I just received my Flashboy+ yesterday and finally got around today to putting a game on it. I had several cables on standby in case I ran into issues I read about here. I wasn’t supplied with a cable so I was hoping at least one of the ones I had worked and luckily, all of them did.

My problem is that there doesn’t seem to be any connection made unless the usb is “jiggled” and held in a “sweet spot”. Does anyone else have a similar issue? I can always record it if needed. It happens every time, regardless of the cable or computer used.

When I hold the wire in the sweet spot it will flash the game with no issue but it’s just killer on the hands and probably the cart.

Thanks in advance guys

The Mini-B connectors have pretty bad longevity, so it’s not really surprising that yours is starting to go. As a stop-gap, you could try to carefully bend those three little tabs in a little with some kind of pointy instrument. That should make it squeeze the plug a little tighter (until they bend back out…)

@Minestorm: I don’t know how many FB+ parts you have left in stock, but I suggest you migrate to Micro-B connectors if you ever do a board revision (not to mention any future USB devices you do).

For the existing install-base, it may be possible to upgrade to Micro-B connectors. The problem is that it’s a through-hole connector. I’m not positive that through-hole Micro-B connectors don’t exist, but my gut feeling is that they don’t. Besides being more durable, the other main point of the Micro-B is that it’s thinner than the Mini-B.

It would be fiddly work, but one could possibly remove the Mini-B and “dead-bug” a Micro-B in its place, using fine wire to connect it to the board. Maybe I’ll get some Micro-Bs and try it on mine (if I can be reasonably sure I won’t kill it in the process).

[retronintendonerd]

Here are some pictures and video of what I need to do to get it to work for me. Hope it gives you all a better idea because I suck at explaining most things technical

Video: https://flic.kr/p/pjumcK

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I don’t have to hold mine, it works like normal.

RunnerPack wrote:
The Mini-B connectors have pretty bad longevity, so it’s not really surprising that yours is starting to go. As a stop-gap, you could try to carefully bend those three little tabs in a little with some kind of pointy instrument. That should make it squeeze the plug a little tighter (until they bend back out…)

@Minestorm: I don’t know how many FB+ parts you have left in stock, but I suggest you migrate to Micro-B connectors if you ever do a board revision (not to mention any future USB devices you do).

For the existing install-base, it may be possible to upgrade to Micro-B connectors. The problem is that it’s a through-hole connector. I’m not positive that through-hole Micro-B connectors don’t exist, but my gut feeling is that they don’t. Besides being more durable, the other main point of the Micro-B is that it’s thinner than the Mini-B.

It would be fiddly work, but one could possibly remove the Mini-B and “dead-bug” a Micro-B in its place, using fine wire to connect it to the board. Maybe I’ll get some Micro-Bs and try it on mine (if I can be reasonably sure I won’t kill it in the process).

I’m not sure how my connector would be starting to go when this was a brand new cart and I only got it a day ago and only used it today. Anything’s possible though. Hopefully the video I just put up shows the problem a bit better.

if it isn’t working and can’t be debugged simply by switching out the cable, contact richard and ask to have it repaired. he is the nicest fellow and will sort you out.

Lester Knight wrote:
if it isn’t working and can’t be debugged simply by switching out the cable, contact richard and ask to have it repaired. he is the nicest fellow and will sort you out.

This, I know there is some manual labor done on the FB+ and these things can unfortunately happen. I understand you are wanting to troubleshoot here, but these kind of things are pretty obviously a technical problem which has to be solved by the maker of the FB+ and I am sure he will help you out as good and quickly as he can.
No real need to put it on the board if you ask me 😉 no offense intended, just been seeing these things here lately while the shortest route to solve these things is just to go back to the seller of the item.

TheForce81 wrote:

Lester Knight wrote:
if it isn’t working and can’t be debugged simply by switching out the cable, contact richard and ask to have it repaired. he is the nicest fellow and will sort you out.

This, I know there is some manual labor done on the FB+ and these things can unfortunately happen. I understand you are wanting to troubleshoot here, but these kind of things are pretty obviously a technical problem which has to be solved by the maker of the FB+ and I am sure he will help you out as good and quickly as he can.
No real need to put it on the board if you ask me 😉 no offense intended, just been seeing these things here lately while the shortest route to solve these things is just to go back to the seller of the item.

I don’t doubt Richard is an awesome fellow and all the hard work he puts into the carts. He and I have spoken in the past about ordering one of these badboys and he’s always been prompt and courteous. As a person who is farrr from having much technical knowledge I figured the board can help me (as its done many times before) or at least point me in the direction I need to go with the FB+ if its beyond a “simple fix”. I wasn’t sure if this was a common thing amongst them since I read a lot about the USBs being an issue.

To me the whole point of the Flashboy board is to ask troubleshooting questions but maybe I’m wrong? Richard lives in the UK while I reside in the US, sending it back is a bit more involved than it would be had he lived in the US. I was trying to avoid having to ship back to the UK and not have to trouble Richard if possible

parts of the FB/FB+ are soldered by hand. there is always the potential for problems. the issue everyone has with the usb is the cable used. the way in which you described your problem seems to be with the internals or the usb connector itself. something that goes beyond a simple fix of swapping out the usb cable.

this may help to summarize richard’s feelings about posting these concerns: http://www.planetvb.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?post_id=17663#forumpost17663

while shipping it back may not be ideal, it seems that in this circumstance it is how you are going to fix your issues.

Sorted now.

My good friend Eric (bigmak) is sending one of his and I’ll square it with him later.

I did look at micro USB, but they all seem to be surface mount. I like a thru-hole mount for added strength.

AAMOI this batch is a revised board. I managed to fix the comms glitch (so now any length USB cable can be used).

MineStorm wrote:
Sorted now.

My good friend Eric (bigmak) is sending one of his and I’ll square it with him later.

I did look at micro USB, but they all seem to be surface mount. I like a thru-hole mount for added strength.

AAMOI this batch is a revised board. I managed to fix the comms glitch (so now any length USB cable can be used).

I can’t thank you and Eric enough. You both went beyond what I would have expected in terms of helping me out. You both are stellar! Sorry I couldn’t have this be a simple fix but instead had to bother you about it.

MineStorm wrote:

AAMOI this batch is a revised board. I managed to fix the comms glitch (so now any length USB cable can be used).

Not to go off topic but, is this the new PCB with the 2 8mb chips?

Actually i’m sending you the ‘pink nightmare’..it’s a rather famous flashboy. It has special powers : if you stare at it long enough and close your eyes..you can still see it.

-Eric

MineStorm wrote:

this batch is a revised board. I managed to fix the comms glitch (so now any length USB cable can be used).

while we are helping FB+ owners debug, is it safe to tell them that if their FB+ was ordered after September 2014 that they should not experience the USB cable phenomenon?

Not to go off topic but, is this the new PCB with the 2 8mb chips?

No, that was a ROM board for Hyper Fighter (and other 32MBit games).

is it safe to tell them that if their FB+ was ordered after September 2014 that they should not experience the USB cable phenomenon?

Correct.

Is there any possibility that those of us with some soldering skill could modify our older FB+ to alleviate some of the connection issues? Maybe if you explain what the problem is, we could come up with something ourselves. Unless, of course, it would require a firmware update, or something (which is still doable, but probably not very practical).

Also, Re: the through-hole vs. SMT USB connectors: My last two cellphones have had micro-b ports. My current one alone has been cycled much more than my FB+ has, and I even use my phone a lot while it’s plugged in. Neither phone even shows signs of loosening, much less coming off of the board.

I think it mainly comes down to the quality of the parts you use, and making sure they’re soldered properly. There’s also the “human factor” of how roughly people handle them. I’d say that, 99 times out of 100, FB+ owners are probably going to treat their carts and cables with better-than-average care.

I fully understand and accept your decision, but you may still want to prepare for the day when TH mini-b’s vanish from the market altogether…