Amarthar's Secret of Mana 2 repro updates thread

[Rx_79]

What kinda wire did you use?    I used a hard drive ribbon cable.

[scarmullet]

If you cant get them in the cart, try daisy chaining them together and using heat shrink tubing to allow you to bend the set into place where you can fit it into the cart.

[destructiveme]

What kinda wire did you use?    I used a hard drive ribbon cable.

IDE cable was too much a hassle for me - just get some presoldered preisolated wire from your electronics store

[Rx_79]

I checked the eproms everything looks good on that end.  So I resoldered the eproms back together.  I debated on trying to solder them down where the mask eprom was, But I don't think that the case would close any better like that.  So I opened up madden 94 only to learn it has the wrong board.  I hate removing those lock out screws, and it a good thing I picked up a bunch of madden games for this project, and only one was madden 94.

Anyway I got half the soldering done and I went with wire from a usb cable.  Witch made it alot easier as the wire is easier to stripe the ends.  It is also more ridged and the solder actually sticks.

So here's where i'm at now, it got too late for me to continue.  Plus my eyes where going cross-eyed from staring at solder points.

[destructiveme]

Today I tried to fit the PCB into the cartridge - no change!
So I resoldered everything to have one chip on the PCB and the other threes piggybacked.

Worked like a charm, but I think I may have damanged one of the EPROMs, it only works occasionally now if I bend them in a specific direction.

Guess i have to desolder the three of them and test them when I get my programmer back.

Damn, I was so happy that my PCB would finally fit the cartridge (it did, I tested i!)

Check out this gallery if you want to know how it looks now:

http://imageshack.us/g/695/20110825154028.jpg/

An user asked me to provide a more detailed diagram, here it is: (original from d4s)

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/3239/som2diagramv11.png

Hope it helps a bit!

@Rx_79:
Looks good so far, please upload a picture of the backside too, maybe you destroyed some soldering eye?

[scarmullet]

Too bad nobody can make their own cart shells, just put the eproms on a perf board and place them above the PCB in the cart.

[Rx_79]

Well it looks like round two ended up at the same spot, black screen.   Its 12:00 and I cant tell what I did wrong.  I dont think I can take anymore of these soldering fumes and burned fingers.   I took some pics but I will have to up load them latter as I am very tired.

[Rx_79]

Okay heres the pics.








I did spot a solder point that came loose, but after fixing it. I still got a black screen.

[destructiveme]

Did you sold moe and rco to the little eyes instead of the IC pins? oO

Also, your soldering work looks worse than mine, are you sure all pins of the 27c801 connect to each other?

Some soldering points on the back of your PCB dont look to good either, you may want to redo them so that every point has a nice shiny bubble.

Did the game work in its original state? Your C1 resistance looks like the two soldering points connect to eachother, whats not the point

[Rx_79]

Did you sold moe and rco to the little eyes instead of the IC pins?
    I desoldered form the back then ran the wire thru, and resoldered.


Also, your soldering work looks worse than mine, are you sure all pins of the 27c801 connect to each other? The good news is I am improving with each failed attempt, but yeah all pins on the 27c801 are connected.


Some soldering points on the back of your PCB dont look to good either, you may want to redo them so that every point has a nice shiny bubble. Smiley

The photo makes them look worst than they look in real life.  I did resolder a few of them after I took the pic.  I noticed one of the wire had came loose.


Did the game work in its original state? Your C1 resistance looks like the two soldering points connect to eachother, whats not the point Wink

Yes the game did run, thats why I went with a new board on this 2nd attempt.  The first attempt game board had alot wear on the connection pins.  and no.  The pins do not touch.  The 2nd bent out pin did break off and I had to solder to the little stub sticking out.

I also was thinking what if you laid the pins down on the eprom (after you solder the wires to them) and separated the wires with electric tape. Would that make it fit into the case.

[destructiveme]

Sorry, I wrote everything what came to my mind, I am lost now :/

I may be too stupid, but I did not figure out a way how to fit the four piggybacked into the cartridge, there is just no way.
Just try to fit everything in there, you have got a case and the stuff

[Rx_79]

I got a few things I want to try.    Like I ran the VCC differently, also the ground I did differently.   

Does it matter that I am making a ntsc cart? Not a Pal.

Maybe Burning the eproms at no clear setting was wrong?  But I copied the data back from the eprom, and rejoined it. and it worked in an emulator.

If i can't get it to work then I am back to ground zero.

Plus I need a new solder iron.  It looks like the end melted clean off.

[destructiveme]

Yeah, I noticed you used one VCC for both chips. You may want to use one for each.

NTSC/PAL should not matter as long the cic in your cart fits to the one in your snes.

I don't know what "no clear" is supposed to mean, but you cant delete a EPROM anyway in software.

Funny thing, my rejoined rom didnt work in bsnes, i just got a black screen. But it worked on the hardware

Any solder iron should have exchangeable tips.

Debugging is a bitch on the iron, with no special tools so more - i wasted so many hours on that (on my 2nd try with the chip onboard, the 1st one worked flawless, to my big surprise..)

[amarthar]

Another setback for me. My SNES power adapter died on me. Now I need to find a new one, so my repro is not going well.

In lighter news, I actually finished the SoM2 box and label. Right now the box is only for the PAL version, though I made 4 label variations. 1 for NTSC-U and 3 for PAL. Everything is here: http://www.box.net/shared/nton61s4kmv7gn5jzbjz
Tell me if anyone wants me to do a US version of the box or a UGC version.

Also, @destructiveme, send me a PM with your e-mail address, so I could send you the PSDs.

[destructiveme]

Damn, a SNES power thingy is ~10 euros though. :/

Send you a PM.

I got my new 27C801s and are waiting to get my eprom progammer again.... :/