Taito F3 Arcade Board Won't Sync With OSSC; Works with Framemeister

[ShootTheCore]

I have a Taito F3 arcade board that I’m hooking up to the OSSC (firmware 0.76) through SCART with a Home Arcade System (HAS) SuperGun V3. My other arcade boards work fine with this setup, but the Taito board refuses to sync. However, the Taito does sync with my Framemeister. I’ve posted a screenshot of the FM input Status screen below, but first here’s a list of different things I’ve tried:

1) Switched Sync Cleaner off and on.
2) Switched the HAS Sync Generation jumper between all three possible settings (buffered, regenerated, unprocessed).

Here’s a link to a screenshot of the Input Status on the FM:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/p0pnb15x5grts2m/Taito.jpg?dl=0

And here’s a link to the HAS’s manual that discusses its Sync settings:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zos7mw6g8gflojd/HAS%20V3%20-%20Instruction%20Manual%200.1.pdf?dl=0

Any suggestions on how I can get this to work on the OSSC?

[BuckoA51]

What’s the OSSC saying on its LCD when you connect the board and what does the info screen say when you press the info button on the remote?

[marqs]

If I recall correctly those Taito boards used very long hsync pulse which was interpreted as vsync unless “Vsync threshold” (in sync menu) was significantly increased.

[ShootTheCore]

OK, if I crank the Vsync Threshold up to its maximum value of 30.76, the board ALMOST syncs-it flickers back and forth between sync and no sync.

When I push Info on the remote, the display flickers between 260p, 15.42kHz, 59.34Hz and 261p, 15.42kHz, 59.11Hz.

Thoughts?

[BuckoA51]

The wiki says “Games running on this PCB use 240p with odd field signal modes. To ensure the game works correctly, select the correct input on the OSSC before starting up the game and do not change it during game play.”

Hardware like this has caused quite a number of headaches it seems. You could try connecting another source to a different input and switching to that then back to the F3. A bit of a kludge workaround but it has worked for me in the past.

[ShootTheCore]

It took me a week to get around to testing this again, but I can confirm that switching inputs back and forth doesn’t seem to make a difference with allowing the OSSC to “lock” onto the Taito F3 board’s signal, with my setup at least.

I’ve also tested various other arcade boards, and my other Taito boards are troublemakers as well – my Rastan and Heavy Unit boards both have similar syncing issues that the F3 does with the OSSC, but they all work perfectly with the Framemeister.

I know that there’s a lot of arcade boards out there and many of them put out unusual signals, so I don’t mind using my Framemeister for the Taito boards. It’s just a pity because on my other non-Taito arcade boards, the OSSC looks noticeably nicer.

I don’t know if it’s possible to allow for a greater Vsync Threshold than 30.76 in a future firmware, but if it is, I suspect that would get the Taito boards to sync because they’re SO CLOSE to working at 30.76. Please let me know if there’s anything else I should try.

[BuckoA51]

Hmm, I know it’s a major hassle but could you try some of the older firmwares too? These reports of changing behaviour with systems that sue the odd field signals really needs nailing down.

[ShootTheCore]

Sure, I can do that. Which specific older firmwares should I try?

[BuckoA51]

That’s a good question…let’s go back all the way to 0.69!

[marqs]

I tested a F3 board with 0.5x firmware back in 2015. I’ll try getting a F3 for testing with the latest fw, but it might take some time.

[ShootTheCore]

I finally got around to testing my Taito F3 board with the old 0.69 firmware. No dice – it refuses to sync no matter how much I fiddle with the settings. I did have success getting Rastan and Heavy Unit to both sync with the 0.76 firmware after replacing the capacitors on both boards. I also recently acquired a Ninja Baseball Batman (Irem M92) board that refuses to sync with the OSSC but works fine with the Framemeister – I’ll try a recap on that one as well soon.

I’ll stick to using the Framemeister with the fussy arcade boards for now and use the OSSC for everything else. The OSSC looks so much better with the 5X 1600×1200 settings that I want to use it for everything! ^_^

[vasilas432]

I am having the same issue with Taito F3. Is there any fix available?
How do I reduce brightness in some pcbs too?

Other than that I can’t recommend it enough! It is super

[ShootTheCore]

Nope, no fix yet that I’m aware of. I’ve been retesting my F3 after every OSSC firmware update hoping that it’ll work, but no success yet. The F3 still syncs perfectly with my Framemeister. The F3 is the only device I keep the FM around for now-everything else I have works fine with the OSSC.

[vasilas432]

I like F3 a lot. It can be a reason for me to get a framemeister and a zero lag 4k gaming monitor just to equal the latency of the mini.
My setup is now 21ms and plays great. No difference for me versus the PVM. Everytime I loose it’s my fault and I play a lot of arcade Ghouls n Ghosts lately!

[marqs]

I have now a F3 set here to test. To my surpise it worked out of the box with default settings when AV1 input was pre-selected (as mentioned here). However, red led stays lit and top of the picture is skewed quite badly, indicating that hsync is not stable / periodic at that point (like with NES/Famicom, but much worse). Increasing H-PLL pre&post coast to 2 reduced the skew, but the digitizer chip still has hard time with the incoming signal. I’ll need to see with a scope what exactly is wrong with the sync F3 generates, and then figure out if there’s anything that can improve compatibility.

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