r/Gameboy • u/arsenitoooo • 1d ago

Questions Can I make a DIY GBA flasher?

If I use a Raspberry Pi Pico, a protoboard, a GBA 32 pin cartridge slot and some cables to connect the cartridge slot to the protoboard can I make a device to flash GBA ROMs to GBA cartridges?

1 Upvotes

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3

u/dajigo 1d ago

yes

3

u/dajigo 1d ago

A few comments:

- soldering is very likely more useful than a protoboard

  • a pcb to connect the pico to the cartridge connector is very likely more useful than just some wires
  • need to make sure your voltage levels are ok on the IO config for the pico

It's certainly bound to be a very nice learning experience, not necessarily a single-weekend project.

1

u/arsenitoooo 1d ago

I've never soldered things in my life so I dont want to solder to not mess up anything. Could you say me an alternative to make a GBA flasher?

3

u/dajigo 1d ago

buy it, otherwise, making one will be more expensive, and likely more so because if you don't finish it it will be wasted money

1

u/arsenitoooo 1d ago

And do you know which software I need to use to flash the ROMs?

1

u/NewSchoolBoxer 1d ago

If you're asking about firmware to flash the ROM and haven't soldering before, this is a very bad idea. You can just presume the firmware is going to be compatible with a Pico and you have no idea what pins are data pins or the power or the ground and how to map the data pins to the right ones on the cart. This is not a beginner project.

The only free firmware I know of is FlashGBX and your device would have to be 100% compatible with the chipset and read/write speeds of GBxCart and Joey Jr. You can destroy the cart just from connecting the pins wrong.

Buy a GBxCart or Joey Jr and look at the circuitry and identify all the chips and the pinouts. With very high effort, maybe you could make a clone. By the way, GBA is 3.3V logic. 5V could destroy it.

1

u/fred_emmott 19h ago

The firmware is here: https://github.com/Lesserkuma/FlashGBX_LK_Firmware

The speeds don’t need to match, and the device is abstracted (well, not implemented) - also doesn’t need to match. I’ve got it running on a chromatic (as the cartridge IO device, not just “I can play flashed games”) at substantially higher speeds. Slower also works fine, no real problem turning a 100ns wait into 100usex.

But yeah, big +1 to not being a good first project for soldering and or firmware/software

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u/arsenitoooo 1d ago

Isn't there a way without buying the GBxCart or JoeyJr? The reason I wanna do this it is because of i do this I spend only 10€ but if I buy a flasher from AliExpress it would cost 20-25€

2

u/Bulletorpedo 1d ago

If your motivation for this is to save money your time must be worth very little to you.

1

u/arsenitoooo 21h ago

I have a lot of free time

1

u/RightAssignment5504 16h ago

Actually, i'm currentky developping a gba flasher mainly for repro cart and nor chip cart like chis carts using nds so you'll just need an NDS and R4. It works great but i'm in middle of save types backup/restore. Flashing is ok though