Video of dumping a SNES cartridge
Setup
For HW3 setup the switches like so:
HW4/5 just needs to be switched to 5V.
Then select Super Nintendo in the main menu and again Super Nintendo in the sub-menu. The game should now be automatically recognized and details about it should be shown on the screen.
If you're dumping a proto without valid header information you will get an error screen and then can set the mapping manually.
Notes on games with SA-1 and similar special chips:
To unlock cartridges with SA-1 you need both the Adafruit Clock Generator and the snesCIC installed.
It's very important to provide the Nintendo Cart Reader with a high quality power source for dumping SA-1 games, not all USB ports will work. Best use a 5V/2A phone charger. An original iPhone or Amazon Fire Tab charger works great while a cheap Chinese phone charger might not unlock SA-1.
You also will have to install a 470uF capacitor between VCC and GND to improve the Cart Readers supply power. Sometimes disabling the CLK1 switch will improve unlocking.
Optionally you can calibrate the Clock Generator by removing "//" in front of "#define clockgen_calibration" and "#define clockgen_installed" in Cart_Reader.ino and then selecting "Calibrate Clock" in the SNES submenu.
Once the calibration function was loaded press one end of a jumper wire against SNES slot pin 43(A18/BA2) and the other end of the wire against one of the following pins and it should read those values:
- 3072000.00 Hz when connected to SNES slot pin 56(CIC Clock)
- 4000000.00 Hz when connected to SNES slot pin 1(EXT Clock)
- 1000000.00 Hz when connected to SNES slot pin 57(CPU Clock)
Once you have adjusted the clock to match the values more closely hold the button for a very long time and let it go to save the setting.
Most times it needs a second try to unlock the SA1 cartridge. Simply power cycle the SA1 chip by switching the cart reader off and on again.
Since the SA1 chip locks part of the ROM away it is important to check the CRC32 of the SA1 ROMs after dumping. The Cart Reader only calculates the internal checksum which only verifies a small portion of the ROM.
To calculate the CRC over the whole ROM you can use something like Hashtab
And compare the CRC to the one on the no-intro site.
