Honey Bee Family Adaptor PCB images

[Salduchi]

So I had made a post before about how adapters work for the NES/Famicom. I was lucky enough to find this Honey Bee on eBay last week and snagged it. I cannot find any images of this PCB anywhere on the internet, so maybe these are the first known images of this relatively rare adapters innards? Here ya go incase anyone is interested!

My question is, what exactly are we seeing on the board?

[Salduchi]

PCB images

[P]

Thanks a lot for the photos!

I guess the ceramic capacitor is responsible for the stun mechanism like Famicom_87 said. It's connected to NES pin 45 which is CIC related. As long as the space isn't too tight inside the case, I don't see any reason it shouldn't be possible to remove the cap and install a small daughter board with a CIC clone using some wires. Just make sure any metal parts are all isolated from the board.

I don't know what the five resistors are for. It looks like they are soldered between Famicom pins 41 to 45 and GND (meaning they are pull-down resistors that makes data transmissions cleaner and work better). But why only pin 41 to 45? Pin 45 is for expansion audio, and it seems it isn't even connected anyway.

Famicom pins 18 and 48 are connected, so MMC5 games and other games that provides extra VRAM on the cartridge should work with this adapter. That's good news, as not all adapters do that I think.

The only bad things about it seems to be the stun circuit and the lack of expansion audio, but both should be fixable I think.

[FAMICOM_87]

Thanks a lot for the photos!

I guess the ceramic capacitor is responsible for the stun mechanism like Famicom_87 said. It's connected to NES pin 45 which is CIC related. As long as the space isn't too tight inside the case, I don't see any reason it shouldn't be possible to remove the cap and install a small daughter board with a CIC clone using some wires. Just make sure any metal parts are all isolated from the board.

I see some holes near this cap for CIC I guess, so you can solder original lockout chip from any game.

[Salduchi]

Can anyone mod this thing for me? lol

[emerson]

The cap appears to be between PPU A12 and the CIC data out (relative cartridge). I assume it is using the fluctuating state of the address line to create an alternating positive voltage and glitch the console CIC.

The DIP footprint on the pcb matches the official NES lockout pinout exactly. As famicom_87 suggested you could use the CIC from any licensed game.

I have a few official CICs in the parts bin, send me a pm if you want this modded.

[P]

From a quick glance, it appears that the pins matches the 10NES pinout too. Quite interesting that they made the board with a 10NES CIC in mind.

Of course, if using a real 10NES it would be locked to the region of the CIC you use.


The board doesn't seem too complicated and could be made in Eagle. The main problem might be the fact that there are two boards that must be soldered together in an S-shape and with the right dimensions for everything to fit and be stable.

[emerson]

Thanks for the reminder P, i did not consider the region lock limitation of an original CIC. I can also provide an AVRCIC if that is preferred.

It's almost like they had an official CIC installed during development and just plug n played with different attack methods until something worked, then released their development pcb to production.

[Salduchi]

Well I'm from the US and have an NTSC NES and will never use this on a PAL NES. But yeah I am definitely interested it getting this modded so I don't have to worry about shocking my NES.

[P]

I mean since you are offered the better option as well you might as well go with the AVRCICZZ. You never know if it will become useful to someone one day.

[Salduchi]

I mean since you are offered the better option as well you might as well go with the AVRCICZZ. You never know if it will become useful to someone one day.

So what is the advantage of getting a AVRCIC over a 10NES other than it being region free?

[P]

Probably none. It was just a tip, don't feel forced to do as I say. Pick whichever one you want.

[zombie343]

OP, are you interested in selling this?

[Salduchi]

OP, are you interested in selling this?

I'm sorry but I couldn't. Took me forever to find one. I see them pop up on eBay every now and then though.

[portnoyd]

They are definitely hard to come by, but patience will get you one at a reasonable price. There isn't a whole lot of demand. Took me a few months to get mine.