MiSTer FPGA Forum

Hey all, I just picked-up my first De10-nano to try out MiSTer. I've gotten it to boot up in both MiSTer and the included Xfce distro, but for some reason mine doesn't respond to any keyboard or mouse.

So far, I've tried:
2 different USB OTG cables
1 USB OTG hub
3 different keyboards
2 different mice
Mixing/matching all of the above
Building MiSTer with different methods
Waiting to attach USB until after boot

At this point I'm wondering if I got a bad nano, or if maybe the USB port is disabled somehow? I've searched the web but haven't had much luck in finding a resolution. I would really appreciate any advice you can give. Thanks!

The three things i would do is this.
1, Try one or more usb controller/gamepad and see if that work.
2, Make sure that all the dip switches on the DE-10 nano is flipped right.
https://misterfpga.co.uk/mister-de10-na ... iguration/
And probably flip all of them 3-4 times since they can have crap in them and not make contact (and this has helped at least a couple of people with different problems her on the forum) and then make sure they are in the right spot.
3, Try another usbhub since not all usbhubs will work on the DE-10 (which is a big part on why most people recommend the official mister usbhub board).

Thanks for those suggestions. I've tried them all now and am still unable to get an input device working. I have a USB expansion board as well, but since it links through the same micro-USB jack none of those ports work either.

I hooked-up a UART-to-USB cable and was able to login through a serial link from my PC. This lets me see the filesystem and look around. I was able to use dmesg to follow all kernel messages while plugging-in the different hubs and USB devices. What's telling is that none of them even generate a message. It's as if the USB function isn't even available to MiSTer or Xfce after boot. If this were a PC, I'd dig through the BIOS to see if it's disabled somewhere... but since it's not should I conclude that the USB function on my board is dead?

Anyone seen this before?

I encountered this today when powering on my DE-10 after some weeks on inactivity. My USB adapter and keyboard has been working ok previously. The adapter combo is an old Nokia USB OTG adapter and a Logitech 4 port USB 2.0 hub.

Symptoms: seems that the USB hub does not receive power (led does not turn on). USB hub and keyboard work fine when plugged into e.g. computer.

I did the above mentioned switch toggling but it didn't help. I was able to get some lights in the USB hub at powerup, but then it kind of faded out.

What eventually helped was disconnecting the keyboard from the hub before powering up the DE-10. After bootup the keyboard can be plugged in and it works. I also did a couple of cold resets by pressing the reset button on the DE-10.

I have a voltage configurable power brick, it is set to 5V and claims to provide 2250 mA.

I was wondering why this is suddenly failing when previously I have had the hub with a keyboard and a gamepad connected on bootup and everything worked.

Try external power if you can. It does help.

apecca wrote: ↑Thu Feb 10, 2022 11:09 am I have a voltage configurable power brick, it is set to 5V and claims to provide 2250 mA.

That's 11 watts (https://www.rapidtables.com/calc/electr ... lator.html)

The MiSTer by itself uses 6-7 watts.

If you're plugging in USB HDD/SSD's or other hungry devices, your supply wattage could be marginal.

Definitely don't change from 5V , but if it turns out to be a power issue, there are higher wattage 5V supplies (Meanwell, Globtek, Triad etc @ Mouser/Digi-Key with 20, 25 and even 30 watts).

Are you using an inline power switch? Try without.

Stinky wrote: ↑Sat Feb 12, 2022 3:51 am Are you using an inline power switch? Try without.

Great idea, poster should try that as some inline switches cause a drop in voltage which could be enough to cause flaky behavior.


Alternately (and at your own MiSTer's risk ), you could increase the voltage output on your variable supply "a bit" (5.1, 5.2), esp. if you have a DMM and measure the voltage at the tip of the DC connector as too low. Too low meaning lower than 5V - if you see below 4.8 or 4.7 for ex, that's getting too low.