cartridge pin continuity

Includes but not limited to: SNES, Genesis, Sega CD, PlayStation 1, Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, Game Gear and I guess the Virtual Boy.

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collinE
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cartridge pin continuity

Post by collinE »

In doing some troubleshooting for a cartridge relocation, I was using a multimeter to make sure my connections were solid and found that they all seemed to be connected... to eachother.

Is this right, or did I screw something up? With all the wires now removed, each solder spot seems to still have some continuity even if some have resistance.

any help would be great!
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thewise1
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Re: cartridge pin continuity

Post by thewise1 »

Well if you have a really crappy continuity tester that doesn't care if there's 5MΩ, if it's not infinite resistance then it will tell you it's connected. Pretty much everything on the board is connected in some way.

I don't use the continuity tester, I just switch it to the lowest ohm reading, touch the probes together to see what the resistance is. In my case it's about .02 ohms, and then test the connection. If it's .02 or .03 then I know there's nothing in between them and they're connected.
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collinE
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Re: cartridge pin continuity

Post by collinE »

well my multimeter is analog and I suck so I don't know exactly what you're talking about. Are you saying that as long as there's a fair amount of resistance, it's fine?
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thewise1
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Re: cartridge pin continuity

Post by thewise1 »

How continuity testers work is they give off a signal, like sound, when the resistance is below a certain level. Mine is about 75ohms. But some don't even have a limit, if it's connected at all it will say it's connected, which it is. But that doesn't mean there isn't something in between them.

And for this kind of accuracy I wouldn't recommend an analog multimeter unless it has a really low setting.
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timmeh87
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Re: cartridge pin continuity

Post by timmeh87 »

Also a significant number of pins are supposed to be shorted together (gnd, 3.3v, 12v...)
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vskid
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Re: cartridge pin continuity

Post by vskid »

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mako321
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Re: cartridge pin continuity

Post by mako321 »

this helps too.
http://forums.benheck.com/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=30954" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
collinE
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Joined: Thu Aug 07, 2008 9:07 am
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah

Re: cartridge pin continuity

Post by collinE »

thanks guys. that all helps :)
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