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

[Adran_Marit]

I bought the freckle shack gbc v1 screen mod a few months ago. It shipped with glitches and I had to buy a replacement ribbon cable. I recently bought two gba ips screens from funnyplaying that both shipped with screen tearing. I had to buy a replacement ribbon. After all this time and revisions I really hope you're able to deliver us a V1 working injector because I'm tired of this early adopter shit. I set my eyes on this day one and I don't want to buy two of these as I always planned only for you to announce a "fix" a week later. I've gotten more sceptical in general and while I was one of the first to show interest for this I'm leaning towards waiting a little bit more. Care to comment? This is just my "early adopter in general thoughts".

The Dragoninjector worked 5 revisions ago with version 14, Matinator has been working on this and wants the product to be the best it possibly can be before they end up going on sale. Version 19 is the current board, and is getting shipped to him soon before it goes on sale

I dont speak for him but it's going to be hard-pressed to find a fault with it at this rate. I think the only other thing that is planned is injection molding the case but that won't be for a bit yet as far as I know

 

[isoboy]

Soon... TM.

 

[MatinatorX]

I bought the freckle shack gbc v1 screen mod a few months ago. It shipped with glitches and I had to buy a replacement ribbon cable. I recently bought two gba ips screens from funnyplaying that both shipped with screen tearing. I had to buy a replacement ribbon. After all this time and revisions I really hope you're able to deliver us a V1 working injector because I'm tired of this early adopter shit. I set my eyes on this day one and I don't want to buy two of these as I always planned only for you to announce a "fix" a week later. I've gotten more sceptical in general and while I was one of the first to show interest for this I'm leaning towards waiting a little bit more. Care to comment? This is just my "early adopter in general thoughts".

Totally understand, been there myself for numerous products. What I can tell you is that there have been 19 internal revisions before I was happy with the project, much to the disdain of supporters like @Adran_Marit who have been patiently waiting for over a year now. I have made the choice to postpone release and irritate supporters a few times now to make sure this thing is everything it should be. This is a product I'm going to be using myself, my friends will use, my dad will use - if it's not good enough to meet my standards, it's not getting past my front door. There are some very talented programmers and beta-testers such as Stuckpixel, Jerome and PiePie62 who have really helped out with the project but will also be the first to tell you how picky I am about all the little details.

That said, comments from me about my own project obviously don't hold as much weight, so there are about 25 volunteers who will be receiving their DragonInjector before anyone else, who will be giving their thoughts and experience with the DragonInjector while I prep the other hundreds for the web store. They're paying for the DragonInjector themselves and have a read-only-for-public channel on the Discord where anyone can read what they have to say, good or bad. I'd suggest taking a look in there in a couple of weeks when they have a DI in hand to see what the real world experience is like.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Also want to take the time to give big thanks to Stuckpixel for way too many things to list, but in particular for the Dragonboot chainloader and for rewriting Intermezzo to support LZ4 compressed payloads so there's more space for cool features. The firmware for the DI is just about done now as a result and has way more features and is far easier to use than it ever would have been if I was the one at the helm for everything.

Second, huge props to Jerome for putting together a fantastic app (screenshot attached) used for easily updating the DI when we come up with new features or if fixes are ever needed. It has the ability to check the github releases for new versions and lets you load a local custom UF2 if you make your own. I sent Jerome a concept image I mocked up for the app, and they matched it perfectly, which is unheard of. With this, updating the DI is as simple as plugging it into your PC, waiting until it turns blue, then opening the app and clicking "Update" if one is available. If you want to dive in more or do things the hard way, the firmware sources for the Arduino IDE and UF2 bootloader stuff will of course be available too. Right now it's Windows only but TurtleP is hard at work on a cross-platform version.

It's all open source and could be easily adapted to other dongles and firmwares, like those from @mattytrog . Truly awesome work, which you can find on the git org here: https://github.com/dragoninjector-project

Everything is finally starting to come together.

 

[isoboy]

Nice, it's been so long you forgot I was your very first -to be- tester. Lol. Alright buddy, just sitting here waiting for that purchase link but I think I'll wait for response from the first wave. I know you won't have a problem making as many as you need anyways.

 

[MatinatorX]

Nice, it's been so long you forgot I was your very first -to be- tester. Lol. Alright buddy, just sitting here waiting for that purchase link but I think I'll wait for response from the first wave. I know you won't have a problem making as many as you need anyways.

Sorry about that, things got crazy very quickly and I'm kind of afraid to dive into the badlands of my GBATemp inbox again, and yeah it's also been far too long since I started this project. Discord makes keeping track of things like tester groups actually manageable. An inbox with hundreds of messages that can't be sorted by conversation start date is almost impossible to work with at this point. If change your mind and want to pop in the Discord, I can add you to the tester group.

 

[isoboy]

Thank you but there's no need. Home stretch now. Good luck.

 

[RHOPKINS13]

Sorry about that, things got crazy very quickly and I'm kind of afraid to dive into the badlands of my GBATemp inbox again, and yeah it's also been far too long since I started this project. Discord makes keeping track of things like tester groups actually manageable. An inbox with hundreds of messages that can't be sorted by conversation start date is almost impossible to work with at this point. If change your mind and want to pop in the Discord, I can add you to the tester group.

I would love to be added to the tester group! I first declared my interest on the first page of this thread, we've exchanged a few messages back and forth in your GBATemp inbox about it but I've never been added to the tester group.

 

[MatinatorX]

I would love to be added to the tester group! I first declared my interest on the first page of this thread, we've exchanged a few messages back and forth in your GBATemp inbox about it but I've never been added to the tester group.

Sure, I know you've been around for a long time supporting and patiently waiting for completion of the project.

Only two conditions are that you need to be a member of the Discord server and shipping will be more expensive because I don't get the same rates the fulfillment place does.

If you're good with those send me a PM with your Discord handle and I can add you for sure, but for anyone else reading this, you'll have to wait for it to be stocked in the store.

 

[wurstpistole]

Stock is still scheduled for August I suppose

 

[Adran_Marit]

Stock is still scheduled for August I suppose

For tester most likey late aug, for everyone else early next month from the looks of it.

Also I suggest paying attention to the announcements channel in the discord for actual release

 

[iViperz]

View attachment 177001

For tester most likey late aug, for everyone else early next month from the looks of it.

Also I suggest paying attention to the announcements channel in the discord for actual release

Hi,
it looks like the discord invite in your sig (and even MatinatorX's) is invalid. Any chance these could be updated? Would be nice to keep track of progress on actual release

 

[Adran_Marit]

Hi,
it looks like the discord invite in your sig (and even MatinatorX's) is invalid. Any chance these could be updated? Would be nice to keep track of progress on actual release

*thonk* huh it should be valid, I set it for infinite use and clicks (actual DI part of the sig), so I'll look into it but for now here is a new link

 

[iViperz]

*thonk* huh it should be valid, I set it for infinite use and clicks (actual DI part of the sig), so I'll look into it but for now here is a new link

Thank you! Tbh that was my bad... I completely forgot about the 100 server limit, I think your sig invite should be fine

 

[Adran_Marit]

Thank you! Tbh that was my bad... I completely forgot about the 100 server limit, I think your sig invite should be fine

I also forget that discord has a server limit

 

[Adran_Marit]

Hey All

If you haven't seen on the discord @MatinatorX would like to know how many people would like the USB-C adaptor with their dragon injector and how many wouldn't.

If you haven't already joined can you do so and check the appropriate box, Thanks

 

[RHOPKINS13]

@MatinatorX would like to know how many people would like the USB-C adaptor with their dragon injector and how many wouldn't.

Heck, I want that USB-C adapter if nothing else just because of the awesome DI logo!

 

[CameronCataclysm]

Sure, I know you've been around for a long time supporting and patiently waiting for completion of the project.

Only two conditions are that you need to be a member of the Discord server and shipping will be more expensive because I don't get the same rates the fulfillment place does.

If you're good with those send me a PM with your Discord handle and I can add you for sure, but for anyone else reading this, you'll have to wait for it to be stocked in the store.

If a spot opens up, please don't hesitate to ask!

 

[Adran_Marit]

Heck, I want that USB-C adapter if nothing else just because of the awesome DI logo!

then let matinator know in discord

 

[MatinatorX]

Alright everyone, time for another update!

First thing's first, the tester units are done and are going out this week. Expect feedback from the testers within 2 weeks in #testers-corner on the Discord. I will ask some of them to post here as well.

Second thing is the release date. The short answer is that they will be for sale before the end of September. Long answer below.

All tweaks to the shell have been finished and tested, and I'm printing them as fast as my little printers can go. I have a good workflow in place now, with a timed UV oven, IPA bath agitator and an air compressor for post-clean drying. An knife and 600 grit sandpaper gets the supports removed nice and cleanly.

List of shell tweaks since V17:
- Cap has better fitment and has a tactile bump when seating.
- Jig strength has been improved and it has been made symmetrical, bridging pins 2 and 9. After hundreds of unseat/reseat cycles I have yet to have it fail to put the console into RCM.
- Tactile bump when seating jig has been improved.
- Press-fit M1 nuts and M1x2.5 screws hold the board in place. Board now locates perfectly in the shell, build quality feels significantly higher.
- Cleaned up the design a lot and optimized for machining in preparation for possible injection molding in the future.

Output quality is consistent and I don't think I can improve the shells any further. Very happy with them.

In case you missed it, PCB tweaks since V17:
- Mounting hole diameter changed for better fitment.
- Button changed from physical to capacitive, feels and works much better.
- Moved hall effect reset switch out of the way above MCU.
- Greatly reduced amount of vias and made lots of circuit board trace optimizations.
- Improved battery negative terminal with embedded DI logo.

I don't think I can improve the PCBs any more either. Very happy with these too.

Now, the long answer regarding the release date is that PCBWay screwed up the boards, putting some resistors and capacitors in the wrong place. There are a few reasons they did this, but I got a 28% partial refund out of it, and it won't happen for the next batch. However, this means I need to manually rework all the boards myself. I'm about 20% done reworking them and based on the amount of time that's taken, all boards should be fully reworked on or before September 22nd. The shipment will be for 500 units, as I want to keep some extras around and have some allowance for some mess-ups during repairs without stressing about it. Repairing over 500 boards by hand under a microscope is stressful enough.

All DIs, whether reworked or not, are fully tested by me. This includes jig used during injection, all LEDs, the capacitive button, battery level input, USB, fitment to both a new and fairly used game card slot and a microscope inspection for soldering quality. It does take a while, but I'm not interesting in shipping something of subpar quality.

That's all I have for you for now, thank you so much for sticking around and I can't wait to see how the testers feel about the DragonInjector.

 

[Adran_Marit]

Alright everyone, time for another update!

First thing's first, the tester units are done and are going out this week. Expect feedback from the testers within 2 weeks in #testers-corner on the Discord. I will ask some of them to post here as well.

Second thing is the release date. The short answer is that they will be for sale before the end of September. Long answer below.

All tweaks to the shell have been finished and tested, and I'm printing them as fast as my little printers can go. I have a good workflow in place now, with a timed UV oven, IPA bath agitator and an air compressor for post-clean drying. An knife and 600 grit sandpaper gets the supports removed nice and cleanly.

List of shell tweaks since V17:
- Cap has better fitment and has a tactile bump when seating.
- Jig strength has been improved and it has been made symmetrical, bridging pins 2 and 9. After hundreds of unseat/reseat cycles I have yet to have it fail to put the console into RCM.
- Tactile bump when seating jig has been improved.
- Press-fit M1 nuts and M1x2.5 screws hold the board in place. Board now locates perfectly in the shell, build quality feels significantly higher.
- Cleaned up the design a lot and optimized for machining in preparation for possible injection molding in the future.

Output quality is consistent and I don't think I can improve the shells any further. Very happy with them.

In case you missed it, PCB tweaks since V17:
- Mounting hole diameter changed for better fitment.
- Button changed from physical to capacitive, feels and works much better.
- Moved hall effect reset switch out of the way above MCU.
- Greatly reduced amount of vias and made lots of circuit board trace optimizations.
- Improved battery negative terminal with embedded DI logo.

I don't think I can improve the PCBs any more either. Very happy with these too.

Now, the long answer regarding the release date is that PCBWay screwed up the boards, putting some resistors and capacitors in the wrong place. There are a few reasons they did this, but I got a 28% partial refund out of it, and it won't happen for the next batch. However, this means I need to manually rework all the boards myself. I'm about 20% done reworking them and based on the amount of time that's taken, all boards should be fully reworked on or before September 22nd. The shipment will be for 500 units, as I want to keep some extras around and have some allowance for some mess-ups during repairs without stressing about it. Repairing over 500 boards by hand under a microscope is stressful enough.

All DIs, whether reworked or not, are fully tested by me. This includes jig used during injection, all LEDs, the capacitive button, battery level input, USB, fitment to both a new and fairly used game card slot and a microscope inspection for soldering quality. It does take a while, but I'm not interesting in shipping something of subpar quality.

That's all I have for you for now, thank you so much for sticking around and I can't wait to see how the testers feel about the DragonInjector.

Ya'll want to be following the discord real close now that we are this close to release