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Hacking EZ-Flash IV

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Deleted-236924

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This is really starting to get annoying.
People are saying both.

I need to have a definitive answer on whether or not the EZ-Flash IV has a rechargeable battery or not.
I looked up on the EZ-Flash Wiki and it said that the battery in it is rechargeable.

This is the only GBA flashcart I would be able to get, considering it is impossible to find an EFA-Linker nor an EZ-Flash III anymore.
I could get a Supercard SD or a Supercard miniSD, but both those don't have a rechargeable battery (and they only support up to 64kb save files anyway.)

tl;dr does the EZ-Flash IV have a rechargeable battery?
 
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Open it up.

If it has CR- on the top of the battery like this one, it DOESN'T have a rechargable battery.
IMG_140102.jpg

if it has VR- on the top of the battery like this one, it DOES have a rechargable battery.
3_0V_lithium_rechargeable_button_cell_VL2025.jpg


Next time just open the cart and look.


It USE TO BE A RECHARGABLE. THEY STOPPED using a rechargable when they changed to the paper package. Which was back in early 2008, probably as early as 2007.
 
how_do_i_do_that said:
Next time just open the cart and look.
Click to expand...

Saying "next time just open it" doesn't make sense.
I've never had one to begin with!
Didn't even order it yet either.

I'm not sure if I'd rather have this or a Japanese cart of Silver...
 
This is a VL-2020, what the EZ-Flash Team used in the EZ-Flash II PS. It would have been the same one in the EZ-Flash IV if you had one with a rechargable battery.

IMG_150718b.jpg



The CR-2025 battery used in the EZ-Flash IV now is NON-Rechargable.


If they bought one in the last few years to now, they got a EZ-Flash IV with a NON-Rechargable. End of story.
Only those that have a EZ-Flash IV with the nice hard box will likely have a VL-2020 rechargable in it, unless they bought it from DX which came with the CR-2025 instead.
 
It seems the thread already said what needed to be said but just for the sake of linking things up

http://ezflash.sosuke.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=17193

Shorter version- I will have to see some newer PCBs to make sure but it looks like you can just solder a new rechargable battery in there. There was never any proper charging circuitry so you can solder whatever you like in there.
 
So if I get a non-rechargeable one, I'll just have to buy a rechargeable battery and solder it in it's place?
Either way, if I keep a non-rechargeable battery, what does the battery do exactly?

How does the EZ-IV save exactly?
Do we power off, then power back on and it copies the save file off SRAM to the miniSD?
Or does it write to miniSD automatically? (I would doubt that, though.)
Or does it keep the save files in SRAM at all times? (Wouldn't make much sense, but still making sure.)

Is there any way to know that the internal battery has run dry besides losing a save file?
I wouldn't mind replacing the battery manually each time if rechargeable ones aren't compatible.

One last question. Is there a chance that I might get one with a rechargeable battery if I order one today?
 
The battery is just there to provide power to the SRAM when the GBA/DS is off. It should work for quite some time even if it is not rechargeable.

"power off, then power back on and it copies the save file off SRAM to the miniSD"
^That is the method
Old carts held it in SRAM all the time (give or take some bonus features) but with carts that could hold several hundred games at a time it was not viable any more. The supercards did something with direct saving but it mainly appeared on the DS.

It should tell you "The battery is dry or first in" if the battery is down but that is not 100% certain (some other errors get called that).

I doubt you will get a rechargeable one if you got one tomorrow- apparently they stopped making them with them a few years back and if you buy one now chances are it will be a new model (and if not it will have sat there for a few years and you will probably need to replace it)..
I have not tried soldering in a rechargeable yet but it should be good as there is no circuitry in there to manage the charging which is what usually troubles would be users of such kit.
 
For old Supercard SD's and stuff, it's possible to do a Quick-Power Cycle to write the save file to the SD even if the battery is dry.
Is it possible to turn the console off then on fast enough for the save file to stay in SRAM?
 
So there should be a button combination that would let me reset to the Flashcart's menu?
Is it possible to change what buttons are used for this?

My L button on my SP is really bad, and if the soft reset uses the L button, then I would be screwed.
But I could still power off then on quickly.
 
FAST6191 said:
I have not tried soldering in a rechargeable yet but it should be good as there is no circuitry in there to manage the charging which is what usually troubles would be users of such kit.
Click to expand...

I don't get this. If there's no circuitry in there, this would mean that a rechargeable would have nothing to protect it from overcharging. So wouldn't that mean you can't solder in a rechargeable at all?
 
There is nothing to protect overcharging in an original one- it just assumed that normal use charges it up at a rate that will not see it highly overcharged if at all (true overcharging protection is chemistry dependent and takes some circuitry to pull off with http://www.eevblog.com/2009/10/03/eevblog-...rging-tutorial/ providing a nice overview to a few methods).

If you are especially bored or paranoid you could probably rig something up with a diode (maybe even use a zener incorrectly) and/or a resistor to make sure it never hits an overcharging regime. http://www.master-instruments.com.au/Data%...%20circuits.pdf has a bit on panasonic vanadium lithium (although nothing much on overcharging- the charge characteristics seem nearly exponential (in your favour) as you head towards overcharge) if you want.
 
how_do_i_do_that said:
NDSGBA emulator only uses save states (basically a memory dump) which is different from save files. there is no converter for it.
Click to expand...
... Sure.

I appreciate that you're trying to help, but when you don't know what you're talking about, it doesn't actually help.
For fact, NDSGBA uses raw .sav files just like VBA (and NO$GBA if you set it up right.)

Since the EZ-IV needs us to SRAM patch the roms, I'm not sure if EEPROM or Flash save files will work when the game is SRAM patched.
 
The darkchen emu uses save states.

If you want to convert the save files from NoGBA then you have to change the output to raw.


You can use the save files from an emulator IF you are using a SRAM patched version to make a save file.

If your using a clean rom save file which has EEPROM or the like for the save format, you will not be able to use it on the EZ-IV if you have to SRAM patch the rom to use on there.

Does that make better sense to you.
 
Have you tested this?

I have SRAM patched Mother 3, which uses Flash save files.
I ran it on VBA and the save file created with the unpatched rom worked with the SRAM patched one.

But even if it works with VBA, it might not work the same way with the EZ-IV, so I wanna make sure.
 

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