Hacking EZ-FLASH OMEGA Real Time Clock (RTC) implementation details

[Xilefian]

I'm currently trying to write some GBA RTC tests for the S-3511 real time clock (Used in commercial GBA games).
The EZ Flash Omega's PCF8563 RTC seems to have a translation layer for the S-3511 chip (in particular, the actual clock and calendar) however I'm having difficulty getting the alarm, minute and frequency interrupts to fire (at all).

Here's the data sheet for the S-3511(A): http://www.sih.com.hk/sih_eng/products/ic/pdf/s3511a_e12.pdf

I'm wondering if @EZ-Flash2 or someone else could provide some information on how much of the RTC is implemented as I have suspicions that the IRQ REQ feature itself is not even implemented and that would be why I'm having difficulty getting any of the interrupts to fire.

 

[EZ-Flash2]

We did not use the alarm function, so the pin is not connected.

 

[Xilefian]

We did not use the alarm function, so the pin is not connected.

Thank you. And I assume the same for minute/frequency IRQ?

 

[EZ-Flash2]

Thank you. And I assume the same for minute/frequency IRQ?

you are right.

 

[kuwanger]

I had a thought. We've had discussions in the past about some mechanism of notifying the user about when writes to the microSD card are completed. Perhaps a better way would be to use something, like the RTC, as a means of querying if a write is in progress. For example, it'd seem wise to use the RTC to make sure writes to the microSD don't occur too frequently--that way you're not relying upon having to patch games specifically. The same mechanism could then be used in the Reset patch to verify there's a window of at least a few seconds that no write attempts will be made and hence it'd be safe to reset.

Does the above sound at all viable?