So is the usb that's plugged into the laptop supplying power to the flash Cart or is it also sending data ? Been following your progress on facebook . Great work
Nice work. Looking at the hardware I am guessing this is working primarily as a virtual cartridge rather than flashing equivalent hardware. Are you familiar with the Partner 64? It used a modified N64 to have direct access to the hardware for debugging.
I looked up the first google result for Partner64 which was for the Commodore64. The DiasyDrive64 is not a virtual cartridge as you still have a physical cartridge you need to insert in the N64. But it allows you to select the rom you are interested instead of being 1 rom only.
@@scorp0rx0r32 I’m new to this and looks interesting is there a cartridge that will come with the PCB if I end up buying one I was thinking of doing that looks amazing.
@@astumpyzombie8120 It’s not ready to go into a plastic shell yet. Main issue being the standalone boot, which is still being worked on. However the PCB will fit into the standard N64 cartridge shell that you can find on eBay and Amazon/aliExpress. To make this more complicated: the debug header needs to be modified to close completely or the DaisySeed soldered without a spacer.
@@scorp0rx0r32 can you notify or do a video when this releases I actually wanna get one myself and try that out..... that'll be fun so it's just another flash cart? what would you actually do with it?
@@astumpyzombie8120 I would not call it a flash cart, as that would imply serving 1 rom. The DaisyDrive64 has a menu rom and can load different roms from sd card. Also the rom data is buffered (through a 64MB ram) and there is an entire microcontroller that can do work before feeding the signals back to the n64. In this sense it is a lot more flexible. If you are interested in building one you should read the GitHub (linked in the description) and join the discord (linked in the GitHub) I have some spare boards testboards.
Well it’s an entirely different mcu, different pinout and requires different wiring. You could make something to adapt it to a pico cart but that’s an all bets are off scenario.
There is no PicoCart that comes with a microSD. Also the DaisyDrive64 project is completely different from the PicoCart64. You can read everything on the GitHub.
Dunno what to tell you. Better too much than too little and having random issue later. Ofc if you end up swimming in it and can’t clean it properly, it was obviously too much.
This particular board was printed at 1.0mm. While official boards are 1.2mm. The tinning of the edges is to increase longevity of the contacts. However this is not strictly necessary, and if you are worried about the n64 connector you can omit doing the tinning. It also should be a very thin layer: don’t add globs of solder on, and don’t forget to sand it smoothe.
@@TrinciacrophobiaThe cart you see in the video is using HASL for its contacts. HASL wears relatively quickly even after 10 to 20 insertions you start seeing streaks on the contacts , when that wears down to the copper it may stop working. So the tinning here is to make the cart last longer. The new batch I made has ENIG connectors and so I don’t tin those, however they still wear over time. Hard Gold is another option but about 10x more expensive than ENIG. In terms of of the N64 cartridge connector: I’m not extremely worried. Each pin has a lot more mass than cartridge edge and the pins just clamp the cartridge edge connector. They are meant to account for inaccuracies of the cartridge PCB. It also depends a lot on how well the tinning process is done, if it’s tinned to barely fit the slot you’ve overdone it and need to level it out. The insert and eject should still be smooth if not, I’d level the tinned edges again. All in all use your best judgement, if it works without tinning use it without adding extra tin 😉
