Problems when extending cart. connector

jeroen · Post by **jeroen** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 1:08 pm

Try perfboard. You might be sick of it but it's reliable

vomitsaw · Post by **vomitsaw** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 9:32 pm

jeroen wrote:Try perfboard. You might be sick of it but it's reliable

Sigh. It's looking like I might have to, which would be a huge pain in my butt for a couple of reasons. One, I hate fanning out all those pins to fit in the perfboard because of Nintendo connectors' weird pitch, and two, those connectors are positioned on that board in precise locations for a reason. I've got a few more tricks up my sleeve before I go that route though. I keep running into the stupidest problems at the worst times.

vomitsaw · Post by **vomitsaw** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 12:35 am

Just a quick follow-up. I've done a bit more testing and have now determined that the length and gauge of the cabling aren't the cause of my problem, but more likely an issue somewhere on my PCB. Not exactly sure WHAT, since continuity seems fine, no broken traces and the problem only appears on one or two games, but at least I've narrowed it down. Bizarre.

Anyway, thanks for all your input. It's appreciated.

jeroen · Post by **jeroen** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 3:22 pm

Maybe your pcb traces are too thin. Causing them to act like resistors.

vomitsaw · Post by **vomitsaw** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 8:28 pm

jeroen wrote:Maybe your pcb traces are too thin. Causing them to act like resistors.

Yep, that'd be my guess too. I took a belt sander to it and completely got rid of the traces, then soldered directly to the pins on the connector. It worked, I dumped a f*ckton of epoxy on it and called it a day!

I probably had that side of the board in the etching solution a little too long. Lesson learned.