Comments on: Bluetooth cartridge for Nintendo DS

By: dsbrut

dsbrut — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:21:16 +0000

pics of the internals are here:
http://dsbrut.sukzessiv.net/files/schematics/ds_bluetooth_rev_b.png

board layout is inside the svn (svn checkout svn://sukzessiv.net/dsbrut)

By: Amos

Amos — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 03:37:46 +0000

@dsbrut guys:

I’m curious as to why a uC was connected to the DS via SPI, to interface to a bluetooth module/chip with its own SPI port.

Was it just to offload communication stack stuff to save cycles on the DS or some other reason?

Could the uC be omitted to save cost/board space?

By: Oxin

Oxin — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:46:45 +0000

You can finally hook that Wiimote up!

By: werejag

werejag — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 03:48:05 +0000

http://dsbrut.sukzessiv.net/files/libdsbrut-0.92.zip

By: andrew

andrew — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 03:17:13 +0000

…or perhaps *GASP* it could TWITTER? ZOMG!!!11

By: blizzarddemon

blizzarddemon — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 02:22:37 +0000

wait will this allow the DS to be interfaced as a bluetooth device? Does that mean it could possibly be used as an external device? Touchscreen perhaps?

By: Mike Szczys

Mike Szczys — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 23:25:07 +0000

@MS3FGX: Thanks, fixed.

By: urlax

urlax — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 22:42:45 +0000

I like the hack, but they should’ve posted pics of the internals.

@andrew,
having a sim card in a DS won’t give you 3G. you need to have a GSM radio transmitter/receiver (tranceiver), so you’ll have to build an entire cell modem into an flashcard, which ain’t gonna fit.

this is the smallest unit i could find, and it’s not even 3G..
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=9271

By: tek

tek — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 22:36:25 +0000

@andrew
the ds has no cellular radio, adding the support for a sim card reader would do nothing except maybe allow modification of contacts.

@farthead, the router idea is also a fugly hack, it does work and provide some power, but with no screen or built in battery it is still behind the ds.

he did this for an overall hack, mostly proving it is possible, and just getting the idea forward. lets see some of you be able to design and build a similar device.

i say great hack and design, keep em coming, i could see this working nicely to control a micro robotics platform cleanly

By: andrew

andrew — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 22:00:20 +0000

I really wanna see a sim card reader for the ds. I would love me some 3g for my games. Add that with real skype so my dsi’s camera works and u have an iPhone killer.

By: farthead

farthead — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:53:50 +0000

@MS3FGX that makes no sense… I can get a far cheaper, more powerful and easier to interface central processor for robotics than a DS. doing it just to say you did it, ok, but doing it because it’s cheaper is nuts, it’s not cheaper, it’s more expensive and then harder…. It’s like buying a Toaster and modding it to make waffles. grab a router that will run OpenWRT and you have a better and more powerful robot processing platform.

Hacking for the sake of the hack? ok. But I can get a high power easy to use robot processing platform for $25-$55 all over the place and I dont have to play tricks to get my code to run. Hell I picked up some pc104 computer boards off ebay for $15.00 each.. Less than he spent making the cart. he is not doing it as a cheap robot platform, he’s doing it for an expensive and unique complicated remote control car platform… Robots move on their own, RC cars require input from the user… Which is why I hate “battlebots” as they are not battlebots but battleRC cars.

By: xchip

xchip — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:51:44 +0000

The main problem is that the nintendoDS works with 3.3volts and most sensors and stuff require 5 volts.. doh!

By: MS3FGX

MS3FGX — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:18:01 +0000

The first sentence should read “Bluetooth module”, not GPS.

It is interesting, but I would have to agree with Eric. Relying on a SLOT 2 device in 2009 seems a little archaic, especially considering the DSi doesn’t even have one anymore.

Then again, it looks like the devices listed on the site are intended for interfacing the DS with various robotic platforms, so I guess the idea is to use the old-style DS as a cheap central processor. Overall style and quality of the LCDs are not an issue…

By: Eric

Eric — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:08:11 +0000

This is cool, but you need a slot-2 software solution to avoid cart swapping, as the article says.
Personally, I would have gone the other way, utilizing the slot-2 side for the bluetooth and used the slot-1 slot for the actual cart.

Either way, this is cool. I’m more interested in the interfacing of the ATmega168 than the bluetooth itself.