need help drawing pcb 72 pin nes to 60 pin fc board

[prince tomato]

hi,

i would like to ask any members skilled in Eagle or other PCB design software for assistance.
for some project consoles i am adding extra cart slots,
72 pin nes cart slots to Famicom and the other way around.
i have done this successfully by straight wiring on protoboard,
but it is a lot of work,
and gets very confusing as more and more wire occupies the workingspace.

what i really need is a pcb with DIP holes for the 2 cartridge slots, with copper traces connecting the slots in such a way that both connectors will have cartlabels facing the same way when a cart is inserted.
the wiring isn't difficult, but it is eating up too much time,
and i am too digitally impaired to do this pcb design myself.

i can offer cash or games/hardware for a drawing i can send to a factory for production.

pm me if you are up for the job and let me know what you want for it.

[krzy]

I can help you.
Are you using 2.5mm (same as NES cart) or 2.54mm pitch for NES slot? I see you wired in on prototype board so probably 2.54mm or you bend the pins.

[prince tomato]

hi krzy,

yes, nes and fc 2.45mm pitch matches protoboard/dip standard perfectly.
if you could help out with this that would be awesome.

[krzy]

I hope you tested yours nes connector, because If you plug NES cart into standard 2.54mm edge connector then pins will not match and short circuit surrounding pins.

[prince tomato]

yes, i also used 2.45mm pitch connectors for famicom and NES cart slots in earlier projects, works fine.
i've read somewhere that apparently NES connectors have a different pitch than the 2.45mm standard,
but i have had them side by side with a game genie connector,
and they look identical in pitch and size,
and work perfectly.
so i am not sure if NES is in reality just 2.45mm pitch,
or close enough to work,
but i never had issues with it.

[krzy]

Change extension from docx to zip.

[prince tomato]

Dude! you're a sorcerer!

pm sent.

[krzy]

[prince tomato]

i just had a look at the card edge connectors i used sofar,
and it turns out i got lucky.
i bought a batch of 10 about 2 years ago from ebay or ali, not sure.
misplaced those and bought another batch, no idea where.
opened one of the batches to use for tinkering.
and apparently, they both have different piches.
one batch is pretty much the exact same spacing as the Galoob connector, maybe microscopically wider, but exact enough to work without issues, i think it is the same as those used in some recent Nes to FC adapters.

the other type of connector i have is noticably wider,
but totally looks like it would work without too much problems.
the pins are quite narrow, and don't missalign enough to short any other pins.
i have not used this slightly wider type yet, and i'm not sure if the discrepancies of these 3 edge connectors are due to slightly different specs between manufacturers, or if there are that many ofscure spacing standards in these edge connectors.
so, for now i'll use the ones that match the Game Genie connector while they last.


-EDIT-

just tried a cartridge converter with the 72 pin edge inserted into the 2.54mm spaced card edge connector and it does work,
sort of.
the outer most pins are a bit off-set, but DO connect to the proper pins.
i tested every finger and pin connection for continuity and shorts with neighboring pins.
inserted the converter randomly a bunch of times, and measured again;
no shorts.
i did manage to cause a short intentionally when really forcing the card edge into the connector as far at it would go on either side to offset the pins as much as possible.
only one short was possible to cause this way.
if the excess space in the two sides of the connector were a fraction more narrow this would be impossible to short out.
official NES carts may differ slightly in dimensions compared to this cart adapter and unofficial carts,
but this looks like it might actually work,
2.54mm pitch edge connectors can be used with NES carts when in a pinch for a cheap and dirty fix.

I hope you tested yours nes connector, because If you plug NES cart into standard 2.54mm edge connector then pins will not match and short circuit surrounding pins.

[krzy]

You can cut off the connector in half and make slight gap between two parts to cancel the pitch error (midle EXP pins in nes cartridge are probably never used)

[prince tomato]

yep, that would work quite well i imagine.
luckily i still have some of those perfectly 2.5mm pitched connectors left, so no need to cut connectors yet.
pcb's are ordered and in production process,
if they come out half decent they are going to save me sooo much time.
no more hours of soldering wire by wire, one pin at a time,
just straight 1:1 ribbon soldering to add cart slots from now on.
pics of first install will follow for those interested.
thanks again Krzy, full credit to you for the drawing.

[prince tomato]

pcb's arrived yesterday, quality as expected is great.
these are going to make life a lot easier when adding cart slots to consoles, and i think i will try to make a plug-in cartridge adapter for consoles that i want to keep unmodded.

i currently have 10 of these, and if anyone wants one for advanced testing i can send some for free to anyone willing to pay for shipping.
i don't own any flashcarts or games with exp. audio, so i am quite curious about how it will perform with these.

[JardCrocker]

Hi...i am a new user here. In my case what i observed is the outer most pins are a bit off-set. Then i tested every finger and pin connection for continuity and shorts with neighboring pins and inserted the converter randomly a bunch of times, and measured again.

turnkey pcb

[zombie343]

I know I'm 4+ years too late to this but PM sent!

[zombie343]

Apologies for the necro yet again.

I'm able to rename the docx to ZIP file and see the contents, but I cannot open the corresponding .brd and sch files in KICAD (6.0). I know these files are from 2016...but what version of KICAD do I use to open them?

Thank you!

(I'm still learning, but have used other design tools for lower-level ASIC/FPGA development in the past)