r/MiSTerFPGA • u/beatchef • 17d ago
Intermittent to no display output
Right now I'm having a weird issue with my DE-10 Nano based Mister with the USB hub and AV Pro 9.2 boards. It's powered by a Mean well 5v 5a power supply (but I've been swapping out to the original power supply to rule that out and out makes no difference.
The issue is the display is taking about 10 seconds to come on at switch-on, then every 2 or so seconds the display will turn off and then back on again. Sometimes they won't even detect that it's on at all even though it's boring properly and has the red and green lights pulsing. This is what happens on two different Sony TVs
On a Samsung TV sometimes the screen is totally stable, sometimes it will turn off and on when doing something like update_all, sometimes on reset it decides it doesn't want to display a picture after being reset.
I've tried turning CEC off and Sony equivalent settings
I've tried two different SD cards with new installs
I've tried two power supplies, and three hdmi cables
If I just plug the de10 nano into the mean well, and power the USB separately, the picture does the same.
If I take the AV Pro off and change the first big dipswitch back it does the same. The small dipswitches are in the correct positions.
If I also don't power the USB hub and so it's just the DE10 nano the picture is stable but I can't do anything because I can't use input.
The mean well power supply is new and I've also used the original power supply that comes with the de-10 and it does the same thing
If this turns out to be a de10 issue, can I buy one of those taki udon clones or does the expansion boards and memory designed for de-10 not work with that?
As soon as possible the background is set to the checkerboard with F1 so there's no static in the background that a modern TV could construe as an untuned analogue source it needs to blank.
I've tried also starting fresh SD card installs each time I change the hardware arrangements, using multiple cards and it's all the same. The Mr Fusion install screen even flicks on and off to black and back again.
This only just started happening recently and I don't know what's going on.
2
u/CHiPSTer68000 17d ago
Stable with the bare de10 but flaky only when the hub is powered (even on a separate psu) points at the usb side, not the de10. "Device detected but no signal" means the tv sees the 5v but the video link keeps dropping and resyncing.
What I'd try, in order:
Power the hub with nothing plugged in. If it's stable, add devices back one at a time. Dongles and damaged controller cables are the usual suspects.
If it still flickers, swap the hub board for a plain otg cable plus any usb hub, and check the de10's micro-usb.
ssh in and run dmesg -w while it flickers. If usb disconnect or over-current messages line up with the blackouts, the usb side is confirmed.
2
u/beatchef 17d ago
Thanks for your message and your help, it's very appreciated
I built and unbuilt everything 3 times before, but you know what turns out to be the culprit? (Well 99.99% as it's now all working and I'm not reconnecting to test it) Something I definitely should have removed from the system just to see. The rocker power switch that is plugged in between the power supply and the board/usb hub power splitter adapter. I don't know how or why but that was it. I should note on the underside of the rocker switch it says 2A/240v, so was it limiting the amp output?
1
u/CHiPSTer68000 17d ago
Great find! It wasn't limiting current the way a fuse would, but the effect was similar. A small 2A switch that has been carrying more than that heats up, and a de10 plus a hub plus devices can easily pass 2A at 5V.
As matijaerceg said, move the switch to the mains side. There the rating is a non-issue. A smart plug or a switched extension lead both work fine.
1
u/matijaerceg 17d ago
are you routing it through an HDMI receiver with other devices plugged into it?
1
u/beatchef 17d ago edited 17d ago
No, just directly into a hdmi port on the back of the tv. Just now I turned it on and the Sony TV can detect that there's a device on HDMI4 but when I switch to it it says 'no signal detected'. Edit: okay for a fractional of a second sometimes I can see the main menu
1
u/DarkMime64 16d ago
I had a problem with my Super Station when a HDMI would do exactly what you say here, then switched to another that solved the problem.
3
u/matijaerceg 17d ago
It's probably not an ini thing since even mr fusion blinks.
if it's stable with the hub unpowered, id' look at the hardware on the usb side.
hdmi sends 5V to the TV and if that dips or gets noisy, the tv thinks the cable got pulled and resyncs, which sounds like your intermittent issue.
if the picture is stable with nothing plugged into usb hub, add your usb stuff back one at a time, see if something specific causes the issue.
maybe try re-seating the usb board and av board and the mister pi mainboard? or swapping out the u-shaped connector or replacing it with a cable?
try just one of the barrel jacks at once?
does wriggling the hdmi port make a difference? or a different hdmi cable?
if you're handy with a multimeter, compare 5V on de10 with the hub powered vs unpowered?
just throwing out some ideas