making new hucards

[exodus]

I got to thinking - games express is a taiwanese company, and often they don't scrap their old manufacturing technology, but rather stuff it in a closet somewhere.
 
My friend Frank, who runs Lost Levels, got Sachen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thin_Chen_Enterprise) to start printing up their old NES games again - I was thinking it might be possible to either get Games Express to either start printing their old hucards, or indeed pressing new ones. If anyone still has the affordable technology, it'd be them.

I'm wondering if anyone's tried to do this before?

[Charlie]

I suspect getting someone to make the plastic "credit card" case with a ROM/PROM in it may be less successful than making a PCB with a PROM on it.  Do you specifically want form-fit-function-lookalikes for the HuCard, or just want the equivalent?  And, the manufacturer is certainly going to expect a reasonable profit from doing this...do you think the market is sufficiently large to make a convincing case to get an "OK"?

Charlie

[esteban]

And, the manufacturer is certainly going to expect a reasonable profit from doing this...do you think the market is sufficiently large to make a convincing case to get an "OK"?

Ay, there's the rub.

Still, exodus, it would be neat to see if any PCE-related stuff is still in a closet somewhere.

[Charlie]

Well, we could always make the PCB-with-ROM ourselves, but I don't know what effort is required to get it into a neat little "creditcard" case-with-graffic.  Or, maybe, we don't care about that detail?  Just being able to make a PCB and program the Prom is enough?

Charlie

[Arkhan Asylum]

Well, we could always make the PCB-with-ROM ourselves, but I don't know what effort is required to get it into a neat little "creditcard" case-with-graffic.  Or, maybe, we don't care about that detail?  Just being able to make a PCB and program the Prom is enough?

Charlie

could always just melt plastic down yourself and stick them in a homemade mold.  hell you could probably just buy a shit ton of legos, melt them down and use a metal mold!

[Charlie]

OK, so can you make a PCB-with-ROM, and throw in some melted legos, and get it all together for less than a card on  Ebay?  (yeah, I know there are some dummies there that insist a "rare" card is worth $200, and they are the only ones that have it).

Making your own may only be practical if it's to promote a homebrew proggie, or something that is not available on Ebay.  I have seen one or two homebrews that are worth $, but that's probably not enough to warrent the cost of the Lego's in the first place.

Still, I'm beginning to think this CAN be done, if we can find something worth it.  Just how many homebrews are out there, and how many programmers are willing to become the new NEC?

Charlie

[OldRover]

Tomatheous and I had been discussing developing a new system card, and for that, new hucards would have to be designed. I have already planned a hucard design using an 8mbit flash-based memory chip but it costs a lot of money to produce a prototype for so I haven't done it yet.

[Arkhan Asylum]

legos are cheap, and when melted, could make more than one huey!

[Charlie]

"but it costs a lot of money to produce a prototype "...
Well, I've developed my huey card (hey, I like that name!) with a standard prom for about $30.  (I've even got a Development Board in process, which will allow me to DL my proggies via the PC parallel port....saving, as you know, the time/effort of erasing/burning/inserting the prom chip)  I thought about using a flash, but couldn't see the ROI for the cost.

Is there some specific reason you want flash?  And, as a swag, I say a PCB-with-flash would cost $45-$60(?).  So, in volume, what's the cost?  How much would you need to sell it for, at what volume, to even break even on the $. 

I'm willing to work on that, too, so any info/concepts will be openly considered and discussed.

Charlie

[OldRover]

The reason for using a flash chip is that it is far less prone to static damage. PROM chips are highly susceptible to static damage. EPROMs are better, and I think that's why Games Express used EPROM chips in their huge carts. The flash chip I want to use is low-power and relatively low-cost, though it's getting increasingly hard to find. I believe that the programmer for the flash chip was considerably less expensive than one for a traditional EPROM.

[Charlie]

"the programmer for the flash chip was considerably less expensive "
Ok, that may be true; I haven't researched that.  But that implies you are going to program the chip (whatever it is) before installing it onto the pcb/huey.  I was thinking of just producing final pcb with all parts (all one of them?), then programming it through the huey card pins.  Given I was intending to use eproms, this would be easy (easier?), I think.  I was thinking of making an adapter between a standard/cheap DIP programmer and the huey.  Then, "pot" the pcb with the Lego-goo. 

OK, I see this needs further discussion and some research.

I know that the TE is a battery hog; is the power difference between FLASH and ROM/PROM that different that it will make a significant battery-life issue?

Charlie

[exodus]

wah, I ignored my own thread for too long!

it's true that they may expect a profit, but the scale may be different. Who knows whether they have a bunch of old unused material around, as well? Personally I'd be more interested in the original form factor over a PCB...if I could track them down, maybe I'll try to contact them.

Just seems to me that technology is likely sitting around somewhere.

[Tatsujin]

legos are cheap, and when melted, could make more than one huey!

and if those are still to expensive, there're even those fake legos which cost only a fraction of a real lego, but would give good hueys as well.

[Arkhan Asylum]

legos are cheap, and when melted, could make more than one huey!

and if those are still to expensive, there're even those fake legos which cost only a fraction of a real lego, but would give good hueys as well.

hell I mean you could melt pretty much any hard plastic you can find.  Dumpster dive time! recycle plastics for HUEY JUSTICE

[Tatsujin]

legos are cheap, and when melted, could make more than one huey!

and if those are still to expensive, there're even those fake legos which cost only a fraction of a real lego, but would give good hueys as well.

hell I mean you could melt pretty much any hard plastic you can find.  Dumpster dive time! recycle plastics for HUEY JUSTICE

we could have recycle michael jackson into hueys as well. and then released moonwalker special on the pce. with better colors of coush!

[oldskool]

Duplos are bigger than Legos, and just as cheap, so you can get more plastic for your money.

[TurboXray]

Dumpster dive time! recycle plastics for HUEY JUSTICE

For great huey justice!

[Turbo D]

Why not make our own plastic out of milk?

http://www.instructables.com/id/Homemade-Plastic/

[Nazi NecroPhile]

Why not make our own plastic out of milk?

I don't know about that, but the milk jugs can be melted down and reformed.  They're usually made from HDPE and sometimes PET, both of which are thermoset plastics (like the ABS in Legos).

Tee-hee, I said jugs.

[Arkhan Asylum]

but then we could manufacture MilkCarts  it'd be the next big thing in homebrew.

[oldskool]

This shit is getting out of control..