Yes the solder joints are terrible, but it works and I’m proud of myself.
update 2: I’ve now done the same to my copy of Gold. It requires a different battery compared to either yellow or sapphire.
Update: Now I’ve replaced the battery in Pokemon sapphire. Luckily since it uses flash memory my 25 year old save file is intact.
Wait… can you confirm that these things don’t use volatile memory for game saves?
Pokemon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald only use the battery to power the onboard clock, the saves are on flash. If you look at the PCB you can see the flash chip on the left, it’s the one that’s not under the battery.
It’s safe to replace the battery, but since the RTC will be starting from 0 again you won’t see time based events happen until it catches up to the time stored in the save. If you’re not planning on starting a new game or fixing the save file using a cart reader and save editor (alternatively a DS with GBA slot and a flash cart) there’s no point in replacing the battery.
Edit: Fixed typos
The only thing I can tell you is my save survived the battery replacement, which tells me it’s flash and not SRAM.
Joints look good! I would maybe look into cleaning the contact pads on the bottom of the cartridge though. It may work fine now, but those things can corrode and it looks like yours may have already started. A liitle preventative maintenance could extend the life by quite a bit.
Side note on soldering - isn’t it crazy how easy people make it look in YouTube videos and what not? Like, they always just heat up and flow so perfectly and so quickly on the first try every time. I guess it comes with experience. It took me a long time to get the hang of it, and I still can’t do what those folks do. Anyway, your solder looks great. Proud of you, too.
isn’t it crazy how easy people make it look in YouTube videos and what not?
More heat, more flux. That is all.
If you did soldering for the first time - your joins are pristine. They are completely fine unless you want to fulfill IPC-A-610 standard.
Requiring 610 for your own repair of a game cartridge would be kinda ridiculous anyway.
Besides soldering battery taps can be a pain. There can be so much thermal capacity in the taps (technically the cell, but). Combine that with an ordinary 35μm PCB, perhaps with some old school phenol board, and this result is some a newbie can be quite proud of. Heck, even if you’ve trained a bit.
dude your solder joints look professional compared to mine. I am proud of you too. give yourself a pat on the back and maybe a sloppy kiss with small butt grabby. you’ve earned it.
Ummm I’ll have what OP is having. Thanks.
It’s mostly weed, but like, the cocktail is not for the faint of liver
Swap it for a 18650 and give Pikachu some VROOM
FYI on the next one - they make CR1616 battery holders (like this) which allow future you to swap in new batteries whenever you want without additional soldering
I figure if I’m gonna do it, may as well just do it once
Enjoy having your old games back!!
Yeah I came looking to see if anyone had mentioned this. 100% the way to go. Worst case you’ve added no work, best case you make your life so much easier the next time around.
I was talking to someone and they were saying that the solders on these adapters always suck and it creates more work. Is there any truth to that? I have 6 games I want to do this on.
The adapter I shared has no solder except that which you put into it. It solders into place just fine with a little flux, I’ve had 0 issues in ~20 games from this.
Be sure to clean your iron tip, I had a little bit of difficulty on the first one I did because I have had the same iron tip for like 10 years. A $2 replacement made life much easier. Probably also could have just hit it with sand paper. And double-check polarity on the connection points - watch a couple of YouTube videos to confirm you’ve got +/- right. I think it’s wonky on some carts.
The ones that are soldered and often suck are the ones OP posted. Be sure to check the battery voltage before you install those ones because they use cheap batteries and duds are common.
I’ve also seen people go the cave man approach and just un-solder/pry off only the battery (from the attached “arms” that connect to the board) on old carts and just tape a new battery in place but that’s an approach for monsters and psychopaths.
I’m a bit foggy on the details but I think Pokémon Silver / Gold were a little trickier because the RTC changes the PCB layout and the battery is actually mounted on top of a chip, so space gets a little tight and you have to build a bit of a solder bridge up to the connectors.
I so badly want to learn how to fix old tech like this. I’m fascinated by the tech repair YouTubers that can bring an old gba back to life. Someone I know has an old Pokemon Crystal with a dead battery from childhood and was broken up about losing their childhood save. I don’t think it’s possible to bring the file back but I’d love to get the cart working again at least.
It’s not hard. My Game Gears were broken and now I fixed 4 of them by replacing all caps.
I got the Pinecil for soldering and it’s so easy to use and versatile. I got a couple of flux pens so the result looks nice and clean.
Pinecil, haven’t heard of that. I’ll take a look, thanks! Is there anything you used to practice ahead of time? Before jumping right into the actually hardware you were trying to fix?
I went right off the deep end. I followed along with someone else doing it, some YT video.
Oh damn lol. Brave.
Just took a look at the pinecil. That looks pretty slick. Have you run into any issues with it? Battery not lasting or it not getting hot enough?
Another happy owner of a pinecil here. For me it gets plenty hot and works great. There isn’t a battery though, you’re meant to use it wired with either USB C PD 65 Watts or 12V standard size barrel plug at similar wattage. More info on the pinecil wiki: https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/Pinecil_Power_Supplies
Also, here’s some more general info about pinecil from their wiki: https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/Pinecil
Seems a bit over-engineered to me. Why would a soldering iron need a CPU?
Maybe, but it is pretty affordable (~$26 USD), the hardware and software is open source, and it is very portable due to the lack of a soldering station. It is also temp adjustable and has features like temp boost for heat sucking components like ground planes. For nerds, they have a risc-v devboard that you can use with the soldering iron’s CPU. So, there are reasons it has a CPU, but some would probably still prefer a regular dumb soldering iron.
Your solder joints don’t actually look that bad. Ive seen much worse; and “works” is the gold standard anyway. You’re probably the only one that will see the board in person.
If you want advice, it looks like your iron was either too cold, or you didn’t work fast enough and your flux burned up before the joint set.
It’s lead free solder. I think that affects how the joints look.
There are lots of LF alloys, some shiny some not. Your joints are fine, regardless of the alloy :)
I’ve been so on the fence about attempting to solder, but it frightens me the idea of causing a little sparky fire.
So, good on you!
I’m blind (the device in back with the Freedom Scientific logo is an assistive magnifier). Both cooking and sewing are common skills taught in rehab centers for the newly blind, and soldering has aspects of both, being mindful of something very very hot near your hands, and having a certain amount of dexterity.
Here’s what I did to build up confidence. I bought a bunch of perf board and resistors and I just started soldering the resistors to the perf board, that’s it. No goal other than to practice soldering. I had tried one of those beginner’s first electronics kits off Amazon, the ones with just an LED and a switch or whatever. I got discouraged because I messed up. So I figured if I didn’t actually try to make something, I could relax and focus on soldering technique. I was eventually able to solder header pins onto a Raspberry pi zero and even terminate a coax cable, and now I can say I replaced a GB cart battery.
my dude you did this with major vision loss? i take back my earlier compliment. that’s not deserving of a smooch and a butt grabby. that’s deserving of a full on makeout and maybe a little hand down the pants butt grabby. make sure to ask yourself for consent first.
Fire isn’t a concern, really, the temperatures are low enough that it starts slow. Rest it on wood and you’ll have time to wonder why you smell wood smoke, then wonder why it’s inside, etc. before it burns down.
The real hazard is inhaling rosin fumes (says the guy who doesn’t properly ventilate his workstation). If you’re anxious about lead (I was) there is lead-free solder, though it requires higher temperatures to work with. As far as lead goes, the risk is from getting flecks of it on your fingertips and then touching your eyes or mouth. I imagine it’s less of a problem than it feels like in my head, but something something environmentally friendly.
It’s a fruity note… inhales deeply … reminiscent of… fir with notes of cinnamon.
Babies love it too, if you have lead paint they will lick the walls and let you know
One theory for why there were so many serial killers in the 70s was because of lead paint.
