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blicken
Posts: 12
Joined: Mon Mar 27, 2017 1:42 am

Newb here!

Post by blicken »

Hi All,
I just assembled the Uzebox, and the Game AVR Mega tetris is working fine. I havent attempted to reprogram anything yet.
I plugged in the SD card, that came with my UZEBox, and while I can see a bunch of games on it when it is inserted to my laptop,
I see nothing when it is plugged into the UzeBox.

How do I access the Games that are on the SD card?

sorry if that is a newb question. I just built the thing today, and started reading tutorials.
Im just trying to figure out if all the hardware works properly.
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D3thAdd3r
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Location: Minneapolis, United States

Re: Newb here!

Post by D3thAdd3r »

Hi, welcome!

If you have not formatted the card and you see roms on your PC, I think the card itself is not at fault. I think the bootloader is set to always come up after reset, on the chips that come with the kit. So you see the bootloader after a reset and get something like "no card?" correct? Try resetting and re-inserting the card a few times.

Otherwise it's likely a hardware issue. Two things to check right off the bat are the resistor values. Just make sure that the resistors on the voltage divider for the SD card have the right value. If those are wrong, desolder and put in the correct ones. If those are right, then something is not making contact. It could be a cold solder joint, in which case you can quickly touch a hot iron to pins related to the SD card(or anything where the solder is not shiny indicating a bad joint) and they should remelt.

If all of that is good, then a multimeter in continuity mode will be needed. Basically you can check from point to point, from the '644 pin to the resistors, from the end of the resistors to the pins on the SD socket to find where it is open. I had once where I held too long on the pins for the SD socket, and screwed up the socket itself, but hopefully that is not the case here. If there is contact and correct resistance along the path from the '644 pins to the SD card, it will work.

Let me know if something didn't make sense there.
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nicksen782
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Re: Newb here!

Post by nicksen782 »

In case the bootloader doesn't appear, you can hold the 'B' button while powering the Uzebox up.

For SD stuff to work with Uzebox, and especially the bootloader, you'll need to make sure that the SD is NOT fragmented. It is really easy to defragment if you suspect fragmentation. Just move your files off the SD and then back on to it.

Does the SD still work in the PC? Make doubly sure that it is formatted FAT16 (not FAT32, etc.) FAT32 is often the default for external media.

If all else up to this point fails I would do as D3thAdd3r suggests and to check the Uzebox hardware itself. Your DAC is likely just fine (lots of resistors to potentially mess up so you'd know if you had a problem there). What about the connections to the SD card? If you have a multi-meter handy I would confirm that voltage readings read on the SD card do not go above 3.3. If higher than that then the resistor-based voltage divider is wrong and you need to unplug that SD card until you fix this. SD cards are good for 2.7 to 3.3. Much more than that and you are taking a risk.

It should never hurt to just re-heat solder connections to reflow the solder a bit. Not too often, but sometimes you just get a bad solder joint. Reflow it.

Let us know when you figure it out!

PS - Welcome to Uzebox!
blicken
Posts: 12
Joined: Mon Mar 27, 2017 1:42 am

Re: Newb here!

Post by blicken »

OK So I just accessed the game loader, and it says "no disk" or "SD Init fail" something like that. I checked the file system, and it is a FAT16, and tried defrag both via dumping and rewriting the files and by using the command:
$sudo dosfsck -w -r -l -a -v -t /dev/mmcblk0p1

(linux user here.)

So I guess I'm looking at hardware issues. Is there a schematic of the Uzebox some place? I think I would like to look at a schematic while I try to troubleshoot the hardware.
(I work full time in telematics, so it might be the weekend before I can get to troubleshoot the hardware. please bear with me.)
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D3thAdd3r
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Re: Newb here!

Post by D3thAdd3r »

This should be what you want.
blicken
Posts: 12
Joined: Mon Mar 27, 2017 1:42 am

Re: Newb here!

Post by blicken »

I Think I see where I made a mistake.. Thanks for the helpful infos.
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uze6666
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Re: Newb here!

Post by uze6666 »

blicken wrote:I Think I see where I made a mistake.. Thanks for the helpful infos.
Hi Blicken, welcome to the Uzbebox community!

Please let us know what was the issue, its always end up very helpful to help others. :)

ps: Thanks Lee! I started a troubleshooting section on the wiki with your steps so we can refer people to it in the future.
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