nesdev.org

Very nice! Sorry for bumping a two-year old thread but how does one make a NES cart PCB?

Except for experts, it's probably easiest to buy a PCB and populate it. It depends on which mapper your game uses. NROM (0), CNROM (3), UNROM (2, 180), BNROM (34), and AOROM (7) can be reproduced with the ReproPak board, an EEPROM for PRG, an EEPROM or SRAM for CHR, a couple 7400 series ICs, and a CIClone. MMC1 (1) can be reproduced with the ReproPak MMC1 board, an EEPROM for PRG, an EEPROM or SRAM for CHR, and a CIClone.

If you really feel like designing your own PCB, the key dimensions are 2.50 mm from the center of one pin to the next (not the more common 2.54 mm) and 1.2 mm thickness.

I would if I could I really don't know where to begin to make the PCB's traces, I thought that a factory was needed to that stuff. How did Farid printed his own PCB design anyway?

I wish that an easier UNROM solution existed apart from the Repropak... I'm programming a homebrew which I want to see released on small quantities, but the price + taxes for 20 Repropaks + Ciclones + Shells, plus transportation costs and taxes make that solution inviable... there are some brazilian members here in this forum, they know what I'm talking about.
Another option is to buy a lot of silent service carts, but I would prefer new boards, and it is hard to find carts in good condition (in larger quantities).

If you know about another easy solution for new UNROM PCB carts please tell me!

Donors are so much cheaper, why NOT use them? But infinite NES lives might be able to throw together/have a PCB design. But if you're not gonna order 100 or so, it's probably not getting them made, it'll be too expensive IIRC.

3gengames wrote:Donors are so much cheaper, why NOT use them? But infinite NES lives might be able to throw together/have a PCB design. But if you're not gonna order 100 or so, it's probably not getting them made, it'll be too expensive IIRC.

That's what it's puzzling me, how did Farid make his own PCB (I'm assuming he made only one pcb for his farsi-translated game)? And depending on the price, I would even contact some national companies about it, but there is another problem: the shells, and I did a more "deep" research on the subject, even the cheaper aluminium molds are dead expensive... better use donors anyway.

The reason I wanted to use new PCBs was because of the 3 wires and pin bending that needs to be done, I wanted to make it look more professional (even being a very small print run), since I'm looking to sell it. Oh well, I hope no one opens the cart's shells

I think the sort of person who's curious enough to open it isn't the sort of person who would look down on you for having to rewire.

tepples wrote:I think the sort of person who's curious enough to open it isn't the sort of person who would look down on you for having to rewire.

Well I really hope you're right .
Thanks for the help!

PCBs are more-or-less only inexpensive when ordered in bulk; as a USAan the cheapest I can find for a 9cm×3cm PCB (about right for a SMT NES discrete logic pak) is about 20USD/3.

Farid made his board by toner transfer method It's a good cost effective option for a single DIY board. The NES makes it a little more difficult due to the 72 pin connector. This really isn't a good option for a small production.

itead is the best solution I've found to getting smaller quantities with the proper thickness. You can get 10 10x5cm boards for around $22 plus shipping.

There are open source CIC solutions out there now, so that can save you around $3 compared to the CIClone. You still have to get a case though. So if you do it right you could still use all new parts for under $10 each plus memory/mapper.

Now if only there were proper grey NES cart shells... I never really liked the transparent colors look.

That toner transfer method is pretty neat. I searched for it and the "PCB Fab-in-a-box" product looks kinda promising, without acid handling: http://www.pcbfx.com/main_site/pages/st ... rview.html , I might try it out someday.

Punch wrote:That toner transfer method is pretty neat. I searched for it and the "PCB Fab-in-a-box" product looks kinda promising, without acid handling: http://www.pcbfx.com/main_site/pages/st ... rview.html , I might try it out someday.

That's a pretty dang expensive 'kit' especiallly when it doesn't come with etchant. itead is cheaper than that kit actually. You can source the needed chemicals, boards, and paper pretty cheaply elsewhere if you're really trying to cut cost. Not to mention corrosion is going to be a pain with self etched NES boards. I'd consider it for a one off, but not production.