SNES Edge Connector

[K_Devel]

I'm looking for something I don't have to harvest from say, a game genie or an SNES itself. I was wondering if there are any on Digikey or similar site that people had any luck with. Just looking for a decent priced solution for a NEW connector. Making a passthrough cart for Retron 5 to avert from breaking the cheaply made pins and unnerving slot tightness. Mostly the cheap pins are of concern. The whole situation is a little shoddy at best and I figure if I make a module I can save the lifespan of those edge connectors inside the Retron 5, so there is no fancy work going on here.

[lidnariq]

The pin spacing on the SNES, as with the NES (but not the famicom) is a funny 1/10th of a "metric inch" (2.5mm instead of 2.54mm). Some people on the forum here have reported luck using ordinary 1/10th inch header, but it's not entirely clear how that works.

The center connector of the SNES is substantially narrower than the NES's full cartridge, so it seems more likely to work out...

[MottZilla]

Wouldn't you think that the Retron 5 uses the same incorrect pitch connectors that are widely available? I don't think they'd have paid to have correct pitch connectors made solely for them. Though I guess if they are known to be different (and apparently poor quality) then maybe they did have their own made.

I think InfiniteNESLives mentioned the pitch issue before with his flash carts. He'd probably know something about the subject. I think the Kazzo programmer's connector is not the right pitch but his flash carts have different pin widths or something so that they will work both in the original system and with the incorrect connector pitch. Atleast I'm pretty sure he said that you wouldn't be able to read normal carts with the connector that he had to use.

[tepples]

But I can see why NES might be easier. Because of that huge unused expansion connector gap in the middle, the 72-pin NES Game Pak connector can be treated as two separate ~30-pin connectors: one for CPU and one for PPU. I imagine that a 2.54 mm pitch connector with a correction in the middle should be able to mate fairly well.

[MottZilla]

On the programmer it's one long connector, not two separate ones. I think it can read original cartridges and dump them. Talking about the NES ofcourse. I recall hearing the problems are with the SNES stuff.

[K_Devel]

erm so nobody has found something viable on Digikey? I have an SNES game genie I can use but I was just curious if I could.. not do that. lol.. I already made an NES and Genesis passthrough carts. The NES I used the back end of the NES's original 72-pin connector, the part that connects to the system, not the game slot. Just chopped it up so it would accept a cart then hacked the bottom off of a non-glob version of SMB/Duck Hunt, put it together and viola. Worked. I'm ordering some different 72-pin connectors on DigiKey (http://www.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch ... 9480656788). Probably rework it with those. Genesis I just used a game genie connector and hacked off the bottom of a crappy game. I was gonna hold off on the SNES passthrough if I could find something usable on Digikey or similar site but if it seems there is nothing reasonably priced or even available I suppose it's not a big deal to just desolder the SNES game genie but curious if there is anything manufactured that could prove useful for other people seeking a solution and has far less spare parts sitting around than I do.

Also I'm curious if there is a viable Sega Genesis edge connector on DigiKey. So far I've gotten little info and some people being a bit iffy on both Genesis and SNES edge connectors from non-specific slots rather than ones specifically manufactured for these systems such as game genie and such.

[qwertymodo]

For SNES:

http://board.byuu.net/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=3962

http://www.te.com/catalog/bin/TE.Connec ... 465232&N=1

[tepples]

I was probably just going to go with hot glue

Glad to see you're coming to understand the ways of Drakon Power



(Explanation: Drakon is known for use of hot glue in NES projects, which has caused drama.)

[mikejmoffitt]

I was probably just going to go with hot glue

Glad to see you're coming to understand the ways of Drakon Power

{Drakon Power}

(Explanation: Drakon is known for use of hot glue in NES projects, which has caused drama.)

This is beautiful. Did you make this?

[qwertymodo]

I was probably just going to go with hot glue

Glad to see you're coming to understand the ways of Drakon Power

Haha, no. I was, at most, going to use a small bead on each end of the slot to properly center the cart. Ended up not really needing it, as it's not really necessary for non-expansion carts (and even among the expansion carts, the SA-1 is the only one I know of that actually needs any of the extra pins for cart dumping).

[tepples]

{Drakon Power}

(Explanation: Drakon is known for use of hot glue in NES projects[...])

This is beautiful. Did you make this?

Nope, I just see it used often in #nesdev on EFnet. It's just someone's shop of the box art of the NTSC U/C version of Dragon Ball. Notice the white arc above the "P" where someone didn't completely shop out the old "P".

[tepples]

In #nesdev I dared wyatt8740 to shop Drakon's avatar into the pic. He accepted.

[tepples]

Cyanide & Happiness short: Drakon robs an arts and crafts store

[infiniteneslives]

This is the solution I recently came up with that works very well for me.

Uses TE connectivity 5530843-7 60pin connector readily available for Digikey and similar for a few dollars. I had some bare PCB inserts fabricated to narrow down the connector to 46 pins. Yes the pitch is wrong, but with the inserts properly centering the cart perfect contact is made with all pins. You don't have to remove the board from the plastic cartridge when inserting either.

Only real problem with it is that it will only fit standard 46pin carts. Big 96pin (I think that's the count) carts like yoshi's island won't fit.

If you're in North America I'll send you some of the PCB inserts if you need them. One could easily create something similar out of some other hard comparable thickness material though. I forget the dimensions off the top of my head but can pull em up if anyone is interested. Important part is they can't be same size as you have to trim an odd number of positions. Almost made that mistake myself with the first batch..

[qwertymodo]

AliExpress has replacement 62-pin connectors for SNES with the actual correct pin spacing. They're only available in lots of 10, as far as I can tell, but $2 each is cheap if you can find a few people that want to go in on a group order.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Replace ... 83635.html