Dingoonity.org

Just wondering, would it be possible to replace the ram chips on the dingoo a320, to give a330 power without the other disadvantages?

Obviously high soldering skills would be required but would it work, if the right chips were sourced?

Any Ideas?

I just compared the data sheets for the 320 RAM and the 330 RAM. The only difference is on pin 36, which is N/C on the ram in the A320, but on the A330 is A12.

If that pin is actually connected to the correct GPIO pin on the CPU then, fancy soldering aside, it would be possible to swap the chips out and get 64MB on the A320.

Unfortunately, the specs say that the N/C pin should be either floating (unconnected) or grounded, either way it would be against spec for them to hook it to the cpu if they weren't using it...

One could check with a continuity tester if the ram pin 36 in the A320 were infact tied to ground, and if it isn't, then a logic probe or something might be able to determine if it was floating or even if it was indeed wired to the CPU. Though if all the tests were inconclusive, you'd more or less have to desolder at least one of the memory chips to find out if it that pin was really going anywhere or not.

Maybe if I get really bored and really adventurous, and if I could find a couple of the larger RAM chips on the cheap...

Yeah, no question - that's why I was saying, if that pin is already connected to the CPU... if it's not already connected then totally forget about it.

But -- good news! I just popped open a 320 and checked, and that pin is not at ground, and it's not floating! In fact, pin 36 on the first SDRAM chip is tied to pin 36 on the second SDRAM chip, and if they bothered to put them together then odds are they also bothered to hook them up to the CPU. I mean, if you go through the work of routing the signal between the two chips, it's for a reason.

So now all we need is a cheap source of the larger SDRAM chips, and some boredom and adventurous soldering.... enough to perfectly desolder 108 pins, then perfectly solder 108 new pins, without a single solder bridge, without damaging any of the traces, and without affecting anything else on the motherboard around those two chips. Where the pins are 0.3mm wide, with 0.5mm of space between them.

Like I said, fancy soldering!

Edited to add: Found the chips at DigiKey for $6.17 each...

We need a modshop for dingoos.
But wouldnt it be easier to give the a330 the a320 buttons?

I did put the d-pad from a 320 into my 330, it works better. But I'd rather have a 320 with more ram, I prefer the 320's shape and the speakers on the bottom rather than the back.

And I ordered a couple of the ram chips from digikey... if I do try swapping them, I'll take pics and let folks know if it works.

Good luck! And remember you will be the first one with a 64mb dingoo a320.

Wow - didnt expect anyone to dive in right away and do it I look forward to the results

Really hope you dont kill your dingoo

If it works you could start selling a320 dingoos with ramupgrade.

i'd buy one of them (but i'm doubtful this will work, though stephanie is some sort of magician  )