Search

[Hi]

I understand why it happens to gba games, but why does it happen to nds games?

[Devil_Spawn]

all the extra hardware in teh bottom slot of the ds, if u have one of the see-through cased supercards then you can see all the extra chips

[Hi]

So then...

1. why does it have so many extra chips?

2. why do slot 1 cards also eat up battery?

[AnalogMan]

If you run in DS mode, the DS sends electricity to the DS slot (if you run in DS mode it expects you to play a DS game)

If you run in GBA mode DS mode is shut off, no power.

Running Supercard runs it in DS mode (so DS games take all the energy they want) but you're forcing it to read the GBA cart, so it gives the GBA cart as much energy as it needs, which is more due to extra components (components to run NDS code while GBA carts only run GBA code, plus hardware to read from media card instead of onboard media).

[dai_uk]

So then...

1. why does it have so many extra chips?

2. why do slot 1 cards also eat up battery?

Without meaning to be rude, a supercard is a piece of hardware which draws electricity and the memory card attached to this draws power.

a slot 1 homebrew solution will be the same

an original GBA / DS card is 1 device only - hence it draws less power, less power = Longer battery life

I know I've simplified it but hopefully it makes sense.

ps.

the supercard has so many chips as it's doing a job, it has ram, and is tricking your Ds / gba into loading roms from a media card  :roll:

think of it as 2 devices - the Supercard and memory then you can think that they'll use 2x power so battery life will be halved - which funnily enough is about right!

[Hi]

That makes sense, but what about slot-1 flash carts that use internal memory?

[fonque]

I know that the highest power draw is when you are writing your saves. Real time saves eat the most battery life.
If you notice when you are low on battery life. The LED can be full green but as soon as you run a RTS or a normal save the light will turn full red. Once the save is over is will go back to green.

[Hi]

interesting...

But that still doesn't quite answer my question. Why do slot-1 flash cards that use internal memory STILL eat up battery power. Shouldn't they save just like normal games?

And what if I set the saver patch to "DS card?" Will it stop eating my battery? (at least stop eating it as much?) I ask this because a very few ds games don't save, or don't really need to save but save anyway.

[strells]

Any time you add any components to a circuit, they use more power.  It's just the way electronics work.  The only way to completely eliminate power drain is to disconnect components from the circuit.  Maybe we're not sure exactly what you are asking.

Steve

[Hi]

I am no longer asking my original question.

My first question was, what causes the supercard to use up more battery than normal games? This question was answered by AnalogMan and added to by dai_uk

My second was, what causes slot-1 nds flash cards to use up more battery than normal games? This question was answered by dai_uk.

My third question, the one that has not yet been answered, is/was what causes the slot-1 nds flash cards that use internal memory to use up more battery than normal games?

And just for the purpose of not forgetting people, fonque and strells gave me some very interesting info, even if it didn't answer my question. Devil_Spawn sort of answered my question, but not as indepth as I wanted it answered.

I only ask because I'm curious. And something I'm especially curious about is how ds flash cards differ from real nds cards. Usually, if I have a question about something I ask my dad who usually knows the answer. But he doesn't know anything about pirating software, so those questions I ask on forms. I don't need to know, I just want to.

[billy]

DS flash cards, i.e. Supercard, M3, etc., differ from DS game cartridges in that they have active components that need power, and thus draw more current.  DS game cartridges don't contain (as far as I know) any active components - only a ROM chip and some flash memory or EEPROM for saves.

In summary, DS flash cards have components that draw more current than DS game cartridges, hence shorter battery life.

[Perseid]

Even the slot-1 carts with internal memory still have flash RAM, it's just not removable. The flash cart still has to read from the flash memory and deliver it to the system. A DS cartridge has none of this. It's just a read-only ROM directly connected to the system when you plug it in. This takes far less power.