Hardware Slot 2 device without slot-1 pass

[Kanahpoo]

I recently found a DS lite with a broken Slot-1, so i was wondering: is there a slot-2 device that fully supports all nds games (and perhaps some homebrew like snemulDS) without the need of a slot-1 passcard?

 

[Urza]

I recently found a DS lite with a broken Slot-1, so i was wondering: is there a slot-2 device that fully supports all nds games (and perhaps some homebrew like snemulDS) without the need of a slot-1 passcard?

No.

 

[Destructobot]

is there a slot-2 device that fully supports all nds games

No.

 

[Kanahpoo]

thought so
thx anyway!

 

[DanTheManMS]

If you can *somehow* get FlashMe installed on the thing, you can boot a slot-2 device in DS mode and run homebrew and commercial games just fine. Since it's a Lite, you could use the BIOS swap trick if you were really determined to get it to work, though this would require a second, working DS Lite, a slot-1 device (or slot-1 NoPass, really you just need some way of launching the "FlashMe.nds" on the working DS Lite), and you'd have to open up both of them and swap the BIOS at the appropriate time. It could work, but it may not be worth the trouble.

 

[Kanahpoo]

might be too much trouble idd

thx anyway

 

[kaputnik]

In what way is your slot1 broken? If it's mechanically damaged you can get a replacement slot for next to nothing here; http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.26807

 

[Kanahpoo]

Wow that's really cheap indeed, unfortunately i don't know how it's broken, it just doesn't detect any slot-1 cards. I'll keep that in mind! Thx for the tip!

 

[kaputnik]

Wow that's really cheap indeed, unfortunately i don't know how it's broken, it just doesn't detect any slot-1 cards. I'll keep that in mind! Thx for the tip!

Ah okay. If you're lucky you've just got some dirt on the connector. The first thing you should to is to disassemble your DS and try cleaning the slot. Use tops and isopropyl alcohol or some cleaning agent for electronics. Also check the solders that connects the slot to the motherboard while you're at it, I reckon it's not all that rare that they come loose, ppl tend to use some force when inserting their DS carts :>

If you're unlucky and your slot is broken and you need to get a replacement slot, the only real catch is that you need some skills with the soldering iron. It's definitely an advantage if you got some prior experience of soldering SM components. If you do, you can just stop reading here and go order that slot :>

Lets see if I can explain this in English; a quite useful trick when you solder this kind of tiny stuff is to wind up a piece of copper wire on the tip of the soldering iron. Let one end of the copper wire point forward and use it as a mini soldering tip. Melting some solder on the winding helps the heat to transfer to the copper wire.

A solder wick makes your life a whole lot easier when desoldering the old cartridge slot, so get one of those too. And here's another little trick of the trade, when you're desoldering the old slot you'll need something to lift the connector legs with. This is what I use for that kind of stuff; take a 0,5 mm mechanical pencil and a pin that fits in the pencil. Snip the head off the pin, and replace the lead (or whatever it's called in english) in the pencil with your newly beheaded pin.

Oh, almost forgot, using a pretty thin solder when soldering the new slot helps too, I usually use a 0,5 mm one when working with SM components, but anything below 1 mm should do. And as usual, make sure you haven't shorted anything when you're finished, and that everything is clean from loose tin bulbs etc that could short something later on before you reassemble your DS

 

[Kanahpoo]

Thx kaputnik!

I know now what's wrong with it, one of the pins broke ... so it's definitely soldering for me. I'm getting my replacement slot tomorrow!!
So when i prepare everything i might get back to you! Your practical knowledge is very welcome ... cause i haven't been soldering since i was 14 or so .. back when i was in school

No wait, i'm lying ... i DID solder the new buttons on my mame arcade cabinet a few years ago ... but that doesn't really count as fine soldering, it was a mess ... but hey, it worked!

 

[kaputnik]

Thx kaputnik!

I know now what's wrong with it, one of the pins broke ... so it's definitely soldering for me. I'm getting my replacement slot tomorrow!!
So when i prepare everything i might get back to you! Your practical knowledge is very welcome ... cause i haven't been soldering since i was 14 or so .. back when i was in school

No wait, i'm lying ... i DID solder the new buttons on my mame arcade cabinet a few years ago ... but that doesn't really count as fine soldering, it was a mess ... but hey, it worked!

My pleasure

Yeah, feel free to get back to me if you got any questions. There are a couple of things I should add now though;

When desoldering the old slot, be careful with how much force you use when lifting the pins from the motherboard. If you've managed to melt the whole solder, it should come loose easily. The last thing you want to do is to pry away the copper tracks from the epoxy laminate.

When soldering the new slot to the motherboard, begin with pre soldering all the pins on the new slot. There should already be solder on the copper tracks on the motherboard from the old slot, so no need to do anything about those. Then just position the new slot on the motherboard and heat up each pin and its corresponding copper track on the motherboard. Make sure the solder on the copper tracks melts too, or you'll get a "cold solder" which results in a weak bond that will break at some point and bad (if any) electrical connection.

Probably there's quite a lot of info about soldering available on the internet, google is your friend. And some practice never hurts if you got some scrapped electronic stuff to play around with. You want something with surface mounted components, laptop motherboards for example usually are full of those. Practice desoldering and soldering back some components. When you feel you got the hang of it, it's time to fix that NDS

 

[Kanahpoo]

I have an old broken laptop, so indeed not a bad place to practice first

thx for the tip!
think i'm gonna need a lot of it after reading your instructions