GX4000 Cartridge Flap Open

[overange]

Here is a simple thing i knocked up to help you keep your GX4000 cartridge flaps apart when using Custom Carts.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6064850

[overange]

Forgot to add images...

[abalore]

it looks nice. As a small improvement you could add side rails to fit the PCB in

[Richard_Lloyd]

@overange 
Works well - thank you.

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[TotO]

Good!

The idea may seem attractive, but one can wonder about the weakening of the springs if the insertion remains prolonged, not to mention the dust nest. I guess it's best to remove it when not playing.

[eto]

weakening of the springs if the insertion remains prolonged, not to mention the dust nest.

that should be considered.

Maybe an alternative could be to have a "quick insertion cartridge case", where you can easily swap PCBs.

[overange]

Good!
The idea may seem attractive, but one can wonder about the weakening of the springs if the insertion remains prolonged, not to mention the dust nest. I guess it's best to remove it when not playing.

Good advice, maybe you should pass this on to the owners of the other Flap based Cartridge systems such as the Atari 800XL/600XL, SNES, Sega Mega drive who leave Cartridges inserted in their systems for prolonged times.
 

Dust Nests, tell me about it.... I find good housekeeping works, amazing how those 30-40 year old systems attracted so much Dust internally all those years ago.
 
If you have a system that is meant to be used and played with, as it was originally intended, use it and enjoy it.
If it's a display piece / super rare, then you would be more careful how you use it and keep it clean.
 
If you want to design a better or different version, feel free to do so

[TotO]

They are adult, they do as they want. It is just a suggestion. 

I prefer to remove the cartridges from my systems to prevent any issues and keep my games into their boxes. (no hacking)

[pelrun]

Springs do not "weaken" when they're used within their design envelope, and if you exceed their yield strength they are immediately damaged, there's no gradual failure mode. This wouldn't do anything worse than leaving a proper cart in.

Of course, if you have the ability to print this, you also have the ability to print proper cases for your custom carts

[TotO]

Leaving it open all the time is not their design envelope. May be that will change nothing, but just think they are 30 years old.

[pelrun]

Again, springs either fail immediately or not at all, or they'd be useless as springs - instead of storing energy like they're supposed to they'd just permanently deform. There is no way an open cartridge slot is even coming close to the spring's yield strength.

[TotO]

Springs fails mainly because the time (age), weather (storage) and stress (usage).
That is the reason you have to change them on your car or airball gun in example.

Again, I do not said there is a problem by doing that, just the GX4000 ticks all the boxes. The system is 30 years old, may be it was not properly stored and it is not the normal usage. Anyway, if it was not a problem to have a cartridge slot always open, all existing machines would have done without it for obvious reasons of production costs.