LOL after fooling around i figured out how to use the cheats.If you are using the r4i gold3ds rts sdhc flashcart this is what you need to know for cheats.
1. when in r4 firmware highlight the game you want to cheat in.
2. Press Y and file information will pop up (X- Cheats Y- Settings A- OK)
3. Press Y again and a compatibility menu will pop up
4. On the top right arrow press right and a features menu/tab will pop up
5. where it says "Cheat in Game(AR)" typically will be in global(off) switch to on and press a it will ask to save current settings press a for ok.
6. It will pop you out to the file information screen again. Press X for cheats
7. In this "cheat" tab you can select any cheats you want. (pay attention to any buttons you must press to enable cheat in game)
8. After you select your cheats press X to confirm that cheats stay marked (little box that represents check mark)
9. Then load your game up and your cheats should work. (like i mention might have to press (START+UP) to enable cheat for example)
P.S personally ive noticed that you have to do this for each individual game, but once you set global(off) to on you only have to worry about the cheat menu after that for each game. EACH GAME HAS SEPERATE FILE SETTINGS
(im going to look into how to add your own AR codes to the list, but for most part it has ALOT of codes already on it.)
if you dont have any cheats on it i believe this is how you get them
1.when you start your firmware and see the microSD card logo/pic press start and click tools
2. click A-update it will reload and an update screen will pop up
3. update all and where it says "cheats DB" i put it to gbatemp.net and press A a confirm screen pops up press A
4. it will reload and you should be good
once again thanks for replying and much apprciated
(im still learning and i understand i dont know everything so any suggestions or corrections, i will be glad to listen and learn thanks)