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USA

Page-1 LED!

So, I just modded my EMS 64m carts successfully adding an LED that indicates Page-1.

Check it out!

Last edited by SurfaceDragon (Jan 3, 2012 6:34 pm)

Offline
Minneapolis

Lovely. Care to elaborate?

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matt's mind

big_smile  elaborate...

Offline
USA

I will write a tutorial very soon.

This mod only requires
-An EMS 64m Cartridge
-An LED
-A tiny screwdriver
-Solder
-Wire
-A soldering iron
-A Game boy
-And extreme soldering skills

Offline
Minneapolis

Extreme? Well, regardless, I am curious. Post pics pls?

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sweden

XTREME 2 TEH MAX

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UK

SO EXTREME THE FACE WOLL MOLT.

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USA

Page-1 LED Tutorial

Necessary Supplies
-One EMS 64m Cart
-One Game Boy
-A very small screwdriver
-An LED
-Solder
-A soldering iron
-Protective seeing eye glasses
-An ice cool beverage
-And this tutorial

Optional supplies
-Wire
-Electrical tape
-A replacement LED for page-2 indicator
-A different cartridge case
-Any other soldering supplies and/or electronic components
-And a tasty snack to accompany your ice cool beverage


!!! Note - Don't forget to backup your .sav file from your EMS cart on your computer. !!!


If you have gathered these necessary supplies you are now ready to fire up the soldering iron and face your first obstacle.


Obstacle 1 - Opening the cartridge case

(I have purposely left out instruction on how to open your EMS 64m cartridge case just to mess with you. Good Luck!)


Obstacle 2 - Locate positive and negative

Light emitting diodes(LEDs) will not light up if installed backwards.

I couldn't take a clear enough picture with my cheap digital camera so I quickly made this to illustrate which points you will be soldering to.

There are other places you could potential solder to. This is just what worked best for me. Some points may cause your game to glitch-out or erase your .sav file.


Obstacle 3 - Solder and test

Prep the areas you are about to solder by applying a very small amount of heat and solder. This process is called tinning.

This process is necessary and very easy to mess-up. So if you don't feel comfortable with your soldering skills stop now.

Read-up on proper soldering techniques and practice.

And please be careful you could burn, blind, impale, set fire to, electrocute, maim, or kill yourself or someone else with a hot soldering iron. Solder can also explode if you apply too much heat for an extended period of time. An explosion of burning hot liquid lead is not a fun thing to get in your eyes so please wear protective seeing eye glasses. Also hot soldering irons can cause toxic fumes and can burn your house down. Lead is also poisonous. Please be careful!

Solder the positive to positive and the negative to negative.

Then position the LED pretty much where you want it to be. Place the cart's circuit board into the back half of its case.

Carefully slide that half cart into your Game Boy. Flip the Game Boys on/off switch.

If you have done everything properly your new Page-1 LED will light up.

Also test the Page-2 LED and don't forget to check your Game Boy's screen and functionality when you test it.

If everything works, carefully put the cartridge together, and screw it closed.


Good Luck!
-Max N.

Last edited by SurfaceDragon (Jan 3, 2012 6:42 pm)

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USA

It is also relatively easy to replace the Page-2 LED.

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SLC, UT

I modded mine so there is no LED on if you're on page one. I think I have you beat.

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USA

Kitsch - You should think about offering this mod as an extra option with the EMS carts you sell. I'm sure there is someone who would pay you an extra 5 or 10 bucks for this. I got my EMS carts from you and I am so happy with them. Thank you!

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brooklyn, NY

Personally, Id rather have a mod that allows one to manually switch between menus.   Should be easy :a pushbutton between ground and the menu cap.  A momentary path to ground will immediately drain the cap and should solve the "stuck on menu 2" power cycling issues  -this is just a therory.  I Havent tried it cause i only have one cart and i dont want to sacrifice it for a learn n burn.

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USA

I am so upset.

I just destroyed my red LDSJ cart. I was attempting to add a menu switch to my red LSDJ cart and I failed horribly. I soldered everything in place, went to test it in my DMG, then everything slipped out of my hands. As I caught my DMG the wires I just soldered into the cart got pulled out along with some of the cart's components. R4 got pulled out and is now somewhere lost on my dinning room floor. The boot-up Nintendo logo doesn't even show up, just a few horizontal lines.

F!

Its all my fault.

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Matthew Joseph Payne

ouch, but doesn't sound unfixable. If it's just one resistor, you can probably fix it. It'll be tricky, but should be doable!

Assuming, of course, that nothing fried when you tried to boot it up while it was broken...

If you can take some decent photos of the damage, I'd bet we could help.

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Minneapolis

Sure, I'd love to see pics and give you a hand. Also, don't let a little (or big) hardware failure stymie your hacking efforts! I have blown up, melted, fried, and let the magic smoke out of countless devices while hacking. And continue to do so on occasion. Just last week I killed one of my Munchausen NES cables during a burn-in test of a faulty design, and I also killed one of the first prototype carts with a combination of too much heat, too many soldering/desoldering cycles, and ESD. Take lots of pics of all of your work, failed or not, and then you and others can learn from it.

Every time I blow something up I congratulate myself on a mess well made. smile Good work, and good luck!

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USA

My camera sucks at taking detailed close-up shots.

I'm going to keep trying to fix it but it looks pretty hopeless.

I did however put the guts from a Tetris cart, some red LEDs and a "Top Secret" 2gig USB drive into the red LSDJ cart's case.