Strike Two!

Monday, Mar 22, 2021 , related to the Game Boy Cartridge project

Summary

The Game Boy cartridge socket boards came in and everything fit perfectly… except for the fact that I rotated the socket part the wrong way.

Rev 1 is Always Wrong

One of the joys of getting PCBs made is that you get to hold in your hands a design that you drew on your computer screen. One of the sorrows is that it is very easy to make mistakes. I continue to learn the lesson that Rev 1 boards are almost always flawwed. I made the footprint for the socket connector by measuring one and drawing it myself. The footprint was perfect! The placement, however, was not. I had it rotated so that the cartridge would be inserted from the side where I placed the breakout pin header.

Make it work

All is not lost, though, I was able to solder small wires to the pin header pads with enough clearance for a cartridge to be inserted. It doesn’t look pretty but it is functional!

Rev 2?

I probably won’t make another revision of this board. Instead, I will probably make a board that has the cartridge socket and the smarts to read data from game cartidges.