Snes reproduction pcb DIY

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Markfrizb
Posts: 607
Joined: Sun Dec 02, 2012 8:17 am
Location: East Texas

Snes reproduction pcb DIY

Post by Markfrizb »

www.Mortoffgames.com is selling my DIY snes pcb. Usually the progression of pcb makers is to go from simple to complex. My experience was just the opposite. I made/make the RetroCircuits pcb's and the "simple save" series has all smt parts machine mounted which is complex (and expensive), and is ready to just drop the rom and battery and it's good to go. But making enough of these to be worthy of a production run is very high upfront costs. So I downgraded to a DIY (do it yourself) pcb that should be simple enough for most any hobbyist to use. I have loosely followed some other similar pcb makers and really, I was appalled that their pcb would be $5 (single) $4 (bulk) and then would sell the CIC for another $4 and the other various parts needed at a high markup. One in particular was Muramasa where I added up the full cost of that pcb and parts was about $16-18 not including the rom or battery. I really felt that there should be a better alternative price wise, if nothing else. So........this is an alternative that you may want to consider. https://www.mortoffgames.com/super-nint ... uct_id=967
The Mortoffgames site has the pcb's @ $4 and with the CIC, $5 (that's $5 total for pcb AND the CIC). Single parts kits are available at prices that rival quantity @100 pricing. All in all, IMHO it shouldn't cost someone $18+ and all the work to build it to make a reproduction pcb. Even the Simple Save pcb we make and sell cost $14 and there's no building of the pcb... just solder in the rom and maybe 1 or 2 jumper pads. That's why it's called the "Simple" Save pcb. It's Simple and easy. But the intention of this post isn't to promote the Simple Save pcb....
The DIY requires more work to learn and build and it should be less than a fully populated one, and it is less. The DIY also gives you the flexibility to utilize optional FRAM saves, all SRAM ranges available (16k-256k), or even non saving games only require a few parts to be used, hence, an easier and less expensive build. The gold fingers are not hard gold but they aren't the thinnest of ENIG coatings either. We didn't want to cost save by using the thinnest of ENIG coatings. We felt the value of a thicker coating outweighed the savings. Maybe give this your consideration for those who want to delve into the homebrew, reproduction world. A standard 64k sram build will cost about $10 for pcb and ALL parts, except for ROM and battery. Thank you.

Instruction manual and video are linked on that site if you want to learn more.
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