MiSTer FPGA Forum

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002862595291.html

I kind of like the look of these IO boards with built in hub and a slimline case. Has anyone used one?

Interesting... integrating a 4-port USB hub to the IO board.
Those are good looking cases too
Still, these are China made products, so who knows what the quality is like

As someone else commented in a thread on facebook about faulty MiSTer boards:
“Friends don’t let friends buy from Aliexpress”

I bought a 7 port USB hub off of Aliexpress that was labeled as 2.0 (480mbps). It was identical to another one I bought off eBay. However, after the most recent Linux updates the Aliexpress one stopped working, but the eBay one didn't have any issues. Turns out they have different chips in them and the Aliexpress one is actually running at 1.1 (12mbps). Of course I didn't find this out until a few months after I bought it so I'm stuck with it at this point. I will definitely be checking everything thoroughly whenever I buy from there again.

Yeah this is a wild board that is nothing like any of the hardware designs I've seen before. I'd be more than a little reluctant to plug a DE10-nano into it. Terasic has officially warned users about the variable quality of daughter boards and their advice is good. As far as I know most of the sellers here test what they sell before they send it to you, but there's no telling how much testing goes into these boards. From what I know about Aliexpress you'll be lucky if all it does is not work without bricking your DE10-nano in the process.

I am interested in the "Sega Saturn" output, it looks like it uses a circular 10 pin DIN connector, that's an interesting choice as opposed to using a nonstandard VGA output like the normal analog I/O board. I assume it's compatible with existing Saturn RGB cables otherwise I have no idea what the advantage would be.

OnCor wrote: ↑Wed Sep 15, 2021 7:03 pm I bought a 7 port USB hub off of Aliexpress that was labeled as 2.0 (480mbps). It was identical to another one I bought off eBay. However, after the most recent Linux updates the Aliexpress one stopped working, but the eBay one didn't have any issues. Turns out they have different chips in them and the Aliexpress one is actually running at 1.1 (12mbps). Of course I didn't find this out until a few months after I bought it so I'm stuck with it at this point. I will definitely be checking everything thoroughly whenever I buy from there again.

A lot of hubs have been rendered nonworking in the Linux kernal update, even ones I bought on eBay and off the shelf in Australia. A quick fix is to add usbcore.autosuspend=-1 in u-boot.txt in the linux folder. See this thread.

viewtopic.php?f=27&t=3168

I made this thread to see if anyone had experience with them, I personally will still stick to official IO boards but this is an interesting project and the cases do look fantastic.

AliExpress is just a marketplace, the quality depends on the seller. There are good, bad and terrible sellers on the platform. I even made this post when I first started using AliExpress.

viewtopic.php?f=29&t=1751&p=15232#p15232

The problem was I first went straight for the cheapest prices without understanding how sellers worked on the platform and I wasn't checking their reputation and feedback.

I built and sold MiSTers on eBay for two years before the price increase and the best quality boards I got were from China. The memory chips clocked the highest and the soldering looked perfect with no residual flux. The boards I got from the European recommended sellers looked hand soldered with left over flux, they all worked but the memory chips would clock anywhere from 128 to 140 mhz while the Chinese ones all clocked 140 to 142 mhz.

So while AliExpress is rife with turd sellers, there are definitely some good ones there and looking through this guys feedback he has sold quite a few of these and the only concerning comment is this two star review translated from Russian. Very good packaging. Nice case, but there is no washed flux everywhere on the board and traces of repair are visible.

So it seems they are handmade and are at least tested and fixed, but did send one that probably should have been binned after having to fix a botch job.

I have the SS board and the silver aluminum case. What questions do you have about it?

hipsofjw wrote: ↑Wed Sep 15, 2021 10:23 pm I have the SS board and the silver aluminum case. What questions do you have about it?

Just the quality and reliability. Seeing it was an "unknown" project I was looking to see if anyone had had a good or bad experience with it. I love the look of the cases but was reluctant to spend almost $200 dollarydoos on something with very little feedback I could find about it.

Does it power everything by the USB C connector alone or do you need to power both it and the DE10-Nano? That is one of the questions in the sellers list but it is unanswered and I would also like to know.

NerdENerd wrote: ↑Wed Sep 15, 2021 10:38 pm

hipsofjw wrote: ↑Wed Sep 15, 2021 10:23 pm I have the SS board and the silver aluminum case. What questions do you have about it?

Just the quality and reliability. Seeing it was an "unknown" project I was looking to see if anyone had had a good or bad experience with it. I love the look of the cases but was reluctant to spend almost $200 dollarydoos on something with very little feedback I could find about it.

I bought the earlier version of the board and case in February. It didn't have the built in power switch or the USB-C charging. The shop upgraded my board and the necessary parts of the case for $30 or so when this new revision came out in June.

I use the SS connection for RGB into a CRT using a basic SS RGBs cable. Simultaneously, I run the HDMI into a projector. I leave the thing running most of the time to save my spots in games. I have a powered USB hub connected because I have too many wireless controllers. Never had any issues with the USB ports or any kind of overheating.

NerdENerd wrote: ↑Wed Sep 15, 2021 10:38 pm Does it power everything by the USB C connector alone or do you need to power both it and the DE10-Nano? That is one of the questions in the sellers list but it is unanswered and I would also like to know.

It came with a bridge between the board and the DE-10 Nano. You only need to power the board directly with the USB-C connector.

NerdENerd wrote: ↑Wed Sep 15, 2021 9:06 pm A lot of hubs have been rendered nonworking in the Linux kernal update, even ones I bought on eBay and off the shelf in Australia. A quick fix is to add usbcore.autosuspend=-1 in u-boot.txt in the linux folder. See this thread.

viewtopic.php?f=27&t=3168

I actually started that thread after the hub stopped working with the recent updates and you and I worked with paulbnl to find the "fix" for it. LOL! The only reason I discovered that there was something funky going on with the unit I bought on AliExpress is that it stopped working while the other identical one I bought off eBay still worked. After comparing the boards for both I noticed they had different chips on them and some of the components (resistors and caps) were different as well. When I searched Google to find information about the ICs and the differences between them I found that the ones in the AliExpress hub only were capable of USB 1.1 speeds. People who have purchased hubs from the seller I bought from probably didn't verify what speed they were running at. Like me they plugged them in, verified that devices connected to them were recognized, and called it good. I never imagined that a hub advertised as USB 2.0 that was identical to another one I purchased could actually have different, inferior components in them. I purchased from several other sellers on AliExpress at the same time I bought the hub and the rest of the merchandise was fine. I've just learned my lesson now that even what seems totally legit might not be and you really have to pay close attention. As they say "you get what you pay for" and this was apparently my mistake for trying to save a few bucks.

hipsofjw wrote: ↑Wed Sep 15, 2021 10:23 pm I have the SS board and the silver aluminum case. What questions do you have about it?

Hi, I'm new here and thinking about getting a MISTer. What I'm wondering about these boards: Is there an extra SD card slot like on the regular IO boards?

catallo wrote: ↑Thu Sep 16, 2021 1:00 pm Hi, I'm new here and thinking about getting a MISTer. What I'm wondering about these boards: Is there an extra SD card slot like on the regular IO boards?

Doesn't look like it but you really don't need it. The X68000 is the only core I am aware of that requires it which last time I looked was unfinished. Pretty sure if someone picked up development again it would probably move to disk images on the main SD.

NerdENerd wrote: ↑Thu Sep 16, 2021 11:07 pm

catallo wrote: ↑Thu Sep 16, 2021 1:00 pm Hi, I'm new here and thinking about getting a MISTer. What I'm wondering about these boards: Is there an extra SD card slot like on the regular IO boards?

Doesn't look like it but you really don't need it. The X68000 is the only core I am aware of that requires it which last time I looked was unfinished. Pretty sure if someone picked up development again it would probably move to disk images on the main SD.

The X68000 no longer requires an extra SD card.

hipsofjw wrote: ↑Fri Sep 17, 2021 1:41 am The X68000 no longer requires an extra SD card.

Are you sure?
Looking at the GitHub page they have not updated the main readme about that yet.
https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/X68000_MiSTer

To my knowledge, the newer X68000 core is not yet in the MiSTer-devel github. So technically, the readme is right, as the core in the repository still uses the 2nd card.