SNESpi

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beardedviking
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SNESpi

Post by beardedviking » Mon Jul 31, 2017 5:14 am

This fall/winter I want to build a Raspberry Pi into a SNES case. One of the things I want to do with this build is to use an original game cartridge that has a sd card reader/adapter built in so that I can use it like a real game cartridge. Basically as its done with the Gameboy Zero.

I tried a test build for this where I wired the sd card adapter to the cartridge's board and the cartridge connector to the Pi as seen in the gameboy zero build. I tested and confirmed all connections with the cartridge plugged in but still the Pi wasn't able to boot from the sd card.

Does anyone have an idea what could have went wrong?

I think the optimal solution would be a custom made board for the cartridge like the ones that can be found in the sudomod shop for the Gameboy builds, but I don't know how to do that.

Any other ideas? Every helpful comment is appreciated.

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tinkerBOY
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Re: SNESpi

Post by tinkerBOY » Tue Aug 01, 2017 8:52 am

I've seen several members here having similar issues with external sdcard with their pi. Even with the cartridge pcb are prone to this problem. I think it has something to do with the longer wire. What i suggest is a usb flash drive instead.
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tinkerBOY
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Re: SNESpi

Post by tinkerBOY » Tue Aug 01, 2017 8:59 am

I thought about doing a usb flash drive in a GB cartridge. Which you can also do in an SNES cart. You just have to disassemble the flash drive and solder it inside a cartridge. And you can also solder a mini or micro usb port on the side of the cartridge for connecting to a computer. 😁

You don't actually needto disassemble the flash drive you can use a female usb port.
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tinkerBOY Controller v1.1 - simple pcb button
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Lpoolm
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Re: SNESpi

Post by Lpoolm » Thu Aug 03, 2017 7:59 am

Take a look at this, might be what your looking at doing?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=j10gmmkzfCk
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abrugsch
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Re: SNESpi

Post by abrugsch » Thu Aug 03, 2017 8:34 am

seen a few usb sticks inside a snes cart mods now. one guy had OSMC on one "cartridge", Retropie on another... etc. basically has the uSD card doing the initial boot, with a handover to main filesystem of the secondary USB drive. I believe now there's a firmware instruction you can set so it boots directly from the USB drive...

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tinkerBOY
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Re: SNESpi

Post by tinkerBOY » Thu Aug 03, 2017 8:43 am

New! tinkerBOY PowerSwitch v1.0 with Safe Shutdown
Game Boy Zero Controllers available @ tinkerBOY.xyz * Support
tinkerBOY Controller v3.0 - built-in usb controller, usb audio, and usb hub
tinkerBOY Controller v2.0 - GPIO buttons and builtin PWM Audio and Amplifier
tinkerBOY Controller v1.1 - simple pcb button
* DPI Adapter - better display for GBZ
* keyboard converters - IBM XT/AT Soarer's Converter | ADB to USB Converter

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abrugsch
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Re: SNESpi

Post by abrugsch » Thu Aug 03, 2017 2:35 pm

That was it! I'd seen that article but couldn't remember exactly where.
I love how it says any change is permanent and cannot be undone but can't you just set it back if you change it?

beardedviking
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Re: SNESpi

Post by beardedviking » Tue Aug 22, 2017 7:56 am

Lpoolm wrote:
Thu Aug 03, 2017 7:59 am
Take a look at this, might be what your looking at doing?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=j10gmmkzfCk
This is kind of what I want to do, yeah. But in his version it looks like he has to open the cartridge to take out the micro SD card. I want to do this without opening the cartridge so I could take the card out and place it in another device like a Gameboy Zero.

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144TECH
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Re: SNESpi

Post by 144TECH » Tue Aug 22, 2017 8:06 am

beardedviking wrote:
Mon Jul 31, 2017 5:14 am
I tried a test build for this where I wired the sd card adapter to the cartridge's board and the cartridge connector to the Pi as seen in the gameboy zero build. I tested and confirmed all connections with the cartridge plugged in but still the Pi wasn't able to boot from the sd card.
How did you wire it ? do you have a picture ? , already tried twisting/bundle the wires ?, that did the trick for me many times, straight wires no boot, twisted them up, boot like a dream.
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DieKatzchen
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Re: SNESpi

Post by DieKatzchen » Tue Aug 22, 2017 4:15 pm

abrugsch wrote:
Thu Aug 03, 2017 2:35 pm
I love how it says any change is permanent and cannot be undone but can't you just set it back if you change it?
You set a fuse to do it so no, it's permanent.

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