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Disassembling the US Nintendo DSi

Posted by timothy on from the keep-all-27-pieces dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Yesterday iFixit tore apart the Nintendo DSi and found several internal upgrades from the outgoing DS Lite. It seems that an experienced hand can completely disassemble the DSi in less than ten minutes using standard tools, especially since the job does not require a tri-wing screwdriver. This should make repairing and tinkering with the DSi substantially easier. The DSi now includes two integrated cameras that, unfortunately, have only 0.3 megapixel resolution. This is certainly a bit underwhelming considering most mainstream phones have cameras of at least 1.3 megapixels. As for chips, Nintendo is using a Samsung MoviNAND integrated 256 MB Flash memory / MMC controller chip, as well as a custom ARM CPU + GPU is stamped with the revision code 'TWL.' The DSi's chips all had manufacture dates around September 2008, indicating that Nintendo has been stockpiling these devices for quite a while prior to the North American release."

10 of 102 comments (clear)

  1. 0.3 Megapixels... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    0.3 megapixels is equivalent to a resolution of 640x480 pixels, which is twice the resolution of each individual Nintendo DS screen. The lower resolution CCD costs less, and the images are far easier to process in real-time with the DSi's limited resources.

    1. Re:0.3 Megapixels... by Shadow+of+Eternity · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'd rather have a nice crisp 640x480 picture than the amazingly noisy and poor quality X-Fuckabit cellphone camera.

      --
      A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
    2. Re:0.3 Megapixels... by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 3, Insightful

      > equivalent to a resolution of 640x480 pixels, which is twice the resolution of each individual Nintendo DS screen.

      Each LCD on the DS only has a native resolution of 256x192 (almost the same as the old Apple ][s, except 15-bit.) Twice the resolution is 512x384. So you really should say "...which is more than twice..." (I would know, since I shipped a DS game last year, and this year.)

      For comparision, the Acer Aspire One also uses a 0.3 megapixel camera (which I've found to be OK.) So while the megapixel resolution isn't great, the issue is over-rated IMHO. The low resolution is party to cover up the low native resolution of the LCDs.

    3. Re:0.3 Megapixels... by Samah · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well... technically (in terms of pixels), 512x384 is 4x the resolution of 256x192.

      --
      Homonyms are fun!
      You're driving your car, but they're riding their bikes there.
  2. Stockpiling? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    The DSi's chips all had manufacture dates around September 2008, indicating that Nintendo has been stockpiling these devices for quite a while prior to the North American release.
     
    Or it might have something to do with the fact that the DSi was released in Japan in November 2008.

  3. Re:Interesting by master5o1 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    They've got to leave room for improvement for the DS micro (Remember GBC? -> GBA -> GBA SP -> GB Micro) => DS -> DS Lite -> DSi -> DS Micro

    --
    signature is pants
  4. Re:Megapixel fetishism by guspasho · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I find your signature ironic since the post you responded to explains why it makes sense to use a smaller camera.

  5. Re:STOP THE PRESSES! by Icegryphon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Because it is Slashdot "The nuts and volts of news for nerds" Which means this documentation is now the first step of any modifications. I and many other NERDS, Love modding and getting the most bang for your buck. It is just like Car Guys who are always looking for more performance.

  6. Re:Interesting by BenoitRen · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That's not a good comparison, as the Game Boy Advance was wildly different in capabilities from the Game Boy Color. Meanwhile the DS, DS Lite and DSi are essentially the same system.

  7. Not pirated games, just homebrew by gknoy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There are a number of DS homebrew games I'd love to use, if I ever have the disposable income to spare on the adapters and cards. There's a painting app ( http://colors.collectingsmiles.com/about.php ) which looks neat, especially if you are traveling and want to sketch something, or just like to doodle. There are also some PDA-like programs which might be handy, though I don't know how I'd find them useful.

    ScummVM ( http://scummvm.drunkencoders.com/ ) is a homebrew app to let you play old LucasArts games, as well as newer (free) games made for the Scumm interpreter. (Yes, one could pirate the old LucasArts games. The morality of playing a no longer published game on a newer platform is not something I wish to discuss. I don't plan to pirate it, if that's any consolation to you.) There are some free games, such as several from Revolution Software, that have been re-released from Amiga to Nintendo DS.

    There are even e-book and comic reader homebrew apps for the DS... though I've not used them. (I prefer paper books.)

    I'd get a lot more geek cred if I were part of the nintendo DS demo scene, but I'm not. (: However, I hope I have adequately debunked your claim that all we'd want to do is use it to run pirated games.