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7/19/2025, 1:41:12 PM
>>11880652
>The project being open source at least means they don't have to guess component values and get them wrong. With cheap flash carts you still get issues like the shell being slightly too big for the cartridge slot, and the cart just dying after a few months.
To be fair just because you know what parts go into something does not mean a cheap one can't still cut corners and use shoddy parts or skip "optional" parts that are there for safety reasons. (And to be clear, I don't mean safety as in it will blow up your house, I mean as in it won't overtax or damage your system in the long run).
The SummerCart64 dev himself has a recommend place to buy it from, but it's quite a bit more expensive ($95-100) and he mentions that he is not affiliated with them, or a BOM for you to build your own from PCBWay or participate in occasional group buys. That doesn't mean that it has to cost $100 to be good, but you never know if that $50 on Aliexpress one was made properly or cut corners. Even if a specific seller is known to make a good one they might change it someday to a crappier one without notice. (Quickly looking at Ali right now, I see several models that have a row of RGB leds on it. Not only do those look like they would be very distracting while trying to play, but they are definitely not a part of the design and likely would drain more power than expected. You would be surprised how many projects people added an extra bunch of leds to and then realized they caused problems with power draw)
>The project being open source at least means they don't have to guess component values and get them wrong. With cheap flash carts you still get issues like the shell being slightly too big for the cartridge slot, and the cart just dying after a few months.
To be fair just because you know what parts go into something does not mean a cheap one can't still cut corners and use shoddy parts or skip "optional" parts that are there for safety reasons. (And to be clear, I don't mean safety as in it will blow up your house, I mean as in it won't overtax or damage your system in the long run).
The SummerCart64 dev himself has a recommend place to buy it from, but it's quite a bit more expensive ($95-100) and he mentions that he is not affiliated with them, or a BOM for you to build your own from PCBWay or participate in occasional group buys. That doesn't mean that it has to cost $100 to be good, but you never know if that $50 on Aliexpress one was made properly or cut corners. Even if a specific seller is known to make a good one they might change it someday to a crappier one without notice. (Quickly looking at Ali right now, I see several models that have a row of RGB leds on it. Not only do those look like they would be very distracting while trying to play, but they are definitely not a part of the design and likely would drain more power than expected. You would be surprised how many projects people added an extra bunch of leds to and then realized they caused problems with power draw)
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