Console cartridge battery life question

[bender3000]

I've recently been researching how to replace the batteries in console cartridges. Everything I've read says you get about ten years until your game saves are again forever lost. I really like the idea of being able to access said saves on my favorite old school titles(mostly RPGs) indefinitely, and not have hundreds of hours of game time out the window. Are there any newer types of batteries that can keep those saves around for a very long time? Right now I'm mainly concerned with Snes, and I assume newer systems that use cartridges (GBA, DS) will eventually share this same problem as the years go on. Also, great site! I'm sure I'll get Ben's book soon and do some experimenting. Having a portable Snes has to be one of the most awesome things I can imagine.

[thewise1]

Theoretically you could replace one with 2 AA's, It puts out almost as much voltage. Also the gba and ds dont use this kind of saving, they have static memory, which means it doesn't need a battery.

I'm not sure you're going to get 10 years out of simple AA's though. The battery would actually expire by then, making it dangerous, not outputting the right voltage or just die.

But still, button cells put out 3.5v and 2 AAs would only output 3v

[brandonk318]

Well there are a few gba games that use batteries like pokemon ruby and golden sun. For snes games you need cr2032....I think ten years of battery life is the best its gonna get.

[thewise1]

Unless you put a few in parallel, but then I still don't know what the expiration date of a button cell is.

[stuntpenguin007]

Nonvolatile memory for the super nintendo would be awesome

Kibble (another member here on the forums) replaced the sram in an n64 memory card with nonvolatile memory from Ramtron. You'd have to look at the pinout of the snes sram, but I'm sure it's more that likely possible.

[bender3000]

Thanks for the info, sounds like the bottom line is those carts aren't gonna save longer than the currently expected 10 years or so. Heh, gotta say a lot of the stuff in this thread went over my head, I know very little about electronics.

Edit: Just looked up the definition of non volatile memory. So someone put that in an N64 game cart? That's very interesting!

[hackmodford]

Just get one of these
http://www.retrode.org/wordpress/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
and then you can backup your saves and restore them

[stuntpenguin007]

This got me in a project mood

I've got a 1mb non-volatile sram chip, and I'm currently working on installing it into pokemon gold. My only concern is that the banks on the non-volatile memory are 128k where as the original sram was 32k. I'm hoping it'll just ignore the extra memory. Also the original sram has a CS line, I'm not quite sure what it does, but I'll just leave it out completely with the new sram.

Now just to get my printer to print small enough traces for the pcb I'm going to etch...

[timmeh87]

Now just to get my printer to print small enough traces for the pcb I'm going to etch...

I find my boards are less limited by printer resolution, more by inability to transfer the toner perfectly and undercutting during etching.

But Ive made 8mil traces reliably... what the heck are you doing that needs anything smaller?

[thewise1]

What kind of paper and printer do you guys use to transfer onto copper?

[eagle5953]

Not sure on GBA, but DS games do not need a battery for saves.

Yeah, non-volatile memory is the way to go.

[stuntpenguin007]

I use a p2015 laserjet with glossy paper, but even the contacts for the sram get pushed together.

[timmeh87]

Old 600dpi? HP laser printer and dollar-store photo paper (10 for a dollar)

[stuntpenguin007]

I'm printing with 600 dpi, and glossy laserjet paper, and about every 3rd pin is making contact with the pin next to it. I'll get something figured out eventually.

[nevermind1534]

All of the GBA games that have batteries that I know of only use it for the clock.