Give a Clone Console More Power

Discuss hardware-related topics, such as development cartridges, CopyNES, PowerPak, EPROMs, or whatever.

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Zoldark
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Give a Clone Console More Power

Post by Zoldark »

Can you give a NES or Famicom Clone Console More Power? The reason I ask is I have my FeiHao HG-938 Handheld Famicom Clone that I love, but the problem is it will not work with my Everdrives. The reason being is the NES Everdrive say's that it can not work on clone consoles that do not have enough Power or something to that effect. So I was wondering if I could somehow Modify my Favorite Console to get it to work, is there a way?

Anyway It is something about "the knock-off versions of assembled game consoles (not having enough power to start)" your Everdrive.

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804182839346.html

I guess I could take my console a part and take some pictures of it if that helps, but has anyone ever done such a thing before?

As I don't want to ruin my favorite console in the process.
Don't buy FamicomNes games WillyNilly Check the Mapper first
https://www.nesdev.org/wiki/Mapper
https://nescartdb.com/
I feel like I said something wrong even if I didn't I don't know for sure and I always feel bad about it.
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Individualised
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Re: Give a Clone Console More Power

Post by Individualised »

It may not be that your console does not give enough power, rather that it may not actually be an NES; rather it uses an enhanced chipset such as VT03 which is not fully compatible with the NES and may have incompatibilities with flash carts.
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Memblers
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Re: Give a Clone Console More Power

Post by Memblers »

I wonder if it's running everything at 3.3V, cart included.

I guess there's no difference if you power it on, then hold the reset button for a while? Or power it up while holding reset?

People around here would be interested in seeing pictures of the inside, I guess there's a good chance it's just a bunch of epoxy blobs though. Seems unlikely it will be something that can be fixed. Also, an FPGA cart probably won't be doing the battery life any favors.

I would be very wary of doing any kind of power mods to something that's running on a lithium battery. Being a portable device, you could end up with a fire on your hands, literally.
Zoldark
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Re: Give a Clone Console More Power

Post by Zoldark »

Individualised wrote: Tue May 30, 2023 1:12 pm It may not be that your console does not give enough power, rather that it may not actually be an NES; rather it uses an enhanced chipset such as VT03 which is not fully compatible with the NES and may have incompatibilities with flash carts.
Memblers wrote: Tue May 30, 2023 7:00 pm I wonder if it's running everything at 3.3V, cart included.

I guess there's no difference if you power it on, then hold the reset button for a while? Or power it up while holding reset?

People around here would be interested in seeing pictures of the inside, I guess there's a good chance it's just a bunch of epoxy blobs though. Seems unlikely it will be something that can be fixed. Also, an FPGA cart probably won't be doing the battery life any favors.

I would be very wary of doing any kind of power mods to something that's running on a lithium battery. Being a portable device, you could end up with a fire on your hands, literally.
Thanks for the advice, The console doesn't actually have a flat lithium battery just a big Round Rechargeable Battery.
It took me all day but I finally got the pictures of the insides of my console uploaded from my phone although the lighting in my house sucks and I just put them all in a 7zip file. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/z2j ... Console.7z

I think it should run at 5 volts cause the power cable "Charger" is USB.

It does have incompatibilities with some my Flash Carts such as my Mapper 4 and Mapper 1 PCB but I managed to trick it into working with my Mapper 4 Cart using a series of adapters that however didn't work for My Mapper 1 PCB. It works fine with my Mapper 30 Flash Boards though.
Don't buy FamicomNes games WillyNilly Check the Mapper first
https://www.nesdev.org/wiki/Mapper
https://nescartdb.com/
I feel like I said something wrong even if I didn't I don't know for sure and I always feel bad about it.
OmDRetro
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Joined: Sat Mar 25, 2023 7:54 pm

Re: Give a Clone Console More Power

Post by OmDRetro »

It's not likely a power issue since I've been told the same thing with my Coolbaby RS-35 'cause it uses "black beans" A.K.A. - Blob top NOAC. I end up with a green screen upon powering mine on.

While not every NOAC is the same since some are actually compatible with Everdrive N8's, there's absolutely no way to tell which NOAC is suitable.
It's clearly a gamble for NOAC consoles :(

Reference for claim above here and here

Your best bet is to try out other flash cartridges such as the ff.:
tepples
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Re: Give a Clone Console More Power

Post by tepples »

For comparison: I have had power-related problems with a flash cart in a Nintendo game console, though not in an NES. Booting the first run of the EverDrive-GB X5 (Rev.A) in a Game Boy pocket needs a ritual of power cycling a few times. This is because Game Boy pocket's regulator provides less current at initial power up than other models. This was reportedly fixed in Rev.B.

If you have a multimeter, I'd be interested to see what voltage you're getting across the power pins when an authentic game is in use and when a flash cart is in use.

Another source of incompatibility with flash carts is what Individualised alluded to. Some famiclone chips support a mode called OneBus, which multiplexes PRG ROM and CHR ROM over one set of pins. They detect OneBus cartridges by misusing pins like /PA13 and internal VRAM enable, as the vast majority of authentic and bootleg games just tie these pins together. This breaks compatibility with games that don't tie them together, namely those that use more than 2 screens of nametable memory such as Napoleon Senki, Gauntlet, Rad Racer II, After Burner, and MMC5 games.
Zoldark
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Re: Give a Clone Console More Power

Post by Zoldark »

OmDRetro wrote: Wed May 31, 2023 12:18 am It's not likely a power issue since I've been told the same thing with my Coolbaby RS-35 'cause it uses "black beans" A.K.A. - Blob top NOAC. I end up with a green screen upon powering mine on.

While not every NOAC is the same since some are actually compatible with Everdrive N8's, there's absolutely no way to tell which NOAC is suitable.
It's clearly a gamble for NOAC consoles :(

Reference for claim above here and here

Your best bet is to try out other flash cartridges such as the ff.:
Thanks for the info, The Console does work with my Krzysiocart, but I didn't know there was alternative to the Everdrive.

I also have a Hamy HG-891 maybe I should try getting one my Everdrives to work with it.
tepples wrote: Wed May 31, 2023 6:49 am For comparison: I have had power-related problems with a flash cart in a Nintendo game console, though not in an NES. Booting the first run of the EverDrive-GB X5 (Rev.A) in a Game Boy pocket needs a ritual of power cycling a few times. This is because Game Boy pocket's regulator provides less current at initial power up than other models. This was reportedly fixed in Rev.B.

If you have a multimeter, I'd be interested to see what voltage you're getting across the power pins when an authentic game is in use and when a flash cart is in use.

Another source of incompatibility with flash carts is what Individualised alluded to. Some famiclone chips support a mode called OneBus, which multiplexes PRG ROM and CHR ROM over one set of pins. They detect OneBus cartridges by misusing pins like /PA13 and internal VRAM enable, as the vast majority of authentic and bootleg games just tie these pins together. This breaks compatibility with games that don't tie them together, namely those that use more than 2 screens of nametable memory such as Napoleon Senki, Gauntlet, Rad Racer II, After Burner, and MMC5 games.
I think I may have a multimeter somewhere, but The Console doesn't work with Mapper 5 Games at all. There is only one game of those I tried that loads a garble screen on it https://nescartdb.com/profile/view/1532 ... an-tengoku all the others will not load at all.

Rad Racer 2 doesn't work correctly on it either cause the game uses 4 Screen Mirroring "However that seems to be the case for every Famicom or Nes Clone I own" I don't have a single one that supports 4 Screen Mirroring. I can only play it is on my Original NES, IDK if there is a Clone Console that supports Four Screen Mirroring.

IDK about After Burner but Gauntlet and Napoleon Senki probably wouldn't work cause the Four Screen Mirroring.

Originally it wouldn't work with my Mapper 79 games but I got a Retroad Adapter and it works fine with them. https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804352778375.html
Don't buy FamicomNes games WillyNilly Check the Mapper first
https://www.nesdev.org/wiki/Mapper
https://nescartdb.com/
I feel like I said something wrong even if I didn't I don't know for sure and I always feel bad about it.
OmDRetro
Posts: 20
Joined: Sat Mar 25, 2023 7:54 pm

Re: Give a Clone Console More Power

Post by OmDRetro »

There's a way to make Rad Racer 2 work on famiclones.

Use the patch here intended for the Nintendo Classic Mini (NES Mini)

Patch Name as of writing: "d3e2a7d8-RadRacer2.ips"
Convert NES-TVROM to a non-standard MMC3 Board(Generic TxROM?)

From:

Code: Select all

Rad Racer II (Unmodified)
Soft-patched: No
System:       NES-NTSC
Board:        NES-TVROM, Mapper 4
PRG-ROM:      64k
CHR-ROM:      64k
V-RAM:        4k
Chips:        MMC3B
To:

Code: Select all

Rad Racer II (NES Mini Patch)
Soft-patched: No
System:       PlayChoice-10
Board:        TxROM (non-standard), Mapper 4
PRG-ROM:      64k
CHR-ROM:      64k
V-RAM:        4k
W-RAM:        8k
I tested the patched ROM on my Krzysiocart + Coolbaby RS-35 and it works flawlessly. The same cannot be said for emulators though since it fails to load on the latest FCEUX and has graphical issues on Nestopia.
Zoldark
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Re: Give a Clone Console More Power

Post by Zoldark »

OmDRetro wrote: Sun Jun 04, 2023 2:49 am There's a way to make Rad Racer 2 work on famiclones.

Use the patch here intended for the Nintendo Classic Mini (NES Mini)

Patch Name as of writing: "d3e2a7d8-RadRacer2.ips"
Convert NES-TVROM to a non-standard MMC3 Board(Generic TxROM?)

From:

Code: Select all

Rad Racer II (Unmodified)
Soft-patched: No
System:       NES-NTSC
Board:        NES-TVROM, Mapper 4
PRG-ROM:      64k
CHR-ROM:      64k
V-RAM:        4k
Chips:        MMC3B
To:

Code: Select all

Rad Racer II (NES Mini Patch)
Soft-patched: No
System:       PlayChoice-10
Board:        TxROM (non-standard), Mapper 4
PRG-ROM:      64k
CHR-ROM:      64k
V-RAM:        4k
W-RAM:        8k
I tested the patched ROM on my Krzysiocart + Coolbaby RS-35 and it works flawlessly. The same cannot be said for emulators though since it fails to load on the latest FCEUX and has graphical issues on Nestopia.
Thank you, That's awesome and I just tested the patched ROM with the NintedulatorNRS and it had graphical glitches at first but if you get rid of 4-screen VRAM in the header it fixes it and then the game runs flawlessly in it, I also tested it with the latest FCEUX 2.6.5 64 SDL and the patched Rom works flawlessly with the SDL FCEUX once you fix the mirroring to be just Horizontal.

Edit: well maybe not flawlessly on FCEUX with fixed Horizontal Mirroring it has graphical flashes when you pass a car but it's mostly a minor glitch it plays best on NintendulaterNRS. I also tested both versions on my Kryziocart + HG-938 and both Patched Roms worked flawlessly on it the one with 4-screen VRAM and the one with only Horizontal Mirroring, it's just for emulators that you need to fix the Mirroring.
Don't buy FamicomNes games WillyNilly Check the Mapper first
https://www.nesdev.org/wiki/Mapper
https://nescartdb.com/
I feel like I said something wrong even if I didn't I don't know for sure and I always feel bad about it.
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