ole has taken my KVM port to Nintendo DS and added some updates. I haven’t played with it much, but he lists the changes as follows.

R3: New features added by Ole:

• fixed the CLDC implementation (timer, memory size, system properties)
• added support for reading of the PNG images (code taken from the PhoneMe project)
• implemented native functions for rendering the basic graphics primitives on the screen
  (lines, rectangles, triangles, images)
• added support for accepting the JAD files in the application browser
• added the core part of the Pstros MIDP library
• added VideoTest example to show how to draw on the screen
• added ‘_rebuild.bat’ to show how to build and preverify the class files.
  Note WTK installation is required.

This is quite interesting if it is able to run some MIDP-compliant games, but we’ll need to do some testing to see how the speed compares to your average mobile phone.

UPDATE: He’s made a few more updates since I originally made this post. Be sure to check out ole’s site for the latest info and download links.

Just a tiny update to my homebrew mandelbrot browser for Nintendo DS. This version merely adds DLDI-support, meaning you should be able to save screenshots as .PNG from pretty much any flashcart. Check the previous post for screenshots, more info, etc. To the right is an actual image saved from the program.

Download r06 .nds

Someone was having trouble compiling it, so I threw this together real quick.
See FreeType’s official site for more info on it, but basically it’s a library for rendering nice ttf fonts, and it’s been compiled so that it can run on Nintendo DS. It wont do anything on its own, this is really only useful for homebrew developers who want to include some sort of nice font rendering.

freetype-2.3.5-nds-dka-r21.zip (1.2MB)

It’s been compiled with devKitARM r21, no guarantees it will work with any later/earlier version. In fact, no guarantees it will work at all, I haven’t actually tested it…but it compiles without any errors. I had to disable two checks in in the configure script, because it kept getting confused when I told it to compile for arm-eabi.

If anyone uses this, would be nice to know, drop me a line in the comment section.

I’ve uploaded a new batch of DS demos that are free to download. I’ve put them on a new page, separate from the old one, so it’s easy to see the new ones. There are a bunch of fun looking ones, be sure to check them out!

New Demos Page
Previous Demo Collection

I know what you’re thinking…”That’s a horrible idea and you’re a horrible person for suggesting it!”

The main problems with Java on DS:
1. Interpreted languages are slower, the overhead is bad on a slower embedded platform
2. No direct memory access. Almost all of the DS hardware is interfaced by reading and writing directly to specific memory locations
3. No primitive unsigned 8-bit types. What were they thinking?

But…I went ahead and did it anyway, just for fun. I didn’t start from scratch, I took Torlus’s KVM port to GBA and used that as a base for getting it to work on DS. Right now, when it starts, you pick a .class file, and it will run it! In addition, using KNI, I’ve written a basic wrapper around parts of libnds, enough to read input from the touchscreen/buttons, and to move sprites around.

Download here: java4nds_r2.zip — includes the compiled KVM.nds, some examples along with source code, and instructions on making your own .java files.

To use this demo, place kvm.nds, all the *.class files, and all the *.bin files on the root of your flashcart.
Run kvm.nds, then select a .class file to run. There are a few examples testing various stuff.
Don’t forget to DLDI-patch the kvm.nds

Someone has added DLDI support to my old TI-85 Emulator. I don’t have any exotic devices, so I can’t say how well it works.

You can download it here: ds85_r3.rar

There’s a forum thread about it going on here: teamcylops.com

Let me know if it works/doesn’t work on your particular device.

I have a prototype of the hardware side of my Nintendo DS-based heart rate monitor. I’m using the awesome DSerial to interface an IR LED & IR phototransistor to the DS.

It works ok, but the signal is not strong enough. Slight movements can make the data unusable. I think I need to work on either amplifying the signal, or increasing the sensitivity of the DSerial. Also I need to rig up some velcro to stick the sensor to your finger, so you don’t have to hold it in place.

Here you can see my “sensor”:

Here is the connection to the DS:

And finally, here is a screenshot of the DS’s lower screen, which is just graphing the data coming from the DSerial’s ADC:

Check out this movie of it in action: dserial_heart_monitor.avi (1.5MB)

A neat-looking device for DS homebrew development is natrium42‘s DSerial. The features include

• 8051 microcontroller running at 24MHz
• Reprogrammable from DS, premade firmwares available
• Free development tools available
• 18 GPIO lines, 2 status LEDs
• UART with RS-232 level converter (can be disabled)
• Full-speed USB 2.0 device (does not support USB host)
• PWM and ADC available
• 2D tilt sensor

I’m hoping to make some cool stuff with it…my first plan is to build a portable heart monitor, that can also tell you how stressed-out you are, based on your ‘coherence’ (essentially you take the FFT of your heart rate over time, and you want most of the energy to fall near to 0.1Hz)

If your card is not supported by Draw, but it does have SRAM (that is, a slot-2 card), then use the save to SRAM option in Draw. Transfer the save file to your PC, and try renaming it to .png and see if it opens.

If it does NOT open, try this website: Savegames convertor and convert your file to the “Supercard One / Ninjapass / DSLinker (.sav)” format, and then try renaming to PNG.

This is a basic EEPROM backup tool. Basically it lets you copy the save-games from your commercial game carts back and forth to your flashcart. It also supports using SRAM as storage, and if you have a gba cart in slot-2, and a flashcart in slot-1, you could copy the sram off the gba cart to your flashcart.

It has various transfer functions, basically what you see in this screenshot:

Hexdump is not implemented yet.

Download it here: eepinator.nds

UPDATE:If you’ve got only a slot-1 card, this tool may be useful to you:
savesender — site appears down. Try this local mirror:
savsender-1.1.zip
It uploads your saves via WIFI to your pc, eliminating the problem slot-1 flashcard from the equation!