Had to transcribe this while building my Jammix. Clean verbatim: ums, uhs, stutters, false starts removed.
JAMMIX PC Console Build Guide Video (by Jammix Io)
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNkmas9ZmGE
Purchase: https://www.jammix.io/
[00:00:00]
SOME GUY: This is the ITX case build guide for the JAMMIX. Just got a bunch of components on the desk. I'm gonna cover them all and go through everything on how to build JAMMIX. One of the things that we need to do before we get started here is talk about the micro SD card. If you have not already put MiSTer on your micro SD card, there'll be links in the description for both of the installers. You can either use the Mr. Fusion installer or the Windows SD card writer. I think it's a little bit easier to use the Windows SD card writer. Of course, there are also two files that need to get edited once you have MiSTer installed on your flash card.
[00:00:36]
SOME GUY: And of course, that is the u-boot.txt. And that's found in the Linux directory on the root. There's instructions in the description of this video of how to edit that. And then of course, you're also going to need your -- to edit your MiSTer .ini file. And there are instructions on what to add to that also in the description of this video. There's also a link at the bottom of the description here also for the MiSTer -- or, I'm sorry, for the JAMMIX operator's guide. And that'll have lots of other good tips on how to use the system. We'll go everything, though, in how to set it up for ITX or ATX case.
[00:01:13]
SOME GUY: Anyway, since we have the flash card right now, let's go ahead and put it into the DE10-Nano. Now, it's also important to note that the DE10-Nano does not come with JAMMIX. That's got to be purchases separately. We also recommend that you use an SD RAM. This is a 128 Meg one. At the time of this video, this is the largest one there is. So I would definitely pick up one of those if you're setting up your JAMMIX for the first time too. Also, not included with the JAMMIX I/O is this particular case, and I'll show it off a little bit more. We have a couple of additional cables that aren't with it, and I'll talk about those. Also, a power supply is not included.
[00:01:54]
SOME GUY: You can use the DE10's power supply, the one that comes with it, but I would not recommend it. It's really a lot better, especially when you're running on the JAMMIX I/O, to have at least a 4-amp power supply. And if you can get a higher one, that's even better. Also, if you're using an ATXpower supply or a Pico power supply, of course you'll want to get a good power supply for those too if you're gonna use one of those. Anyway, so let's go ahead and get into the build.
[00:02:29]
SOME GUY: I think to start, probably do just one of the simple things, which is we need to go ahead and put the standoffs onto the JAMMIX board and get that going. And so I'll do that right now. I like to do that from the back side of the board. And I put in the first three ones first, and then put in one of the cables, just 'cause I think it's easier. So let's go ahead and do that. And I'm gonna go ahead and move this off to the side just a little bit, just so we have a little bit more room on the desk and I can kinda show what's going on.
[00:03:03]
SOME GUY: So I have one of the included screws. Your screws might look a little bit different than mine, just depending on the batch. But they're all 3-millimeter -- or not -- I'm sorry, 3M screws. Standard PC screws. So I'm gonna go ahead and just put these in finger-tight. And I'm doing these standoffs right here. And like I said, I like to do the first three. If you look, there is a line around the top of the board here, and that's where the DE10 sits.
[00:03:35]
SOME GUY: So I like to do this one last, and I'll show you guys why in a minute. All right. So now we're down to that last standoff. And the reason I like to do that one last is I put in the USB cable in before I put in that standoff just 'cause it's easier to get do when you don't have that standoff there. And then I'll go ahead and put in that last standoff. You just want to make sure that has a nice, good fit and it's in there nice and snug.
[00:04:18]
SOME GUY: So, once we have that set, I'm gonna go ahead and put in the ethernet cable. And you wait until you hear that click. And then you know that it's in there nice and good. So at this point in time, we can go ahead and work on our first set of jumpers. These two right here. So here are the first two jumpers. This one right here is the SOG jumper. That's sync-on-green. If you're going to be using a sync-on-green monitor, you may want to set this up in advance or play around with it a little bit, as it's difficult to get at once it's in the case, especially if you have a smaller case like the one we're using.
[00:05:00]
SOME GUY: And on the other side is the 5-volt power. You can do 5-volt or 3-volt VGA power. And that's because that allows this D-sub here to actually have one of those pins output 3-volt or 5-volt so you can power external things. So just a nice feature and future-proofing for some of the add-ons here on JAMMIX in the future. So, at this point, probably the next thing you want to do is you want to go ahead and put in the ribbon cable here. And the reason we do this now is this ribbon cable is difficult to get at once you have this in a case, again especially if you have a small case like this one.
[00:05:41]
SOME GUY: And this ribbon, this is the medium-size ribbon cable. This is the large. And then obviously this is the small one. We want to kinda fold that cable just so we get a nice bend in it. And we want to see that there's a key on this cable right here. Let me see if I can get the light to shine in it here. You can kinda see how there's that key right there. We want to make sure that that key fits on our fan board. And you can see right -- let me see if I can bring it up to the camera here -- how there's that key right there. So we want to make sure that this key is facing the right way for it when we put it in.
[00:06:18]
SOME GUY: The fan board will go with the barrel jack here towards the back. And so we just want to make sure we have that key going up to the top there. And I'll go ahead and put it on these pin headers right now while we can get to it nice and easily. All right, so that one's done there. The next step that we're gonna want to do is we're going to want to take off the D-subs' USB -- I'm sorry, the D-sub screws here. And you can use a little tool if you have a set of pliers. I'm gonna see what I have.
[00:06:54]
SOME GUY: They should be, like, finger-tight. You may need to have, like, a little pair of needle noses or a little socket for it if you have one. Just depends how they come from the factory. And at this point, we're gonna put on the I/O shield. Now, don't be alarmed if the shrouding around the D-sub comes off. That's okay. So like that, it comes off. And the reason that we're doing this is this is how the I/O shield is made to stay on the board. And so we're gonna go ahead and put in the I/O shield like this.
[00:07:32]
SOME GUY: And we'll just put it on now, and then we'll make sure that the other parts slide into it as we build JAMMIX. So. And that's what's gonna kinda hold that in there and hold it in place. I really like the black I/O shield on these. And let's see if we can get that in there nice and straight. Or loosen this one up just a little bit. Just to give it some wiggle room.
[00:08:09]
SOME GUY: And you just need to make these finger-tight. And like I said, if you need to use a socket or a pair of needle noses, you can use those on them too. So at this point, we're ready to start getting our case prepped. And so I'm gonna go ahead and talk about this case right here. This is a relatively -- I'll see if I can put it up this way. It looks big right now on camera, but it's really not that big. To be honest with you, this is a little bit bigger than a Dreamcast. It's definitely a little bit taller. Let me see if I have a Dreamcast around just to show it off.
[00:08:46]
SOME GUY: So, size-wise, you can see that it's just a little bit, like, it's on top of the Dreamcast 2. So right there, it's about the same size, and a little bit taller just so that you guys can see. Let me see if I can show that. So this is a interesting story about this Dreamcast. I'll just show it for a second here. This is the Dreamcast 2, and it is by Keith Apothecary [sic]. He upgraded my Dreamcast here. So, just interesting story there.
[00:09:22]
SOME GUY: And so back to the JAMMIX here. So, this case, relatively inexpensive case. I think this case runs around 45 bucks shipped. Depends on what supplier you get it from. Also if you buy it overseas or if you buy it in the United States. And I'll cover some of the details about why I like this case. So, the other thing to note about this case is that this case uses both USB 3 and USB 2. I have them plugged into this board here, you might see.
[00:09:57]
SOME GUY: And you might be wondering why we have that board there. And that board is an internal USB splitter. I wanted to have all four ports on the front of this work. And JAMMIX has six USB ports. So it has, just so you guys know, it has four in the back. And then it has two off of the headers right here. Because this is a four-port case, though, and two of them are USB 3, we needed to have an internal splitter so that we could get more ports. And so depending on the build of your case.
[00:10:37]
SOME GUY: Also, you might notice that we have audio here. And JAMMIX by itself does not support the audio. There is a planned add-on board to support HD audio for right here. And that should be available pretty soon. These USB splitters that you're noticing here, those are super-cheap. They're about eight to $10 on Amazon if you're in the U.S. And they work super-great. They're super-easy to set up. And I'm gonna set one up with this board.
[00:11:11]
SOME GUY: The last piece that you might notice is that this is a USB 3 cable. And a lot of cases are now coming in USB 3. If you plan to use them with JAMMIX, you'll need an adapter again. These are like four or five bucks if you buy them off of a overseas website. On Amazon, you might pay like six to eight bucks for them. It's a relatively cheap cable for USB 3. And you might wonder why JAMMIX doesn't have USB 3. And that's because the MiSTer OS doesn't even support USB 3, unless that's changed in a recent update, which I don't think it has, so.
[00:11:43]
SOME GUY: So anyway, that's a rundown of this case. Not a very big case. It's a really nice console case, so. And it looks really good on the shelf. So let's go ahead and just start getting our cables situated here. So this is the cable for my USB splitter. And this is the cable for my USB 3 for the front of the con -- or the front of the case. These are my ATX power switches and LEDs. This is an audio header, which at some future time, there will be an add-on board for it that will support it for JAMMIX, but not right now.
[00:12:30]
SOME GUY: Another reason why I really like this case, you can see right here, it has a top-side PCI slot. And this is a full-size PCI slot. So the future add-on boards for JAMMIX will be able to take advantage of that. I will probably end up putting a DB15 board in this case as soon as they're available. And then I'll be able to use my DB15 joysticks with that, so. All right, so we have the JAMMIX board at this point, and probably gonna tuck some of these cables underneath right now and come up and around.
[00:13:09]
SOME GUY: This will let me keep these nice and flat and keep them hidden. Gonna decide how I'm gonna lay them out real quick. Let's see. Yeah, I'll probably do them like that. And then this one, I need to bring up over here for that USB 2 connection, so. I'll go ahead and lay them out. Every little case is gonna be different, and I realize that on the camera right now this probably looks a little strange, but it should work out just fine once I get the board in here.
[00:13:44]
SOME GUY: You want to be careful that these sharp edges, aren't going on -- the solder points aren't going on any of the cables when you put it in there. So you kinda just got to finesse it in. And eventually we'll get everything hooked up too, so. So, it's looking pretty good. Let's see, that is -- I don't need that one.
[00:14:22]
SOME GUY: I do have these power cables coming up right there. So that's looking pretty good. And so once I'm happy with the positioning of my cables and my layout, I'm gonna go ahead and screw down the JAMMIX board. So if you have a magnetic screwdriver, which I don't right now, that's a really helpful tool here.
[00:15:00]
SOME GUY: A screwdriver is all you need other than maybe the needle nose for doing the screws on the DB15 -- I'm sorry, on the Dsub connector. And you can probably do it with just your hands and a screwdriver. So I'm gonna go ahead and screw these all into the JAMMIX board and get those going.
[00:15:37]
SOME GUY: So, if you do have a case like this, there is probably enough room to squeeze a JAMMA plug in there if we needed to, or if you have a larger case, probably a little bit easier. Could probably squeak it through maybe the PCI slot. Or, this case actually has some punchouts in it, so I can probably punch out a hole and squeeze that through if I wanted to.
[00:16:14]
SOME GUY: And there we go. I think we're pretty good at this point. I'm pretty pleased with how that's working. All right. So the next step in all of this is going to be putting on the DE10 here. So we want to make sure that the DE10 has the barrel jack facing the back I/O shield. And we'll go ahead and just slide it in right there. And we want to make it slide into that I/O shield real well too.
[00:16:52]
SOME GUY: And you can use some of the screws that are included with JAMMIX -- or, I'm sorry, at this point you're gonna want to use the standoffs. The male to female. It's important to use the standoffs in the right order. So you want to make sure you're using the 20-millimeter ones on the bottom, or the 14-millimeter ones on top. That way it will line up with the I/O shield correctly. And again, you could use like a little socket tool if you have one, or you can just use your fingers.
[00:17:23]
SOME GUY: These just need to be finger-tight. And once you have JAMMIX, you know, installed with these standoffs, it should be fairly solid. It won't wiggle or shift or anything. I mean, it's pretty much a perfect fit. I dropped a screw -- a standoff in there. Let me go get that.
[00:17:53]
SOME GUY: And these corners are always difficult 'cause there's just not a lot of room in them. Especially, and anybody that's used to building PCs knows all about that too well. Especially on these ITX builds. You get just not a lot of clearance. I might even -- oh, I dropped it again. And this, again, if you had a socket would probably be good. Maybe I'll do the other side first here.
[00:18:41]
SOME GUY: Just got to get one thread to get started. Once you get one started, they're pretty easy. Okay, there it goes. All right. So that's in there really good. And we can see the DE10 doesn't move once you have those in there. Finally, we're gonna take the fan board. Again, you want to make sure that barrel jack on the fan board is facing the I/O shield. And kinda just want to slide it into the I/O shield there.
[00:19:21]
SOME GUY: And you also want to make sure that these pins line up on the DE10. So you want to do good visual inspection and as best you can. And you kinda feel them go in. You kinda feel like when things are lined up, and then you can kinda push down with them. And the screw headers should line up really good. So, like, the standoff right there should line up, and they should be perfect. And then take a good visual inspection on both sides to make sure that you got the pin headers in there.
[00:19:57]
SOME GUY: And then the next step actually is to, we're gonna start with this small ribbon cable. We're gonna, again, make a nice little crease in it so that it can bend nice and flexible. And I think I'll start with doing it down on the JAMMIX motherboard. Give it a nice, firm press. And let's go ahead and give him a firm press onto the DE10. Take a good visual inspection. Make sure you didn't miss any pins with it.
[00:20:32]
SOME GUY: Again, so we can go ahead and take the ribbon cable. And this is the large one now. I'm gonna go ahead and just give it a nice flex and L like that so that it's kinda bent. And I'll go ahead and get this to slide right on in.
[00:21:11]
SOME GUY: Now, it's real important at this time that, you know, right off the beginning of the video, we put in our SD card. If you haven't, and that's a pre-formatted SD card that's ready to go, if you haven't already, you know, built your SD card, you definitely should do that before this step and make sure that it's in the DE10. Another thing to note is JAMMIX comes prepared from the factory -- JAMMIX has two amps, and it comes ready with the PWM amp, the RES amp -- I'm sorry. I'm sorry, call it "amp" -- the RES DAC. The PWM DAC. That's the standard DAC that's found on the I/O boards.
[00:21:51]
SOME GUY: If you would like your JAMMIX to use that, it's fine. That's how it comes right from the factory. You'll just want to make sure that both of these little dip switches are set to RES. If you'd like to use the alternative DAC, which is the IS2 [sic] DAC, you can go ahead and move these two dip switches to IS2. And then you also need to move -- there's a switch setting on the DE10. And that's detailed in the operations guide. I'll leave a link to the operations guide in the description for this video if you want to use the IS2 audio DAC. I think both DACs sound great.
[00:22:27]
SOME GUY: I think on the arcade, it makes more sense to use the IS2 one. But I think that the PWM RES DAC for a console build or a case build, like PC build like that just sounds more richer. The reason you'd want it for an arcade build for the IS2 DAC is there's less popping and clicking between cores, and it just -- it's a smoother transition for those things when you're changing cores. We can go ahead and, let's go ahead and put in this last cable on the fan board here and go ahead and screw it down.
[00:23:02]
SOME GUY: And like I said, if you want to use the PWM DAC, which is how JAMMIX comes from the factory, it's already jumpered and ready to go so you don't have to even make any changes to your DE10. And the PWM DAC sounds great. While we're talking some more internals to JAMMIX, JAMMIX I believe A/C couples all three of the RGB lines, and they look really good. It's really good. Really clean-looking. I know with the regular I/O board, only the green line has a cap on it, so.
[00:23:46]
SOME GUY: Think the video, the analog video looks really good on JAMMIX. And you want to make sure all these screws are in nice and straight. You might want to take this one back off to do this last screw. I guess I'm gonna do that. It'll just help me get at it a little bit. And I'll show it so you can see it right here.
[00:24:22]
SOME GUY: So. Here we are. So the one last thing we want to talk about is setting your jumpers for mono or stereo for audio output for the analog audio. You might also wonder why we have two jumpers for each of the DACs and two jumpers for each of the mono. And that's just because left and right channels for the audio. And I'm gonna move my jumpers into stereo. So these are the two jumpers. I'll try to pull them up right here. These are the two jumpers for stereo. There's a section labeled mono on them. If you want it to be stereo, move the jumpers into the other direction.
[00:25:09]
SOME GUY: And I want mine to be stereo because this is going to be a consolized case. So at this time, we can also go ahead and tuck in the ethernet bridge cable. And what I like to do is fold that in half like this. So, see if you can see that. I fold it in half. Do kinda like a loop. And tuck that under the DE10. And then plug it in till I hear a click.
[00:25:44]
SOME GUY: And then same with the USB. Just gonna go ahead and plug it in. Be very gentle with that USB connection. The DE10s are notorious for that kinda breaking off. Also, I'm gonna take my case's USB connector and I'm gonna go ahead and plug that in at this time. And that's plugged in real good.
[00:26:28]
SOME GUY: And then I'm going to take the USB 3 adaptor and I'm gonna go ahead and plug it in, it's keyed, and plug it in there. And I'm going to duck this cable up and kinda put it into right here. And we'll put that cable, we'll tuck it over here. Guess the next step for me is to grab the power switch cables. Maybe I'll untuck that. I'm gonna pull it through here.
[00:27:05]
SOME GUY: And of course, anybody who knows who's built PCs before, you know, you always kinda struggle with all these small connectors. So we're gonna go ahead and plug in the power switch. And the power switch is all the way at the end here. My hand's probably covering it up. And then there is the LED lights. Note that the power LEDs, they are specific on which is positive and which is negative. So you might end up flipping those around.
[00:27:50]
SOME GUY: And maybe I'm gonna do the disk use lights first. And so just depending on your case, what your case has, you may have more lights or more switches or more buttons. And JAMMIX actually breaks out the header for all of those lights and buttons. So you can choose which ones you want to add. And then finally, I think that's it. So we have USB, we have the -- oh, we need to do power, of course.
[00:28:21]
SOME GUY: So I'm gonna go, I think, with a Pico power supply for this case. There's not really room for a true ATX case. But you can use an ATX case. Like if you had a legit ATX power supply. Obviously, this one won't fit in this case. JAMMIX uses a 24-pin ATX. For this particular case, I would recommend a Pico like this. Now you can always power JAMMIX off of the fan board power.
[00:28:55]
SOME GUY: And I would recommend, actually, if you're gonna use a PC-style case, that you use a Pico power supply, and then use a really good 12-volt power supply. Try to avoid the wall warts. You really want a good brick. You know, something that's like between 4 and 8 amps, 12-volt. And if you do use a Pico power supply, be very, very careful not to plug the 12-volt into your 5-volt MiSTer fan board or 5-volt DE10.
[00:29:27]
SOME GUY: In the past, I've just put stickers over these, or a small piece of tape just so that I don't accidentally plug in a 12-volt power supply. And I usually label the tip of my 12-volt power supply with like a red line. So I'm gonna go ahead and put in this Pico power supply. These Picos are really, really nice. They're not that expensive too. I think, you know, maybe like 25 bucks on Amazon and you can get a great Pico. Let's see. We're gonna run it through right here. And let me see if I have a washer for that, or if that slid off my desk here. Ah, here it is.
[00:30:16]
SOME GUY: So we'll go ahead and put it right there. It's just out of the way of the PCI slot, so that's good. And I'm just gonna put it on there finger-tight, really, and kinda just tuck it. Tuck it right here. Actually, I might -- eh, I think that's fine. So, at this point now, we have our Pico power supply in our case. And this is a really, really good-looking JAMMIX, so. Just really, really pleased with the build.
[00:30:58]
SOME GUY: So let's go ahead and case up this case. So one of the really cool things about JAMMIX is it allows -- actually, we got two more screws for this case. And every case is gonna be a little bit different. These are extra JAMMIX screws that we supply with JAMMIX. Every case is gonna be a little bit different. And I'll talk about why, again, why I really like this case.
[00:31:33]
SOME GUY: One of the things you might already notice -- I'll try and see if I can show it. You see there's lots of clearance space between the top of the I/O and the -- let me see if I can get it down here. Can see that there's lots of space between the top of the I/O and the fan here, so it gives JAMMIX and the DE10 a lot of room to breathe. That's really nice. You're gonna want a case that's a little over -- at a minimum, gonna have to have at least 65 inches -- or, I'm sorry, 65 millimeters. That's about how tall JAMMIX is in the stack. You really want to have more room than that.
[00:32:12]
SOME GUY: The RGEEK L85 cases are really nice. That's the little black and silver cases. Those are even smaller than this case. And I really like those too. I'll probably leave a link in the description to both this case and to the RGEEK L85. Those are really nice. The problem with the L85 RGEEK case is it does not have a PCI slot. So you're never gonna be able to expand your JAMMIX when the PCI cards for add-ons come out. But if you just want a normal MiSTer that looks great on your desk or on your TV console or -- they're definitely really good cases.
[00:32:58]
SOME GUY: So I'm gonna go ahead and screw on this top plate. This is the same case that is on the MiSTer website -- I'm sorry, on the JAMMIX website. jammix.io is the address for that if you want to see more pictures of it. And this case does come in black, and it does come in silver. The black ones are a little bit harder to find. I don't know why. They just are.
[00:33:37]
SOME GUY: And at that point, the case is all sewed up. Want to do one more thing before we get started with it is all of the JAMMIXs come with a MiSTer sticker, and would really like to put that on the front of the case here. And the stickers are really nice. They're that case badge-quality sticker, kind of like what you see for the CPU stickers. Made out of like the same material. And the ones here, I think they have like a brushed aluminum look, and it actually looks really good.
[00:34:12]
SOME GUY: So, here is that sticker. Probably gonna put mine on, like, about, like, that. I might turn it around towards me. I know it'll be upside-down for you all, just so I can get this sticker on. Figure out where I want it. And maybe do I want it over here. Yeah, I think I am gonna go with putting it above the -- actually, now I'm gonna put it above the power. I liked it over on the power side. I'm gonna carefully peel off the backing on it. You just need kinda like a fingernail to get underneath it and kinda get it started.
[00:34:56]
SOME GUY: So here it is. I got the backing peeled off. Gonna make sure that it's nice and clean where it's going. If you have like an alcohol wipe, that'd probably be a good idea to wipe that down too. And probably put it there just like that. And I'll put it around for you all so you can see it. But that looks really good. See if I could shift it just a little bit. Yeah, that looks really good. So that is a hot-looking case now. Of course, then you have the back I/O.
[00:35:30]
SOME GUY: Like, you want to talk about MiSTer, that is the most beautiful case I think I've ever seen for MiSTer. Like, just having everything there. Of course, you have your SNAC port. You know, you have your HDMI. You have your D-sub out for RGB and component and VGA. Four USB ports. You know, your line in, your line out. One thing that I did notice on these cases and on these is the lights on the ethernet do not light up. And I was told the reason why this is, is they did not want to waste pins on the FPGA.
[00:36:10]
SOME GUY: So, just know that those link lights don't light up. And I was told that because of the part shortage, it was really difficult to find a stack like this that did not include lights. And for those that don't know right now, there's a huge part shortage coming out of China for electrical components. So the team made the decision to go ahead and purchase the one that had lights and just not hook them up. But other than that, man, this is a beautiful-looking board.
[00:36:40]
SOME GUY: I guess while I'm here, I might as well also show you the brick power supply. So because we're using a Pico -- let me see if I have it here, hmm. Hmm, maybe I don't have the power supply around. Because we're using that Pico, we want to make sure that we're always using this power port here as opposed to those, so. That's just a big thing and one thing I thought I should warn people about upfront, so.
[00:37:13]
SOME GUY: Anyway, this is a great-looking MiSTer now. Maybe I'll compare it again to a Dreamcast. Let me see if I have another one here. This is a different one. Isn't the Keith Apothecary one. But you can kinda see, it's relatively the same size. It's a little bit bigger. Not much. Those RGEEK L85 cases, they're pretty much Dreamcast size. And that was the one, if you guys watched Alnonymous's livestream that he previewed JAMMIX in.
[00:37:46]
SOME GUY: So, anyway, good-looking case. And good-looking MiSTer. And just, those of you that are going to do PC case builds, man, this is the way to run it. I'm looking forward to getting the add-on boards for the HD audio as well as the DB15s for the PCI slot for arcade sticks. Anyway, we hope you enjoyed the video. Just as a gentle reminder, there is also a operator's guide that is out. I'll link to it into the video here. And it will be in the description.
[end of file: JAMMIX PC Console Build Guide Video]
