Hacking EZ4 Lite Initial Impression

[master456]

UPDATE:

I took a knife and cut away some of the plastic around the microSD slot. Now I have no problem. So far everything has been working great.

 

[teH XeRO]

so what exactly is the problem regarding getting the card out?? the area is too small to get your fingers in to remove it? i may have no problem as my fingers are small lol...but if thats really the only drawback, thats not exactly what i would call a nail-biter. hey also if u wouldnt midn taking a picture to point out the change u made that would be cool.

 

[Jefklak]

UPDATE:

I took a knife and cut away some of the plastic around the microSD slot. Now I have no problem. So far everything has been working great.

Kidding, right?
Pics?

 

[master456]

 

[Redux]

Hey, that doesn't look too bad.
A fellow from another forum I frequent had this to say:

"The EZ4Lite, which arrived today, is proving troublesome, but working on it. Its a bitch to fit the TF card in it, the case doesnt seem to close properly, it looks and feels very cheap. I won't be keeping hold of it, its definatly going to a mate now."

Does it feel cheap and brittle?

 

[Net]

I have a question.

I just got mine today and it works great except for one problem: the saves aren't working.

The Saver file is on the MicroSD card, but when I go to save a game and turn my Lite off and then back on, it didn't save the game.

Any ideas what the problem could be?

 

[zone97]

I wonder if it would be possable to mod this cart, with the following.

take the origianl filler cart, use something like a band saw or scroll saw, and cut just the front off of the cover. (you know the part that has the overlapping piece on it)

then take a grinder or sander and grind the front of the EZ4lite enought, so you can super glue or epoxy the front on it. That way it would blend in seemlessly with a ds lite?

if i had one, id try this. I have a shop full of tools.. )

 

[darkandlong]

so what exactly is the problem regarding getting the card out?? the area is too small to get your fingers in to remove it? i may have no problem as my fingers are small lol...but if thats really the only drawback, thats not exactly what i would call a nail-biter. hey also if u wouldnt midn taking a picture to point out the change u made that would be cool.

So it looks like I wasn't in too much of a "rush" when I was having issues removing my TF card. Looks like others have had this problem too.

The problem in my case was the TF card inserted goes past the plastic shell. The PCB of the actual cart was not flush - it was actually a little lower then the plastic of the shell. If you look at a EZ4 mini SD, the PCB of the cart is flush with the plastic housing, which made sliding out the media easy, regardless of the pressure needed to keep a grip on the tab of the media card. So with the EZ4 TF, when I tried to remove the TF card I would use my fingernail, but the pressure of pushing down on the TF card and trying to slide out the TF card would catch it on the high edge of the plastic shell.

I don't think the casing feels brittle. I think it feels cheaper then the EZ4 mini SD, but it gets the job done. I'm keeping mine. The G6 Lite looks interesting enough, but I don't care for 512 MB storage at all.

I'd strongly recommend anyone getting a EZ4 TF version that has problems removing the TF card to consider using a small nail file to bring down that high edge on the shell. It worked fine for me and the cart looks like it hasn't been modded at all.

 

[hankchill]

I wonder if it would be possable to mod this cart, with the following.

take the origianl filler cart, use something like a band saw or scroll saw, and cut just the front off of the cover. (you know the part that has the overlapping piece on it)

then take a grinder or sander and grind the front of the EZ4lite enought, so you can super glue or epoxy the front on it. That way it would blend in seemlessly with a ds lite?

if i had one, id try this. I have a shop full of tools.. )

I'm already working on something

the regular DS Lite filler cart will take more modifying than I thought, because it has chips sticking out on the side that goes flat against the cart, and if you look inside the EZ4 shell, there's 2 large cavities in the shell, where those chips fit snugly into.

Oh, yeah, just got my EZ4 lite today

I have no MicroSD card yet, so I can't play with it just yet

But, I'm so far not impressed with the shell. the 1 screw is not enough to keep it together. On the side with the TF Slot, the casing doesn't even stick together. I could glue it shut, but I'll wait until I get a card and am comfortable with inserting/removing the card from the slot... Man, why couldn't they make a snap-in slot like the Supercard

Ah well.

--Henry

 

[master456]

"The EZ4Lite, which arrived today, is proving troublesome, but working on it. Its a bitch to fit the TF card in it, the case doesnt seem to close properly, it looks and feels very cheap. I won't be keeping hold of it, its definatly going to a mate now."

Does it feel cheap and brittle?

I feel that it's well built for it's intended purpose and so far has been functioning very well for me. This cart was made to have interchangable shells, so IMHO it would not be as solid as a contained cart and I'm fine with that.

 

[strid3r]

I just got my EZ4 Lite yesterday and noticed that the side of the cart (the side with the memory opening) was not totally closed. It looks like the top and bottom halves should "click" together, but there is just a small crack. It doesn't affect how it slides into the DS, so I'm not worried about that, but it is a bit annoying.

 

[ultim]

i also have the case not totally shut problem. Had to use the super glue

 

[hamster]

so what exactly is the problem regarding getting the card out??  the area is too small to get your fingers in to remove it?  i may have no problem as my fingers are small lol...but if thats really the only drawback, thats not exactly what i would call a nail-biter.  hey also if u wouldnt midn taking a picture to point out the change u made that would be cool.


So it looks like I wasn't in too much of a "rush" when I was having issues removing my TF card. Looks like others have had this problem too.

The problem in my case was the TF card inserted goes past the plastic shell. The PCB of the actual cart was not flush - it was actually a little lower then the plastic of the shell. If you look at a EZ4 mini SD, the PCB of the cart is flush with the plastic housing, which made sliding out the media easy, regardless of the pressure needed to keep a grip on the tab of the media card. So with the EZ4 TF, when I tried to remove the TF card I would use my fingernail, but the pressure of pushing down on the TF card and trying to slide out the TF card would catch it on the high edge of the plastic shell.

I don't think the casing feels brittle. I think it feels cheaper then the EZ4 mini SD, but it gets the job done. I'm keeping mine. The G6 Lite looks interesting enough, but I don't care for 512 MB storage at all.

I'd strongly recommend anyone getting a EZ4 TF version that has problems removing the TF card to consider using a small nail file to bring down that high edge on the shell. It worked fine for me and the cart looks like it hasn't been modded at all.

Can you take a pic of how you files it? I'm having this prob too. some pics of where to file and how it looks would be awesome. thank you. Oh I have small fingers too and getting it out with your nails is hard. You have to give a little force with your fingers.

 

[darkandlong]

Can you take a pic of how you files it? I'm having this prob too. some pics of where to file and how it looks would be awesome. thank you. Oh I have small fingers too and getting it out with your nails is hard. You have to give a little force with your fingers.

It was pretty simple. I just used the flat side of the nail file to bring down the edge where the TF card goes in (marked with an elipse):



I probably filed it down no more then a mm or two. Its still a pain to wedge my gigantor fingers in the slot, but the TF card comes out easily now. I suppose I could widen the gap using the same method if my fingers get fatter

 

[Shad0w]

I got a thin piece of tape and folded it over onto the tf card and i just pull it out by the tape..... gonna try modding it into DS lite cover later this week

 

[teH XeRO]

@shadow

thats not a bad little solution at all

@darkandlong


lol

Its still a pain to wedge my gigantor fingers in the slot, but the TF card comes out easily now. I suppose I could widen the gap using the same method if my fingers get fatterÂ

 

[KidIce]

I have a question.

I just got mine today and it works great except for one problem: the saves aren't working.

The Saver file is on the MicroSD card, but when I go to save a game and turn my Lite off and then back on, it didn't save the game.

Any ideas what the problem could be?

I've heard some people complaining about this... I'm not one of the people w/ the problem though. I'm unclear why or why not.

The solution though is to have a place holder where the save should be on the SD. Try copying THIS file (it's a save from Lost in Blue, but it should work as a place holder) to your saver directory and renaming it to the same name as the game you intend to use it with. Do this for each game on your SD. A pain, I know, but hopefully the EZFlash team will fix it for the people that are having that issue.

 

[Lily]

I got my EZ4 Lite microSD today.

My impressions -

It's the cheapest feeling/looking flash cart I own, and that's saying something. The EZ4 Lite miniSD is much better constructed! The PCB of the microSD is not flush with the casing for one, making the microSD an absolute pain to get in and out without modding the casing as described extensively in the posts above mine. The casing doesn't even close properly, which gives you a clue as to the cheap, cheap quality plastic used to house the PCB. Once I file down the portion around the microSD slot, I'm simply going to glue it together.

So, it's construction is shoddy, the plastic is cheap, and the microSD is a pain to get in and out. Other than that it seems to work just as well as the EZ4 Lite miniSD.

It's really a surprise coming from EZ Team, because their products are generally such high cabilber. Both the EZ4 versions come in a nice box with a USB SD reader & USB cable, which is a nice touch - but the EZ4 Lite microSD does not leave a good first impression.

 

[ZildjianKX]

Does anyone know if the battery is soldered on? I thought that i saw that it was when I took the case apart. The MicroSD comes out pretty well now, so I don't want to take it apart again

 

[eightbitminiboss]

Can you take a pic of how you files it? I'm having this prob too. some pics of where to file and how it looks would be awesome. thank you. Oh I have small fingers too and getting it out with your nails is hard. You have to give a little force with your fingers.


It was pretty simple. I just used the flat side of the nail file to bring down the edge where the TF card goes in (marked with an elipse):



I probably filed it down no more then a mm or two. Its still a pain to wedge my gigantor fingers in the slot, but the TF card comes out easily now. I suppose I could widen the gap using the same method if my fingers get fatter

Nice little "hack", now my MicroSD glides in and out with ease, and no more cracked nails!