Expansion pack relocation... has anyone tried this before?

timmeh87 · Post by **timmeh87** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 12:10 am

sweet, thanks man.

i probably wont do anythign rash untill after christmas anyhow, i have 6 exams in the next two weeks.

anyhow, i have other electronics projets, i dont mind putting this aside for a month.

Electric Rain · Post by **Electric Rain** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 5:08 am

*nudge nudge* Yeah, I'm bumping the topic... so what wanna fight about it?

Anyway, any development in the project yet? It's after Christmas.

timmeh87 · Post by **timmeh87** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 8:46 pm

heh. well i was going to make a grand post on my site when i actually got it to work, but i suppose ill leak my current progress exclusively to the benheck forums.

so where was i? i sawed off part of the pack's board, put little wires on it, then attaced it to the 64 motherboard. nothing... bad. then i got my OTHER expansion pack, and this time i did exactly the same thing but without sawing it off. its a little more awkward, but i discovered a little too late that i had sawed off a trace that *might* have been important.

anyhow, currently my n64 shows no video or sound, and still has the second one soldered to it. im going to get a new (well. old) one off my friend next time i see him. i might do some ossilioscope probing to see what i can see, and when im ready ill try transfering the second pack over to the new n64.

also, on the frist 64 i accidentally ripped some traces while desoldering the expansion pack card slot, so the traces wernt reconnected properly the first time. (once again something i noticed AFTER). ill try to remove it without doing that the second time.

and thats that.

G-force · Post by **G-force** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 10:18 pm

Crummy N64's. Good luck on the second one.

sniper_spike · Post by **sniper_spike** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 10:24 pm

Sweet, you just followed out the first portabilizing commandment:
"Thou shalt fry multiple Nintendo 64 motherboards "

Good luck on the next one.

XPCportables · Post by **XPCportables** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 10:48 pm

he he he I haven't fried a single n64 yet in my Pintendo 64 project
(looks over to Pintendo64 sitting on his desk, touches expansion pack, BOOM!!!) DANGIT!!!

Electric Rain · Post by **Electric Rain** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 6:16 pm

Does anyone have a third party expansion pack, such as the MadCatz one or the Yobo one? (I think those were the only two third party ones made.) I need to know what chip they're using.

As for the chip the Nintendo packs use, this is what it says on the chip:

Code: Select all

Nintendo
RDRAM36-NUS
9951KU313

...It's nothing more than a 4MB piece of RD RAM. But it's made by Nintendo, making the actual chip near impossible to find by itself.

Third party packs probably use a much more common chip that you can find at some place like Digikey, and we can thus re-build the expansion pak in whatever form we choose, without having to rip one apart, making it much cheaper as well.

If not? Well, we can always pool some money together and order the RDRAM36-NUS chip in bulk from http://www.partminer.com or something.

timmeh87 · Post by **timmeh87** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 9:00 pm

i think the newer n64's had their two 2meg chips condensed into a single 4meg one to cut costs. we just need a supply of broken, new n64s. i wonder where we will find any

anyhow, the last line on that chip is like lot number and production line and such things. it will be different from chip to chip.

Electric Rain · Post by **Electric Rain** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 1:36 am

Yeah... chances are you can use any 4MB RD RAM chip, or if you know how to wire them up correctly, maybe a couple 2MB chips instead. Regardless, I can't seem to find either.

You're right about them replacing the two 2MB chips with a 4MB. It's actually the exact same model as the one in the expansion pak. Take a look at this datasheet: http://www.chipworks.com/resources/toyb ... le-BPT.pdf
That's a '98 model, with only one 4MB RDRAM36-NUS chip. The N64 that I have hacked apart for my future portable right now is a '96 model, and it has two RAM chips. (Though I haven't taken the metal block off yet, so I don't know the model number.)

I was just hoping that we could find the chip itself for $2, and get a few passives (resistors, caps) to essentially make our own expansion pak for a total of about $5. You know? I can't seem to find an expansion pak for under $15 even on eBay! Plus I didn't want to have to deal with desoldering SMDs.

MM007 · Post by **MM007** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 1:28 pm

Does anyone know how much RD RAM the N64 can cache? I'm wondering if we can use 8 or 16 MB chips or not...

sniper_spike · Post by **sniper_spike** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 2:15 pm

I haven't looked at it myself, but wouldn't the easiest solution be to cut off the connector at this point

and simply rewire the conector at a 90* angle?

This would solve the problem of space, and also have less of a chance of blowing up.

timmeh87 · Post by **timmeh87** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 2:59 pm

@mm07: this has been discussed before, most people seem to believe that even if you could get more ram to work (which apparently someone tried and it didnt work), the games wouldnt use it anyways. its not like a computer where you could have any combination of things open using different amounts of ram; the games are programmed to use exactly all 4 or all 8 megs, and wouldnt know what to do with more.

@sniper spike: if you are goign to try to make 36 microscopic connections anyways, you might as well just solder the pack directly to the board. although you also have to desolder the slot which is more work, it is entirely possible with the right equipment (copper braid, $5) and some paitience.

sniper_spike · Post by **sniper_spike** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 3:19 pm

The connector looks like it has much less than 36 points. And not "microscopic connections" either. After looking at a real life one myself they look to be rather easy to solder to.

timmeh87 · Post by **timmeh87** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 3:29 pm

youre only looking at every second one. the other ones are higher up inside of there. trust me. theres 36.

and theres traces on the other side of the board that you will sever by cutting off the connector. so you have to rewire those too.

and since you have to cut it high enough so that the bent part can actually fit into the slot properly, you have to cut it ABOVE those nice big pads that look easy to solder to. then you have to connect the tiny 8 mil traces.

sniper_spike · Post by **sniper_spike** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 3:36 pm

I guess it's a bit harder than I thought. Oh well.