Harmony Cart does not fit with 6-switch light *help*

[irata0062]

Hello,

 

I have tried my Harmony Cartridge with a light 6-switch console but it does not fit with the cart slot.

 

Before I have used it with a vader console and it was working perfect. Now the vader has left this earth (RIP) and I have bought an 6-switch with the a.m. problem.

 

Can anybody help my solving this problem... please!

 

Thanks for your replies! :-)

 

Irata0062

[+SpiceWare]

I did as well. I posted my solution here: difficult carts on your sixer? This might help

[irata0062]

Hello and thanks for your help!

 

This might be crazy but I have tipped the box and it worked!

 

But I have the next problem with the harmony cart: The menu screen is running from up to down (looping). When I chose a game it will start with the correct screen after 5 seconds.

 

Does anyone could help me with this... this never happens on my vader! :-(

 

Thanks for your replies!

 

Irata

Edited August 9, 2012 by irata0062

[+batari]

Sounds like you are in a PAL region but using an NTSC bios. You can reflash it easily (see the manual).

 

As for fitment, I will write back in a bit about that. Stay tuned. But if tilting the console works, do it

[+batari]

Sounds like you are in a PAL region but using an NTSC bios. You can reflash it easily (see the manual).

 

As for fitment, I will write back in a bit about that. Stay tuned. But if tilting the console works, do it

I was on phone and wasn't able to give a detailed reply.

 

The fitment problem is many-fold. Harmony cartridges were conceived as a two-board design, so the main board could be mass-produced to take advantage of the economy of scale, so the same design could work as both Melody and Harmony. For Harmony, a few components could be added to the main board and a daughterboard attached later to create a Harmony.

 

So the idea wasn't perfect. It allowed for the lower price but some things I did not anticipate was that the cart shells were not all created equally, and do not hold the boards in place securely. THe board has to be nearly perfectly-aligned so the dust door will clear the board edge but this proved difficult with the two-board design.

 

There were small issues with the design. A SD card could rotate the board a tad inside the shell (due to torque from the offset daughterboard), throwing it out of alignment (a tiny bit is enough.) THe screw mast hole could have been bigger - it turns out these aren't quite in the same place on all boards. And the last part was that attaching the two boards was an inexact process, even with a jig I made.

 

The board could also have been a tad smaller, and is snapped in with the internal snaps, and these were a little tight.

 

It wasn't so bad that I wanted to issue a recall - the Harmony carts are usually fine. And, the five-figure investment for all of this was already made and would bankrupt me to "fix" ...

 

Until, I ran out of daughterboards. Which I did.

 

So last month I received a new single-board design for Harmony and any unit ordered after about mid-July will have this new design.

 

Advantages are better fitment, smaller cuts (just big enough for SD and USB) and cleaner design, and the single-board is less prone to moving around in the shell when inserting a card.

 

 

I can post a picture later, or if anyone is going to CGE, I will bring a few Harmony carts there if you want to see them. I will be wearing a Harmony t-shirt

 

Edit: there is a way to fix a Harmony that uses a two-board design. It involves applying a little hot glue between the metal backing of the SD slot and the inside of the shell while the cart is inserted. Just a warning though, if you get glue on the side of the slot or inside, it can jam up the mechanism. I may post a tutorial sometime.

Edited August 10, 2012 by batari