chinitosoccer
Student
Did this ever happened? any ETA for this?
2nd spin is on the go. I got 4 samples and were too thick. I should get in a couple of days the final sample and then once I check it works well, I'll order the go for full batch production.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Quick update on this issue so you don't guys think I left you stranded.......
Mitsu and I got 4 samples from China which were too thick. It was a pain in the nuts to make them work actually we applied pressure just to check that the contact was the proper one and seemed that they were OK.
Then a couple of weeks later got another 4 samples this time were too thin but more or less Mitsu managed to make them stick. After troubleshooting looks like 2 are working well but were not soldered properly and we are trouble shooting the other two. Schematics are OK so it's a question of production seems to be. If these people don't react properly we'll change manufacturer and move forward. As I said looks like there is ATM only a problem with the thickness. As soon as I get this solved with chinese manufacturer I'll post about it and give the OK to the batch production....
Mitsu and I got 4 samples from China which were too thick. It was a pain in the nuts to make them work actually we applied pressure just to check that the contact was the proper one and seemed that they were OK.
Then a couple of weeks later got another 4 samples this time were too thin but more or less Mitsu managed to make them stick. After troubleshooting looks like 2 are working well but were not soldered properly and we are trouble shooting the other two. Schematics are OK so it's a question of production seems to be. If these people don't react properly we'll change manufacturer and move forward. As I said looks like there is ATM only a problem with the thickness. As soon as I get this solved with chinese manufacturer I'll post about it and give the OK to the batch production....
I'll expand a bit.
The first protos were just way too thick. I was able to verify that functinally they were ok by literally holding one in with a ton of pressure by hand for about 10 minutes while writing a single SIMM using the SuperBIOS. (ouch btw, cramps ensued) I was able to verify that they functioned properly the same way. So we learned that the chips and actually circuit designs were ok.
The second protos that I received this week actually do seem like the correct thickness but they do fit a bit looser in the slot. I placed all four in and 1 was not being detected so I shuffled them all around. Occasionally a SIMM would not be detected so I began to assume the thickness may be causing a bad contact. I attempted to remedy this by adding solder to each pin on one side of the simm. This gave them enough extra thickness to fit more snug.
I still had one SIMM that would not detect so I set it to the side and just focused on the other three SIMMs. When attempting to load a game with the other three SIMMs I would keep getting errors at various parts of the write process. Two different PCBS, 5 or 6 different write attempts all with failures no matter what order I placed all three Darksoft SIMMs. Sometimes the write would even freeze while writing SIMMs 1 and 2, which is strange.
So at this point I decided to just use the SuperBIOS cart and some test files and just write to each SIMM individually. I was able to verify two worked perfectly and the other two would freeze at the same points every time I tried to write them. So now I just need to determine the problem. I will remove the flashes and test them each indiviually. I will then resolder them by hand. These actions alone will tell us the next step. The design is good. But perhaps the manufacturing is not up to snuff. One thing that supports that theory is that i was able to get the other SIMM to be detected by adding some flux and running my iron over the pins of the flashes.
Will keep everyone posted.
The first protos were just way too thick. I was able to verify that functinally they were ok by literally holding one in with a ton of pressure by hand for about 10 minutes while writing a single SIMM using the SuperBIOS. (ouch btw, cramps ensued) I was able to verify that they functioned properly the same way. So we learned that the chips and actually circuit designs were ok.
The second protos that I received this week actually do seem like the correct thickness but they do fit a bit looser in the slot. I placed all four in and 1 was not being detected so I shuffled them all around. Occasionally a SIMM would not be detected so I began to assume the thickness may be causing a bad contact. I attempted to remedy this by adding solder to each pin on one side of the simm. This gave them enough extra thickness to fit more snug.
I still had one SIMM that would not detect so I set it to the side and just focused on the other three SIMMs. When attempting to load a game with the other three SIMMs I would keep getting errors at various parts of the write process. Two different PCBS, 5 or 6 different write attempts all with failures no matter what order I placed all three Darksoft SIMMs. Sometimes the write would even freeze while writing SIMMs 1 and 2, which is strange.
So at this point I decided to just use the SuperBIOS cart and some test files and just write to each SIMM individually. I was able to verify two worked perfectly and the other two would freeze at the same points every time I tried to write them. So now I just need to determine the problem. I will remove the flashes and test them each indiviually. I will then resolder them by hand. These actions alone will tell us the next step. The design is good. But perhaps the manufacturing is not up to snuff. One thing that supports that theory is that i was able to get the other SIMM to be detected by adding some flux and running my iron over the pins of the flashes.
Will keep everyone posted.
friedpotatoz
Enthusiast
Thanks Dark and Mitsu for the update and hard work!
ive been doing some research as i have new generation.
with slot1-64 slot3-128 slot4-128 slot5-32
seems ill need a upgrade of the 32mbit one to 64 for slot2
and two 128 for slot 5 and 6
this correct darksoft?
with slot1-64 slot3-128 slot4-128 slot5-32
seems ill need a upgrade of the 32mbit one to 64 for slot2
and two 128 for slot 5 and 6
this correct darksoft?
To use the SuperBIOS or 3S you need 64 in slots 1 and 2 and 128 in slots 3-6.
chinitosoccer
Student
I was thinking about all the "useless" 32mb simms that will be scrapped by people who just want to play 3rd Strike or are converting their setups for Superbios use, wouldn't be possible to convert those into 128 modules? the boards seem to be the same across all types of simms, and the solder pads are already there, only thing left would be the flash chips.
Maybe Mitsurugi can make use of said 32mb modules if Darksoft can get extra spare chips for him to modify?
Maybe Mitsurugi can make use of said 32mb modules if Darksoft can get extra spare chips for him to modify?
There are two types of chips used on the SIMMs. There is a standard pinout chip and a reverse pinout chip. The 32mb simms only use the standard pinout chips. If you were to find a batch of the reverse pinout chips (not easy or cheap) then you could easily convert the 32s to 128s. Notice that you would need to also add two additional normal pinout chips to each simm in addition to the 4 reverse pinout chips. It is possible though.
As for the 64mb SIMMs they are completely different and can only be used as 64 mb simms.
Actually, the 32Mb SIMMs have 2 x MBM29F016-90PFTR (Fujitsu 16Mb 90ns Reverse pinout) chips.
So, It is possible to convert an 32Mb SIMM into a 128Mb chip if you have 2 more MBM29F016-90PFTR AND 4 x MBM29F016-90PFTN (Fujitsu 16Mb 90ns Normal pinout) chips and optionally 6 x 100nF smt capacitors.
I've tried putting additional flash chips on a 32Mb SIMM without success because I was mix matching different vendor chips (Fujitsu, ST and AMD).
As Mitsurugi-w said, finding reverse pinout Fujitsu flash chips is almost impossible. BUT, if you have 2 x 32Mb SIMMs and 1 x 64Mb SIMM, you can use the PCB of one of the 32Mb SIMMs as a base and salvage the 2 reverse pinout flash ICs from the other 32Mb SIMM and 4 normal pinout ICs from the 64Mb SIMM.
You have to be skilled in surface mount desoldering and soldering though...
So, It is possible to convert an 32Mb SIMM into a 128Mb chip if you have 2 more MBM29F016-90PFTR AND 4 x MBM29F016-90PFTN (Fujitsu 16Mb 90ns Normal pinout) chips and optionally 6 x 100nF smt capacitors.
I've tried putting additional flash chips on a 32Mb SIMM without success because I was mix matching different vendor chips (Fujitsu, ST and AMD).
As Mitsurugi-w said, finding reverse pinout Fujitsu flash chips is almost impossible. BUT, if you have 2 x 32Mb SIMMs and 1 x 64Mb SIMM, you can use the PCB of one of the 32Mb SIMMs as a base and salvage the 2 reverse pinout flash ICs from the other 32Mb SIMM and 4 normal pinout ICs from the 64Mb SIMM.
You have to be skilled in surface mount desoldering and soldering though...
chinitosoccer
Student
So Darksoft reproductions will be using standard pinout chips only? or they will be exact replicas of the Capcom originals with both standard and reverse pinouts chips? if that's the case maybe he can also get a batch of both chips to mod 32mb originals.
Darksoft's repro's are 99% the same as the originals. The only difference is the silkscreening. It uses the same chips and everything. Somehow they were able to find enough to do the job. I tried sourcing the chips and found some but they wanted like $15 per chip. Ridiculous.
And yeah I had it reversed about the chips on the simms.
And yeah I had it reversed about the chips on the simms.
