I'm trying to repair my VG-8010, for a while now. But until now, I had no luck and I'm still stuck with a black screen.
Also see my comments in this tread: https://www.msx.org/forum/msx-talk/hardware/vg8000-and-vg801...
Nevertheless there are other things I will need to verify, or other things that could be the cause, sure.
One thing I had noticed: the VDP chip became very hot, really hot. I'm speaking of a TMS9129NL(PAL) in this VG-8010.
So, from all chips on this motherboard, the VDP was the only chip producing heat. That made him a suspect to me.
Not sure and not finding any confirmation this would be normal behaviour, I wanted to find a way to test this VDP.
Is it dead, shorted or just malfunctioning ?
Luckily, this TMS9129NL sits in a socket on the motherboard, so it is easy to take it out and test it !?
There stopped my luck, I had no other MSX were I could easily swap VDP's and see if it was working or not.
I searched this forum and also on the internet, to find anything that could point me in the right direction.
I found bits and pieces but nothing like: 'here is a way how to test your VDP'.
I did a broader search on all kind of VDP's (TMS9118 TMS9128 TMS9129 TMS9918A TMS9928A TMS9929A) and finally found a short YouTube video showing a short screen test with a TMS9929 or TMS9918A:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CjWzx8yxoA
The video is not very clear on what was tested, also there were no instructions or schematics. But the VDP was on a breadboard and he used an Arduino Uno to generate some signals, and that..., interested me much !
And fortunately, he was also so kind to give me the new link to the sketch he used for the test:
https://pastiebin.com/5eccfd51d28cc
With this, I started to generate a breadboard schematic with fritzing. By reviewing the video many times I was able to recreate the connections between the VDP and the Arduino.
Also reviewing the sketch gave me clues on the pins used. But my TMS9129NL is similar but not the same, it has no composite out, but video is split over 3 signals (Y, R-Y and B-Y), which are video component signals. I had to include this in my schematics as well and finally I ended up with a working breadboard schematic.
Then I connected the video signals (Y, R-Y and B-Y) to a GBS-8200 VGA converter board with 470 Ohm resistors between signal and ground.
On the GBS-8200 converter board, I use the Y, Pb, Pr inputs.
I also use a separate power supply to power the VDP and Converter Board (both to 5V), because the Arduino will not provide enough current.
Also the sketch needed some change and explications. But I'm not (yet) an arduino sketch programmer, so I try to understand what it does. I believe it uses Graphics I mode and writes to register 7 to display the different Backdrop Colours. Also it writes data to the Pattern Plane? I combined them both and was able to display some colour outputs on my VGA screen !
Here is what I see on my screen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpC5HCH4lHk
A short note about the crystal on the breadboard, I ordered some 10.738635 MHz crystals from mouser to simulate the same conditions as on the motherboard. But testing with a 10.245 MHz crystal gave me the same results. So you don't really need the exact crystal to be able to perform this test.
So to conclude, I believe:
- My VDP seems to work ok
- My VDP generates the same heat when on the breadboard, so it would be normal
Are people using a heat sink on their vdp and why ?
PLEASE contribute if you believe this would be a good tester and can be made better ;-)