Famiclone handheld teardown

[jensma]

Hey there!

I just did a short teardown of a Famiclone handheld. Just for fun, maybe you guys want to have a look at it:

http://jensma.de/famiclone_teardown/

Have fun! 

[chowder]

Very nice!  I have one of these, I took it apart but didn't take any pictures.  And I broke the battery wires...  They're so thin

Not a bad handheld really, although my Everdrive doesn't work with it.  Some people have claimed it should, but the videos I've seen of it working seem to be the grey model.  They so have differences despite looking virtually identical - the grey one has a green power LED, whereas on the white/red model it's red and only seems to flicker when you switch it on, then act as a low battery indicator (I think, I haven't managed to run the batteries down yet).

[jensma]

Do you mean this one?



I though they were the same, mhh. Maybe the gray one got a better screen? I *think* the white uses it's LED as a bettery indicator, too. When I used it with batteries the LED was a solid red, when using a wall wart the LED was off. Since I don't own an everdrive I can't fiddle with it. I heard the everdrive has a somewhat higher consumption than regular carts - maybe a small mod to the power circuitry of the white handheld will do the trick.

[chowder]

Yes, that's the one.  It seems to have better games too, the white/red model is just full of those shitty Nice Code made games or similar.

Hmm, my power LED doesn't light up when it's on batteries or PSU, maybe it's just faulty.  It does briefly flicker when you switch it on, but that seems to be it.

The D-Pad is quite annoying, maybe I'll try sticking a little patch of plastic over the middle to connect them together or something.  Maybe a small ball-bearing to make it pivot...

[jensma]

Mhh, maybe I'll fetch a gray one, too. I've thought about the dpad as well. Maybe I'll use the bas of a regular game boy dpad, since it got a bump on the bottom half. Just sand the "cross" down and glue the Hamy's buttons on top.. mhh

[chowder]

That's a good idea!

I ordered one of these a while back, just waiting for it to arrive from China:

http://powerfamicom.tumblr.com/post/57621121391/portable-famicom-subor-sb-z12

Screen looks to be better, and apparently the Everdrive works on it.  Hopefully the D-Pad is OK.  I love these portable Famiclones, they're very cool   Yeah, my PSP can emulate all the games, but these just seem better somehow.

[HVC-Man]

My white & red Famiclone handheld has regular multicart NROM games, not the Nice Code crap. I think it's a really great portable clone, despite the Everdrive not working on it.

[Great Hierophant]

Some wonderfully goofy things about the Hamy :

"88 Pins"
"Volleying key"
"Support original 60 pin NES game cartridge"
"Fully support NES original game cartridge"
"Plug big calorie" - WTF?

I also like their way of describing dead or stuck pixels, Engrish aside they have a more prominent notice than most LCD display manufacturers.

The Subor portable Famiclone has a button placement that most of us would find backwards.  I can also see many people pressing reset inadvertently.  Reset should be inconvenient to reach. 

[80sFREAK]

Hey there!

I just did a short teardown of a Famiclone handheld. Just for fun, maybe you guys want to have a look at it:

http://jensma.de/famiclone_teardown/

Have fun!  

Tons of hardware pr0n and good macro photos. Well done!


So this is just emulator-on-chip with "built-in Everdrive"


This is more interesting thing for hardware hack. The flash memory chip is 32M Bit (4M x8/2M x16) Dual Bank NOR Flash Memory. I can guess, 128M is for another flash chip, which should be soldered on the other side of pcb. Probably NAND flash.

LCD is awful, but for $25 assembled unit it is kinda acceptable - you've got, what you paid for  

ZELDA DX???  


INTERSTELLAR  

[jensma]

My white & red Famiclone handheld has regular multicart NROM games, not the Nice Code crap. I think it's a really great portable clone, despite the Everdrive not working on it.

NROM? Woah, that sounds cool. I thought about desoldering the flash of the hand held, but unfortunatly I don't have a programming adapter for that type of IC.

This is more interesting thing for hardware hack. The flash memory chip is 32M Bit (4M x8/2M x16) Dual Bank NOR Flash Memory. I can guess, 128M is for another flash chip, which should be soldered on the other side of pcb. Probably NAND flash.

LCD is awful, but for $25 assembled unit it is kinda acceptable - you've got, what you paid for  

ZELDA DX???  

INTERSTELLAR  

Yeah, swapping the flash chip for some decent game would be awesome. Maybe a project for the future.

The Zelda DX hack is a quite nice sprite hack! xIceMan did the repro, thanks again!

Er, Interstellar, yeah.. well.. don't expect too much

[chowder]

The Subor portable Famiclone has a button placement that most of us would find backwards.  I can also see many people pressing reset inadvertently.  Reset should be inconvenient to reach.  

You know, I didn't even notice that in the pics!  Once I opened the parcel and saw it, I had hoped that they just labelled the buttons that way, but sure enough, they're the wrong way round  I wonder if I could just cut some traces and wire it up to swap them...

I'll open it up and post some pics.  The D-Pad is pretty good - it's a Sony style segmented one, but pivots and seems to be made of a single piece.  The screen is pretty much identical to the Hamy unit ie. crap, but at least the Everdrive works on this one.

[jensma]

Cutting traces and rewiring the buttons is most probably possible. Just make sure to run your wires where they don't block the buttons

[80sFREAK]

Where is the dump? 

[jensma]

Do you mean the dump of the built in games? Unfortunately my programming adapter won't take that kind of package.