Hacking DEAD [Shutdown]DragonInjector - Game Cart Payload Injector (Trinket M0 Clone)

[Realista]

HI,

How might I go about contacting you?

I’d like to assist if i can and seek to request help and maybe partner in to complete an easy awesome project for the switch.

 

[Only1chance]

HI,

How might I go about contacting you?

I’d like to assist if i can and seek to request help and maybe partner in to complete an easy awesome project for the switch.

you can reach him on his discord, few pages back is the link

 

[MockyLock]

Do like this project.
Waiting for the release !

 

[SavagePR]

Still waiting for release day

 

[Don Jon]

 

[wurstpistole]

Now this takes way longer than expected

 

[OrGoN3]

Now this takes way longer than expected

I just want that jig. It looks nice, and has a nice resistor in it.

 

[ioann1s]

the supercapacitors to power it don't exist in this form factor so he will try either li-po batteries or button cell batteries

 

[tiliarou]

The super capacitors exists (in terms of form factor), but they suffer from a very high drain so only one or two injection was guaranteed while charged, which is a bit suboptimal.
Batteries would allow dozens of injections.
The board needs to be redesigned to accommodate this.

 

[noX1609]

@MatinatorX: Podukt looks nice in the picture on page 1 Really great job! Where have you got this m0 pcb? I only know it in a different shape.
Do you plan on building this tool and sell it to other people? Because if so i‘m in on one or maybe some more for friends. So if you have this working and are ready to sell some please contact me. I‘m from Germany so postal costs are a bit higher if you are in the US or where do you come from?
But for now: Please write a quick answer if you plan to sell some of them. If so i can wait for it to be finished and don‘t order an SX Pro

 

[ioann1s]

@MatinatorX: Podukt looks nice in the picture on page 1 Really great job! Where have you got this m0 pcb? I only know it in a different shape.
Do you plan on building this tool and sell it to other people? Because if so i‘m in on one or maybe some more for friends. So if you have this working and are ready to sell some please contact me. I‘m from Germany so postal costs are a bit higher if you are in the US or where do you come from?
But for now: Please write a quick answer if you plan to sell some of them. If so i can wait for it to be finished and don‘t order an SX Pro

drop by the discord server for details (https://discord.gg/PjhRPfJ)

 

[Deleted User]

The OP doesn't seem to have been edited with updates since September. Out of curiosity what is the current status of this project ?

 

[Akira]

The OP doesn't seem to have been edited with updates since September. Out of curiosity what is the current status of this project ?

Join the official discord of DragonInjector to see the current progress

 

[Deleted User]

Join the official discord of DragonInjector to see the current progress

I'd rather not join the Discord just to get an update on the current status.

last I heard he had his parts in and the test went well which was over a month ago

 

[nightweb]

I'd rather not join the Discord just to get an update on the current status.

last I heard he had his parts in and the test went well which was over a month ago

Last time I check in I believe that there was an issue with the super cap's draining themselves too quickly when not in use to be viable to use normally, after about 30 mins it would need charging so he's redesigned the board to use a tiny watch battery even thought is might cause issues with shipping. after redesigning the board he had an issue with printing a 0.4mm board with 4 layer so he redesigned it again to be 2 layers. and another round of boards were ordered.

though I must say most of this just me popping in to the discord every couple of days to check in so I could be completely wrong, your best bet would be to drop by the discord, even in the browser with a temp user name a read the development thread.

 

[nightweb]

Last time I check in I believe that there was an issue with the super cap's draining themselves too quickly when not in use to be viable to use normally, after about 30 mins it would need charging so he's redesigned the board to use a tiny watch battery even thought is might cause issues with shipping. after redesigning the board he had an issue with printing a 0.4mm board with 4 layer so he redesigned it again to be 2 layers. and another round of boards were ordered.

though I must say most of this just me popping in to the discord every couple of days to check in so I could be completely wrong, your best bet would be to drop by the discord, even in the browser with a temp user name a read the development thread.

I forget to put in that now he's designed it to use watch batteries to avoid possible issues with customs he said about not shipping with batteries installed, however on testing I believe he was trying to use a CR1212 but couldn't find one so testing with a CR1216 which should give at least 250 injection. other than haven't a look at seeing if the injector can be charged in the slot but I can['t be 100% sure and I thought I seen RCM mentioned so might just be that but won't be able to check in till later sorry

 

[tiliarou]

I'd rather not join the Discord just to get an update on the current status.

last I heard he had his parts in and the test went well which was over a month ago

He works on it daily and posts updates almost as frequently. Which is why it's not really convenient to prepare daily report messages.
Either you follow the discord (it takes 2 minutes to create an account, you can even make a dummy one), or you don't get as much update as you could. Your choice.

 

[MatinatorX]

He works on it daily and posts updates almost as frequently. Which is why it's not really convenient to prepare daily report messages.
Either you follow the discord (it takes 2 minutes to create an account, you can even make a dummy one), or you don't get as much update as you could. Your choice.

That is indeed the case. Unfortunately I've been neglecting this thread as most news has either been relatively small or developing, and I prefer to post large updates here. In addition to that I've needed to work overtime at my day job to meet out current workload, which leaves precious little time to work on the project. Sorry everyone for the lack of updates here!

I will be posting a big update late next week or early the week after when the latest board revision arrives from the fab. There's been a lot of developments since my last big post here, and I'm now on Revision 11 of the design. Until that time, here are some key points and changes:

- The supercaps are out. They were able to manage one injection at best and had a standby time of less than half an hour, even when doubled up in series and charged with a special $5 charge-pump IC. The short of why this is the case seems that the reported capacitance (0.22F in this case) is only valid at a certain current draw, which is not mentioned on the datasheet. Documentation on this behavior is pretty sparse at best. While I still can't find any numbers for the caps I used, a similar cap from Elna touts a maximum discharge current of 0.05mA. The project draws 10mA, which breaks down the stored charge almost immediately.

- Return of the button cell! The project is now powered by a CR1216. It will not come with one so it can make it through customs, but they are common and inexpensive. Obviously, these aren't rechargeable. Some time in the future I'll look at a LiPo version of the DragonInjector, but it would be very difficult to ship I believe. That said, @stuckpixel on the Discord has found a way to control power of the gamecard slot which means I could now utilize it for charging as was originally intended! It wouldn't be for a few months at the earliest I could work on a LiPo version though, and the 200815 battery I'd need to use is rather expensive, so the cost would be about $20 more than the current version if it's possible to make.

- Injection count! I tested 250 injections out of a single CR1216 with a modified Trinket M0, and the voltage barely dropped 0.1V. It took a few hours of touching wires together over and over and after 250 I ran out of power before the battery did. I expect the final injection count per battery will be a good deal higher than that and I'll be testing that as soon as the newest prototype is soldered up!

- Colors! I will now be offering both green and black DragonInjectors at launch, with Blue, Yellow, Red and Clear to follow if there's enough demand. The sticker and the PCB color will match the case color.

- Kickstand! I haven't posted anything about it here, but about a month and a half ago I designed a kickstand (I named it the DragonKicker, surprise surprise) that can store 3 MicroSD cards at a time, and uses a magnet to keep it closed. This was a request in the discord as many had noticed after lots of use the stock kickstand didn't stay in place any longer, and the Nyko MicroSD-holding kickstand has some usability issues. It's thicker than the stock kickstand, but just thin enough the Switch will still fit in the dock. They will be going on sale for $5 alongside the DragonInjector, or for a little cheaper if you end up wanting both. I'll make a separate post for the kickstand at that time.

I'm probably forgetting something, but it's late and I need sleep. Attached are renders of the latest design in black, as well as some renders and pictures of the DragonKicker. As always they are high res at source!

Thanks again everyone for all the support!

 

[wurstpistole]

So if you're using non-rechargeable batteries now, you might as well just lose the connecting pins on the game cart itself? No need for that anymore.
Is there any issues with the D.I. being detected as a 'gamecard' - for example xci loading not working?

 

[MatinatorX]

So if you're using non-rechargeable batteries now, you might as well just lose the connecting pins on the game cart itself? No need for that anymore.
Is there any issues with the D.I. being detected as a 'gamecard' - for example xci loading not working?

The pins are there mostly for cosmetic reasons now, to make it looks more like a real gamecart but also because they won't get scratched up like soldermask would.

If you look at the leftmost pin, you'll notice it's broken into two, even though on a real game cart it's a single pin. This keeps the DragonInjector from shorting the "Detect" pin to ground, so the Switch will have no idea anything is in the game card slot.