The official Cthulhu and ChImp thread - Try our new Dreamcast flavor!

[fonzee]

Thanks a lot, I appreciate the help as I’m a total noob with this kind of thing. I guess I’ll need to break out a soldering iron if I want my stick to work with TvC.

[Toodles]

This group of MC Cthulhu’s I’ve been using aren’t compatible with the Innovation PS2->DC converter. Is there a way to make it compatible again?

There are at least two versions of the Innovation, and it appears it doesnt currently work with one of them. There hasn’t been any change to how the MC talks PSX.

Also, is there a way to make the holes bigger, the unlabeled ones where the xbox 360 wires go for a dual mod “A thru H and 1 thru 9”

What gauge of wire are you trying to get in there?? I’ve used those holes for header posts, so I’d expect at least 22 gauge to fit fine, if not 20 gauge.

Hey quick question. I searched the thread but couldn’t find a concrete answer. On lizardlick it says the assembled MC Cthulhu is completely solderless. I’m just wondering whether that pertains to installation as well. In other words, if I were to install it in my Madcatz SE stick, would I need to solder anything? Thank you.

Sure, just cut all of the ribbon cables going to the existing SE pcb, and screw them down in the appropriate screw terminals, cut and remove the existing USB cord and plug a new one into the Cthulhu and run it out the stick.

Oh, you mean for a dual mod? Haha. Soldering is required for getting the wires connected to the existing pcb, not to connect them to the cthulhu. There are ways to do it without soldering, but your best bet is to follow an existing tutorial.

Speaking of that…Toodles, why not make a MC Cthulu with screw terminals on the Mutli-Console rows? XD

You could easily add terminals to them if you’d like, but they take up a lot of room and cost money. You’d have a difficult time getting more than one cable connected, and I know the wires would work themselves out over time. But if you want to, go for it. Just look for terminals with a 2.54mm pitch.

Thanks a lot, I appreciate the help as I’m a total noob with this kind of thing. I guess I’ll need to break out a soldering iron if I want my stick to work with TvC.

For adding console cables to an MC, yes, soldering is the way to go.

[Pasky]

You could easily add terminals to them if you’d like, but they take up a lot of room and cost money. You’d have a difficult time getting more than one cable connected, and I know the wires would work themselves out over time. But if you want to, go for it. Just look for terminals with a 2.54mm pitch.

Ah, wasn’t for me, was just suggesting, I’m very good at soldering, only reason I opted for your assembled PCB was because I like the fact that the screw terminals are solder dipped on.

[Toodles]

Ah, wasn’t for me, was just suggesting, I’m very good at soldering, only reason I opted for your assembled PCB was because I like the fact that the screw terminals are solder dipped on.

That’s one thing I wish I could really get across to folks, but havent had much luck. The preassembled boards are professionally assembled by machine in a factory. they are so clean its scary, far better than any soldering job I’ve ever seen anyone do by hand.

[nyuro]

disregard

[nyuro]

nvm i think i have a short somewhere

[manman]

That’s one thing I wish I could really get across to folks, but havent had much luck. The preassembled boards are professionally assembled by machine in a factory. they are so clean its scary, far better than any soldering job I’ve ever seen anyone do by hand.

I don’t know, is there any other major reason to have the pre-assembled besides that? The reason I would always go kit is because it’s half the price, it’s pretty easy to assemble cleanly (even if it’s not as clean as a machine assembly), and I like the straight solder over screw terminals myself.

cost is probably the biggest factor though, getting something at half the price in exchange for a little bit of work on my part is an easy choice.

[nyuro]

ok so i DO have a problem

rewired every single thing on the imp and main pcb and cthulthu , looked over all solder spots everything…

ok so heres what stumps me

when i plug it into the pc it detects a 360 te fightstick - even though the 360 pcb is plugged into D2. the directionals dont work. they are soldered fine. All the buttons work.

I cant get the stick to run through the cthulhu … i did the resistance tests and i am getting an 8kohm resistance between every power source and ground… on the imp, on the 360 pcb, on the chtluthu. This is bad right?

im lost… read a lot of posts, did a lot of resoldering, getting fed up… bout to cut my losses and just toss that 360 pcb lol… any help?

[synix09]

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a246/synix09/th_Cthulhu360PCBImpRJ45.jpg <— Click

I showed this layout to Bomberman and he said that I shouldn’t connect the button signals from the 360 PCB to the top section of the Cthulhu labeled A - H and 1 - 9, and instead have 2 wires connecting from the sides of the Cthulhu (1P 2P 3P ect.) to which one goes to the 360 PCB and the other goes to the arcade buttons. But I thought that’s what the top buttons were made for. Can someone clear this up?

LET’S ASSUME that my layout is correct. If I wanted to connect LEDs to this layout, I would have this ->

74HCT04 Hex Inverter
     ___
    |   |--VCC connecting to Red-V on the bottom section of the Cthulhu  
    |   |--[wire from arcade buttons]--[wires from side section of Cthulhu labeled 1P 2P ect.]
    |   |--[Resistor]--[LED]--[GND]
    |   |
    |   |
GND-|   |
 |    ---
 |
 |---Connecting to Blk-G on the bottom section of the Cthulhu

Thanks for the help!

Edit:

Q: What consoles will it work on?
A: Currently, the MC Cthulhu will work on the PS3 (with all of the functionality of the original PS3 Only Cthulhu), Xbox1, Playstion/Playstation 2, and Gamecube. Playstation support appears to work well with many converters.

So the MC Cthulhu doesn’t support PC unlike the PC/PS3 Cthulhu? I don’t think you accidently left it out but just making sure. So if this is the case, and I have an MC Cthulhu [Primary] + 360 PCB [Secondary] connected to an Imp, every time I plug it into the computer, I’ll need to hold down Guide to read from the 360 PCB? (Since PS3 doesn’t play on PC unless modded)

[manman]

I’m not sure about the LED stuff, but I did use the A-H, 1-9 contact points for wiring instead of the side points, and mine works fine. Actually the thing that made me consider it was seeing a picture of Toodles wiring job where he used those points, and I thought that looked cleaner, so I’m assuming he wouldn’t say not to wire using those, but idk maybe something has changed since then?..

[Toodles]

I cant get the stick to run through the cthulhu … i did the resistance tests and i am getting an 8kohm resistance between every power source and ground… on the imp, on the 360 pcb, on the chtluthu. This is bad right?

Doesnt the troubleshooting instructions clearly state what the ‘bad’ amount of resistance is?

im lost… read a lot of posts, did a lot of resoldering, getting fed up… bout to cut my losses and just toss that 360 pcb lol… any help?

So, no matter whether you hold the button to switch modes or not, it’s always coming up as a 360. Your current problem is the Imp, not the Cthulhu. There’s a similar set of instructions for the Imp; its linked in the first post of the Imp thread.

And why would you throw the 360 pad away? You said its working fine, except for the stick which Im sure you’ll figure out later.

[Jack_Steve]

Does the VCC point on the MC Cthulhu board supply 5V regardless of what console it is plugged in or does it vary based on what is supplied by the console?

[Toodles]

Does the VCC point on the MC Cthulhu board supply 5V regardless of what console it is plugged in or does it vary based on what is supplied by the console?

It’s very based off the input voltage from the console. If you’re worried abotu powering a p360 or similar and do want to include PSX, you’ll need to get a step up DC converter. Let me know if that’s the case and I can link you one pretty easy; sparkfun has one for $10.

[Toodles]

If we have any ballsy early adopters who want to give it a try, I have a VERY untested beta of the MC firmware that should have much better autodetection, including Xbox1 autodetection.
Plug in with start and select held down to enter bootloader mode. I’ll be doing some testing on it later on, but I realized that I made a mistake in assembling my test stick
If you’re daring give it a try and report up how well it works for you. Pretty much nothing of the actual system code is changed, just autodetection stuff, and I may even have done that wrong, so be careful; this is entirely untested.

http://www.marcuspost.com/downloads/cthulhu/MCCthulhu13b.zip

[Truckasaurus]

Multiple versions of the Innovation converter aye? Imagine that :pleased:

There are at least two versions of the Innovation, and it appears it doesnt currently work with one of them. There hasn’t been any change to how the MC talks PSX.

Maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me, are they the same size holes as the the ones on the sides? I think just the small spacing between the A-H,1-9 holes makes it a little more difficult than the holes on the sides

What gauge of wire are you trying to get in there?? I’ve used those holes for header posts, so I’d expect at least 22 gauge to fit fine, if not 20 gauge.

Check out the converter compatibility thread, I’ve tested the Blazepro and the Xconverter and both are compatible with the PSX on the MC Cthulhu

I suppose my only wishlist item is make sure ps2 support works with new 360 adapters ^_^;;

We’re trying to resurrect this thread and generate interest to get some more Saturn->PSX churned out there, which is one step away from 360

Wish I could SATURN PAD->360 without having to hack up a godlike controller.

How do I go back to the original firmware (if even possible) if I test out this new MC Firmware?

If we have any ballsy early adopters who want to give it a try, I have a VERY untested beta of the MC firmware that should have much better autodetection, including Xbox1 autodetection.
Plug in with start and select held down to enter bootloader mode. I’ll be doing some testing on it later on, but I realized that I made a mistake in assembling my test stick
If you’re daring give it a try and report up how well it works for you. Pretty much nothing of the actual system code is changed, just autodetection stuff, and I may even have done that wrong, so be careful; this is entirely untested.

http://www.marcuspost.com/downloads/cthulhu/MCCthulhu13b.zip

[Toodles]

How do I go back to the original firmware (if even possible) if I test out this new MC Firmware?

Pull out and use the .hex from the 1.1 zip file:
http://www.marcuspost.com/downloads/cthulhu/MCCthulhu11.zip

[Truckasaurus]

Cool, I’ll try it out if I have some time tonight or tomorrow

[Ubersaurus]

I’ll give it a try out after work. Do you think it’s fixed the autodetect issues I was having with PS2 games?

[Toodles]

I’ll give it a try out after work. Do you think it’s fixed the autodetect issues I was having with PS2 games?

I hope so, but like I said, I dont even know for sure if PSX detection works at all yet because I havent tested it. But, if it works like how I expect it to, it should be bulletproof, including the swap magic and compilation discs. If there are still problems, definitely let me know because it will mean that I’ll have to recreate the problem here and look at it with an oscope.

My MC stick is fixed, but I gotta hit my niece’s 1st bday party. Hope to be back to test more later tonight.

[Bomberman]

I made a mistake in what I told Synix a day or 2 ago, but I corrected the mistake later on. Please disregard.

Toodles the new board revisions sound awesome! I wish I had seen your message about requests. I’ll probably have some requests next time around.

The very coolest thing would be a board that has the Cthulhu and Imp built together, reducing the amount of space they take up and the amount of time required for installation. But maybe there wouldn’t be enough demand to warrant it; I don’t know.