NES Cart PCB Dimensions

NES Cart PCB Dimensions
by neonempyr on 2009-04-20 (#45988)

Does anyone have dimensions for a standard Mario Bros. cart PCB outline? I'm about to order a prototype but I need to put the outline on the edges layer. Last time I measured with digital calipers (which were quite accurate) it didn't come out quite right, so I'd like a second opinion. I'd like to be able to put it into a cartridge case.

So far, here is the data I have so far from the forums:

Pin width: 2.0 mm
Pin pitch: 2.5 mm

I also saw the location of the screws on a post somewhere, but it didn't say where 0,0 origin was.

by Memblers on 2009-04-20 (#45996)

The basic outline for a full-size PCB is 110mm x 100mm. But the cutouts are somewhat complex to describe. I'll try to draw up a pic here that you (or anyone) can use.

by Memblers on 2009-04-20 (#45998)

Here you go. I can't guarantee accuracy, so use at your own risk. I've made minor changes and adjustments through my designs, this could be a wrong one as I've lost track. But it should be really close. I know it was a tight fit in one of the tetris-block-shaped cutouts (heheh).

http://memblers.com/NESdev%20files/NES%20cart%20dimensions%20%28inaccurate%29.png
(should I phpBB3?)

by neonempyr on 2009-04-21 (#46015)

Fantastic. Thank you very much. I will test a cutout of these dimensions in a cart case. Perhaps we should post this on the Wiki after it's tested?

by Bregalad on 2009-04-21 (#46019)

I've sucessfully (on the mechanical viewpoint) designed a board that fits in the case, and with the two holes in the center. I could post a scan of the sheet with the dimentions if I ever found it again.

by neonempyr on 2009-04-21 (#46021)

Feel free to do so. I'm going to draw up a nice quality draft in xdraft and post a .fig and .png file of the drawing on the wiki. I'll be sure to show the location of the spacers and holes.

I'm also measuring a cart PCB with some digital calipers that can read 0.01 mm

Memblers, your drawing is actually quite accurate!

NES Cartridge Dimensions
by neonempyr on 2009-04-21 (#46025)

So, here is what I have so far. Below are links to the PDF output of an XDraft .dr file (http://xdraft.sf.net). Please let me know what you think. Maybe we can add this to the wiki?

NES Cartridge Dimensions PDF

NES Cartridge Dimensions XDraft source file

by Memblers on 2009-04-21 (#46026)

Looks good. Don't forget the other 3mm diameter hole, a little north-north-east of the 5mm one.

Quote:
Memblers, your drawing is actually quite accurate!

Thanks, I owe it to kevtris since he helped me do that one originally (I had no clue otherwise). It followed one of Koei's MMC5 boards (which also used almost all of the cart case). I did the paper cut-out thing too, that's when I made adjustments. Probably if the bit used to route the board was slightly bigger (than used on the ones I had made) it would fit more comfortably.

Also there are 2 plastic stand-off thingies up towards the top, I have them marked on one of my layouts (and I also promptly ignored them - it's right in the middle of a DIP IC, heheh). They're small in size and asymmetrical in placement.

NES Cartridge Dimensions rev. 02
by neonempyr on 2009-04-21 (#46040)

Thanks for your input, Memblers.

Here are some links to the updated docs with the additions you suggested.

NES Cartridge Dimensions PDF

NES Cartridge Outline PDF

NES Cartridge Dimensions XDraft source file

by neonempyr on 2009-04-22 (#46055)

Placed these documents and a new Pin Dimension document in the wiki under Hardware:Cartridge_Dimensions.

Peace

by Memblers on 2009-04-22 (#46074)

One more bit of vital info, the thickness of the board. Specify as .45" (1.2mm). This is a little unusual, some board places only do .62" (particularly discount ones).

by neonempyr on 2009-04-23 (#46095)

Good point. I added that to the drawing. I think I'll make a simple table of the basic dimensions at the bottom as well.

Thanks so much for your help on this. I hope someone else can find it useful or interesting, at least.

by fmauNeko on 2010-06-23 (#63260)

I know this thread is more than 1 year old, but if someone still has the files, could he reupload them, because the links are dead.

Thanks

by hyarion on 2010-06-23 (#63282)

fmauNeko wrote:
I know this thread is more than 1 year old, but if someone still has the files, could he reupload them, because the links are dead.

I should have an eagle file somewhere with the dimensions and the cart edge connector footprint, i can try to find it if you are interested

by fmauNeko on 2010-06-24 (#63296)

hyarion wrote:
I should have an eagle file somewhere with the dimensions and the cart edge connector footprint, i can try to find it if you are interested

That would be awesome ! Thank you

by hyarion on 2010-06-24 (#63301)

here it is you might want to double check if it's correct as i'm not sure if it's the final version (couldn't find any other though) :S

and if you do find something please tell me

(edit: apparently it is a bit off, will try to find some time to fix it soon-ish)

by Bregalad on 2010-12-04 (#71030)

I'm just reviving this thread because I found the sheet where I wrote down the dimentions of a NES board, including the position of the two holes.

I just don't know how to "publish" it, should I scan the sheet, or specify the coordinates of every PCB corner ?

In all cases I compared my dimensions with the eagle file hyarion submitted, and they almost maches - but there is some mismaches arround the left "inner-corner", maybe at most 10 mil, but it could do a difference. I'm pretty sure my dimentions were approximately correct so that they fit the case, the only reason the PCBs I made doesn't fit the case and are unusable is their thickness (1.5mm instead of 1.2mm).

Too bad I haven't written down the dimention of the connector's pin (only the PCB), but I remember they were an evil 2.5mm spaced (instead of 2.54mm = 100 mil as you could expect).
So I can't confirm that the pins on this eagle template are correct. However I'm pretty sure Nintendo always had "too long" pins for no particular reason (the pins are MUCH longer than the connector, and goes way past the soldermask), apparently the eagle file reproduce this. This isn't a major problem, but wastes PCB space that could otherwise be used for something more useful.

by hyarion on 2010-12-05 (#71078)

Bregalad wrote:
I'm just reviving this thread because I found the sheet where I wrote down the dimentions of a NES board, including the position of the two holes.

I just don't know how to "publish" it, should I scan the sheet, or specify the coordinates of every PCB corner ?

In all cases I compared my dimensions with the eagle file hyarion submitted, and they almost maches - but there is some mismaches arround the left "inner-corner", maybe at most 10 mil, but it could do a difference. I'm pretty sure my dimentions were approximately correct so that they fit the case, the only reason the PCBs I made doesn't fit the case and are unusable is their thickness (1.5mm instead of 1.2mm).

what do you mean by "inner-corner"? could you point out which one you mean in this image?

Bregalad wrote:
Too bad I haven't written down the dimention of the connector's pin (only the PCB), but I remember they were an evil 2.5mm spaced (instead of 2.54mm = 100 mil as you could expect).
So I can't confirm that the pins on this eagle template are correct. However I'm pretty sure Nintendo always had "too long" pins for no particular reason (the pins are MUCH longer than the connector, and goes way past the soldermask), apparently the eagle file reproduce this. This isn't a major problem, but wastes PCB space that could otherwise be used for something more useful.
the pins on the edge connector is correctly spaced in the eagle file (2.5mm)

it's only "way past" the solder mask on the component side (could be reduced to around 1/2 of the hight) on the solder side only ~1/3 could be removed, this due to how the nes connector works.

btw, the PCB i "copied" was a NES-NROM-256-03 (think it was slalom). which is the reason why the fingers is looks like it does.

could add another more optimized version, but that after i correct those measurements you hopefully point out for me

by Bregalad on 2010-12-05 (#71089)

OK, I'll post the corner's position that I've measured in mil. I've put the origin on the bottom-left of the board :

There is "corners" at (going counter-clockwise) :
(126,0), (3811, 0), (3811, 563), (3937, 563), (3937, 1331), (3874, 1341), (3874, 1537), (3740, 1537), (3740, 1635), (3937, 1635), (3937, X), (0, X), (0, 1562), (197, 1562), (197, 1464), (63, 1464), (63, 1228), (0, 1228), (0, 563), (126, 563)

X can be changed arbirtary for a variale size board. If X < 1635, then less corners can be made for a smaller board (such as NROM).

Holes coordinates :
(1972, 2665), diameter = 5.2mm = 205 mil
(2183, 3041), diameter = 3.1mm = 122 mil

There is also two "pins" in the plastic case that would prevent componant into going at some position on the board, but too bad I didn't measure their positions. I also haven't measured the plastic case's lenght for the maximum value of X.

Your version of the connector have slightly different version than mine.
I took a screenshot with yours (grey) over mine (yellow) so that the differences appears on the screen : (exernal link so it doesn't "enlarge" the thread)

http://jonathan.microclub.ch/dummy/connector.png
Now, my dimentions are probably not "exact". I just measured them with a caliper or a ruler (for the longer ones) and converted the result into mils.
There is probably a range of values that will work, a range that will work pretty much but that will make you have to apply some force for the board to fit, and then some values when it won't work any longer. I have no idea if the error between both of ours versions is significant or not in this regard.

PS : It would be great if other people who sucessfully made PCBs (Memblers, bunnyboy ?) would compare their measurements to mine, so we could confirm their exactitude (however it might be possible that those people are hiding their info on purpose so that people buys their PCBs instead of making their own).

by hyarion on 2010-12-05 (#71092)

double checked it and... you are right, mine is off after all... thanks for pointing it out

guess i'll have to go back to the drawing board and fix it then... i'll keep you posted (will try to find time for it later this week)

by Memblers on 2010-12-05 (#71097)

Here are my measurements.. I tried to set the board origin to the bottom-left corner (actually an area that gets cut off), I have no idea why this is different from yours, but they're pretty close. I actually had my board edge measured/drawn in metric (most of the values are more even-looking in metric - maybe that's what it was originally?). But I'll post it in imperial for easier comparison to yours.

(126,0) (3811,0) (3811,551) (3937,551) (3937,1338) (3866,1338) (3866,1574) (3740,1574) (3740,1692) (3937,1692) (3937,x) (0,x) (0,1574) (196,1574) (196,1476) (70,1476) (70,1239) (0,1239) (0,550) (126,550)

I can't guarantee it's really accurate. I've had problems with some boards fitting a little too tightly. And the way for me to extact these coordinates is kinda prone to human error.

BTW the full board dimensions is 100mm wide by roughly 110mm long. It can be a little longer I think, but part of it will overlap the finger-grip recessed area (so no component placement there).

by Bregalad on 2010-12-06 (#71119)

Well, some of our measurements differs from about 20 mil which is definitely significant. I'll have to double check that they are correct.

PS : And yeah I measure everything in mm too, I just converted to mil because it's what CAD programs uses.

by kevtris on 2010-12-07 (#71178)

Memblers wrote:
One more bit of vital info, the thickness of the board. Specify as .45" (1.2mm). This is a little unusual, some board places only do .62" (particularly discount ones).

You need to add a 0 in there. The PCB thickness should be 0.045 (standard is 0.062 inches).

by Bregalad on 2010-12-07 (#71184)

OK I definitely oversized the board's total length, I now replaced the total length 3945 = 100.2mm by 3937 = 100 mm, which is more realistic because it makes the connector symetric (before it was slightly dissimetric, which doesn't appear to be the case).

Re: NES Cart PCB Dimensions
by qbradq on 2013-12-05 (#121996)

Nero-bump for great justice!

I notice that the boards I got from INL seem to use this outline. When I built my own board outline using these dimensions I noted that the left-hand notch is lower than the right-hand notch. Is this intentional and correct?

Also, can anyone confirm my assumption that the outer, wider tracks on the edge connector are 3mm wide?

Re: NES Cart PCB Dimensions
by tokumaru on 2013-12-05 (#121999)

qbradq wrote:
I noted that the left-hand notch is lower than the right-hand notch.

That's probably so the board won't fit backwards in the case.

Re: NES Cart PCB Dimensions
by infiniteneslives on 2013-12-05 (#122017)

qbradq wrote:
Is this intentional and correct?
Yeah that's the standard NES PCB outline.

Quote:
Also, can anyone confirm my assumption that the outer, wider tracks on the edge connector are 3mm wide?
Yes that's what I measured, and it's the size I made my boards.

Re: NES Cart PCB Dimensions
by qbradq on 2013-12-07 (#122092)

INL, would you be willing to share the positions and sizes of the other drill hits for the mechanical holes you have in your boards? I'm working on a set of open hardware files for prototyping.

Re: NES Cart PCB Dimensions
by infiniteneslives on 2013-12-07 (#122100)

Would you accept a designspark PCB file?

Re: NES Cart PCB Dimensions
by qbradq on 2013-12-09 (#122160)

Sure, anything you're willing to share would be awesome.

Re: NES Cart PCB Dimensions
by infiniteneslives on 2013-12-10 (#122202)

I left the mount holes and 72pin connector on there along with a little silk screen.

Designspark PCB file with board outline and mounting holes: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vzyb5uzwhgwuf ... e.pcb?dl=0

Here's my current Designspark NES library might be needed for 72pin connector. I save every component I've ever created in this library so if you're making boards it could be of great use if you can make sense of my naming convention... https://www.dropbox.com/s/oovscu6aqvln0 ... S.zip?dl=0

Designspark is completely free and I recommend it: http://www.designspark.com/eng/page/des ... -home-page

Enjoy!

[EDIT: links updated as dropbox changed their link paths. Post below actually uploads them with my more recent versions as forum now allows it.]

Re: NES Cart PCB Dimensions
by uXe on 2017-10-08 (#205668)

infiniteneslives wrote:
Designspark PCB file with board outline and mounting holes: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/183 ... utline.pcb

Here's my current Designspark NES library might be needed for 72pin connector. I save every component I've ever created in this library so if you're making boards it could be of great use if you can make sense of my naming convention... https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/183 ... %20NES.zip

Would you be willing to share these files again, please?

Re: NES Cart PCB Dimensions
by infiniteneslives on 2017-10-08 (#205677)

Ahh yeah dropbox changed their link paths awhile back breaking all links to my public folder.. I updated the links to that old post, but here are my more up to date versions attached to the forum.

I've since updated my PCB outline to include some slanted angles/corners to make up for the imperfections of my NES case mold. The attached v2 outline is designed to fit well in all original, and reproduced NES case molds I've found to date.