INL HiLoROM SNES flash cart

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MottZilla
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Re: INL HiLoROM SNES flash cart

Post by MottZilla »

The light if I recall first dims but it's not done till the light goes out. If you fail to wait long enough it won't erase or program as you want it to.

If you're having trouble getting the boards recognized you might just not have them seated in the connector correctly. It's not a perfect connector. I think it needs the pcb all the way to one side. And I assume you don't have them in a cartridge case while trying to program them right? They won't fit in right if you have them cased I believe.

Programming the firmware shouln't be a big deal. I think you just set the switch to the BL/Boot Loader position before plugging it in. Then you run the right batch file to upload the firmware. When it's done you push that switch out of the boot loader position, or else the next time it boots up it'll again be in boot loader mode.

After I program the firmware I change the switch from BL to Run (I think it's called run) then unplug it or hit the reset button.
satashi26
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Re: INL HiLoROM SNES flash cart

Post by satashi26 »

Thanks a lot for the advice, but unfortunately I've done several writing processes before. I helped Danin test the software and new firmware upgrades before he released them and generally anything he needed me to write. I have 6 boards left over from the several that I bought, and know how to seat them... I wish it was that simple.

In a nutshell, I really appreciate the help but not putting it in right isn't the problem :) I'm sadly leaning to the conclusion that both my kazoos are dead now for some reason?

EDIT: After an alcohol bath and some serious cleaning, it seems to work again. I had it stored in a sealed box, but somehow something must have gotten in it. At any rate, at least it works again ^_^ Thanks Danin!
satashi26
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Re: INL HiLoROM SNES flash cart

Post by satashi26 »

Sorry for double post, but figured if anyone was following this thread, they'd want to see this too. A few others have had my problems too and I found a solution that I wanted to share incase anyone else comes here for it:

The issue with the games suddenly stopping and getting a black screen have been resolved with a very simple trick: Put them in a game genie and run it like that. I have no idea why this works, but it does. All the games I had issues with suddenly started working correctly after this. I hope this helps anyone who had this problem as well!

Another note, I ran into a new problem that is making me scratch my head again. For some reason, a few games won't boot up when I write them to my board. Strangely enough, its some that used to work. Final Fantasy VI/III, Lennus II, and now the BS-Zelda real hardware patch. It writes fine, no errors, the Lo/Hi rom is in the right place.... Just gives a black screen when it's turned on in the console. Anyone have this problem before?
tchapm12
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Re: INL HiLoROM SNES flash cart

Post by tchapm12 »

What tools should I be using to remove the header and pad the rom? I'm trying to get an English Seiek Densetsu 3 going on an 8MB cart, but so far I've had no luck.
I have however gotten SMW to run on it without modifying the rom
tchapm12
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Re: INL HiLoROM SNES flash cart

Post by tchapm12 »

Ok, I figured it out. Instead of using lunar expand, I used the CMD to mirror the rom up to 8MB and it worked. LunarExpand only fills the rom with 0s.
mamejay
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Re: INL HiLoROM SNES flash cart

Post by mamejay »

Hey guys. I am trying to write 6mb game to a 12mb cart. I have not had any luck. The game is Crimson echoes. I have no problem writing it to a 8mb board but I have none left.
How do I place the rom? I have tried heaps of combinations including doubling the rom, splitting it and putting the last 2mb at the start etc.
I have special firmware someone game me on Nintendo Age including the 12-16mb Erase file which works perfect for Star Ocean.
I am using the original software as I have not had much luck using the Retro-Prog.
Any advice on this one?
Thanks
tepples
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Re: INL HiLoROM SNES flash cart

Post by tepples »

If you run this test ROM on your 12 MB cart and take a screenshot, perhaps I can figure out how you'll need to rearrange a 6 MB ExHiROM (mapper $25) to fit.
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hsbm_12megabytes.zip
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getafixx
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Re: INL HiLoROM SNES flash cart

Post by getafixx »

From what I understand, INL programs those boards differently to handle the 96Mbit rom space. I don't know if they are really compatible with a regular game without some data rearranging... But I believe it's split into 3 32Mbit chunks.

Maybe it's similar to how his 8MB boards work, by cutting the last 16Mbit of the rom space and doubling it up in the beginning of the rom using a hex editor. I remember having to do that with some games to get them to work. Maybe the 12MB board is the same?
tepples
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Re: INL HiLoROM SNES flash cart

Post by tepples »

My test ROM will at least tell you in what order the CPU is seeing the chunks, so that you can figure out in what order to write them.
mamejay
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Re: INL HiLoROM SNES flash cart

Post by mamejay »

tepples wrote:If you run this test ROM on your 12 MB cart and take a screenshot, perhaps I can figure out how you'll need to rearrange a 6 MB ExHiROM (mapper $25) to fit.
Thanks so much for that. Here are the screenshots
Lorom switch setting
Image
Hirom switch setting
Image
tepples
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Re: INL HiLoROM SNES flash cart

Post by tepples »

The 3-digit hex numbers on the screen show which 32 KiB bank of the file is mapped to each 32 KiB chunk of Super NES address space. This tells me that in the HiROM switch setting, the 12 MiB cart is mapping the test ROM's 384 banks as follows:
  • $008000: 64 banks of LoROM
  • $808000: 64 banks of LoROM
  • $400000: 64 banks of HiROM
  • $C00000: 64 banks of HiROM
I can't tell what's going on in the LoROM setting, as it's displaying out-of-bounds bank values. So I'll use the HiROM setting and reshuffle the banks so that the game ends up in the parts of memory where it expects to be.

To run the 6 MiB ExHiROM game, you'll need to break the .sfc file (of size 6291456 bytes) into three 2 MiB (2097152 byte) segments, titled part_1, part_2, and part_3.
  • part_1: $000000-$1FFFFF in file; $C00000-$DFFFFF in memory
  • part_2: $200000-$3FFFFF in file; $E00000-$FFFFFF in memory
  • part_3: $400000-$5FFFFF in file and memory
You'll also need to make files mirror_1, mirror_2, and mirror_3 that contain only the second half of each 65536 byte bank. Then join them in this order:
mirror_3, mirror_3, mirror_1, mirror_2, part_3, part_3, part_1, part_2

These steps, especially creating the mirror_* files, might require a small piece of software. Does your PC run Windows, OS X, or Linux?
mamejay
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Re: INL HiLoROM SNES flash cart

Post by mamejay »

tepples wrote:The 3-digit hex numbers on the screen show which 32 KiB bank of the file is mapped to each 32 KiB chunk of Super NES address space. This tells me that in the HiROM switch setting, the 12 MiB cart is mapping the test ROM's 384 banks as follows:
  • $008000: 64 banks of LoROM
  • $808000: 64 banks of LoROM
  • $400000: 64 banks of HiROM
  • $C00000: 64 banks of HiROM
I can't tell what's going on in the LoROM setting, as it's displaying out-of-bounds bank values. So I'll use the HiROM setting and reshuffle the banks so that the game ends up in the parts of memory where it expects to be.

To run the 6 MiB ExHiROM game, you'll need to break the .sfc file (of size 6291456 bytes) into three 2 MiB (2097152 byte) segments, titled part_1, part_2, and part_3.
  • part_1: $000000-$1FFFFF in file; $C00000-$DFFFFF in memory
  • part_2: $200000-$3FFFFF in file; $E00000-$FFFFFF in memory
  • part_3: $400000-$5FFFFF in file and memory
You'll also need to make files mirror_1, mirror_2, and mirror_3 that contain only the second half of each 65536 byte bank. Then join them in this order:
mirror_3, mirror_3, mirror_1, mirror_2, part_3, part_3, part_1, part_2

These steps, especially creating the mirror_* files, might require a small piece of software. Does your PC run Windows, OS X, or Linux?
OK. I am using a file splitting app and just plain windows copy command with the binary switch. So just to break it down.
I split the file into 3 x 2mb parts
I am just confused on the mirror parts. So is this just the second 1mb half of each of the 3 2mb parts? It would make sense as this would add up to the 12mb.
Sorry I am not referring to the parts in hex. I am new to this game :)
Last edited by mamejay on Tue Mar 03, 2015 2:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
lidnariq
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Re: INL HiLoROM SNES flash cart

Post by lidnariq »

The mirrors are: Take each 2MiB slice. Divide that into sixty-four 32 KiB slices. Concatenate every second 32 KiB slice.

This is involved enough that tepples is (appearing to?) offering to write a tool to do it for you.
tepples
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Re: INL HiLoROM SNES flash cart

Post by tepples »

mamejay wrote:windows
Lidnariq guessed right. Go to Python.org and grab the MSI installer for the latest version of Python 3 for Windows. Let me know when you've installed it.
mamejay
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Re: INL HiLoROM SNES flash cart

Post by mamejay »

tepples wrote:
mamejay wrote:windows
Lidnariq guessed right. Go to Python.org and grab the MSI installer for the latest version of Python 3 for Windows. Let me know when you've installed it.
Already got it installed. Send your wonderful script over to me please :)
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