DarkFader’s Flashcart

The first Flashcart for Pokemon Mini was made by Darkfader using a PSD memory from ST (it’s a Flash+PLD combination).

JustBurn’s Flashcart

Then JustBurn and pop built some more Flashcarts using a 512kb NAND Flash memory and a XC9536 CPLD. The programmer was a slow parallel port device. During the development of PokeCard512 Rev1 we noticed that the parallel port programmer outputs 5V and the CPLDs on the flashcart weren’t 5V tolerant – it’s surprising that this actually worked for the first few cartridges.

PokeCard512 Rev1

Following JB’s original cart design Team Pokeme built a bigger lot of Flashcarts in 2005/06 featuring a new USB programmer built by Lupin. These were the first carts that really were publically available and the first that were labeled “PokeCard512″. The biggest disadvantage of these carts was that they needed a programmer with a genuine PM cart edge connector.

In these dark times many perfectly functional PMs lost their lives just for their precious cart edge connector.

PokeCard 512 Rev2 (current version)

After five years of development and lazyness *cough* we are now selling a new version of these flashcarts. This time it features a dedicated programming connector which uses a serial interface to transfer data to the flashcart. It is not needed to remove the cartridge for programming.

The first revisions of PokeCard512 did protrude from the PM and did not fit into a cart case. PokeCard512 Rev2 utilizes a cheap trick to make it fit into normal cart cases by placing the flash memory at the bottom of the PCB and cutting a big hole into the original cart case – see the pictures for details.

Now some techy info on the cartridge:

• 512kb of NAND Flash memory (AT49BV040A or AM29LV040B)
• 72 Macrocell CPLD (XC9572XL)
• Support for multiple ROMs with MrBinkys menu
• Small 6 pin programming connector

…and the flasher:

• Full speed USB2.0 device (high speed and full speed compatible)
• FT2232H is used as an USB to SPI converter
• Rewrite time 512kb (using Shizzle): <25 seconds
• Small 6 pin connector – the flasher can also be used as an I²C/SPI/JTAG master (the design is similiar to that of the Floss-JTAG adapter)

The carts and flashers are currently on sale, they are produced by Lupin in small quantities.

Ordering details: Ordering can be done by sending an email to Lupin. You will then receive more details about prices, shipping, payment etc.

Downloads:
PokeFlash utility (to upload new ROMs to cart)

Links:
MrBlinkys PokeCard512 Rev2 related page

Mr. Blinky’s Poke USB Rev 1.2

A revision of Lupin’s original Poke USB Linker. Parts have been relocated for a more inline design, a voltage regulators with different packages are supported, a resistor has been put in series to N_PROG line and N_PROG is now also connected to cart A20 signal.

More Images