Author Topic: A320 RAM Mod - increased to 64MB  (Read 23931 times)

eule

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Re: A320 RAM Mod - increased to 64MB
« Reply #30 on: June 03, 2010, 08:37:03 pm »
IŽd like to know if DoDonPachi and EspRaDe work in FBA/MAME with 64 MB. I bet they run...
 :D
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ktulu77

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Re: A320 RAM Mod - increased to 64MB
« Reply #31 on: June 03, 2010, 10:12:58 pm »
Stephanie,

What you've done here is so far beyond cool that the light from cool will take a million years to reach it!!

Have you done much testing with the new ram? I'm wondering if more Mame games work? And how about psx4all, any improvements?
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xdpirate

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Re: A320 RAM Mod - increased to 64MB
« Reply #32 on: June 03, 2010, 10:20:39 pm »
Quote from: ktulu77 on June 03, 2010, 10:12:58 pm
Stephanie,

What you've done here is so far beyond cool that the light from cool will take a million years to reach it!!

Have you done much testing with the new ram? I'm wondering if more Mame games work? And how about psx4all, any improvements?
She's basically made herself an A330, sans the shitty controller board. ;) Awesome job, Steph.

More MAME and PSX games works, because you can bigger sized games into RAM, but there's no speed improvements, since memory size has no bearing on computing power :)
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darfgarf

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Re: A320 RAM Mod - increased to 64MB
« Reply #33 on: June 03, 2010, 11:23:33 pm »
Quote from: eule on June 03, 2010, 08:37:03 pm
IŽd like to know if DoDonPachi and EspRaDe work in FBA/MAME with 64 MB. I bet they run...
 :D
Tad off topic really :p but ah well

Dodonpachi runs, but its slow and has funky colours if you get the settings wrong, a few other new ones, but haven't tested it much
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Vinicius

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Re: A320 RAM Mod - increased to 64MB
« Reply #34 on: June 04, 2010, 01:42:59 am »
Awesome job, congratz

I will never have such soldering skills, even if I stop drinking coffe :)
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Derk

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Re: A320 RAM Mod - increased to 64MB
« Reply #35 on: June 04, 2010, 01:45:47 am »
This is a great mod Stephanie! I was just thinking about doing the same thing. I would recommend using chipquick low melt solder though, instead of pulling up each leg seperately. There is less chance of pulling up pads/traces and it will save a lot of time and frustration. It is available from MCM electronics for $16.50, part #21-3450. Just glob it on both sides and you can remove the whole chip, moving the iron from one side to the other and gently lifting the chip with tweezers.
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volcanic

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Re: A320 RAM Mod - increased to 64MB
« Reply #36 on: June 04, 2010, 03:41:27 am »
Well,I'm killed to know if it's going to run the games that can't run under 32MB such as Hook of Mame.
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quadomatic

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Re: A320 RAM Mod - increased to 64MB
« Reply #37 on: June 04, 2010, 06:32:15 am »
That's a really impressive mod.

I'd consider trying it, but the last time I broke out the soldering iron to volt mod my 9600GSO, I ripped the chip and a number of traces straight off the board.

I think I'll leave this one to the experts ;)
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wejp

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Re: A320 RAM Mod - increased to 64MB
« Reply #38 on: June 04, 2010, 08:13:03 am »
First of all, awesome work there, Stephanie!

Quote from: Stephanie on June 03, 2010, 06:22:05 pm
Quote from: ruffnutts on June 03, 2010, 05:49:44 pm
So I take you there 2x 16MB replaced with 2x 32MB chips - man this is to complicated for me to try lol,
If only you could stack the chips some how or make a mod chip style way of doing this  ;D
You are correct, the originals were 2 x 128Mbit and were replaced by 2 x 256Mbit.

I did think about stacking them, but I don't think it would work. The original chips are seen by the CPU as a single grid of memory, with 32 bits, 12 rows, 9 columns, and 4 banks. Physically each chip is actually 16 bit, 12 row, 9 column and 4 banks; every 32-bit operation is divided between the two chips. The new chips just add a 13th address row, and that address line was already there anyways, just unused on the original chips.

I'm sure with enough thinking, it'd be possible to stack them, but it was just easier to replace them.

I don't know that stacking would be any easier anyways, these are TSOP-2 and the legs are pretty short, not to mention delicate and closely spaced. It'd be very easy to break one or leave a solder bridge or something.

Despite the mechanical difficulties because of the short legs, stacking might be possible, if a CS line (chip select) of the 4740 has been routed on the board somewhere. If there is none available - and this could very well be the case as there is no need for it in the Dingoo's configuration - stacking is probably not possible. Also, bending the legs of the RAM chips for CS could easily destroy the RAM chips. On the other hand, just adding the same chips as already used in the A320 would be a little cheaper than replacing them with chips of twice the capacity.
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M47R1X

Re: A320 RAM Mod - increased to 64MB
« Reply #39 on: June 04, 2010, 10:12:40 am »
Quote from: Derk on June 04, 2010, 01:45:47 am
This is a great mod Stephanie! I was just thinking about doing the same thing. I would recommend using chipquick low melt solder though, instead of pulling up each leg seperately. There is less chance of pulling up pads/traces and it will save a lot of time and frustration. It is available from MCM electronics for $16.50, part #21-3450. Just glob it on both sides and you can remove the whole chip, moving the iron from one side to the other and gently lifting the chip with tweezers.
Hmmm... Would it be possible for a cheapskate like myself to use a hairdryer at it's highest setting after applying this flux to remove te chips? Nab all of those little suckers at once, know what I mean? My wife's hairdryer HAS to be able to get to AT LEAST 136*, cuz it burns like crazy to me. Would this increase the chances of solder bridges forming? Just a little curious as I may do this myself.
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darfgarf

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Re: A320 RAM Mod - increased to 64MB
« Reply #40 on: June 04, 2010, 10:19:32 am »
i was thinking mod a desoldering iron so it blows air, and makes a reflow iron :D
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wejp

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Re: A320 RAM Mod - increased to 64MB
« Reply #41 on: June 04, 2010, 11:14:04 am »
A hair dryer might feel hot, but is still way too cold for such soldering tasks. Also, its airflow is not very well suited for de-soldering tiny chips. But there actually exist heat guns that are able to reach temperatures high enough to melt solder.
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M47R1X

Re: A320 RAM Mod - increased to 64MB
« Reply #42 on: June 04, 2010, 06:26:45 pm »
Quote from: Derk on June 04, 2010, 01:45:47 am
Just glob it on both sides and you can remove the whole chip, moving the iron from one side to the other and gently lifting the chip with tweezers.
I just figured with this that it'd be simple enough. Running a soldering iron down each side is pretty simple itself. I have heard of people removing chips that have been blasted with a heat gun and have personally used heat guns, I just don't have one on me ;D.
« Last Edit: June 04, 2010, 06:39:33 pm by M47R1X »
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Derk

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Re: A320 RAM Mod - increased to 64MB
« Reply #43 on: June 05, 2010, 07:27:32 pm »
Quote from: M47R1X on June 04, 2010, 10:12:40 am
Quote from: Derk on June 04, 2010, 01:45:47 am
This is a great mod Stephanie! I was just thinking about doing the same thing. I would recommend using chipquick low melt solder though, instead of pulling up each leg seperately. There is less chance of pulling up pads/traces and it will save a lot of time and frustration. It is available from MCM electronics for $16.50, part #21-3450. Just glob it on both sides and you can remove the whole chip, moving the iron from one side to the other and gently lifting the chip with tweezers.
Hmmm... Would it be possible for a cheapskate like myself to use a hairdryer at it's highest setting after applying this flux to remove te chips? Nab all of those little suckers at once, know what I mean? My wife's hairdryer HAS to be able to get to AT LEAST 136*, cuz it burns like crazy to me. Would this increase the chances of solder bridges forming? Just a little curious as I may do this myself.
Unfortunately a hair dryer wouldn't work with chipquick or solder because of the temperatures involved in melting the solder.  Chipquick melts around 300F and regular solder melts around 400-450F.  The concept behind using chipquick is if you set your iron temperature to around 700F it will give you enough time to melt both sides before one side solidifies.  Plus if you let the solder heat up for a few seconds it will change the alloy of the solder holding the leg to the pad and make it easier to remove.  Then you just go over the pads with solder wick to clean them up.

Edit* You could use a heat gun to desolder the chip but you would likely desolder every other component around the chip as well.  SMT hot air rework stations have special tips that match the device you are removing so you don't damage anything else in the area.
« Last Edit: June 05, 2010, 07:55:06 pm by Derk »
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Topy44

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Re: A320 RAM Mod - increased to 64MB
« Reply #44 on: June 08, 2010, 02:46:19 am »
Hehe... Nice work... I suggested EXACTLY this a few weeks ago on the #dingoonity IRC channel, did some research on which chips could fit etc...

Will mod mine for sure. :)

BTW, how about using 64MB chips and increasing it further to 128MB total?
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