Original (Kickstarter) Picade + RPi Pico

Picade
1

I have an original Picade (Kickstarter full size version) that I haven’t used for a long time.

I’ve just got RP2040 Doom running on it, using the Pimoroni VGA demo board for Pico. Hooray!

But I have two issues:

  1. The left on the joystick doesn’t work reliably. I’ll check the wiring, but do you have any tips on troubleshooting if it’s not a simple wiring issue?
  2. Sound - I have (slightly hissy) sound if I run off a Raspberry Pi, but no sound at all when connected to the VGA demo board. If I plug headphones into the headphone jack on the Picade board, then I do hear sound in them. Any ideas what to try?
2

OK, joystick left sorted by cleaning the spade connectors on the microswitch - hooray!

Still puzzled by the sound though. Symptoms are:

  • No sound if Picade board is powered from the Pico
  • If I plug the Picade into a Raspberry Pi powered by a different power supply to the Pico, then I get a loud buzzing, but can hear the sound on top of that buzzing
  • With the Picade board plugged into the Pico, and the music in Pico Doom turned up to maximum, I occasionally get a splutter from the speakers.
  • Headphones plugged into the picade board work just fine.

Any ideas?

3

For reference for anyone else - I fixed this by just buying a cheap amp and wiring the speakers to that.

Sound in RP2040 doom is now crystal clear!