OpenDrive, a open hardware flashcart

[Soniccd123]

So, thats what my repros have become

I was trying to make repros with 3.3V chips safely, while testing things with Flash Memory, for sake of simplicity, I developed a programmer that could write the Flash through the cartridge main connector. Then it hit me that I basically had build a flashcart. In the last few months I have been polishing it, testing it and developing the needed software and now, here it is:

The OpenDrive project:

Flashcart: https://github.com/soniccd123/OpenDrive-Genesis
Programmer: https://github.com/soniccd123/OpenDrive-Programmer
PC Software: https://github.com/soniccd123/OpenDrive-Editor
Firmware: https://github.com/soniccd123/OpenDrive ... r-firmware

For now, only a Sega Genesis cart is available, a SNES one is being developed and will be able to be written with the same programmer using an adapter!

Decided to share it with the world because I think its the right thing, to people modify and learn from it, I know that there are better solutions in the marked, but competing with them is really not the focus. This project objective is to create a open plataform for others to build their projects and, if a DIY entusiast want, to use it to play backups!

Hope this helps someone

Soniccd123.

[Ziggy]

Awesome job, thanks so much for sharing this! Can't wait to see the SNES cart!

[Anapan]

That's really impressive! I'm not too familiar with building prototypes from bare files. Is the type of thing that I could order the PCB off OSHPark and the rest from Mouser or Digikey?

[Ziggy]

Yes, you can order the boards from OSH Park (or whatever other vendor). Go into the Gerber folder and find gerber.zip, that's what you'd upload to OSH Park. There will also be a BOM (either .xls or .csv) to order from Mouser or DigiKey. The other files are for KiCAD, which is the free CAD software used to design the PCB. If you install KiCAD and load this project, you can view the schematic which may be helpful to understand it better. You can also view the PCB, including a 3D rendering of it. And, of course, you can tweak it to suite you needs.