MiSTer FPGA Forum

Hi, new to MiSTer, setting up my first unit today. I have a stack with a USB board at the bottom, DE-10 Nano in the middle, Digital I/O board at the top. Using the power supply provided with the Nano from Terasic and HDMI to connect to a monitor.

I tried plugging the power supply into the I/O board, then using a male/male connector in the plugs on the Nano board and the USB board and had a problem powering up. When I do this, the fan on the I/O board repeatedly tries to start, but only moves a tiny bit, I get a flashing blue light on the Nano and nothing on the monitor. When I plug the power supply directly into the Nano board, the Nano and I/O boards turn on, and I get a picture on the monitor, but the USB board doesn't work.

Does anyone know what might be going on here? Bad USB board? Not enough power? Gremlins? Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

"If you are using the Digital I/O MiSTer addon board just connect your DE10-Nano power supply into the Digital IO boards DC power socket, then connect one end of the male jumper cable into the DE10-Nano boards DC power socket and the other male end into the USB Hub’s DC power socket. You can now control all the boards power via the on/off switch on the Digital IO board"

Turn on sw3

Thanks for the suggestion, unfortunately I've tried that setup, including flipping the SW3 switch up, but it did not fix the issue. Do I need to do anything with the SW10 switches?

I think the problem might be with the power supply. I looked at the power supply included with my Nano board, and the plug says 2A. With many suggesting a 4A power supply, it seems like this might be too low. Hoping a new power supply will help, but if anyone has other ideas, I'd be happy to try them!

The 2A power supply will not be the issue unless it is faulty, 2A is sufficient for powering up the hardware setup you have given in your first post.

How did you setup your microSD card?

Because just a blue LED on the DE10-Nano sounds like an microSD card issue, for example if you try and boot the DE10 Nano with no microSD card inserted all you will get is the blue LED.

I set up the MicroSD using Mister Fusion. I tried doing the install with only the Nano and I/O boards running, and it looked like everything worked ok. I was able to get to the screen where it says No Cores Found. I wasn't able to move on from there because I couldn't get my USB keyboard to work. It didn't work when plugged into the USB slot on the I/O board or when plugged into the USB board.

kozbot wrote: ↑Fri Mar 18, 2022 2:02 pm It didn't work when plugged into the USB slot on the I/O board

The User Port is the port on the IO Board that has the same physical appearance as a USB 3.0 port, but it is merely using a USB 3.0 connector as a means for serial I/O communication. Just plugging your keyboard into this socket will do nothing as you have found.

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Main_Mi ... Serial-IO)

kozbot wrote: ↑Fri Mar 18, 2022 2:02 pm or when plugged into the USB board.

I sounds like your USB hub is faulty, you could try this if your have a micro USB OTG hub available. Try plugging it into the micro USB socket on the DE10-Nano then connecting your keyboard to the OTG hub and booting up.

Xbytez wrote: ↑Fri Mar 18, 2022 2:12 pm The User Port is the port on the IO Board that has the same physical appearance as a USB 3.0 port, but it is merely using a USB 3.0 connector as a means for serial I/O communication. Just plugging your keyboard into this socket will do nothing as you have found.

I wondered if that was the case, thanks for the clarification.

Unfortunately I don't have a way to connect my keyboard through micro USB. I'll have to see if I can figure something out, but it sounds like I might need a new USB board, anyway. Thank you for your help!

One other thing I noticed: I just unplugged the I/O board and tried using a splitter to just power the Nano and the USB board. When I only have the Nano plugged in, it turns on, fine. When I connect the power to the USB board, as well, the Nano powers off automatically.

kozbot wrote: ↑Fri Mar 18, 2022 2:28 pm

Xbytez wrote: ↑Fri Mar 18, 2022 2:12 pm The User Port is the port on the IO Board that has the same physical appearance as a USB 3.0 port, but it is merely using a USB 3.0 connector as a means for serial I/O communication. Just plugging your keyboard into this socket will do nothing as you have found.

I wondered if that was the case, thanks for the clarification.

Unfortunately I don't have a way to connect my keyboard through micro USB. I'll have to see if I can figure something out, but it sounds like I might need a new USB board, anyway. Thank you for your help!

Micro USB OTG Adapters are the way to connect that to the MiSTer directly - https://www.amazon.com/MakerSpot-Access ... 01JL837X8/

I had similar issues. The MISTer worked OK with the default PSU but as soon as I started adding connections to the USB ports, I started to have issues. It took me a while (and some friendly advice on here) but I replaced it with a 5V 5A PSU and I've been happy as a retrogamer in retrogaming heaven ever since!

zorrobandito wrote: ↑Sun Mar 20, 2022 6:18 am I've been happy as a retrogamer in retrogaming heaven ever since!

Wait i thought it was retro hell since we can´t stop playing and nothing else gets done

Wrapping things up, it looks like the problem was the USB board. I got a new board and installed it, and things are just ducky now. Thanks everyone for your help!