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DS Flash Equipment > Order a second MK5, or prefer another slot-1 ?

#148798 - nipil - Thu Jan 10, 2008 11:09 am

Good morning.

When i offered my wife a DS, i bought myself an MK5. So far i'm pretty pleased, but i've yet to see any problems, as ive been mainly testing my own programs.

I tested Colors!, and PuzzleManiak, quite extensively. In PM, the only "problems" i saw was that i have to wait about 5 seconds between when i solve a puzzle and when the score screen appears. In Colors! (1.06h) the playback button just doesn't do anything, or maybe it's crashing. Save&Load do work, but quite slowly (about 5-8 seconds to complete). In both apps, i dunno if it's the card or not that's slowing/hanging the potential read/write proces. I haven't testes DSOrganize nor Moonshell, but these are reported to work flawlessly on this cart. I even tested with the roms dumps of the 2 game cartridges i own (Zelda and Worms), which worked nicely (afaik from the first seconds). Of course, i haven't tested any kind of multiplayer, as we only have on DS.

So. As she's using the DS and the linker to listen to music and play on the way to her office, i'm actually planning to buy another DS for me. And of course, a second linker ! Questions are :

- Are there any limitations on the MK5 concerning homebrews ? I'm not that of an expert concerning filesystem things, dldi (i know it does it auto), read or writing problems. My point of view at this very time is that it JustWorks(tm). Besides, i like the integrated memory, as you will never break anything, as the cart is a solid closed device.

- I read that the DLDI thing is read/write (is it?) but that the "write" part might be problematic. (besides, MK5 is not listed on dldi wii page...) I'd like to know if i'll run into any kind of incompatibilities on the MK5 as i'm skilling up on ds programming ;) Could someone explain me this please ?

- As a conclusion, should i buy a second MK5 or prefer another slot1 linker ? (slot1 referred, as i just ordered a slot2 motion kit)

Thanks in advance for any advice.

#148802 - nipil - Thu Jan 10, 2008 12:10 pm

I just read this which is oudated (1 year). Then browsed the wiki but found no such explicit compatibility table. Though the R4 is reported only to bug if you remove the cartridge (Caveats: The R4 boot menu puts the R4 hardware into a state where this driver works. If you eject the R4 and reinsert it, the hardware will lose this state, and this driver will stop working until the DS is power cycled. This means that save backup tools such as eepinator and RAC, which copy saved data from the EEPROM or flash on a DS Game Card to an SD card, cannot work with R4.)

Right now, i'm looking towards the R4 DS, for which i'd have to buy an additionnal micro ds. Either the R4+stick, or the MK5 with built-in memory are the same price, so money doesn't really count (+/- 10$). My only worry is about the "spring" problem. I read that newer version don't have springs, but i really don't know how to be sure ill get one of the latest bunch.

#148808 - Tikker - Thu Jan 10, 2008 3:32 pm

at this point in time, I'd probably look hard at a M3 real, or cycloDS

both are slot 1 cards that accept microSDHC cards

m3 real can also be bundled with slot2 expansion carts to add extra ram,rumble and gba homebrew

#149251 - josath - Thu Jan 17, 2008 8:41 am

I believe that 'bug' applies to ALL (or almost all) slot-1 carts.

Personally I wouldn't touch anything associated with Neoflash, as they have a long history of overpriced, poor quality & poor support.

I've heard the M3 Real is a decent cart, and with the bundled slot-2 expansion cart you get GBA support & RAM expansion.

#150485 - nipil - Tue Feb 05, 2008 5:14 pm

Just to point it out, i stumbled on this post :
the NEO2/3 DLDI read/write source code
Written by Dr.neo
Tuesday, 05 June 2007
the NEO2/3 DLDI read/write source code:
http://dldi.drunkencoders.com/index.php?title=NEO2_%28SD_Card%29
thanks chishm :)


Then in another googl'ing, i noticed this thread :
MK5 8G/16G GIGA cart upgrade core V1.39 + 2.41 XMenu [06-05-2007]
...
Support DLDI auto patch , and support DLDI write mdoe


So basically, chishm made MK5 DLDI write support...
Thanks a bunch for this !!

_________________
NDS Lite Gold/Silver, MK5/R4DS, MSI PC54G2, D-Link DI-624

#150514 - Creebo - Wed Feb 06, 2008 12:42 am

Don't waste your time get a R4DS or CycloDS. Bad experiences with the MK5.

#150537 - nipil - Wed Feb 06, 2008 12:49 pm

Creebo wrote:
Don't waste your time get a R4DS or CycloDS. Bad experiences with the MK5.

I have an R4DS which is fine ;) MK5 was bought for my wife (first linker, i had no experience) She's using it 24/7 and it's never had a problem so far. But I'm only using the MK5 myself to double test my programs, which i main-test on the R4... Besides, she prefers the MK5's UI to the R4, which i prefer myself. All's good ;)
_________________
NDS Lite Gold/Silver, MK5/R4DS, MSI PC54G2, D-Link DI-624