Extending 4 cart slots. Any suggestions before solder nearly 2000 pins?

[GoodTofuFriday]

Like the title says. Going to extend the cart slots on an mv4s using IDE cable. Its going to involve soldering onto about 2000 pins. So i was hoping anyone might have suggestions before I commit senpuku halfway.

Thanks!

 

[HeavyMachineGoob]

Why exactly do you need to extend the MVS cart slots?

 

[GoodTofuFriday]

Why exactly do you need to extend the MVS cart slots?

The physical location of where the carts are going in this case build are no where near the actual board unfortunately.

 

[HeavyMachineGoob]

Change the case you're using. No case is worth rewiring MVS cart slots, they're 240 pins each.

 

[GoodTofuFriday]

Its a pc tower. Sourcing the tower was hard enough, and its metal frame has already been cut and modified to accept the mvs carts in a vhs/nes like fashion. And 4 spare slots have been mounted in place. This is the last step before fitting in a memory card reader and some wiring. Cant change it at this point.

 

[SmokeMonster]

and some wiring

Famous last words

Seriously though, it sounds cool but impossible.

 

[HeavyMachineGoob]

It's just not worth it man. Well, unless you like the idea of the 6 circles of wiring hell.

 

[mr_b]

 

[Xian Xi]

IDE isn't gonna cut it when it's that long. You're going to run into major problems.

 

[GoodTofuFriday]

IDE isn't gonna cut it when it's that long. You're going to run into major problems.

Even if its only an 18" run? What gauge wire do you suggest?

 

[aha2940]

May I suggest doing something removable? like something that you insert on the MVS slots and connect to the external slots, instead of soldering directly to the board. It may be a little bit more expensive because you gotta get the edges to put inside the slots, but it's worth it, because that way if the MVS dies, it's way easier to replace.

Regards.

 

[Xian Xi]

Even if its only an 18" run? What gauge wire do you suggest?

What board version is this exactly? Honestly, I think you'd run into more trouble trying to desolder the carts slots than the actual wiring.

 

[GoodTofuFriday]

May I suggest doing something removable? like something that you insert on the MVS slots and connect to the external slots, instead of soldering directly to the board. It may be a little bit more expensive because you gotta get the edges to put inside the slots, but it's worth it, because that way if the MVS dies, it's way easier to replace.

Regards.

For a time I was going to use ISA card edges to put in the slots as the spacing between pins are the same. But I got concerned with it getting loose while the system is moved.

And @ Xian its an mv4fs. But I'm not planning on desoldeting the slots on this board. I have 4 additional cartridge slots that I desoldered off a dead mv4f. So I was going to wire from the bottom of top half of the board to these 4 additional slots. And see above for what my original plan was.

 

[HeavyMachineGoob]

What Xian Xi was talking about before is there's such as thing as resistance in electronics. You can't just expect a signal to go across a wire forever, eventually the signal will become too weak if you send it over a long enough wire. 18" is probably too long for MVS slots.

 

[GoodTofuFriday]

What Xian Xi was talking about before is there's such as thing as resistance in electronics. You can't just expect a signal to go across a wire forever, eventually the signal will become too weak if you send it over a long enough wire. 18" is probably too long for MVS slots.

That's true. Which is why I wondered if thicker wire may help. I could always decrease the cable size as 18" was a maximum I was looking at. It's closer to 11"

 

[GadgetUK]

IDE isn't gonna cut it when it's that long. You're going to run into major problems.

Totally agreed! The length of the wire is going to introduce a sh** tonne of noise on various lines. If it even works it won't be very reliable - think "crashes, sound problems galore".

 

[Vectorman0]

I agree that this isn't worth it. Troubleshooting anything will be a nightmare.

 

[Gummy Bear]

That's true. Which is why I wondered if thicker wire may help. I could always decrease the cable size as 18" was a maximum I was looking at. It's closer to 11"

Thicker wire = less resistance but more capacitance.
Even if they did work at 18" there would be crosstalk galore unless the wires were individually shielded.
Like Gadget says, it might work, but intermittently. I wouldn't trust it.
Might have to admit defeat, bro. Sucks but there it is.

 

[GoodTofuFriday]

Is there anything specifically about the neo geo mvs that makes this unlikely to work? Or simply the length of wire (I kow IDE likely wont cut it but I have plenty of it so thought I'd give it a shot)? As ive done this with plenty of cartridge based consoles, but admittedly not at an 18" length. Gonna give it a shot anyway though with one cart at a time.

New the the neo geo so I don't yet know its modification limits.

What if I doubled up on the ide? Two ide wires per pin?

 

[HeavyMachineGoob]

It's basic electronics. Trying to carry unshielded signals over a long distance is going to cause problems, especially when you have 240 wires involved. Even if you shielded the wires (expensive), you're still stuck with the resistance issue caused by the long length of the wires. Even if you increased the thickness of the wires, you're still stuck with the capacitance issue as stated above. All you're going to do is make yourself one huge whopping mess. Yes, mounting MVS slots in a PC tower is kind of cool, but it's not worth wasting time on a soldering project doomed to failure.

 

[GoodTofuFriday]

I'll see if I can rearrange things and decrease the distance to roughly 7". at 20 gauge I feel like 7" should work

 

[HeavyMachineGoob]

The best option is to make a case that doesn't require the cart slots to be rewired. I don't think you quite understand the pain and suffering you're trying to fling yourself into, on top of having to face the reality of strange unexplainable issues once you're done soldering.

 

[shadowkn55]

Do you have a picture of what your work in progress is going to look like? Judging from just the written details, there is so much wrong with this idea. Ideally, should be mounting the entirety of the 4-slot in the orientation you'd like to have your cartridges inserted.

 

[Gummy Bear]

The best option is to make a case that doesn't require the cart slots to be rewired. I don't think you quite understand the pain and suffering you're trying to fling yourself into, on top of having to face the reality of strange unexplainable issues once you're done soldering.

Yeah, something like this maybe:

 

[HeavyMachineGoob]

Nah, that's way too straight forward and functional.