InfiniteLives: Anyone have his contact info?

[jforrest1980]

Hey everyone. I signed up on here because I am trying to reach InfiniteLives. I saw he posted here and need to reach him, but have been unsuccessful over the last several weeks. I also signed up because I am a computer science major, and plan to get some information on nes development in the near future. As I am a avid NES fan.

So it is nice to meet you all!

Basically I have contacted InfiniteLives 3 times over the last several weeks. I have never received a response. I am using the main email listed on the homepage. It's the Paul@InfiniteNesLives.com address I have been using. I also tried sending him a PM here. Maybe he has some real life stuff going on, I am not sure.

A brief summary is that I purchased a 10 pack of 4MB SNES carts, and all arrived with battery holders that are way too slim for any batteries to fit. The first one I tried, and thought maybe it was just a bit too snug, and it ripped the floor off the PCB. I tried messing with it, to see if I could bend the holder a bit to get the battery to fit, and no dice. All the other 9 PCB's all have holders that are seated too low for any batteries to fit. I emailed InfiniteLives and have not received a response, and am kind of stuck because I can not use any of the PCB's with faulty holders. I was hoping I could somehow fix them myself, to not have to deal with having them repaired/replaced, but nothing is working.

Has anyone had this issue before? If so how did you fix it? I think there must have been some defect in manufacturing, or maybe he switched to a new holder type. All the PCB's I have purchased in the past worked great. Hopefully this was just a bad batch, as I really love the product, and want to remain a loyal customer.

Thanks for your time everyone, and I hope to see you all in the forums over the next several years to talk about game development.

May the Schwartz be with you all.

[yogi]

Hi and welcome jforrest1980,
I can't speak for Paul but I believe he has been moving; based on a note on another site. It has been my experience that if you contact the email @ his store site you will get a response sooner or later. Sounds like you are in the 'or later' category atm; sorry to hear, he is a active member that is usually very responsive.
On the NES carts I have ordered, it doesn't seem like the batt holder Could be mounted too low; the clips (Linx brand) have shoulders on the solder tabs that sets their height above the board. Do make sure to use the right sized batt, a CR 2032 on my boards.
Perhaps you could post a pix?
Yogi

[jforrest1980]

Thanks for the reply. He is finding time to ship items, so I would think he is checking his email. These have to be different height clips or something. Do you have a link to the ones you speak of? If worse comes to worse I will just solder in new ones.

I will also post a pic soon. I am familiar with cr2032 batteries. I change and add holders to all my cartridge based games.

[yogi]

Thanks for the reply. He is finding time to ship items, so I would think he is checking his email. These have to be different height clips or something. Do you have a link to the ones you speak of? If worse comes to worse I will just solder in new ones.

I will also post a pic soon. I am familiar with cr2032 batteries. I change and add holders to all my cartridge based games.

Sorry I don't know where he sources the clip from, the only marking is "Linx". This seems to be the manufacture's site
https://www.linxtechnologies.com/en/pro ... ry-holders
it's this model BAT-HLD-001-THM

bat-hld-001-thm.pdf

(78.21 KiB) Downloaded 198 times

Yogi

[jforrest1980]

OK, I just took some pics. It is hard to tell from them, but the battery it taller than the holder is mounted. I can not insert the battery at all without forcing the battery in and bending the roof of the holder. Even then it will only go in about a mm or 2. The holders do look identical, but if you look close you can see the working holder is mounted higher up slightly above the PCB. The holders that are not working are almost flush with the PCB at the base. So I am not sure but maybe these bad holders have slightly shorter legs that make it impossible to insert a battery without ripping the floor off the pcb. I tried benging the leg on one and re-soldering, but nothing works, There is not a lot of room on these legs to bend them, and I am using suture removal tools from the hospital I work in, which are strong and allow you to grip anything.

The not working holder is the one on the bottom. You can see how on the top holder the battery has room to slide in.

[tepples]

Does CR2025 fit?

[Memblers]

Does CR2025 fit?

BT-HLD-001-TH is supposed to work with 2032 and 2025. And 2025 is 0.7mm shorter. So, probably. How are you supposed to space it properly when it's being mounted? I was looking at using a SMT version of this kind of battery holder, not for this reason, but seems it would not have this kind of problem.

[jforrest1980]

Does CR2025 fit?

That's a great idea. I will see if I can find a CR2025 at the grocery store tomorrow night after work. I will post back my results. They are both 3v. so they should be good. I'm surprised I never thought of that because I use CR2032 when I do Gameboy battery changes sometimes.

Still have not heard back from Infinitelives. I am going to shoot him another email now while I am thinking about it.

[yogi]

Does CR2025 fit?

BT-HLD-001-TH is supposed to work with 2032 and 2025. And 2025 is 0.7mm shorter. So, probably. How are you supposed to space it properly when it's being mounted? I was looking at using a SMT version of this kind of battery holder, not for this reason, but seems it would not have this kind of problem.

From looking at the clips on the boards I have and the drawings, there is a 2mm shoulder on the solder tabs. With the correct size hole, 0.8mm, the tab will only go in as far as this shoulder. With this shoulder flush to the board, the top of the clip will be 4.2mm above the board, a CR2032 is at 3.1mm.
Looking closer at one of my boards, the shoulder is a fraction off the board, <1mm. Don't know if this was on purpose or just the 'way it came out'.
@ jforrest1980, something wrong with the pix link, but hope you can get by with 2025s. If need be, you could try reflowing the solder while trying to lift the clip abit. This may be easier said than done and you may be better off taking this up with INL, I'm sure it's just 'summer stuff' that's kept him off the radar atm.
yogi