Help! Okay, found alternate for pin 25, now something new

[Life of Brian]

I'm currently reviving a long-shelved SNES mini, and I discovered that the previous owner of said SNES managed to rip the trace for pin 25 of the cartridge connector off of BOTH SIDES of the board. Does anyone know an alternate spot I can connect to for pin 25?

[eurddrue]

Have you googled snes cartslot pinout?


hmmm, after a quick search I can't find anything either.

maybe this? http://pinouts.ru/Game/CartridgeSnes_pinout.shtml

[XCVG]

It says CIC, I think pin 25 goes to the lockout chip.

[Kurt_]

Yup, that's the lockout chip alright.

I wonder what the previous owner was trying to do.

Show him how it's done!

[Life of Brian]

It says CIC, I think pin 25 goes to the lockout chip.

CIC was all I could find as well - I didn't know that meant the lockout chip, however. Thank you guys. So, do you suppose I should just research disabling the lockout chip at this point?

[Super Mulletman]

Perhaps you may find this helpful:

http://www.gamesx.com/importmod/sneslockout.htm

So try pin 4

[Life of Brian]

Excellent - that gives me a starting point. I'll work on it today and get back to you about how it's going. Thank you so much for your quick responses!

Edit: Hey! What do you know! It turns out that pin 25 does indeed connect to the lockout chip. In fact, it connects to pin 4 - the very pin which needs to be disconnected in order to disable the lockout chip. HMMM....


^not my image, taken from gamesx.com to illustrate which pin I'm talking about.

If I owned any PAL cartridges at all I would test this out, but I don't so I guess we can just chalk this one up to "general knowledge". I am kind of hoping to make this SNES portable to sell, so if I add "compatible with PAL games" to the list of features that might help.

Once again, thank you so much guys.

[Life of Brian]

And the frustration continues - I think I'm about to give up on this SNES.

After redoing the entire cart slot relocation with shorter wires, I find that the SNES still won't power up. I checked the fuse, and sure enough it was blown. I shorted that, and the system still won't power on. Out of desperation I began looking very closely over the entire board, comparing it to an unmodified SNES mini. I discovered that capacitors C23 and C27 were just plain MISSING from the underside of the board. Does anyone know how I can find what value those tiny things are?

I'm kind of annoyed at this system's previous owner...

[eagle5953]

Hope they didn't charge you too much for the board, considering the effort it is taking to get it even functional...

[Rekarp]

Try .1uF Brian. If its SMD then you cant really go over that.

[Life of Brian]

Thanks, Rekarp. I'll give that a try... as soon as I get some .1 uF caps. I'm needing a 68uF cap for my N64 so maybe it's just about time to order some stuff from Mouser.

Interesting side note - turns out a Retro Duo I thought long dead and had in my "junk pile" for several months works. I decided to just give it a try and *poof* it works. At least something is working...

[lovablechevy]

Interesting side note - turns out a Retro Duo I thought long dead and had in my "junk pile" for several months works. I decided to just give it a try and *poof* it works. At least something is working...

i always did find it odd and interesting that both you and rekarp had problems with the retro duo... mine has gone through a LOT (don't even ask) and is still going strong. glad to know yours really isn't dead!

can't wait to see something!

[Life of Brian]

I found a spare AG-85 case, so I might do something similar to my previous one for convenience's sake.

[misjah]

Excellent - that gives me a starting point. I'll work on it today and get back to you about how it's going. Thank you so much for your quick responses!

Edit: Hey! What do you know! It turns out that pin 25 does indeed connect to the lockout chip. In fact, it connects to pin 4 - the very pin which needs to be disconnected in order to disable the lockout chip. HMMM....


^not my image, taken from gamesx.com to illustrate which pin I'm talking about.

If I owned any PAL cartridges at all I would test this out, but I don't so I guess we can just chalk this one up to "general knowledge". I am kind of hoping to make this SNES portable to sell, so if I add "compatible with PAL games" to the list of features that might help.

Once again, thank you so much guys.

I tried this method with my pal snes, ntsc street fighter now starts but only for few minutes and then I get message - not supported in your country.... blah, blah, reset button is not working, nothing happens when I press it. I just want to warn you, maybe it will work with ntsc system....

[Life of Brian]

Thanks for the heads up. As soon as I get a PAL cartridge, I will test this. That might not be for some time, though.