Improving the NES front-loader connector

Improving the NES front-loader connector
by CartCollector on 2007-03-04 (#22289)

So I went to play my NES recently, and as always, that 72-pin connector was making my game playing SO MUCH FUN. Push the cartridge in, press down really hard and turn it on, and... blinking light. Let's try this again, push it in, turn it on, and... grey screen of nothing. Okay, again, push it in, turn it on, and... looks like one of the pins on the CHR-ROM bus is messed up, because there's vertical lines every 8 pixels or so. Wonderful, isn't it?

Eventually, only the "grey screen of nothing" would come up, even after I cleaned the cartridge multiple times with water and rubbing alcohol. So I decided to open up the NES and clean out the 72-pin connector. When I used my toothbrush to clean it, not much came out on it. I then studied the connector and how a cartridge would go in it by playing around with it.

The cartridge goes in on an upward diagonal parallel to the connector. However, the pins don't quite make contact. So the cartridge is pressed down and locked into place, intersecting the connector. Here's a crude sketch:

The diagonal lines are the console's connector, and the straight one is the cartridge's. Gold shows where the metal on the connectors are.

I noticed that whenever I pushed down on the connector, the metal bar that held the cartridge in place allowed the cartridge to slip up a little bit. This would loosen the connection between the cartridge and console. So I was wondering, maybe all I'd have to do is move the metal piece down a little bit or add something below it. Your thoughts?

by Bregalad on 2007-03-05 (#22320)

I think you must take a needle or anything and bend all upper (accesible) pins of the female connectors. From the day I did that (along with defeating the lockout chip), my NES have changed from one machine where you must blow in games and press reset 5 times in average before it plays with graphics glitches from a perfect console making prefect contact with all games on the first try. The only exeption is a really dirty Tiny Toons Adventure card that happen to infect the connector each time I try it for a few days. I think I'll destroy the board and re-use the case for a new PCB someday somehow.

EDIT : Would it help if the PCB would be thicker or thinier ?

by AWal on 2007-03-05 (#22323)

Match the PCB thickness. Thicker is trouble, think of a game genie stuck in overnight. That usually warps all the pins.

by Bregalad on 2007-03-06 (#22326)

The problem is that a PCB of 1.2mm thick can be about 4 or 5 times more expensive than standard 0.8mm and 1.6mm
I don't have a game genie and I never saw any so I cannot tell. 0.8mm will probably made no contact at all, so I don't know.

by bunnyboy on 2007-03-06 (#22327)

If you are worried about cost go for myropcb.com. They will do 1.2mm double layer boards for likely cheaper than normal boards anywhere else. The production PowerPak and PowerPak Lite boards I have gotten are ~10-15 cents/sqin. They will also do assembly but sometimes the soldering quality can be questionable...

by Bregalad on 2007-03-06 (#22330)

Seems like an interesting adress, but I don't see the PCB thickness mentionned anywhere on the website.

by rbudrick on 2007-03-06 (#22332)

I took a small jeweler's screwdriver and gently bent each pin in the top row so it came down more. Now, I don't even have to push the cart down...just stick it straight in and it loads every time!

-Rob

by Bregalad on 2007-03-07 (#22337)

That's pretty much what I described in my fist post, only worded differently. It is really the best thing to do I and recommand it to everyone.

by CartCollector on 2007-03-07 (#22345)

Is the top row the row with the "hidden" pins (the pins you can't easily see if you remove the connector?)? How would you pull out these pins?

by rbudrick on 2007-03-08 (#22347)

The top row is the one closer to the sky when your toploader is sitting in its intended state. The method is described above.

-Rob

by dvdmth on 2007-03-08 (#22349)

rbudrick wrote:
The top row is the one closer to the sky when your toploader is sitting in its intended state. The method is described above.

-Rob

Toploader or frontloader?

by rbudrick on 2007-03-09 (#22368)

Lol, yeah frontloader. D'oh

-Rob

by CartCollector on 2007-03-25 (#22624)

Those top pins are really hard to see. How do you get to them, how far do you have to push them down, and how can you tell if you did it right before you put it back in the NES?

by commodorejohn on 2007-03-26 (#22628)

Er, speaking of frontloader problems, mine has broken down. However, I'm not sure whether it's the connector or something else, as when I turn it on, instead of blanking to color 0 as it normally should, it blanks to color $20 or $30. My attempts to fly blind and save a game on Final Fantasy have not been successful, so I don't think the cartridge is running, but I'm not sure how the palette would (apparently) be altered if it weren't.

What I'm basically trying to figure out here is whether I should spend $30 or a new connector or get a new NES entirely.

by dvdmth on 2007-03-26 (#22631)

commodorejohn wrote:
...when I turn it on, instead of blanking to color 0 as it normally should, it blanks to color $20 or $30.

I think the blanking color varies depending on the initial state of the palette DRAM in the PPU. I do not know if it's possible for it to change over time, or if it's hard-wired. I do know, however, that different NES units blank to different colors (I used to have two NES's, one of which blanked to a light blue color while the other blanked to a pinkish color).

by rbudrick on 2007-03-27 (#22658)

Quote:
Those top pins are really hard to see. How do you get to them, how far do you have to push them down, and how can you tell if you did it right before you put it back in the NES?

Well, you take the top off, the metal shield and the black tray. You don't pull them dwn very far at all, just a little. after you do a few, you'll get a feel for the rest of them. You have to be pretty careful, so if you arent confident you'll do it right, then you probably shouldn't. I don't even remove the connector from the board. I just bend the top row down a bit and that's it.

As long as the connector is clean and your games are all clean, you'll know if you did it right because all your games will probably work on first try, and the connector will be tighter. You may not even have to push the cart down any more to get it to work.

-Rob