Nds-bootstrap: [IR Passthrough] On-cart IR using "Walk With Me" cart cannot reset Pokéwalker in Pokémon HeartGold

[aphirst]

What I have currently available for testing:

• n3DS, Luma CFW
• twilightmenu + nds-bootstrap 0.12.1 rev02
• Physical copy of "Walk With Me" NTR-IMWP-EUR, a game with a built-in IR port
• (I do not currently possess a "Walk With Me" pedometer, but I have recently ordered one for testing.)
• Verified Good Dump of Pokémon Heart Gold (German), along with anti-AP xdelta patch applied (though this does not seem to affect the issue)
• Pokéwalker

What I want to achieve

• Be able to connect the Pokéwalker to an instance of Heart Gold running through nds-bootstrap, by means of an inserted "Walk With Me" IR-cart

What I've tested

1. (Unfortunately I don't have my physical copy of Heart Gold currently to hand for testing.)
2. Choose "connect" on the Pokéwalker while pointing at nothing, LCD display says "No trainer found."
3. Boot "Pokémon Heart Gold" in nds-bootstrap, attempt to connect the Pokéwalker: LCD text says "No trainer found."
4. Boot "Walk with Me" from the physical cart, attempt to connect the (obviously incompatible) Pokéwalker: LCD text says "Cannot connect."
5. Boot "Walk With Me" using nds-bootstrap, attempt to connect to the Pokéwalker: LCD text says "No trainer found."

Apparent conclusions

• The "walk with me" cart obviously does have a not-utterly-broken IR port since it triggers a distinct error message with the Pokéwalker, presumably due to the handshake being different to the game's intended bundled peripheral.
• nds-bootstrap does not appear to be properly initialising the "Walk with Me" game cart's built-in IR port

I've asked about this in the NDS(i)Brew Discord server, but after not making much progress, figured it made sense to escalate it to a proper Issue.

If there's anything I could test which might shed light on why IR passthrough isn't working in my case, I'd be only glad to help.

[aphirst]

My second copy of "Walk With Me" arrived today, this time with its bundled "actimeter" pedometer peripheral. I can confirm two things:

1. The IR works perfectly with the real card(s) in conjunction with the "actimeter".
2. Booting the "Walk With Me" ROM via nds-bootstrap does NOT activate the IR chip on the inserted gamecard, and communication with the "actimeter" is not possible.

This certainly makes it seem as if the problem here lies with nds-bootstrap.

As before, if there's anything I can do to help, please just ask. Additionally, I am willing to donate my spare "Walk With Me" game card if there's a developer in the UK or EU (shipping prices) who reckons it would be key in getting it working.

[RocketRobz]

After further testing at the NDS(i)Brew Discord server, it turned out to be an issue with TWiLight Menu++, where it resets slot-1 access to read header data from a flashcard, so that TWLMenu++ can init the DLDI driver for the specific flashcard.
The Slot-1 reset is the culprit where it stops IR from working.
In the next TWiLight Menu++ version, direct flashcard access will be an option, so that IR will work again.

[aphirst]

I can confirm that the workaround of relaunching the game via "last run ROM" does seem to result in the IR chip remaining active.

There is still potentially an issue remaining. Allow me to describe it by means of a comparison

• If I run "Walk With Me" via its ROM, I can now connect its "actimeter" peripheral through the WWM cart's IR, register a user on it, and seemingly use it as normal.
• If I run "Pokémon Heart Gold" via ROM, the Pokéwalker now responds to IR from the WWM IR port, however it does not seem possible to successfully reset the Pokéwalker to be used with a new save game. It is not possible to test "normal" operation of the Pokéwalker without doing this, since it is set up for an old save file, and there is no on-device way to reset this data.

Is anyone able to confirm whether either resetting Pokéwalkers works or doesn't work for them, and which IR-supported cart they're using in their Slot-1? That might indicate whether it's a general issue with nds-bootstrap, or whether it's instead a quirk of using different IR-supporting carts.

[aphirst]

I was finally able to get my hands again on a Pokémon SoulSilver cart. Japanese, but I'm confident that the region doesn't matter.

The various possible IR tasks are:

• resetting an old IR pedometer
• activating a reset pedometer
• send data to a linked pedometer
• receiving data from a linked pedometer

I think there's also cart-to-cart stuff in Pokemon Black/White but since I only have one console I'm not in a position to test it.

Pokémon SoulSilver cart (NTR-IPGJ-JPN, NTR-031)

Task \ ROM | Walk With Me | HeartGold (AP Patched) | Heart Gold (Clean)
-|-|-|-
Reset Old | Works | Works | Works
Activate New | Works | Works | Works
Send (Pokémon) | Works | Works | Works
Receive (steps, Pokémon) | Works | Works | Works

So the first conclusion is: the HG/SS carts do everything the WWM carts do.

Walk With Me cart (NTR-IMWP-EUR, NTR-031)

Task \ ROM | Walk With Me | HeartGold (AP Patched) | Heart Gold (Clean)
-|-|-|-
Reset Old | Works | Fails | Fails
Activate New | Works | Fails* | Fails*
Send (user data) | Works | Fails* | Fails*
Receive (step counts) | Works | Fails* | Fails*

• The boxes marked * could only be tested after first using the SS cart to reset my old Pokéwalker which contained old data.
• The boxes marked ** could only be tested after first using the SS cart to pair the Pokéwalker to the save file.

So the second conclusion is: The WWM carts work fine when loading ROMs of its own game, but fail at all the relevant steps required by the Pokémon games. As mentioned before, the IR does seem to do "something" at that time, since it makes the Pokéwalker respond, displaying an explicit error message instead of merely causing a time-out message, but whatever it does do is clearly false.

I think it's safe to conclude that the Pokémon IR carts are in fact an upgraded or extended version of the carts used for Walk With Me, however it's worth noting that there's no external difference - they all declare "NTR-031. PAT. PEND." on the back, and are all from the same black (rather than grey) plastic.

Future Work

At a bare minimum, it should be made clear to people wanting to use the Pokéwalker feature that these WWM carts unfortunately do not work like the Pokémon carts do. From there, it would be interesting to know exactly what it is that the WWM carts do when receiving IR-related commands from the game code, both on an electronic and an optical level. If there's a slim chance that this could be worked around in a straightforward way, it might be worth at some point pursuing.

[fennectech]

would it be possible to use the 3ds IR thing?

[autofire372]

I don't think that's available in DS mode.

[fennectech]

Could be done through a sysmodule like you do for widescreen.

[fennectech]

is this fixed? I just bought a wwm cart for tthe IR so i can use my pokewalker some day

[fennectech]

I have acquired a compatable cart and a walk with me cart. They are physically different. This is pokemon black on the left. Walk with me on the right. I CAN use the actimeter with walk with me through twilightmenu/pokemon black. I CAN use the pokewalker through twilightmenu / pokemon black
I CAN use the actimeter with twilightmenu/wwm cart. I CANNOT use the pokewalker through twilightmenu/wwm cart

[fennectech]

I would be willing to acquire an IR toy for further testing. From even more testing just about any IR source will trigger the "cannot connect" screen from the actimeter to telecvision remotes and even open flame. So it seems to be a protocol failure

[ec04012]

IR isn't working when I use a HeartGold rom with a White or White 2 cartridge.

IR is only working for me if i enable "last played rom on startup".

Turning "slot-1 microSD access" on or off doesn't fix the issue.

On a previous version (twilightmenu version 11), ir passthrough worked without enabling "last played rom on startup".

[RocketRobz]

@ec04012 Did you enable the SELECT menu as well?
Going into the DS Classic Menu causes this issue.

[ec04012]

@RocketRobz

Yeah, that worked.

I disabled "DS Classic Menu on startup" and set "DSi/Saturn; SELECT" to SELECT menu.

What's the difference between the classic menu and the select menu? I can't seem to find an explanation of them.

[RocketRobz]

The DS Classic Menu resets Slot-1 in order to read the header and banner title/icon, which causes IR to not work, as a result.