Life comes at you hard sometimes, I can totally relate to that! I'm sure most of us understand the enormous amount of work that rewrite has taken on, with orders approaching probably close to 100 units. It is much appreciated!!
- Thread starter rewrite
- Start date
Appreciate everyone's kind words.
I have finally found the secret to programming those flash chips: just solder the damned things onto the programmer. Those tiny sockets are the cause of 90% of the problems in this project. I stopped using them and they just work. Every. Single. Time.
Anyone who does this moving forward: absolutely don't use the sockets. Save yourself so much mental stress.
I have finally found the secret to programming those flash chips: just solder the damned things onto the programmer. Those tiny sockets are the cause of 90% of the problems in this project. I stopped using them and they just work. Every. Single. Time.
Anyone who does this moving forward: absolutely don't use the sockets. Save yourself so much mental stress.
Man if I had to do that soldering on and off Id ruin so many things XD
I'm not stoked about the extra work, but compared the the absolute headache it's been to try a 100 minute program only for it to just not have programmed at all, or have 11 bad sectors, or 3, or whatever? Another 15-20 minute per chip (about an hour to an hour 20 per cart) in exchange for guaranteed programming success is a trade I'm happy to make at this point.
GeorgeSpinner
Grand Master
120 minutes per chip? Damn...
How many of that chip per cart?
You must be making like $2/hour on these carts at this point. It wouldn't surprise me if it's less than that.
Oh, that 100-120 minutes is programming time. 4 chips per cart. Press button, walk off. But when you need to do it 13 times and it's taking up time that OTHER chips could be programming.... sheesh..
I'm not sure how long they take honestly. I'm guessing with all of the bumps along the road this batch is going to make very very little hourly.
Let's see though. Without issues:
It takes about 20 minutes to remove all the chips from both PCBs in the cart (longer if doing just one because I'm pre-heating the PCBs, but you can pre-heat the next while working on one).
Programming all 5 of the SMDs is probably 45 minutes including cleaning up the chip legs.
10 minutes to setup and program the CPLDs.
5 minutes to remove the flashroms from the daughterboards (though some daughterboards come out so clean you can just re-use them).
It takes me about 12-15 minutes to make a daughterboard. You do this.... 5 times since C3 has to be done twice.
Probably 20 minutes to clean up the PCBs and clear out the holes.
10-15 minutes to solder all 3 of the daughterboards onto the PCBs.
SMD soldering, and that tiny wire to C3 is being handled by another forum member, so that just costs me money and toys, not time, ha.
Then just testing?
So in an ideal situation 180 minutes to do a cart, I guess? Plus odd time here and there like testing when it comes in, de-shelling it, setting up different sets of tools because my desk is only so big, etc. Also time spent messaging and here.
This batch was far far worse, because of all the time spent experimenting with different approaches, ordering things, getting that board commissioned, making mistakes with the software, having to find better method for the CPLDs, realizing there are TWO DIFFERENT SIZED ROMS FOR S and M which no one mentioned at all in any write-up, lol. Lots of things that made this first batch hard. Figuring out the game list, and what games won't work with the cart or the software to make the bin files.
But moving forward, about 3.5 hours per cart I guess. Done assembly line style one part at a time.
Definitely definitely pays worse than doing monitors or power supplies. I usually round out to 65-75/hr with those. This is probably 45? 40? (next batch, I doubt I made min wage this batch)
@ack was right in the main thread. Dudes charge 120-190 to solder one ribbon cable for HDMI mods. They'd never touch this. It's just not sensible when they're making $100/hr plus.
I've always wanted to take on one of these massive projects the almost 20 years I've been in this hobby. I've regretted it a few times throughout this, but I'm pretty glad for the experience overall. And SUPER glad to be rounding the last corner. Exchanging parts with the other forum member working on these end of next week and should be shipping starting the next week.
Hoping to have all the daughterboards programmed before we swap parts, and it'll just be solder in place, test, and go.
GeorgeSpinner
Grand Master
He said they are exchanging parts at the end of next week. Then start shipping the week after that.
So, not next week. Maybe in 3 weeks.
Correct! And as previously stated, some number each week. I don't think over five is unreasonable, but with how everything else has gone horribly wrong, I'm not going to tempt fate here. the biggest thing holding it up time-wise (aside from all the real life stuff) has been the programming, and that's been worked out now thankfully.
As their number comes up in that given week's shipment!
This is a very generous gift to the community - to spend your own money commissioning something like this, then giving it away to help others - thank you!
All the others before me were even more generous with their time and skills in making these carts possible, I'm just giving back a bit as thanks!
This is really impressive work, thanks for the heads-up rewrite. Just one thing that still isn't clear to me, will you contact us by PM for the bank info so we can make the initial deposit?
I'm aware I'm very late to the MVS waitlist but I'm not in a rush, so please take all the time you need. Thanks again
I'm aware I'm very late to the MVS waitlist but I'm not in a rush, so please take all the time you need. Thanks again
That is the plan. I will message folks via PM as their names come up, and when I feel confident in tackling the waitlist and ordering parts, I will reach out to them (yourself included) via PM as well!
@rewriteHello @rewrite .
Your project is fantastic, it is more than obvious that this way of doing things will allow you to have THE Neogeo cartridge!
I would like to be in for an MVS cartridge please with Xenocrisis.
Just a few questions, can the menu be cleaner for this beautiful arcade with the recently created soft menu?
This menu is so much better than the characters put on it.
Is unibios 4.0 compatible to do a reset correctly?
Are the cheat codes functional?
Is the MOTW 100% functional?
Is there a custom created on the packaging slot, cover, instructions?
Thanks
Hello, maybe you haven't seen the old messages but just to know if it was possible to make room for nirvana in catbridge MVS, with xenocrisis and motw too
Thanks!
I must have missed it. What is Nirvana?Hello, maybe you haven't seen the old messages but just to know if it was possible to make room for nirvana in catbridge MVS, with xenocrisis and motw too
Thanks!
OK, thank you for putting it in the rewrite list!
Nirvana, that's the sweet name when I'm going to experience playing with this cartridge
