Hacking EZ Flash Omega Definitive - Works in a standard GBA but isn't recognized in a GBA consolizer

[phantomapollyon]

Hello all!

I have used the EZ Flash Omega flashcart on my GBA Consolizer with no issues in the past, but the new EZ Flash Omega Definitive Edition isn't recognized at all. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[EZ-Flash2]

No. I don't have a GBA Consolizer to replay the issue

 

[phantomapollyon]

No. I don't have a GBA Consolizer to replay the issue

Is there anything I can do to help, collect logs, etc?

 

[phantomapollyon]

Retested with the new kernel/firmware with no change

 

[phantomapollyon]

It sounds like since the consolizer only provides power and clock, the issue is likely to do with either of those. My guess would be the power draw but don't have any way to confirm/configure.

 

[DrunkenMonk]

It sounds like since the consolizer only provides power and clock, the issue is likely to do with either of those. My guess would be the power draw but don't have any way to confirm/configure.

What power supply are you using to power it? try use one with higher output amperage (same voltage though) and see if that works, if not then the alt clk is the issue since I surmise they're powering the gba itself with a 5v>3.3v reg on their add-on board.

 

[Rune]

It sounds like since the consolizer only provides power and clock, the issue is likely to do with either of those. My guess would be the power draw but don't have any way to confirm/configure.

I wouldnt know if this is the cause, but my understanding is that the GBA normally runs at 59.7hz, which isnt a normal HDMI standard. So in order to improve compatibility and remove stuttering in the framerate, the Consolizer kit overclocks it slightly to 60hz and therefore runs all games at a slightly faster rate.

Maybe that's whats causing the issue.

 

[phantomapollyon]

I wouldnt know if this is the cause, but my understanding is that the GBA normally runs at 59.7hz, which isnt a normal HDMI standard. So in order to improve compatibility and remove stuttering in the framerate, the Consolizer kit overclocks it slightly to 60hz and therefore runs all games at a slightly faster rate.

Maybe that's whats causing the issue.

Interesting thought, there is a way to change that and I didn't see any difference. Thank you for the thought though, would love to get this addressed

 

[DrunkenMonk]

I wouldnt know if this is the cause, but my understanding is that the GBA normally runs at 59.7hz, which isnt a normal HDMI standard. So in order to improve compatibility and remove stuttering in the framerate, the Consolizer kit overclocks it slightly to 60hz and therefore runs all games at a slightly faster rate.

Maybe that's whats causing the issue.

That sounds incredibly lazy, but probably undoubtably accurate from how poorly designed the kit seems to be anyway

@phantomapollyon out of curiosity, why spring for a "consolizer" kit over a gameboy player? You pay 5x the price of a gameboy player for less functionality

 

[Rune]

That sounds incredibly lazy, but probably undoubtably accurate from how poorly designed the kit seems to be anyway

@phantomapollyon out of curiosity, why spring for a "consolizer" kit over a gameboy player? You pay 5x the price of a gameboy player for less functionality

Not sure why you think thats lazy. Without overclocking it to 60hz, the GBA Consolizer wouldnt even work with many TVs, capture cards, etc.
The GBA just doesnt run at a standard TV friendly clock speed. The reason why the Gameboy Player achieves this is because it creates a stutter every 10 frames or something, in order to sync up the GBA with your TV.
Which if you dont mind, the GBA Consolizer can also do with a switch in the settings.

 

[DrunkenMonk]

Not sure why you think thats lazy. Without overclocking it to 60hz, the GBA Consolizer wouldnt even work with many TVs, capture cards, etc.
The GBA just doesnt run at a standard TV friendly clock speed. The reason why the Gameboy Player achieves this is because it creates a stutter every 10 frames or something, in order to sync up the GBA with your TV.
Which if you dont mind, the GBA Consolizer can also do with a switch in the settings.

Most modern TVs would accept a signal that's 59.7hz. The gameboy player does indeed have problems, but there's also the homebrew version of the software that makes it run at the original 59.7hz and some old CRTs as well as more modern displays (not so much ones in between) will accept the signal just fine. I even run through a capture card from the gameboy player+gamecube (with hdmi out) and it works as intended in my capture card (PEXHDCAP, as well as that chinese "4k" one on aliexpress for £5).

Though it is interesting that you mention the consolizer being capable of replicating the 59.7hz, could be a useful test to perform to see if that is indeed the problem.

The design of the consolizer is possibly not lazy, but at least amateurish (though I guess that makes sense), and way too expensive for some low quality plastic parts in my mind, I asked because I'm genuinely curious as to why somebody would turn a gba into a console for such a high cost when there's cheaper ways to achieve the same thing, even gbaHD is an option that's comparable and 1/3 the price. I don't know enough about the consolizer kit to know if there are any other benefits

 

[Rune]

Most modern TVs would accept a signal that's 59.7hz. The gameboy player does indeed have problems, but there's also the homebrew version of the software that makes it run at the original 59.7hz and some old CRTs as well as more modern displays (not so much ones in between) will accept the signal just fine. I even run through a capture card from the gameboy player+gamecube (with hdmi out) and it works as intended in my capture card (PEXHDCAP, as well as that chinese "4k" one on aliexpress for £5).

Though it is interesting that you mention the consolizer being capable of replicating the 59.7hz, could be a useful test to perform to see if that is indeed the problem.

The design of the consolizer is possibly not lazy, but at least amateurish (though I guess that makes sense), and way too expensive for some low quality plastic parts in my mind, I asked because I'm genuinely curious as to why somebody would turn a gba into a console for such a high cost when there's cheaper ways to achieve the same thing, even gbaHD is an option that's comparable and 1/3 the price. I don't know enough about the consolizer kit to know if there are any other benefits

I'm not an expert on this, but my understanding was that some TVs may accept the 59.7hz video being output from the Gameboy Player (using that Gameboy Interface homebrew), but that TV wont necessarily be displaying it correctly as 59.7hz. Instead the TV would be using its image processor to output 60hz onto the display, using whatever technique its capable of such as frame blending or whatever.

But yeah, I'm going way off topic here.

 

[phantomapollyon]

@phantomapollyon out of curiosity, why spring for a "consolizer" kit over a gameboy player? You pay 5x the price of a gameboy player for less functionality

The cost was irrelevant to me. It was just a neat thing I wanted to do, and it works great as a stand alone unit for literally everything I use it for except this new flash cart. I have no interest in getting the entire gameboy player setup required and having that thing kicking around on a regular basis. To each their own, but this works fine for what I use it for and I've experienced no issues at all beyond this situation.

Though it is interesting that you mention the consolizer being capable of replicating the 59.7hz, could be a useful test to perform to see if that is indeed the problem.

I did try switching it back/forth and noticed no change in behavior.

I'm not an expert on this, but my understanding was that some TVs may accept the 59.7hz video being output from the Gameboy Player (using that Gameboy Interface homebrew), but that TV wont necessarily be displaying it correctly as 59.7hz. Instead the TV would be using its image processor to output 60hz onto the display, using whatever technique its capable of such as frame blending or whatever.

Is there any documentation suggesting something significant has changed from the previous EZFlash Omega and the new definitive edition in this regard? (the previous cart does not do this)I didn't see anything but perhaps I'm being a bit dense.

 

[Rune]

The cost was irrelevant to me. It was just a neat thing I wanted to do, and it works great as a stand alone unit for literally everything I use it for except this new flash cart. I have no interest in getting the entire gameboy player setup required and having that thing kicking around on a regular basis. To each their own, but this works fine for what I use it for and I've experienced no issues at all beyond this situation.



I did try switching it back/forth and noticed no change in behavior.



Is there any documentation suggesting something significant has changed from the previous EZFlash Omega and the new definitive edition in this regard? (the previous cart does not do this)I didn't see anything but perhaps I'm being a bit dense.

I mean, if you've already tried switching it back and forth, then thats probably not the issue. It must be due to the power instead, cuz we've seen in the past how certain GBA battery mods sometimes dont have enough juice to even power certain flash carts on a normal GBA.
I dont know much about the details behind this. That kind of thing is way above my head. But when you consider how the Consolizer kit itself is drawing additional power on top of the GBA board itself, I would have assumed that the EZF Omega DE would require even more juice on top.
But then having said that, the Definitive Edition card is supposed to be more power efficient than the first Omega card, which works for you. So I'm out of ideas.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

What power supply are you using to power it? try use one with higher output amperage (same voltage though) and see if that works, if not then the alt clk is the issue since I surmise they're powering the gba itself with a 5v>3.3v reg on their add-on board.

I would suggest trying one with a slightly higher voltage (5.1V-5.2V) and a thicker cable. Or trying an official Raspberry Pi power supply, as the Raspberry Pi struggles with inconsistent power especially with longer cables, what works for that should also work for this.

 

[phantomapollyon]

I would suggest trying one with a slightly higher voltage (5.1V-5.2V) and a thicker cable. Or trying an official Raspberry Pi power supply, as the Raspberry Pi struggles with inconsistent power especially with longer cables, what works for that should also work for this.

I'm using a Pi power supply, but it's definitely a 5.0V. I will definitely try bumping it up to a 5.1 or so and seeing if that helps.

EDIT: I ordered and Argon 5.25V 3A supply. I will see and report back if there's any change with that.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I'm using a Pi power supply, but it's definitely a 5.0V. I will definitely try bumping it up to a 5.1 or so and seeing if that helps.

EDIT: I ordered and Argon 5.25V 3A supply. I will see and report back if there's any change with that.

Huh, the Pi power supply I've got is 5.1V. Is yours an earlier one?

 

[phantomapollyon]

Huh, the Pi power supply I've got is 5.1V. Is yours an earlier one?

Yea it was and older Pi supply. I just got the argon supply today and as expected there's no change in behavior.

 

[fernan1234]

I have the same problem with my GBA Consolizer + EZ Flash Omega DE, both in stand alone mode and regular mode so it is not just the menu. The fact that this cart doesn't work in stand alone menu reflects poorly on that feature's ability to behave as if it were the real game cart, as intended.

In spite of some criticisms some people may have for it, the GBAC is my favorite way to play GB, GBC, and GBA games, and it's a real shame that the DE doesn't work with it, in contrast to the old Omega or the Everdrive both which work without problems on the GBAC. Could a firmware update address this, perhaps by providing more efficient power options? Or behaving in a more accurate way, at least in stand alone mode.

 

[EZ-Flash2]

I have the same problem with my GBA Consolizer + EZ Flash Omega DE, both in stand alone mode and regular mode so it is not just the menu. The fact that this cart doesn't work in stand alone menu reflects poorly on that feature's ability to behave as if it were the real game cart, as intended.

In spite of some criticisms some people may have for it, the GBAC is my favorite way to play GB, GBC, and GBA games, and it's a real shame that the DE doesn't work with it, in contrast to the old Omega or the Everdrive both which work without problems on the GBAC. Could a firmware update address this, perhaps by providing more efficient power options? Or behaving in a more accurate way, at least in stand alone mode.

To be honest, I don't even know why OMEGA works and DE doesn't.
Unless we have one of this GBA Consolizer. I bet the issue will be fixed in one hour after we touch it. So........

We hope we can find an owner of GBA Consolizer in China and he(she)is willing to lend it to us, just like the last time we solved EZ-FLASH Junior's Super Gameboy issue.