MiSTer FPGA Forum

Hello! Long time lurker, fairly new poster, I have a pretty dumb question, but I am quite a newbie so please don't laugh at me.

After having used it exclusively on an OLED TV, I managed to grab a Commodore 1702 to play on. I've plugged the MiSTer to it via Direct Video with a HDMI-to-VGA adapter, which is plugged in the VGA->YPbPr adapter from Antonio Villena.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ZMV7RL2
https://www.antoniovillena.es/store/pro ... apter-rca/

The red and green cables are plugged into Chroma and Luma on the back of the 1702, and I have a 3.5mm to RCA cable coming out of the HDMI-to-VGA adapter for audio. The HDMI-to-VGA adapter is also plugged to external power via a USB cable.

Everything is working perfectly fine, and I'm loving it, but when I tried to shut off the MiSTer via this power switch: https://misterfpga.co.uk/product/mister ... er-switch/ the MiSTer wouldn't turn off, which wasn't a problem back on the OLED TV. It seems that the externally-powered HDMI-to-VGA adapter is keeping the MiSTer powered up via HDMI.

I read a few threads about CEC and buying HDMI CEC-less adapters, but before ordering one, I tried unplugging the power supply from the HDMI-to-VGA adapter, and using it without that external USB power, and when I did that, the whole thing worked just as perfectly. Image, sound, everything's fine, and now, the MiSTer powers off when I turn it off via the power switch, as it's always done before.

My n00b question is the following: Is there any risk or problem with using the HDMI-to-VGA adapter without powering it via external power? Like, I dunno, is it possible that without its own source of power, it's... drawing too much power from the MiSTer and potentially damaging it or breaking it? I don't see why that could be possible since the MiSTer itself has all the right power cables and switches, and everything is working perfectly with or without the external power, but like I said, I don't know anything about this sort of stuff and am anxious about breaking my MiSTer.

Thank you in advance for your help!

Can't you plug the adapter USB into your Mister USB hub? Then it powers on with the Mister. That's what I do anyway.

Oh, that's a good point! I hadn't thought of that. I'll try it, thanks!

Follow-up question: Considering it'd be plugged to the USB hub of the MiSTer, is there a difference between running it plugged to the MiSTer and running it not plugged to anything?

If you were worried about power draw over the HDMI port damaging anything, drawing power from the USB side should solve it, since it's made for drawing power. But I don't know that there is actually any problem with using the HDMI power.

I'll just go with drawing power from USB as it's made for it then. Thanks again for the help!