Hacking Better Pictures of old/new R4

[joe00]

does not having the black lines at the bottom of the cart be harmful to the ds? most of the retail games do have the black lines at the bottom of the cart.

 

[Urza]

does not having the black lines at the bottom of the cart be harmful to the ds? most of the retail games do have the black lines at the bottom of the cart.

I doubt it. Just try not to touch the contacts with your fingers as the oils might damage it.

 

[Raisingod]

OK so the PIC seem the same ( its ATF11 and not 01 from what I can read) so there can't be a majour change that make the new R4 any different then the old one update wise ( if the new PIC contains the same FW as the old ones the SDHC fix should work either for both or for none )

 

[Aril]

Thanks for the awesome pics man

Now I wonder if they'll release a white shell for the new r4.
That would be great.

 

[happyface_0]

So the shell can't be used to replace your current shell, or can it?

 

[thomasroberts6]

Nice pictures....


The old one looks more stable to me...

 

[striderx]

So the shell can't be used to replace your current shell, or can it?

Are you thinking for fix or repair reasons?

Other than the old shell having the complete complement of ribs along the edge of the PCB, there's really no advantage of one shell over the other.

The card slot relief in each shell is specific to the type of card holder -- spring-latched (old) or tension (new).

The old shell with the new PCB wouldn't allow you to easily grasp the microSD card to extract it.

The new shell with the old PCB wouldn't allow you to easily press the card down to release it.

I haven't tried swapping shells, but that's how it looks to me.

And the cutouts along the side? Purely cosmetic. Their only function seems to be to visually differentiate the two. Perhaps so you could tell which version it is in an ebay listing...

striderx

 

[xnh02]

freaky, i had previously used the screen name "striderx". thanks.

 

[TaeK]

This needs-a bumpin' since i seen so many people still asking about what the new R4 shell is like, etc

 

[.::5pYd3r::.]

lol

i can't believe they put barcodes on the r4 box. Anyway great pictures striderx

 

[Sailor]

Regardless, that design change is the one thing I really dislike about the new shell. The missing ribs allow dirty fingers to touch the PCB contacts. Not good. And as was mentioned in some earlier posts in a differnt topic when it first came out, that unreenforced strip of plastic makes the card feel somewhat flimsy along that leading edge of the card. Especially compared to the old shell.

Same here. I don't really see a point in taking it out, as it helps us, as the users to not damage it as easily. I'm betting that I'm going to accidentally touch the contacts, because the ribs aren't there to protect them. I mean, why take out something that wasn't broken? I wonder if it could damage the whole R4 if you touched them >_>"

Also, with the stability of that part, I guess that could be an issue..but I don't think it'd break either.

 

[striderx]

... I suspect it was a cost saving measure. I suspect during the injection molding process those ribs on the old shell may have been prone to being incompletely formed and therefore thrown away as defective.

The result of the new design could be improved process yield for that part at the same cost, or maybe the yield was fine and the redesign allowed the team to specify a lower spec molding process at a lower cost of manufacture.

Oh, and yeah, it could have improved the card detection reliability.

Regardless, that design change is the one thing I really dislike about the new shell.  The missing ribs allow dirty fingers to touch the PCB contacts.  Not good.  And as was mentioned in some earlier posts in a differnt topic when it first came out, that unreenforced strip of plastic makes the card feel somewhat flimsy along that leading edge of the card.  Especially compared to the old shell.

Same here. I don't really see a point in taking it out, as it helps us, as the users to not damage it as easily. I'm betting that I'm going to accidentally touch the contacts, because the ribs aren't there to protect them. I mean, why take out something that wasn't broken? I wonder if it could damage the whole R4 if you touched them >_>"

Also, with the stability of that part, I guess that could be an issue..but I don't think it'd break either.

Well 1Sailor, you and others seem to keep missing the point I've been trying to make, and did make. in the paragraphs of my post that preceded the ones you quoted. I'm confident that it was a cost saving measure. If you've ever done injection molding then you'd realize that those ribs make for a higher defective rate in production (that is the number of bad ones you have to throw away versus the total). The injection molds themselves become more expensive to make. And they wear out faster (though I have trouble believing they're make enough R4's to make this true). All of these add up to making a ribbed design more expensive.

You eliminate the ribs, you lower the cost. Plain and simple. Whether we as customers like it or not... So if this is a problem for you, vote with your wallet. Don't buy an R4. It's a language that transcends the Sino-English divide.

I on the other hand will teach my kids to keep their grubby fingers away from the contacts!

striderx