SHORT HOW-TO FOR ASSEMBLING THE FUNKYFLASHCART (FFC) V1.1... This here represent the usual disclaimer blah blah.. you fuck your cart up while building it (or blow up your NES with the results of your craftmanship), don't come crying to me. Now then.. If you're console is not lockchip-modded, you'll need a lockout chip from an existing cart. For an example on how to deactivate the lockchip, see the articles about NES mods from http://www.raphnet.net for instance. I won't go into details on how to remove the lockout chip from the board, suffice to say I'm lucky enough to have access to a professional desoldering station. You also might want to have a case for the cartridge so sourcing a cheap (damaged) cart for both of these parts is recommended. As for the parts with substitutes.. The CMOS RAM backup chip can be either a DS1210, DS1218 or a DS1218S (surface mount) and the EEPROM can be 93C46, 93C56 or 93C66. I used 33pF caps for the crystal since I didn't have any 27pF ones, works fine. The 100uF electrolythic capacitors near the Xilinx chip need to be as small as possible, miniature through-hole radial caps will fit when put flat against the board (see assembled1.jpg) but SMD ones will look more neat since the board is designed for those. Here's how I handle the tricky to solder surface-mount devices, namely the FTDI USB and Xilinx chips: 1. Line the chip up with the PCB pads using tweezers, a couple of pins/needles or whatever similar that is available and allows you to gently move the chip in very small steps. 2. Solder two pins from opposite sides of the chip to anchor it down. For this, I use the smallest soldering tip I have and put it on the pad without touching the point where the component leg hits the pad and leaving a small gap (if possible) between the soldering tip and the component leg. Then, I wait a short moment for the pad to heat up and carefully apply tin to the point where the pad and soldering tip meet. From here, the solder will flow to the component leg if the pad is warm enough. I verify the chip aligment after the first leg is soldered, at this point it's still easy to correct any misaligment. 3. Solder remaining pins with the small tip and NOT bothering myself with possibly making shorts between pins. I of course try doing this as neatly as possible but most of the times I end up with at least one short per side ;) 4. Wait for the chip to cool down a bit (if it's warm) and then apply flux over the pins/areas that are shorted. 5. Change to the large soldering tip and use it to remove the excess solder between pins. The trick here is that when the solder joint is cold and you gently sweep over it with a hot soldering tip the latter will draw the solder to it. Depending on the size of tip and the amount of solder in the shorting point you might need to do multiple passes. A bigger tip will draw in more solder than a small one. Also, some flux might need to be applied in between the passes to make the solder more fluid. This is because the more you apply heat to the joint the more flux burns away in turn making the solder more rigid and harder to remove. Remember to let the solder/short-circuit point to cool down in between passes as well, THIS WILL NOT WORK IF BOTH SURFACES ARE HOT. So, tool-wise you'll need to have a soldering iron with a few exchangeable tips (small and large), some flux (preferably no-clean) and tweezers.. Just to have a few pictures of the whole thing, I made a short-circuit to the FTDI chip and removed it using this method (see ftdishort1.jpg to ftdishort4.jpg). Other than these tricky-to-solder chips, the assembly is just about stuffing all the other parts in and modding a existing cart case to fit the FFC board. I had 100nF caps only in 1206 size, but luckily those fit in (although just barely). The 10nF caps go to the six spots right over the 10nF text and the 100nF caps occupy the remaining spots. The case needed to be cut/trimmed in few places. These were the middle fastening screw tower (casemod1.jpg and casemod2.jpg, both halves), the side support of the middle locking lug at the top end of the case (casemod3.jpg) and a opening for the USB connector (casemod4.jpg and casemod5.jpg). One thing I'm not sure off at the moment is whether or not it'd be a good idea to glue/fasten the USB connector somehow after the case is assembled. On my cart the connector seems a bit prone to getting it's solder joints damaged since it moves around slightly when you remove the cart from NES or insert a USB cable. Glueing the connector to the case would make opening the cart a lot more difficult and that's a trade-off I can't accept at the moment. I'm planning to monitor this issue when the cartridge starts building up a bit more mileage. Anyway.. After assembling my board I washed it with some SafeWash J PCB cleaning liquid (http://www.electrolube.com/docs/bclean.html) in order to get rid of the mess left by the flux. It's simply a matter of taste if using no-clean flux, other than that the flux remains should be washed away. If you do this, remember to let the board dry well before using the cart. Drip-dry overnight is a good rule of thumb here. I used compressed air for drying the board faster. To finalize the cart the _fancy_ way, whip up some custom artwork for the label :).. The dimensions are (W x H) 55mm x 97mm with the top end text part being 7mm high. I used a scan of my FFC board as it would appear inside the case if there was a window where the label is. Feel free to use my layout for your own non-commercial cart if you like. PARTLIST 2 x 32k*8 62256 RAM DIP (max. 120ns) 2 x 4Mbit FLASH DIP (120ns AT49F040 and AM29F040B are tested/supported). 1 x Xilinx XC95144-PQ100 PQFP 1 x CMOS RAM Backup DIP/SOIC (DS1218S, DS1210 or DS1218) 1 x Serial EEPROM DIP (93C46, 93C56 or 93C66) 1 x FT2232C LQFP 1 x 3V PCB lithium battery 2 x 27pF R5 1 x 220pF R5 1 x 10nF R5 1 x 33nF R5 1 x 0,1uF R5 6 x 10nF SMD 0805 7 x 100nF SMD 0805 2 x 100uF electrolythic (SMD or miniature radial) 2 x 27R 1/4W 1 x 470R 1/4W 2 x 1,5k 1/4W 1 x 2,2k 1/4W 1 x 10k 1/4W 1 x Ferrite (can also be replaced with a wire link) 1 x USB-A male PCB connector 1 x 6MHz low-profile crystal Note that USB-A male is not actually meant to be used in peripherals so you'll need a adapter cable with it. I bought a USB-A male to USB-B female -cable, works fine. If you have any corrections/additions to this, mail your suggestions to littleb [at] luukku dot com