Add support for M29F160 - newly manufactured NOR Flash?

[MouseBiteLabs]

This is specifically for flashing SNES cartridges.

The M29F160 is a commercially available, newly manufactured 5V tolerant NOR Flash chip similar to the 29F016. The difference is the 160 has a 16-byte mode or an 8-byte mode, similar to the 27C160 UV EPROM chips.

I have made Game Boy cartridges that utilize these chips, and they appear to be flashable via the OSCR (under the CFI option). But, looking at the Arduino code, it doesn't appear that these chips are supported for SNES games.

Would it be possible to include support for them, to give people an option for carts made with brand new 5V tolerant components?

[sanni]

I have just added the CFI option to the SNES repro menu. I don't own a M29F160 to test it but a similar 29LV gets flashed successfully.

[MouseBiteLabs]

Wow, thank you! It works! I really appreciate it!

I do have one other question.. the 29F160s are only 16Mbit, so I also made a SNES design that uses two of them in parallel, with a 74HCT139 decoder to select between the lower 16Mbit and upper 16Mbit based on the A21 signal. I tried using the CFI flash option for this configuration, and it freezes on "Writing flash".

Is there any way to also add an option to program two of these for larger games?

[sanni]

Can't test it myself since I don't have any two flashrom repros that are supported by the CFI code but have a try:
snes_flash_test.zip

If it works I'll upload it to the master branch.

[MouseBiteLabs]

The 1x mode works just as it did before, but 2x causes it to hang at "Writing flash ["
I used the same ROM file as I did with 1x mode if that makes a difference.

[MouseBiteLabs]

Hmmm I'm still getting 227889 bytes to not verify (less than before!) but the ROM dump still matches the original ROM file??

[sanni]

Found two more bugs concerning ROMs smaller than 4MB. Maybe now 😄

[MouseBiteLabs]

It still fails :/
This is with the DKC ROM, which is a full 4MB

[sanni]

Could it be the SRAM that is activated on accident?
With exhirom I have this line:

// Switch SNES BA6(PL6) to HIGH to disable SRAM
PORTL |= (1 << 6);

Maybe adding it between line 1025 and 1026 in flash.ino helps.
https://github.com/sanni/cartreader/blob/master/Cart_Reader/FLASH.ino#L1025

[MouseBiteLabs]

For HiROM, if BA6 is low and BA5 is high, the SRAM will be active. So that does seem like what's happening right after BA5 is flipped, if BA6 is still low!

I put that code in where you specify, and it fixed it. That would also explain why the RAM was getting corrupted when I reflashed the game, but I thought maybe that was something I did haha.

Thanks again!

[Marv17]

hello , i tested your modifier snes module with CFI flash , and with a m29w320 flashchip adaptator who normally support CFI i get a CFI query failed^^

these type of chips m29w320 and m29w640 are supported to flash in game boy mode with CFI..

edit :

it worked on an old protype with sram + 74hc139 , and not on the no save one ^^

[MouseBiteLabs]

Hey @sanni -- would it be possible to add support for this for 4x 2MB chips for ExHiROM and ExLoROM as well?

[sanni]

You can play around with this, maybe you can get it to work:
https://github.com/sanni/cartreader/archive/refs/heads/master.zip

[MouseBiteLabs]

Appreciate it! I will mess around with it this weekend, I won't have time until then.

Right now I have the ability to program the bottom two and top two independently using a switch, so I was able to successfully flash the ROM split in two using HiROM/LoROM programming. So I know the board is capable of it.

Thanks again! I'll let you know how it goes.

[StanMOI]

Tests CFI with 1x 8MB done. Flash S29GL064 and 29LV640
Not working for me.
Erasing, Writing, Verifying done successfully but on SNES I get black screen for both functions (standard and reversed).

[StanMOI]

Flash S29GL064
Rom File = 8MB

CFI LoROM / 1x 8MB

• standard (ABCD) = Erasing / Writing / Verifying = OK; SNES test = KO

• reversed (CDAB) = Erasing / Writing / Verifying / SNES test = ALL OK

//////////////////////////////////
Flash S29GL064
Rom File = 8MB
Rom File = 6MB

CFI HiROM / 1x 8MB

If 8MB rom:

• standard (ABCD) = File too big
• standard (ABCD) = File too big

If 6MB rom:

• reversed (ABCD) = Erasing = OK / Writing = KO (Freezing)
• reversed (CDAB) = Erasing = OK / Writing = KO (Freezing)

[sanni]

I think I found one more bug with hirom flashing concerning files over 4MB, hopefully that should fix the 6MB issue.

[StanMOI]

CFI HiROM / 1x 8MB

If 8MB rom:

standard (ABCD) = Erasing = OK / Writing = KO (Freezing at the middle)
reversed (CDAB) = Erasing = OK / Writing = KO (Freezing at the middle)

If 6MB rom:

standard (ABCD) = Erasing = OK / Writing = KO (Freezing at the middle)
reversed (CDAB) = Erasing = OK / Writing = KO (Freezing at the middle)

[sanni]

Maybe now? 🐛

[StanMOI]

CFI HiROM / 1x 8MB

If 8MB rom:

standard (ABCD) = Erasing / Writing / Verifying = OK; SNES test = KO
reversed (CDAB) = Erasing / Writing / Verifying / SNES test = ALL OK

If 6MB rom:

standard (ABCD) = Erasing / Writing / Verifying = OK; SNES test = KO
reversed (CDAB) = Erasing / Writing / Verifying / SNES test = ALL OK

[StanMOI]

Thank you Sanni.
I think that it's will be good to add "confirmation" button, after selecting the file and just before "writing".

[StanMOI]

One more thing Sanni.
I tried to do "Flashrom Programmer/CFI"
It's Freezing when writing 8MB file.
And also Freezing with function "Flashrom Programmer/8bit Flash"
I didn't tried with other size.
I used the same PCB like for CFI HiROM / 1x 8MB

[sanni]

The flashrom programmer option is for single flash chips on one of the flash adapter PCBs not for SNES repros.
The flashrom programmer option does not do any SNES lorom/exhirom/exlorom mapping and does not disable sram.

[StanMOI]

Ok 👌🏻
Thanks

[MouseBiteLabs]

Hey @sanni! I was able to test out the latest code in the repo, and it seems to be working well, at least on my test with 4x 2MB chips for CFI HiROM. I plan to try LoROM tomorrow.

However, one thing I noticed - when I try to flash CFI HiROM with just 2x 2MB, it now hangs at the midpoint of the first 2MB chip. Do you have any idea why? I can't get it to work normally any more. Since 4x 2MB works fine and operates in a SNES, it doesn't seem like it should be an issue with the cart hardware.

For what it might be worth - the code you posted originally a few days ago in the zip file also seemed to work for me for 4x 2MB, though I believe the 2x 2MB freezing issue still existed. I'm not sure how I didn't encounter the bugs you fixed over the past few days, if that means anything!

[sanni]

Found the freeze issue, now the main thing to test would be if the flashed carts run in a SNES or if the OSCR flashes the chips in the wrong order.

[StanMOI]

CFI HiROM / 1x 8MB
8MB rom:
AB[C]D = Erasing / Writing / Verifying / SNES test = ALL OK
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
CFI LoROM / 1x 8MB
8MB rom:
AB[C]D = Erasing / Writing / Verifying / SNES test = ALL OK

[MouseBiteLabs]

Found the freeze issue, now the main thing to test would be if the flashed carts run in a SNES or if the OSCR flashes the chips in the wrong order.

Awesome, everything seems to be working, at least as far as I have tested. I did both LoROM and HiROM games, 2x 2MB, with save files and they ran on the SNES. 4x 2MB HiROM (Tales of Phantasia) worked as well. Even tried an "ExLoROM" game (Thracia 776 translated) with 4x 2MB and that worked as well.

Thanks again for all the support!