Has anyone tried just hooking up the SRAM via the cartridge connector and read and/or write to it with a plain eprom programmer?

If the WE, and both CS were jumpered appropriately could it then be read as a 28F64, 29F64 or 27C64 or something like that?

What would be the appropriate settings for these signals to enable the chip to be read?

pin 3: WE\
pin 6: CS1\
pin 7: CS2
pin 22: OE\

Perhaps they could also be connected to the eprom programmer, if they’re wired HI/LO the same as one of the chips mentioned above? I’m guessing the OE\ is the same standard as the other 8kB chips?

Perhaps putting a piece of tape over the cartridge connector and then punch holes with connecting wires which are then fixated with epoxy would make a connector that would work more than once – just so the SRAM could be backed up between games if having built a modified SRAM cart with socket/s.

I’ll probably try it – as I have a cart, wires and an eprom programmer, but I thought I should ask if anyone tried it.

I’ve looked at the datasheets and it should be possible to read it as a 8kbit flash/eprom as far as I can see.

I’m planning to hook it up like the picture below, connecting CS2 directly to +5V to enable output. Just use a 28 pin socket and solder the wires to that. The bright numbers in the middle are the cartridge pins that are suppose to connect to that pin on the socket.

If you want to make sure no data will disappear you could move the /WE (on cartridge pin 3) to +5V as well I guess to prevent any writing.

I’ll probably try to and write to my sram as well.

Comments are welcome.

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   vb-cart-as-28c64b.png
   

Perhaps also connect cartridge pin 31 to VCC (+5V) to prevent any interference from the ROM.

28 wires all together

Yeah, it does work… when I built my dumper I used it like that a few times (at least for reading, I don’t remember about writing). I also built an adapter to read/write as GB SRAM using a GB memory reader that I picked up for a few bucks: http://www.projectvb.com/tech/sramrw.html . That dumper was a mess of wires though… I sure don’t miss it 😉 .

DogP

Yes, Yesus… Nice to know that it works – I’ll give it a go then.

I think I have seen your cartridge dumper there somewhere also, with two sockets, dumping half the rom at the time.

I ordered an adapter for my Willem programmer to be able to read and program 16Mbit chips as well. Then only one socket would be required and the whole cart could be dumped in one go.

Then I’ll dump all carts that come my way – just to check for variations.

I’m also looking into getting a TSOP48 adapter to be able to program those small 16Mbit or 32Mbit chips, but they cost about double as much as the programmer did. It seems that it is the ZIF socket that’s the expensive part. 🙁

Yeah, that ugly thing right there is (was) my dumper, and I put jumpers on it to allow the SRAM to be dumped as well. And the adapters aren’t too expensive on ebay… neither are the sockets if you can solder the adapter yourself. I bought some 56 pin ones a while back for next to nothing.

DogP

I had plans to make a connector myself with thick enough single core wire and epoxy but as I have a pair of real connectors coming my way soon I’ll put this idea on the shelf for now.

I have thought of it as a pcb with two 21 pin male connector strips and the cartridge connector attached on that PCB. Then it simply slides into the eprom programmer and can be read as a 27C160. And then either an adapter for when reading the sram or a set of jumpers that can be set to activate the sram… This way to try and keep away from a lot of wiring that might cause problems.