Dingoonity.org
Dingoo Official Firmware => Hardware => Topic started by: Stephanie on June 02, 2010, 11:37:53 pm
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I had a go at increasing the ram in my A320 tonight, and it worked. I removed the two SDRAM chips in there and replaced them with the same kind of chips as in the A330. This gives me 64MB of memory in my 320.
It was a tricky job, took about 90 minutes in total to do the swap, but I was lucky and it powered up first time. I put the A330 / 64MB Dingux on there and it instantly recognized the new memory.
(http://planetstephanie.net/uploads/2010/06/success-525x350.jpg)
You can see the memory info in the lower-left corner of the screen there... 62048k/65536k. :D
Detailed information, photos, and a full step-by-step procedure can be found on my blog. (http://planetstephanie.net/2010/06/02/dingoo-mod-to-the-extreeem/)
Cheers!
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You are amazing. :o
WELL DONE!!!
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I love you.
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I wish I could be as useful and cool as you. :'(
Can you put the 330 LCD in there too? Maybe the shoulder buttons too, somehow?
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I wish I could be as useful and cool as you. :'(
Can you put the 330 LCD in there too? Maybe the shoulder buttons too, somehow?
If you have the A330 LCD, the same amount of RAM, AND the shoulder buttons from the A330, why don't you just buy the A330? Seems like a lot less work, if you ask me.
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A truly great job you did Stephanie. 64Mb is the maximum of memory possible for the a320 or theorically you could increase to 128mb or even more?
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I wish I could be as useful and cool as you. :'(
Can you put the 330 LCD in there too? Maybe the shoulder buttons too, somehow?
If you have the A330 LCD, the same amount of RAM, AND the shoulder buttons from the A330, why don't you just buy the A330? Seems like a lot less work, if you ask me.
But that's no fun.
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If you have the A330 LCD, the same amount of RAM, AND the shoulder buttons from the A330, why don't you just buy the A330? Seems like a lot less work, if you ask me.
I agree. But this isn't about that. I just want to see her go the extra mile with this because it's cool and fun :D.
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A truly great job you did Stephanie. 64Mb is the maximum of memory possible for the a320 or theorically you could increase to 128mb or even more?
I believe 128MB is possible, I've found a ram chip that appears to be compatible. It'd require a new SPL and new Dingux to take advantage of the added memory. The downside is a pair of these chips would cost almost as much as a 320, so not sure it's actually worth it. I have investigated the possibility though.
I wish I could be as useful and cool as you. :'(
Can you put the 330 LCD in there too? Maybe the shoulder buttons too, somehow?
A screen swap would be easy compared to the memory chip hack. My white 320 doesn't need it though, it has a great screen. Bright and sharp, easily as good as the 330.
Re. the shoulder buttons, if the 320's shoulder buttons were a bit bigger that might help. You couldn't really move the microswitches but a case mod & bigger buttons might make them easier to use.
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A screen swap would be easy compared to the memory chip hack. My white 320 doesn't need it though, it has a great screen. Bright and sharp, easily as good as the 330.
Well the problem isn't really brightness or sharpness, per se. It's just the A320 screens physically have a slight gritty, hazy texture you have to look through to see the bright, sharp image underneath. That's what it looks like to me on mine, anyway.
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(http://www.united-gamers.eu/forum/images/smilies/smiley_worship.gif)
Wow, that's amazing!
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This is incredible - if only the job could be made easier - like a clip in chip type thing, well done Stephanie
You truly are a star ;D
ruffnutts ;)
BTW - Youtube video would be great lol
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that product page is confusing, they use MB where it should be Mb
any thoughts on whether it would work on an original dingoo, from back when the 9325 lcd was around, before any of this 'hk' crap...need a new one anyways ;D
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I'm in awe. No doubt the best A320 mod yet :)
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that product page is confusing, they use MB where it should be Mb
any thoughts on whether it would work on an original dingoo, from back when the 9325 lcd was around, before any of this 'hk' crap...need a new one anyways ;D
It should work on an original dingoo. If you have a continuity tester, check pin 36 of the two ram chips. That's how I determined it should work - pin 36 is not at ground, and it is connected between the two chips. That pin is the extra address line that's not used on the 320's ram but is used on the 330's ram.
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It should work on an original dingoo. If you have a continuity tester, check pin 36 of the two ram chips. That's how I determined it should work - pin 36 is not at ground, and it is connected between the two chips. That pin is the extra address line that's not used on the 320's ram but is used on the 330's ram.
then i think i may have to try it, as soon as i get hold of a new soldering iron etc, and get the time
(though if you're thinking of modding any more, i'm very interested, sure we could work something out ;D)
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Great job Stephanie! :D
What have you paid for the ram?
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Wow, well done!
i might have a go at this at some point. ill have to get some soldering practice first though :D
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What have you paid for the ram?
The ram chips cost me $6.17 each at DigiKey, plus shipping. It worked out to about $20 in total.
(though if you're thinking of modding any more, i'm very interested, sure we could work something out ;D)
Ah I'm not looking forward to doing this again any time soon. It was stressful enough working on my own Dingoo, I don't think I could handle the stress of risking the death of someone else's Dingoo.
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Ah I'm not looking forward to doing this again any time soon
fair enough, though it'd be a brand new one from dd-usa :D
guess i'll have to order a few chips, shame it says limited stock on the page...and i can't find anywhere else to get them
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Wow, so cool! ;D
Now i need another Dingoo so i still have one when i kill my modding victim...
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(http://www.dangerousminds.net/images/uploads/1269385664419_thumb.jpeg)
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a bunch of ram chips on their way to mine, have to borrow the universities surface mount equipment sometime ;D
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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
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If only you could stack the chips some how or make a mod chip style way of doing this ;D
if you cut the old chip in half to make it have no effect then yes you could solder a new one ontop of it, but then it's simpler to desolder the old ones anyways
see if i can do it, or whether stephanie really is a magical wizard with super soldering skills
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a bunch of ram chips on their way to mine, have to borrow the universities surface mount equipment sometime ;D
Surface mount equipment? That's cheating! :)
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.
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I would need me eyes lasered before I could do it - blind as a bat lol - got one of
those magnifier head sets though he-he - well good luck if you try it darfgarf 8)
Stephanie I think you should go for 128 ram - and modify the Kernel to 128
Seen as you have the know how - and piss the people of that have a gp2xwiz lol joking.......
But I would try it just for the fun of it, FF7 on psx4all with sound would be great :P
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Surface mount equipment? That's cheating! :)
aww dangit, but they've got the tiniest temperature controlled irons, 0.1mm solder etc etc...even a full reflow setup...guess i should try with off the shelf equipment first though XD got 4 chips so i can afford to fry a couple just about
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Long live Queen Stephanie the Queen of Dingooness and Mod's you rock
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Cool Bananas, Have you seen much of an improvement with the extra ram on dingux?
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IŽd like to know if DoDonPachi and EspRaDe work in FBA/MAME with 64 MB. I bet they run...
:D
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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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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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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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Awesome job, congratz
I will never have such soldering skills, even if I stop drinking coffe :)
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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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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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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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First of all, awesome work there, Stephanie!
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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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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i was thinking mod a desoldering iron so it blows air, and makes a reflow iron :D
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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 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_gun) that are able to reach temperatures high enough to melt solder.
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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.
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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.
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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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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?
Should work, I found some compatible 512MBit chips that would do the trick. It would require it's own custom SPL to init the 128MB of ram, and its own kernel to use it, but neither of those are difficult to do. The real setback was the cost of the chips... $12.50 or so to go to 64MB... almost $80 to go to 128MB. If I find a less expensive source for them... well I have a 2nd A320, and the tools to compile the SPL and kernel, so we'll see. ;)
I think 128 would be the limit though, I was unable to find any higher-capacity chips that were pin-compatible with those in the Dingoo.
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128mb would be absolutely insane, but with the Dingoo's processor it'd be a bit unnecessary. Hey Stephanie, what version of A320 do you have?
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Well, there's a bunch of chips on my desk now, but I'm stuck in exams and need to shop for some new soldering kit XD
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128mb would be absolutely insane, but with the Dingoo's processor it'd be a bit unnecessary. Hey Stephanie, what version of A320 do you have?
I have two 320s. One is a pawed 'dingoo digital' one, and the other is an unpawed 'dingoo tech' one. The unpawed one is the one I did the ram upgrade on.
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I have a question regarding RAM and Duke Nukem 3D. There was a vid of a side by side comparison of A330 and A320 using Duke Nukem. The one on the A320 crashed, while the A330 was able to play it. Now, some had commented that you had to run it without the sound for it to work on the A320. My question is, why can I play Duke Nukem with sound on my A320 without many issues at all? Lol, do I have a magic A320? Or is it something else?
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There are many different episodes and mods for Duke Nukem 3D. One that has a problem is birth on the third episode(not level) on the atomic pack. If you let the intro of the episode play it will start to load the textures and lock up on a a320 due to lack of memory. If you run it on the a330 with the 64meg kernel there is no issue due to the bigger amount of memory. The a320 has no problem running most of the Duke Nukem 3D episodes and mods with sound and music
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There are many different episodes and mods for Duke Nukem 3D. One that has a problem is birth on the third episode(not level) on the atomic pack. If you let the intro of the episode play it will start to load the textures and lock up on a a320 due to lack of memory. If you run it on the a330 with the 64meg kernel there is no issue due to the bigger amount of memory. The a320 has no problem running most of the Duke Nukem 3D episodes and mods with sound and music
Ok. Thanks for the info. I did notice that it locked up when trying to boot up The Birth. But everything else ran pretty good with little to no hiccups.
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I can play the birth on my a320, too. And it was not said to turn off sound, just turn of the music. ;)
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Just checked digikey and they ran out of the chips... Anyone know where else to get some or have a few spares?
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Just checked digikey and they ran out of the chips... Anyone know where else to get some or have a few spares?
i checked, or at least rs and rapid, and couldn't find anywhere
bulk order from some chinese factory? or maybe ask digikey where they got theirs?
(guess i snagged the last few then ;D)
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There's a Micron chip that should be compatible, but it is a little more expensive:
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=557-1223-1-ND
I've read the datasheet and it looks like it is a drop-in replacement, but of course I have not tested it.