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Apocalypse
Can someone take a high res picture of the PROG board of Oriental Legend please?
Any PGM Conversion info out there?
- Thread starter 98pacecar
- Start date
I've been using my FX-888D at 300 degrees lately and it's been working a treat as a beginner. I was using it lower before and definitely more prone to dodgy (slower) work.
With regards to flux, I'm using rosin core solder... would using the Multicore no clean flux be advised in conjunction? I have a MG Chemicals Rosin Flux Pen on the way for the meantime...
oneleaf86
Grand Master
Rosin Flux is very good but I find it a little hard to clean up. Can't hurt to buy a small bottle of Multicore to try out though.
oneleaf86
Grand Master
Thanks for the tip, I might have to pick some up to try out.
Will do. I must admit the clean up is a messy and sticky with the Rosin flux...
oneleaf86
Grand Master
It's also worth picking yourself up a 5 Litre bottle of Isopropyl Alcohol. I put some alcohol in a tupperware container, scrub the PCB with a toothbrush, rinse it off under hot water and then dry off with the fiance's hair dryer 
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I actually bought a 5L bottle off Aussie eBay for $30 delivered from a nail salon supplier recently. I'll have to be on the hunt for a hair dryer though. Hakko?It's also worth picking yourself up a 5 Litre bottle of Isopropyl Alcohol. I put some alcohol in a tupperware container, scrub the PCB with a toothbrush, rinse it off under hot water and then dry off with the fiance's hair dryer
Instead of the hair dryer I recommend the ultrasonic cleaner. Brush the PCB with a tootbrush + some isopropyl and then bath and clean in the ultrasonic cleaner filled with isopropyl.I actually bought a 5L bottle off Aussie eBay for $30 delivered from a nail salon supplier recently. I'll have to be on the hunt for a hair dryer though. Hakko?It's also worth picking yourself up a 5 Litre bottle of Isopropyl Alcohol. I put some alcohol in a tupperware container, scrub the PCB with a toothbrush, rinse it off under hot water and then dry off with the fiance's hair dryer
KalessinDB
Grand Master
Regular, Special, Special Plus/Super Special... or all 3?
A
Apocalypse
Regular please.
I sent the pcb off for manufacturing. Wish me luck! I haven't used them before, and I haven't made a pcb this size before. 
I made a last minute change to replace the 74ls139 that decodes the A-ROMs with a 74ls138. The second half of the '139 was not used, and using the '138 gives slightly more flexibility in case someone wants to max out the memory capacity.
I made a last minute change to replace the 74ls139 that decodes the A-ROMs with a 74ls138. The second half of the '139 was not used, and using the '138 gives slightly more flexibility in case someone wants to max out the memory capacity.
A
Apocalypse
I've got good news for you, PROG board can be reproduced too! None of the 3 Cave conversions actually needs the ARM, it's left in place on the DoDonpachi conversions because it's just easier (just like some graphic ROMs are left in place on the GFX board). So you're left with off the shelf components. Few other games have no ARM (Oriental Legend) and seemingly it's possible to patch other games to run without the ARM which means, a multi is possible!I sent the pcb off for manufacturing. Wish me luck! I haven't used them before, and I haven't made a pcb this size before.
I made a last minute change to replace the 74ls139 that decodes the A-ROMs with a 74ls138. The second half of the '139 was not used, and using the '138 gives slightly more flexibility in case someone wants to max out the memory capacity.
Yeah, that's the next plan, once the graphics board is finished and tested.
So far I had no time to finish tracing the prog boards, though... Some details about the PALs are not clear, yet, and I'm not sure if the ARM-replacement code still requires the SRAMs. And I am not sure if twistedsymphony managed to get his Killing Blade cart to run unencrypted ROMs, yet.
PascalP
Legendary
just tell me where to order
I have not.
What puzzles me is the Lydz prog board has the ARM CPU on it, but as far as I can tell it's not actually attached to anything. Why would they go through the effort of removing that chip and then soldering it to their repo board if it's not used?
reference photos here: Any PGM Conversion info out there?
you can see there are no visible traces going to the chip on either side of the PCB. I also checked for continuity against the voltage regulator and 5V pins and... nothing.
but yeah, assuming that the ARM isn't needed then you just the need the Program ROM, the Background/Text ROM and a couple of PALs (and honestly you could probably condense it to 1 PAL if we could get them dumped, only a few pins are used on either of them)
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Apocalypse
Maybe just to confuse people and make it look harder than it really is?
You know copiers don't want to be copied...
I've dumped and reversed the 2 PALs on the PROG board of the Dodonpachi conversion. Still have to test them.
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knowing specifically which PCB revision they came from is important because I've discovered that the pin mapping is completely different for the same game even on different revisions of the same PCB. For instance PALS for KOV2 on 0333-01 PCB are pinned completely different than the PALS for KOV2 on the 0333-03 PCB
That is indeed odd. I have the feeling that the prog board (at least my KOVSH board) is multi-layer, as some points have no visible trace while still being connected. Given the work that is required to transplant the arm chip there must be a reason.
Are there any connections to the PAL that controls the program ROM?
If we are lucky we may not need a PAL at all, and get away with one or two 74lsXX. The MAME code doesn't suggest any complex banking or decoding.
Update: What makes it odd as well is that the Lydz board has no vias visible on the other side, and the soldering on many pins looks factory quality, compared to the ROMs. You can of course bury vias in a multi-layer board, or make blind vias hidden under the ASIC, but is that really going to stop a dedicated bootlegger who doesn't mind destroying a board? Not to mention that you could X-ray it, and people de-solder and re-solder chips that are much more complicated.
I'm wondering as well, is it possible that they put a conformal coating over the ASIC pins so you can't trace connections?
By the way, I got hold of some PC cartridge connectors, which fit the cards exactly. That makes tracing significantly easier, as I can clip a probe to a pin.
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