Dumping N64 EEPROMs gives blank files with the name of the game inside

[14corman]

Hello,

I built the OSCR HW5 Rev 5 this last week and have been trying to dump my N64 cart ROMs and saves. I have successfully dumped the ROMs from the carts and got them working inside emulators. However, when I try to dump the EEPROMs from the carts (so far, I have tried Donkey Kong 64 and Super Mario 64), I just get eep files that have the name of the game written for the save along with its serial code (for example DK64 is NDOE). I have also tried duping the ROMs and saves from a few GBA carts to see if those work, and I am getting those ROMs and EEPROM saves just fine.

For extra notes:

1. I have the clock generator installed
2. I have the enable clock gen install set in the config
3. I have run the self-test a few times and always have returned OK.
4. I first tried running Release 12.8 Beta with no luck. I then tried downgrading to 12.4 and got the same exact results.
5. When I downgraded to 12.4, though, the first time I tried dumping the EEPROM, I got the actual text from the output that goes to the screen (title, serial, revision, etc.) within the eep file. This only happened once, and every other time, it just outputs what I said above.

Below are the hex outputs for SM64 and DK64:

DK64

SM64

I have looked at other discussion threads, and I know all the parts are correct. I noticed there was a discussion about maybe having the incorrect parts/changed PCBs may not get EEPROM dumping to work, but I have checked, and all of the components I used are correct. Would anyone know what could be wrong or what I could test to see what may need to be fixed? Thank you so much for your help in advance.

[14corman]

I got it working, but I'm not sure how.

I checked every connection I could while it was together using a multimeter and the schematics shown in another N64 help thread. Everything appeared to be connected properly, but I took it apart and checked the clock generator, the Arduino pins, and the resistor pins. Everything was OK, so I put it back together and tested it, but it still did not work. I then made sure I was getting the correct voltage since I have Vselect, so I do not have the 3V/5V switch in. Voltages were correctly switched between 3V and 5V.

Finally, I tried saving the EEPROM 3 times in a row for one of the carts, and it weirdly started working. I saw in a few discussions and on the wiki that you may need to try reading EEPROM a few times. I tried that before taking it apart, so I am unsure if that made it start working now or if I had a pin messed up somewhere that got fixed when I put it back together.

I also have my OSCR built into the Kytor Design enclosure, so I could not tell if all pins were correctly seated the first time as everything is obscure.

After building this, though, I would say 3 points of improvement could be:

1. On a self-test, have it somehow check if the 2 main boards are seated correctly. I don't know how this would work unless a custom-built test card would plug into one of the adapter slots.
2. When a save is made, have it scroll over the converted hex values in the save. You could use the rotary display to cycle through the hex code just to make sure it is not blank and click in when you are finished checking. This would be the only way, as you cannot feasibly check the binary of the save against something since they will all be different.
3. For the N64 controller, would it make more sense to have a female connector soldered to the board and solder the male end to the N64 controller extension? I had to take apart the OSCR multiple times to try and figure out where the bug was and ended up ripping the wires off the board. This would make it more easy to put together and take apart if need be.