ROM-Reader for Super Nintendo / Super Famicom Game Cartridges

Hello,

I'm trying to reflash some SNES repros but sanni always display the same error:

UNKNOWN FLASHROM
ID TYPE 1: 9C0C
ID TYPE 2: 9C0C

https://imgur.com/a/5MWpKQ0

Is a MX29LV320. The sanni is update with the lasted version. Anyone try to flash sucesfull this snes repro motherboards?

thanks

Use a multimeter to check if the WE pin of the flashrom is connected to the cart edge. Might be that they changed the board layout and adding the wire doesn't work anymore.

Hello, yes, i just check and there is continuity between them. Any other ideas to try?
thanks.

One thing they started doing on GBA repros is flipping two address/data lines with each other. So next thing would be making a complete pinout checking where every pin of the flashrom chip goes to.

There's a new mirror for NesCartDB: https://nescartdb.com/

When BootGod's site went down, I decided to implement a solution for the Cart Reader. I've written code and game lists for the Cart Reader to handle the settings needed to read all of the Licensed FC/NES carts. There's a new menu selection to identify carts by name. The cart lists are separated by name (# + Alpha (A-Z)) to make searching faster. I had originally written the code to identify the carts by Serial but many carts don't have visible serial numbers so I converted the code to do it by name.

The code is working on my standalone Famicom Reader but it still needs to be adapted over to the full Cart Reader.

I'll share the code with sanni after I do some cleanup.

Nice :slight_smile:

Just a heads up for everyone who was getting boards/parts from me, just waiting on a few parts. They should arrive soon, except for the damn thread-cutting screws which could arrive any time between tomorrow and February. I can't find a supplier who can get them to me faster, but do you think self tapping ones like US Stock 50pcs M2 x 8mm Phillip Cross Pan Head Self Tapping Screws | eBay would be okay?

darleiv:
Hello everyone . I made a customization for personal use. what did you find? button on off 8x8mm large swith, removal of other consoles keeping only snes, led power on off. and finally terminal coupling capacitors.

This is beautiful but needs moar clock gen for NP...

Could Jam one in or add it external to the switch port you have broken out I think? Appears you broke out the switch positions but no clock gen?

3v to 5V is unnecessary unless you use older adapter SNES to GB/GBA? correct me if wrong. Flash adapters? Point being you really shouldn't be using 3.3v flash and or ram chips unless you are doing GB and possibly WS or NGP. Less parts = less cost.

I'm not trying to be an ass, I have lots of experience with these... I'm curious about the design choices is all. I might not be seeing the larger picture.

Schematic if its not an imposition?

DieKatzchen:
Just a heads up for everyone who was getting boards/parts from me, just waiting on a few parts. They should arrive soon, except for the damn thread-cutting screws which could arrive any time between tomorrow and February. I can't find a supplier who can get them to me faster, but do you think self tapping ones like US Stock 50pcs M2 x 8mm Phillip Cross Pan Head Self Tapping Screws | eBay would be okay?

I had trouble sourcing these. Get the 10MM not 8. 8 too short(wiki could use an edit IMHO). These are perfect if using 3d printed case.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/50-100pcs-M2-M2-5-M3-Black-Steel-Phillips-Cross-Pan-Head-Self-Tapping-Screws/173978141628?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=472962019876&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l264

Gotcha. Have ordered, expected to arrive by next weekend, although experience tells me they will arrive much sooner. Gonna audit the parts I have this weekend and start collecting the kits together.

Seller is top notch. If USPS is on point you will get them very quickly.

This reminds me, I've been meaning to share this for a few months now...

Add moar clock gen to SNES pocket.

I could not get it to work without powering the clock gen with an extra 5v source hence the USB port.. I tried but I didnt feel like ripping up the Mini 2560. (I think if you took off the 3 and 5v regulators off 2560, you could use SNES pocket power to also power clock gen. If anyone has the time and or balls to try, I would love to hear back) The timing can still be a little off and it can take 2 or 3 tries to unlock the menu FYI.

Please ring the bell on your way out if you liked my schematic.

Just wondering if anyone else has attempted to add playstation memory cards to the cart reader since previously mentioned? Sanni, I thank you for shuffling through the code and typing something up about it to share here but unfortunately I seem too dense to understand it correctly. I did attempt it with the code you provided and soldered to the points however I don't even know where to begin troubleshooting/debugging what you shared.

I couldnt get my n64 ganeshark to flash. I replaced both SST 29LE010 but no change. If you put it into a system it just boots straight into game.

Niltonn:
Hi Sanni,
I set up my pocket version of your cartReader. I thought of doing something that was as simple and cheap as possible to assemble and solder. So I didn't use smd components and kept the entire SdCard module.
thx :slight_smile:

Hello,
I contrinute to the no-intro project (video game preservation project) and I used to dump my carts with Retrode 2. Until now it worked well until I came across a cart with a SA-1 chip (Dragon Ball Z Hyper Dimension (Japan)).
After some reading, I discovered that Retrode 2 was not able to handle the games with SHA-1 chip (an additional adapter is required).
I continued some reading and saw the amazing project from @Sanni and it's 'pocket' version from @Niltonn. My problem is that I've never work with electronics and then this project is above my skills.
I looked for pre-built options and I've ordered one manufacturered by Full Circle Embedded on eBay. It comes with the clock add-in. They advertise it shall be used to dump Nintendo Power Super Famicom Memory Flash Cartridges but after reading the Sanni's project Wiki, I assumed this is the module that also allows to dump SA-1 games.
I hope my assumption is right !
I want also to thank @Sanni, @Niltonn and @skaman for their amazing contribution to the SNES scene.

[EDIT]

I think I've been too quick in ordering this as this one seems to miss the PIC12F629.
If I order this chip separately, would it be possible to add it to @Niltonn's version ?

Without refencing schematics....

You could probably add the CIC 12f629 via dongle just like with clock gen, but I have no SA1 carts to test even if I did wire something up.

You start losing portability as you start adding those outside pins.

One thing Im not clear on...

BSX satelite and SA1 need 12f629 and or clock gen

12f629 is ONLY for BSX???

Clearly NP just needs clock gen.

If SA1 just needs clock gen than the above dongle would work.

dendy9:
Without refencing schematics....

You could probably add the CIC 12f629 via dongle just like with clock gen, but I have no SA1 carts to test even if I did wire something up.

You start losing portability as you start adding those outside pins.

One thing Im not clear on...

BSX satelite and SA1 need 12f629 and or clock gen

12f629 is ONLY for BSX???

Clearly NP just needs clock gen.

If SA1 just needs clock gen than the above dongle would work.

In the meantime I digged a little bit more and indeed, NP only needs clock gen where SA-1 needs both clock gen + the additional chip.
So the seller on eBay was very kind to cancel my buy. I'll look for a full-sized Sanni's cart reader (I'm in contact with him) and if possible, I'd like also to put my hands on skaman's retrode 2 adapter for SA-1 cartridges.
NB: I've no skills in electronics, that why building it myself would be very very complicated and I don't want to just "download" the rom file of my cartridge on the Internet because I participate in the no-intro initiative (game preservation project) and I'm in the process to dump all my cartridges for verifications.

Update on the kits coming from me. For some reason past me only ordered 5 GBA slots. If you've already contacted me, I have enough to cover yours, it's just the stragglers who are going to have to wait a little longer. With luck and the blessings of the USPS I can get them to everyone before the holidays.

claudespeed:
In the meantime I digged a little bit more and indeed, NP only needs clock gen where SA-1 needs both clock gen + the additional chip.
So the seller on eBay was very kind to cancel my buy. I'll look for a full-sized Sanni's cart reader (I'm in contact with him) and if possible, I'd like also to put my hands on skaman's retrode 2 adapter for SA-1 cartridges.
NB: I've no skills in electronics, that why building it myself would be very very complicated and I don't want to just "download" the rom file of my cartridge on the Internet because I participate in the no-intro initiative (game preservation project) and I'm in the process to dump all my cartridges for verifications.

Good work man!!
So to make pocket SNES work with BSX and SA1 a second dongle in addition to the one Ive posted would be REQUIRED.

On the larger Sanni's I noticed an odd behavior with clock gen I think. This based off memory, might not be accurate.. in circuit it seems to always be on despite the switch. when making dongle for pocket I couldn't get the clock gen to fail without pulling it out.... as if switch did nothing.

I'm thinking whomever manufactured your repro locked it via cutting a trace or someone got real fancy with security on the flash chip( I think post about swapping flash on gameshark64 pertains to this also). How would you setup so Flash to only read via console and not "officially" ie dumper or flash chip adapter. I don't know as much as I should about flash chips and security via its internal embedded applications.

I think for all intents and purposes Skaman has added lots if not all code from retrode to Sanni? Perhaps that can be cleared up? I don't have retrode, but methinks its ATmega64 based and I'm assuming porting the code is "easier"?(I could just look at the code,I think? or would I have to decompile?) Point being, my experience with others has taught me If retrode will/wont, you will get same behavior on sanni with unusual/secured/gameshark64 repros. The repros themselves have been manipulated into such behavior, so no easy fix is in either/any dumpers software.

Case and point...
I've seen retrocircuit boards that refuse to read rom via the official programmer, Sanni or the retrode but work fine on console. Board looked perfect no obvious signs of cut traces but they could have been hidden under chips. I didn't own/physically have access to this board so I was unable to trace WE and such. MFR stopped it from being dumped very clearly.

I can remove, socket and dump chips in theory but really I've only done the other way. Program flash and add to PCB. Perhaps more service needs offering in this area. Getting the flash chips off PCB cleanly to socket/dump is trivial from a skill point anymore for me. I think id make quick work of a lot of these troublesome dumps if given access and free reign over the hardware.

I'm trying to teaching myself to dump pirate/unknown mappers on NES(Was surprised Tengen/RAMBO mapper was not supported in Sanni code. I guess its not "official")so hopefully going forward, SNES/N64 will be "easier" and bumps in road like this wont be an issue for what the heck ever I may be attempting. Pirates did REALLY interesting things here with flash chips (lots of 3.3v, oopsies) and or straight digital logic IMHO.

Recreate MMC3 in digital logic chips.. are you kidding me... just wow.

skaman:
There's a new mirror for NesCartDB: https://nescartdb.com/

When BootGod's site went down, I decided to implement a solution for the Cart Reader. I've written code and game lists for the Cart Reader to handle the settings needed to read all of the Licensed FC/NES carts. There's a new menu selection to identify carts by name. The cart lists are separated by name (# + Alpha (A-Z)) to make searching faster. I had originally written the code to identify the carts by Serial but many carts don't have visible serial numbers so I converted the code to do it by name.

The code is working on my standalone Famicom Reader but it still needs to be adapted over to the full Cart Reader.

I'll share the code with sanni after I do some cleanup.

This is going to help NES on the Sanni... Its a little too, know all your shit in advance in its current state. Thank you Skaman.

I hope this will encourage more mappers. I hope to contribute to this end.

Adding INES headers to dumps "option", would really take Sanni next level as far as NES/FAMICOM. I had a funny experience here where dumping mappers that were not mmc 3, I had to add INES headers to play rom, but MMC3 fired right up as if it had been added.... I was using Messen for testing. My experience with NES on Sanni was confusing. Lots more testing to do. I think I want more than what Sanni can do with NES and to that end Im building Clusters Famicom programmer. More poke and prod on the unknowns/troublesome mappers. I dunno adding INES headers may not be the Sannis job per se, just would be nice.

bootgods database is amazing(needs moar recca PCB shot. I know its MMC3, I just gotta see it nekid) but years of instability with it have frustrated me to the point of just using customized spreadsheets. Too many mappers plus newer/modified ones like "Streamers"

Hi Sanni

I bought a
KY Technology MD FlashKit Card Rewritable Cart it has a M29W640FT chip, I was wondering if the Sanni Cart reader can write to this chip.

You helped me before and my cart reader is awesome, enjoying it very much

thanks