Hacking Hardware GBA R4 Card Detection Issues

[toledot]

I am hoping someone can help me. I have a known working R4 card, it will boot with the 3DS I have, but it will not boot with my DS. my DS has a working card slot. I can play my old games on it just fine. I'm trying to figure out why this would be.

My only conclusion is that the card itself is just a hair-width short of making full contact to the pins or something, and upon further inspection with my DS original carts, it is a little thin on the PCB contacts.

I figure this was the case, since I cannot find an update firmware setting.

Maybe this is the issue with others. And if its not, maybe someone can help me. But from what I gathered its plug and play. I rolled the dice again with another card. hopefully this isn't the same issue.

Posting for posterity's sake.

 

[k66]

If the flashcart icon does not appear, it may be due to poor contact.
My AK2i has this issues, the PCB of AK2i is only 0.5mm thick, while the original cart is 0.87mm thick.
My solution is to put some tape on the back to make the PCB thickness 0.7mm (considering that the flashcart's shell is different from the original cart).

If there was no chamfer originally, it is best to chamfer the edges of the PCB.

 

[toledot]

Eyy, I’ll try that later today, ty. G’morning.

 

[SylverReZ]

If the flashcart icon does not appear, it may be due to poor contact.
My AK2i has this issues, the PCB of AK2i is only 0.5mm thick, while the original cart is 0.87mm thick.
My solution is to put some tape on the back to make the PCB thickness 0.7mm (considering that the flashcart's shell is different from the original cart).
View attachment 548042
If there was no chamfer originally, it is best to chamfer the edges of the PCB.
View attachment 548158

Or what would be fairly reliable, is to slip a thin piece of card underneath, which seems to work the best. Bear in mind, that some AK2i carts has the shell glued together, so I don't recommend pulling it apart unless you want to end up breaking it.

 

[sudeki300]

Or what would be fairly reliable, is to slip a thin piece of card underneath, which seems to work the best. Bear in mind, that some AK2i carts has the shell glued together, so I don't recommend pulling it apart unless you want to end up breaking it.

i second the piece of card method, worked great with my DS back in the day