0pefish]

Yes, try another MiSTer. Make sure your cores are up to date aswell, IIRC there were some sound related fixes to some cores a few months back.

You don't need to mess with mister.ini, the mt32-pi README + steps from the MiSTer page on the wiki are literally it, the rest is plug and play.

[aberu]

My money is on the cable too. Even the ones on the wiki aren't invulnerable to the manufacturers wanting to leave early on a friday.

Another thing, I have noticed with some ao486 games in the flynnsbit Top300, rarely, I have the crackling too, but I have to change settings for ao486 since it's running too fast for those games.

[metalfacemark]

The cable was the one that came with it from misterfpga.co.uk So id assume it was okay.

Just copying across the pc files to my other mister, on my main one though, if i plug the hard drive directly into it it doesnt see it, if i plug the pihat directly in for power it stops my other devices working.

Problem I have is my other mister the HDMI doesnt work on it and its in my arcade cabinet, will report back shortly!

[metalfacemark]

Ok! So put on my other mister, zero problems, fired up without a hitch!

So its something hardware on the other one - i also switched SD cards to double check it wasnt something software related.

Will it be the mister board thats faulty? Its a new DE-10 Nano in it, i guess the only way to work out will be to switch the mister boards.

[metalfacemark]

Switched over the misters this morning - Confirmed it was one mister (mister that originally had HDMI loss from it before i switched out the DE10 Nano on it) - All working fine and dandy at last!

So my other mister now has no hdmi and obviously something wonky with the actual mister itself, but its soldiering on in my arcade cabinet with just vga out.

So happy to have it working, overjoyed to hear that sweet midi sound coming out my speakers this morning!

[d0pefish]

That's great to hear!

Hope it's not too much trouble to get the other MiSTer working alright.

[Lezzer]

Hi all,

I am also having trouble setting up mine. I have tried multiple different cables, SD cards and even tried two different mt32-pi’s.
This was posted further up the thread:

The only difference I can find is that the control ROMs I have are twice the size of these. Would that really make any difference?
All the ones I can find are the same size.

[nizmox]

I also have issues with distortion when trying to power the mt32-Pi via just the USB.
As soon as I use an external power source everything is fine, but it is annoying as I then need to physically unplug the mt32-pi when not in use.

So far I've tried two different USB3 cables and still have the same issue with both.
My Mister was purchased from misteraddonstore so I'm assuming my IO board is good?

[WILL1384]

I am using two ROM files the "roms" folder:

"CM32L_CONTROL.1989-12-05.v1.02.ROM" that is 65.5 kB (65536 bytes)
SHA1 HASH: a439fbb390da38cada95a7cbb1d6ca199cd66ef8
SHA256 HASH: 08d68695e5bff6bbcbb751d6e4453db9f5ead0b5f41e86480798a04376dfe090

"MT32_CONTROL.1987-10-07.v1.07.ROM" that is 65.5 kB (65536 bytes)
SHA1 HASH: b083518fffb7f66b03c23b7eb4f868e62dc5a987
SHA256 HASH: a73a06c23ed38370e58a11fb1b86f7ea4c547061a60d7aa62bae446235fd2dff

I did have a problem with the mt32-pi, it was power related, with the mt32-pi connected to the MiSTer FPGA I was getting reboots, the HDMI out would go dark and then the MiSTer FPGA would reboot, and this would happen over and over, until I unplugged the mt32-pi from the MiSTer FPGA, but if I flip the switch on the mt32-pi and power the Raspberry Pi with it's own power supply all the problems went away.

[Lezzer]

Still no joy for me unfortunately.

I’ll give some details of my experience so far.

I have Antonio Villena’s slim model. I bought my first mt32-pi from misterfpga.co.uk and paired it with a pi 3 B.
Antonio’s MiSTer doesn’t have a USB shaped IO port, his are DB9. So I made a cable as per this wiring diagram he kindly provided.

7569E914-39BC-476F-90B6-40BB90E571B2.jpeg (186.93 KiB) Viewed 8756 times

After downloading the files and configuring the SD card I plugged it all in. I have power fine. The mt32-pi screen is on and the bars are moving up and down, both on the mt-32-pi and on my tv screen. I can control it all through the ODS just fine. But I’ve never heard a single thing with it. So I bought another, different cable and made another one as per the wiring diagram, exactly the same result.

So I then bought a second mt32-pi, this time direct from Antonio, this one came with a cable. After it was set up, I have power to the mt32-pi, the screen is on a working fine, but on this one the bars are not moving and I have no sound.

I tried a different SD card, with no difference, multiple formats and re-downloads of the software, dozens of double checking the mt32-pi.cfg.

And that’s where I am now.

I can’t think of anything other than I have a bad IO board. I’m almost positive it’s that.

If anybody here can think of something else I could try before I buy a new one, I’ll give it a go. I figured you would be the best guys to ask.

Or alternatively, if anybody on here is local to the Dorset area and would be willing to try my mt32-pi on their MiSTer I’d be very grateful.

[scyto]

I just got mine. No power issues at all. Using short usb3 (25cm) cable and powering the whole lot via the barrel connector on the IO board and a *good* powersuppply.

Where i did have issues was while the MT32-pi looked like it was well seated on the PI i found that the header connections is a little iffy - so for example i had a situation where i could see the sounds bars on the MT32-pi but no sound was coming back from it. Wiggling the pi-hat seems to fix for a while. Its like freaking RAM pack wobble on a spectrum