Memory Card add-on for MV1B and MV1C - 100% Done.

DavidG

REAL NAME: Jason Young, KNOWN SCAMMER, , This con-
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I didn't think I would have time to work on this in 2011 but I spent a lot of time on it in the past few days. I'm currently working with a MV1B running a unibios 2.3.

So far I have a fully working memory card proto board that I can move between systems - AES or MVS. For all AES and the 6, 4, 2 and several 1 slots it works fine. On the MV1B I have the system seeing that the hardware is installed, card detect is working but it doesn't fully read the card properly. When you finish a game it will ask if you wish to save, if you select yes it will try and give an error.

At first I thought this project only required CE, WE and OE to be found, sadly we also need CD1, CD2 and WP. I've found CD1, CD2 and WP which is why the system is able to see the card.

I know for sure now that this mod can be done. I'm not sure how long it will take to complete but I will finish it. When I finish the mod the new board will require you to install a new bios socket plus 6 surface mount wires.

More to come!
 
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Heinz

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Wow sounds interesting. Good on you for spending the time and effort on a project like this. Being able to use a mem card on the 1B and 1C would definitely be awesome!
 

Xian Xi

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Well done sir. I hope you can figure it out by the end of the year.
 

alphagamer

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It is so awesome that the Neo still receives so much love and dedication, best of luck for your project!
 

DexterAYS

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Hi there, good to hear that you're even going to get the MemCard working in These boards..
I have a half off-topic question:
I have a 4slot MVS and want to add MemCard Support for it, but don't find the MV-IC and hence want to make one on my own. I assume this should be possible with a PCMCIA-slot connected to the port(s). Do you have the circuit-Description of the MV-IC? I assume it's just wiring and no extra logic so I should be able to do it on my own?
Thanks a lot!
Martin
 

mjs256

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Martin,

I am working on a similar project. It was not easy, but I was finally able to obtain a MV-IC. You are correct - there is no logic on the MV-IC. It's just a bunch of connections. There are many "wasted" pins which are not really used (except for redundency I suppose). I wonder if SNK maybe had plans at some point to use those pins for another purpose? Anyway, I can help you find parts and give you pin connections if you want to build a simple one of your own.
 

DavidG

REAL NAME: Jason Young, KNOWN SCAMMER, , This con-
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I don't know if I could get this finished board to also work as a MViC add-on since one has all the memory card logic while the other doesn't. I'm sure it's possible but may not be worth it.

Here is the latest picture of my first gen neo aes:


I'm running out of space quickly on that system! Because the MV1B I am working with is so different from my first gen the first step is to confirm my add-on prototype works.

To do this I took a breadboard and added everything needed for a stand alone memory card reader. Next on the first gen where we know all the correct connections I tied the board into the system. I have two different versions of this test board, one is in the image and ties right to a unibios 2.3. This allows me to remove the bios to another system without reconnecting all the main lines. The second version of this prototype is installed on a SS2 MVS program board. I don't like using the MVS version for now as my aes cart slots are very worn out and the prototype is heavy.

For the first gen after all the bios connections we need the following:

Pro C0 #31, 32, 33 and 77. (Chip enable and Output enable stuff)
Pro B0 #88, 89, and 90. (Card detect stuff)
74HC259 #6 and 7. (Write enable stuff)

The protoboard works fine and has been moved to a 3-4, 3-5 and 3-6 5v/9v and also works fine. As stated in the first post I already found the Pro B0 connections and my MV1B can see the memory card hardware now.

The next step is to find CE and OE since the memory card will run without WE. WE will be the last and worst pin to find.
 

shadowkn55

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I mapped out most memory card interface on a first gen aes when I was researching on how to connect it to a 1C board during the early stages of the omega design. Most of the logic that appears on the aes card reader is bus buffers. The control signals is where it got tricky. This should help out a little.

PRO-C0 #31 -> CARD /CE

PRO-C0 #33 -> CARD #9 (/OE)

PRO-C0 #33 | 74HC259 #9 -> CARD #61 (REG)

[ !(74HC259 #7) | (74HC259 #6) ] | PRO-C0 #32 -> CARD #15 (/WE)

The problem came when it came to map this out on the 1C. SNK unified all the logic chips into the huge NEO-GRZ chip. You don't necessarily need to tap the control signals from the auxiliary chips. You could wire all the signals straight into the 68k and decode all the information from there.
 
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DavidG

REAL NAME: Jason Young, KNOWN SCAMMER, , This con-
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Well done sir. I hope you can figure it out by the end of the year.

Woot :)


Image is of a MV1B with a NTM memory card. I have OE and CE running fine. The MV1B can see the card, load data and attempt to save. The only thing I am missing is WE (write enable). I've done test by playing a game on a 4 slot or AES, save it then move the game and momory card to the MV1B. When asked if I want to load data, I say yes and it continues where I left off so it does work fine. It will ask if I want to save but will give an error saying the card is write protected which is normal since I am missing it.

We're at 98% done and with any luck I should have this mod done by end of day tomorrow just in time for New Years!
 

Neo Alec

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Great job. I can't wait for this. This is the final frontier for me.
 

DavidG

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Just finished the prototype at 12:30 EST. I have it fully working now. Loading and saving is fine, confirmed it by moving the cart and mem card to and from AES, 4/6 slot boards and the mv1b.

Can anyone with a MV1C grab a picture of the main board?
 

da66en

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DavidG;3290974Here is the latest picture of my first gen neo aes: [URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/26/mvick.jpg/ said:
mvick.jpg
[/URL]

Every time I see something like this I cry a little bit inside. You could have paid $30 for some prototype PCBs and saved your self hours of wiring it, then hours of fretting if one of the wires fell out of the breadboard.

That being said - great work!
 

Neo Alec

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I am so excited about this! I would take a photo of my 1C if I was in the States.
 

94TC

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Great work, I like how you made the mv1b, a patch connecting to the mainboard and slot board would be another great deal. There are so many 1b's around and a decent adapter would make it possible for 1b's to be properly consolized and housed like a 1c. Just a thought.
 

DavidG

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Making a pcb to test with sounds great but nothing beats the old bread boards when you enter a new project not sure how it will turn out. The first proto of the aes backup memory add-on only had 3 chips. If I made a board for it I would have ran into a lot of issues since the design was wrong and missing 7 chips. What I normally do is design by hand, then work in reverse to see if anything can be removed then make a pcb. Most times my proto pcb's are good to go without change. The red Phantom-1 upgrade boards were the first run protos which have made it into several P1's.

About making the MV1B lay flat without 200 wires. I've not taken the time to find the exact fit yet but something like this may work:

http://www.hirose.co.jp/cataloge_hp/e57220088.pdf

They have a lot of connectors for around $7 at digikey all you would need to do is find the exact fit and order a right angle version to replace what's on your board. If the exact match can't be found you could simply buy both sides of the connector and go that way.

I spent a lot of time yesterday testing the new mod and it's 100%. Read, write, copy, delete, rename, resume, format - all work fine. I will be working with NTM on this one to come up with a new design for the MV1B and MV1C. What I need are 2 people who want to be the first to have this mod installed, someone with a MV1B and someone else with a MV1C. The idea is you send your system here for a month or so as the new board is being designed to fit your system. Once done it will be installed for free, all you pay is shipping.

We're also looking into adding in memory card support for all other MVS systems like the MV2 and MV4 so you wouldn't need the IC addon board which isn't easy to find these days.
 

Xavier

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What I need are 2 people who want to be the first to have this mod installed, someone with a MV1B and someone else with a MV1C.

I have an f.
 

Neo Alec

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Any news on this? I am really looking forward to seeing some of those sexy MV-1C CMVS's with a memory card slot. Sorry, I would donate my MV-1C if I were in the US. Did you get one?
 

DavidG

REAL NAME: Jason Young, KNOWN SCAMMER, , This con-
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I have the MV1B working at 100%, the MV1C is 95% due to it being a very different board. I have WE, OE and CE done which are the harder of the set but I still need to find card detect. It won't take long to figure out but I'm short on time right now. I also need a NBM to tap the bios on the MV1C in order to begin testing. NTM dropped them in the mail already so next week I should be able to finish this up.

Once I have the MV1C kicking 100% I can design the pcb and go to the next step. I expect it will take about an hour to finish off the MV1C once I have the bios boards in next week.
 

shadowkn55

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That brings up a good question. Are you using the unibios to find the control signals for the card reader?
 

Neo Alec

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This is awesome! Thank you for your effort.
 

DavidG

REAL NAME: Jason Young, KNOWN SCAMMER, , This con-
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A follow up on this for everyone. I have the MV1C in hand and have done a good deal of dev work with it. What we need to get the memory card to work are:

OE, CE, WE, CD1, CD2, WP - On the MV1B and MV1C OE and CE are located on the NEO-DCR-T chip. For WE we can use pin 9 of the 68k for both boards. On the MV1B CD1/2 and WP are located on the NEO-SDR-T chip. Here is where we ran into issues on the MV1C, it simply doesn't have CD1 or CD2 and without those the system will never know the memory card is attached. I've tried every pin on the NEO DRZ and YAS2 as well as some tricks and the system will not see the card.

At this time I have to say the MV1C is lacking the core support for the memory card and without stripping the board of its parts (and killing it) this is where the project ends.

I have a new pcb proto of the memory card addon for the MV1B. I will finish it up and make a few for those who may want them.
 

distropia

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At this time I have to say the MV1C is lacking the core support for the memory card and without stripping the board of its parts (and killing it) this is where the project ends.

I have a new pcb proto of the memory card addon for the MV1B. I will finish it up and make a few for those who may want them.

I have a broken mv1c for you to play, if it helps. I also have pics of chip's underside.
 

Neo Alec

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Sad news. It's great what you did with the 1B but of course the 1C is more desirable for consolizations and is therefore more important to figure out. I can only hope that others and myself (after returning to the US and examining my board) will shed new light some day. I trust you have already explored it more than most of us are capable though.
 

DavidG

REAL NAME: Jason Young, KNOWN SCAMMER, , This con-
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MV1C memory card is working!



A very big thanks to smkdan, ntm and raz for the help. The mod itself is working very well but we needed to use a modified bios to work around the missing card detect lines. After seeing the memory card run fine I am very sure CD1 is on this board some place. At this stage we can move forward with a final production board.
 
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