Famicom World

Family Computer => Technical & Repair Assistance => Topic started by: BonBon on March 20, 2013, 10:29:14 pm

Title: How does the everdrive work?
Post by: BonBon on March 20, 2013, 10:29:14 pm
Thinking of buying one have no idea how it works how to play games on it or how to put games on it
Title: Re: How does the everdrive work?
Post by: keropi on March 21, 2013, 12:38:21 am
All everdrives have an SD-card slot, so you just copy rour games in a SD card and insert it to the everdrive. When you power on you are presented with a game selector screen, you choose a game and it starts playing  ;D
Title: Re: How does the everdrive work?
Post by: BonBon on March 21, 2013, 01:02:38 am
So u download roms on an sd card from a computer right?
Title: Re: How does the everdrive work?
Post by: famifan on March 21, 2013, 02:50:08 am
iphone can't into SD card? ???
Title: Re: How does the everdrive work?
Post by: keropi on March 21, 2013, 05:54:48 am
Quote from: Jay-ray on March 21, 2013, 01:02:38 am
So u download roms on an sd card from a computer right?


yes  ;)
Title: Re: How does the everdrive work?
Post by: XiTaU on March 21, 2013, 10:38:17 pm
its a very simple process you just put the operating system onto the SD card and download ROMs onto the card. then they come up in a simple file list and u can choose the rom u want no harder than setting up any emulator.
Title: Re: How does the everdrive work?
Post by: L___E___T on March 22, 2013, 02:42:44 pm
I had more trouble getting the thing in a shell than getting games to run on it.
Title: Re: How does the everdrive work?
Post by: lobdale on March 25, 2013, 07:13:33 pm
I spent a while choppin down my spare Salamander cart last night, used a plastic clipper for Gundam models and a couple small files, took some real fenagglin' but it looks pretty good now!

(http://i.imgur.com/XwR4X7H.jpg)
Title: Re: How does the everdrive work?
Post by: Zero107 on March 25, 2013, 08:14:07 pm
lobdale, that looks sick. I have a Salamander on the way for that same purpose. So what exactly did you have to cut, does it have too many plastic tabs?
Title: Re: How does the everdrive work?
Post by: XiTaU on March 25, 2013, 10:32:42 pm
from the looks of it u will need to cut the top tabs so the pcb will fit and the 2 small rounded tabs on each side which slot through the pcb as they are in a different location on the everdrive pcb. Mainly u will be using the large middle tab to hold the pcb in place.
Title: Re: How does the everdrive work?
Post by: Zero107 on March 25, 2013, 11:22:31 pm
Ah, I see. Shouldn't be too hard. As far as safely opening the cartridge up, is there any other safe method besides using a Quick-Grip? There has to be some other non-damaging option.
Title: Re: How does the everdrive work?
Post by: manuel on March 26, 2013, 12:08:48 am
That looks awesome indeed.
It's just unfortunate that Salamander carts have to go for that...  :'(
Title: Re: How does the everdrive work?
Post by: lobdale on March 26, 2013, 01:24:49 am
I had to cut virtually every peg and tab, including the Konami "hole" on the back side, as well as snip down both tabs on the top and the sides, nothing matches up on the cart with the case except the top and side tabs (which taper to be larger and so need to be trimmed).  It was a serious chore, I do not advise using a Salamander cart for ease whatsoever.  But it sure looks cool!  To get it apart I basically just squeezed and pried till it snapped apart.  I sorta doinked the top right clip but it doesn't make much of a difference since the side clips are really strong.  Took a while to file down the slot for the SD card on the side as well.

Glad it's over with!
Title: Re: How does the everdrive work?
Post by: XiTaU on March 26, 2013, 11:10:09 pm
Yeah im glad i had 3 copies of adventure island because when i opened 2 of them they had chips and lucky last had a glob and the pcb style i needed and its an easy transfer.
Title: Re: How does the everdrive work?
Post by: L___E___T on March 27, 2013, 11:44:43 am
I have a Salamander cart opened also ready for this.  Can't decide if I want to add a translucent label like the original or not though.  Glad you attempted this first, I can learn from your process :D

Just to add, the DK I used was also not straightforward, I've come to the conclusion no cart shell will be because the Everdrive is way taller than early carts so I think each one is a trial and error DIY job.
Title: Re: How does the everdrive work?
Post by: lobdale on March 27, 2013, 03:41:36 pm
Yeah I had previously opened an old extra Baseball, a lot of the early or standard games just have those half-height boards so there's a thick plastic ridge built into the case that prevents the Everdrive from fitting.  There are so many shell and board variants out there that like you said, pretty much every single one is gonna be trial and error.
Title: Re: How does the everdrive work?
Post by: manuel on March 27, 2013, 08:56:39 pm
Would the taller Namcot or Jaleco carts be better by any chance?
Title: Re: How does the everdrive work?
Post by: L___E___T on March 28, 2013, 06:33:41 am
I can confirm MMC5 cart shells are a no-go, as is Family Basic (I had a faulty one). 

Haven't tried those taller carts yet, but have a few opened Namcot carts to test with. 

Seems a shame to use black carts though as you miss out on the lights.
Title: Re: How does the everdrive work?
Post by: aha2940 on March 28, 2013, 11:58:56 am
Does the everdrive store the selected ROM in some kind of temporary storage while playing? or it plays it directly from the SD Card? I ask because I know NVRAMs and similar devices tend to wear when overwritten like 10000 times or so...that would lead to the everdrive dying some years from now.

Thanks!
Title: Re: How does the everdrive work?
Post by: famifan on March 29, 2013, 02:13:49 am
Quote from: aha2940 on March 28, 2013, 11:58:56 am
Does the everdrive store the selected ROM in some kind of temporary storage while playing? or it plays it directly from the SD Card? I ask because I know NVRAMs and similar devices tend to wear when overwritten like 10000 times or so...that would lead to the everdrive dying some years from now.

Thanks!

it can't play directly from sd card. Latency is so huge even for famicom's low speed CPU

it uses dedicated flash memory chip to store the selected ROM. Typical wear is 100k write cycles. That's enough for loading 100 roms everyday for a couple of years. No need to worry about flash chips wearing while new chip costs few $ and you can replace it easy if you are good with (de)soldering tools. If not ask hot glue or apollo boy to do that  ;D
Title: Re: How does the everdrive work?
Post by: keropi on March 29, 2013, 02:42:38 am
The famicom everdrive actually uses RAM to store the rom data... it grabs the game from the sd card, splits it across 2 ram chips and runs it....
Other ram based everdrives are the Mega-ED and the ED64... ofcourse the upcoming NES-ED will be ram based too. All other everdrives use flash .
Basically , the ram based everdrives will last MANY years unless they develop some other fault...
Title: Re: How does the everdrive work?
Post by: famifan on March 29, 2013, 03:30:46 am
oh i was wrong  :(
but i want to say that no need to worry about flash chip wearing.

SRAM is even better
Title: Re: How does the everdrive work?
Post by: duo_r on June 02, 2013, 08:05:22 am
That looks amazing! I wish I could find a good deal on Salamander...

What is a decent price to obtain this game? I am getting clear for my NES N8 and would live this for Fami.

One last thing I have created a simple user manual for N8, I will be releasing it soon in next week.