Hardware My CycloDS Evolution finally died. Let's bring it back!

[Hirugaru]

So, after many many years of usage, my CycloDS finally died. Its a known problem with these cards to have a "bad behaviour" on being recognized by the DS, sometimes it takes many tries to bring it up again in the consoles menu, but not this time. Mine just wont show up even after cleaning the pads, it was gone.

Well... Not for me at least, I could try doing something before giving up.

This is the guy, classic white housing with a bad shape label.

Not a bad looking connection pads tbh.

Removing the label presents me with the Actel ProASIC3 FPGA itself that (I believe) maybe the cause of the problem

Heres a closer look into the board

Its a pretty thin board so maybe I know what the problem could be

The thing is, this big chip on this thin board may have its pins flexing about everytime you put it inside your NDS cartridge slot, and by looking closely to the solder pads on the board for the Chip, I can see that the solder job that came from the factory isnt the best in the world.

At closer inspection you can see that almost all of the pads doesnt have all its surface covered by the tin solder, so the contact area is smaller than the pin needs to anchor itself on the board.

I thought that the problem maybe related to cold solder joints on the big FPGA chip, and on the other side of the board, maybe even the flash memory have a similar problem.

Here it is and, yes, bad solder joints all over, also, the solder didnt aged well after all these years.

dull and oxidized solder points.

So I did what any good technician would do and rework all of the solder points in the FPGA Chip and flash memory to see if this could help.

Here the are after the repair, nice and shiny!

aaand its Back!

So basically the problem really seems to be bad solder points on the board caused by years of stress on the chip pins.
if yours just stopped working from no aparent reason, maybe a good solder job may revive it!

Hope this helps anyone who still wants to keep yours running for more years

 

[SylverReZ]

Those can also be down to how thin the circuit board is. With this cartridge being chucked around or down to heavy use, those joints will weaken and will need reflowing.

 

[Hirugaru]

Woops, just saw that the pic with it working didnt show up, will add when I get home. My bad
Edit:
Done!

Post automatically merged: Mar 27, 2026

Those can also be down to how thin the circuit board is. With this cartridge being chucked around or down to heavy use, those joints will weaken and will need reflowing.

Hope it can withstand a couple more years of abuse

With the right tools, and if the memory doesn't fail, I can make it work again

 

[k66]

Those can also be down to how thin the circuit board is. With this cartridge being chucked around or down to heavy use, those joints will weaken and will need reflowing.

Do you know what the third pin of a cartridge is usually used for? It is not connected to the slot-1.
I guess it's a custom location?
Some cartridges make use of it, while others leave it empty, dspico seems not to be using it.

 

[SylverReZ]

Do you know what the third pin of a cartridge is usually used for? It is not connected to the slot-1.
I guess it's a custom location?
Some cartridges make use of it, while others leave it empty, dspico seems not to be using it.

Pin 3 is connected to VIH on the DS cartridge but I'm not sure what purpose it has. Now normally this is not connected on the DS cartridge slot to my understanding.

 

[Hirugaru]

Pin 3 is connected to VIH on the DS cartridge but I'm not sure what purpose it has. Now normally this is not connected on the DS cartridge slot to my understanding.

Quick search using some smart ass AI says that (not official), the third pin is for "/CS" line, seems related to enable the console to select the cartridge chip as active or inactive.
Maybe someone else can confirm it.

 

[SylverReZ]

Quick search using some smart ass AI says that (not official), the third pin is for "/CS" line, seems related to enable the console to select the cartridge chip as active or inactive.
Maybe someone else can confirm it.

There's two CS (chip select) lines on pins 4 & 6 with what I've found on ConsoleMods. That also applies to here (https://akkit.org/DS/). Please don't use the AI, often times it'll output complete nonsense.

 

[emigre]

Well I just a real nostalgia hit.

 

[Hirugaru]

There's two CS (chip select) lines on pins 4 & 6 with what I've found on ConsoleMods. That also applies to here (https://akkit.org/DS/). Please don't use the AI, often times it'll output complete nonsense.

View attachment 565682

I really do not use it very often, thats one of the reasons why.
Wished to help and, as always, it screwd up the information.
Not a good idea to search for information before a cup of coffee, I believe

 

[subworx]

Thank you so much for this post.
My CycloDS Evolution died about a week ago, when I finally wanted to beat the NDS Castlevania games
Will have to open it up and see if the solder job is as bad as in your before-pictures, maybe I (or rather someone I can pay to do it as I never soldered anything, let alone reflowed things ) will have it fixed

 

[SylverReZ]

Maybe I (or rather someone I can pay to do it as I never soldered anything, let alone reflowed things ) will have it fixed

If you're going to attempt something like this, then first learn how to solder on your own before you do reflow work on small joints.

 

[Hirugaru]

Thank you so much for this post.
My CycloDS Evolution died about a week ago, when I finally wanted to beat the NDS Castlevania games
Will have to open it up and see if the solder job is as bad as in your before-pictures, maybe I (or rather someone I can pay to do it as I never soldered anything, let alone reflowed things ) will have it fixed

Nice to know it was useful

But an advice I can give you if you're not experienced with soldering, this is by no means an easy repair to do.
You would need a very good equipment to have it done right, it is not to be done with a simple soldering iron or a heat gun. This needs professional stuff and I believe it's not worth the investment just to recover your flashcard, it's a good idea to seek someone experienced enough and with the right tools to do that so you don't risk damaging it further.

 

[subworx]

Nice to know it was useful

But an advice I can give you if you're not experienced with soldering, this is by no means an easy repair to do.
You would need a very good equipment to have it done right, it is not to be done with a simple soldering iron or a heat gun. This needs professional stuff and I believe it's not worth the investment just to recover your flashcard, it's a good idea to seek someone experienced enough and with the right tools to do that so you don't risk damaging it further.

I know I know, thank you for making sure I am careful That's why I said "pay someone to"


I took apart the cart yesterday. Being stupid, I did not remove the sticker and pried open the case . Oh well, it worked (and mostly goes back together properly).
Took out the PCB, the solder joints looked okay-ish, the module contacts looked fine. The pictures from my electronic microscope are too blurry unfortunately.
Found a local micro repair shop, wanted to bring it there today.
So this morning I carefully cleaned the cart and all contacts and solder points with a paper towel soaked with isopropyl alcohol, then put the cart together again.
Took out my old DS Lite because the CycloDS used to show up there immediately, instead of taking forever when booting through TWLMenu on the N2/3DS.
Put the cart in, turned it on - and the CycloDS was recognized instantly, booted, and worked just as it did years ago

Went to my old N2DS setup - worked as well.
Went with latest TWLMenu on the N3DS, it would boot but after entering setup or game-specific settings dialogs, the interface would stop responding (but time kept running). Removed everything, ported the N2DS setup to the N3DS - works like a charm

So it might have been dirty contacts only (they didn't look bad at all) that prevented it from working on three consoles.
Happy camper here now

I most likely will look into bringing it to that repair shop soon anyway, to make sure it won't fail the way yours did.

So still, thank you very much for your initial post

 

[Hirugaru]

I know I know, thank you for making sure I am careful That's why I said "pay someone to"


I took apart the cart yesterday. Being stupid, I did not remove the sticker and pried open the case . Oh well, it worked (and mostly goes back together properly).
Took out the PCB, the solder joints looked okay-ish, the module contacts looked fine. The pictures from my electronic microscope are too blurry unfortunately.
Found a local micro repair shop, wanted to bring it there today.
So this morning I carefully cleaned the cart and all contacts and solder points with a paper towel soaked with isopropyl alcohol, then put the cart together again.
Took out my old DS Lite because the CycloDS used to show up there immediately, instead of taking forever when booting through TWLMenu on the N2/3DS.
Put the cart in, turned it on - and the CycloDS was recognized instantly, booted, and worked just as it did years ago

Went to my old N2DS setup - worked as well.
Went with latest TWLMenu on the N3DS, it would boot but after entering setup or game-specific settings dialogs, the interface would stop responding (but time kept running). Removed everything, ported the N2DS setup to the N3DS - works like a charm

So it might have been dirty contacts only (they didn't look bad at all) that prevented it from working on three consoles.
Happy camper here now

I most likely will look into bringing it to that repair shop soon anyway, to make sure it won't fail the way yours did.

So still, thank you very much for your initial post

View attachment 567647

That's awesome man!
Sometimes a little cleaning is all it needs!
I'm glad I could be helpfull

Hope you have a nice camping!