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Me, Myself and a CopyNES! (Gyarg! A request for help!)

 
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Carnivol
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Joined: 21 Jun 2004
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 5:20 pm    Post subject: Me, Myself and a CopyNES! (Gyarg! A request for help!) Reply with quote

Anyone here ever assemble a CopyNES before?
(and/or have one of their own)

At some point, I picked up a USB CopyNES from RetroUSB (yay), but it's just been collecting dust on my desk for nearly a year (booh!).

Anyway, the other day I got a new soldering pen (unfortunately not a very thin one) and one of those little suction devices (clicks, like a pen).


I did a rather terrible job at removing the CPU (and even worse job at attaching the connector for the CopyNES board. We're talking really bad... like connectors being totally borked so I had to put out wires to a few connectors in the surrounding areas and stuff), the system would not start at all. But through the magical wonders of turning it on and off again and punching it a few times; the entire mess seemed to work. (At least my Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt cart loaded up, but the picture jumped a bit up and down... no clue why. But everything else seemed to work as it should. So I was kinda happy.)

I noticed that I forgot to connect the cable from connector 16 on the cartridge slot (required for ram cart flashing, or something. At least somehow relevant to me and my RetroPak's interests). So I tear the entire thing back into pieces and wire it up. However, somehow... (I dunno why) I've now borked up something, somewhere. The system, when powered up, gave me a RED screen (Pink if a game was inserted). The interesting thing is that it still did this if I removed the entire CopyNES board from the CPU slot.

So I quickly inspect my poor soldering job... I see a few connectors that might not be making a connection (anymore). So I grease on some more soldering iron... Now the thing goes PINK when I start it. The interesting thing is that it is now RED if I insert a game (inverted of what it was before). A bit of back and forth, it keeps swapping between what's pink and what's red.


Anyway, anyone have a clue if these colors somehow try to tell me where there's a problem? I'd hate to detach the entire connector thingy again (both 'cause sucking up soldering tin is boring and 'cause I did such a fantastic job at... making a mess), so if I could somehow easily locate the issue that'd make my day so sweet and lovely.


This is my only US NTSC NES (at the moment) and I'm not sure what the differences between a PAL and NTSC unit are, but the plan was to put together a 60hz machine (and later evt. do some other "adjustments" to it.


Anyway, if anyone has got any experience with this stuff; please do speak up. I'm interested in some quick pointers + I might ask other questions about this beast later once it evt. is up and running again. I'm hoping to be able to just easily fix this myself, without having to tear my hair out, but I wouldn't be surprised if this RED/PINK screen means I've somehow mysteriously killed something on a permanent basis.


Worst case scenario... I'll just go bother the brats taking some sort of education in electronics at a local school or something. They should have access to more proper equipment for detaching/re-attaching stuff like this, I guess. Though, I might have to get a second NTSC NES before doing that.
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Skrybe
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 10:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You'd probably be best off asking this at NESdev. The guys there should have a better idea of what could cause the symptoms you're describing.
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Computolio_



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PostPosted: Mon Mar 02, 2009 12:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Soldering pen?
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Carnivol
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 10:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yeah, I guess. @NESdev. I guess I'll try there after I've done a second attempt at re-attaching the socket to the CPU spot.

Also, yeah, I should've used a soldering pen, as the iron is indeed a tad bit huge. Unfortunately, not everything related to tiny electronics is easy to get ahold of here, and I just (unfortunately, for me) can't be arsed to order it online from somewhere else.
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