A LOOK INSIDE - Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
- Let's look inside the Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit (Mario Kart version).
In this video I completely take it apart, to see how it is put together.
I hope you enjoy it.
Vince :-)
my wheels are covered in hair, do i have to take it apart to remove the yellow bit?
Having the same problem. Me wheels do not pull off like in the video.
@@dingoog1 same here cannot get wheels off at all!
@@ragequitgaming2490 people have said that they are glued on tight and have to be cracked off. I have slot cars and it sucks trying to glue rims back on. Most glues out their can’t do the job right.
@@dingoog1 that's a very big problem, my kart now doesn't turn to the right properly, it takes like 3 meters to do a 180° turn
Any ideas? Mine has the same problem
Vince, this golden holes in PCB in one row are UART pins. Manufacturer programming this STM32 microcontroller with that pins using robot arm and pogo pins, you could use STLINK to read/write whole firmware from your cart
Thanks for sharing the info Solve IT :-)
Are you sure about that? Couldn't it also maybe be swd?
Realtek is commonly networking. Winbond is usually memory. The W29N01HVSINA winbond chip is a 1GB NAND flash memory. The W631GG6MB15I winbond chip is 1GB of DDR3 memory. So the realtek chip is a network processor the W631GG6MB15I chip is the memory for doing processing tasks and the W29N01HVSINA chip acts like a hard drive, storing all the software which makes the cart work. The STM32F is a arm processor. So it could be controlling the Motor, camera or charging. I would have to look at the board to know which.
Well done PDS, thanks for sharing your knowledge on these chips :-)
@@Mymatevince i can now imagine watching your fave movies, but, the AR kart is just their without mario/luigi, at all times when the cam is on
Realtek chip is an SoC as well. Might be doing the video related stuff by the sounds of it. www.realtek.com/en/products/communications-network-ics/item/rtd1195
Judging by how the microcontroller is next to the type C port, I imagine it's managing power.
@@HobkinBoi More than likely.
Winbond chips usually handle bios (the software/firmware.
One of the Winbond chips is a NAND. The NAND is usually used for storage like on a flash drive.. the OG ps3 (model A-G) used 2x 256mb NAND chips for the bios.
@Ellis The DJ its a data chip that you can read and write too. Most flash drives have similar chips.
@Ellis The DJ it is storing the Kart's software. The Mario And Luigi Karts are physically identical, so the Kart has to have storage on it where the data is stored than tells MKLive which models and sound effects to use.
When I saw the main board and the USB C Port, I was like... yup I'm gonna have to replace those in the future LOL Cool video Vince!
For the Winbond W631GG6MB-15 the datasheet can be found here: www.winbond.com/resource-files/w631gg6mb_a02.pdf
Under "GENERAL DESCRIPTION" it says that it is just a RAM chip, and the -15 variant shown in this video is "compliant to the DDR3-1333 (9-9-9) specification" according to the datasheet. Whatever that means :P
I also found a datasheet from digikey for the Winbond W29N01HVSINA: winbond.com/resource-files/w29n01hvxina_revc.pdf
This one is just flash memory (EDIT: specifically, it's NAND). I'm guessing that it just holds the OS (or whatever instructions it needs to do its magic).
Unfortunately, I could not find out any new info on the Realtek chip. All I found out about it is what you found out: A combination microprocessor and WiFi unit. I couldn't even find a general description of the PB variant featured in your video here.
I really wanted to provide a UA-cam video or article that explains how to read a datasheet for beginners, but all the ones I could find were reaching into the more complicated area. I know very little about this but I would recommend getting in touch with either BigCliveDotCom or Dave Jones from EEVBlog if you want to know how exactly to decipher the information in them. That, and they have excellent UA-cam channels that I'd highly recommend checking out simply for the entertainment factor :)
Happy Tinkering!
not suprised u cant find any info about that realtek chip.i can tell u it can be used both in civil and military use.and many datasheets where after war removed search engines
Nice video ! I would love to see a custom improved version of this toy
I want to remove the yellow wheel of the tires to clean it from dust and hair, in the video looks easy to take it but the more that I pull it, I can't remove it. How can I remove it without damage it?
Nice, thank you, you saved me some time. I wanted to take a look so I could try to upgrade DC motor and possibly add a better WiFi antenna!
Hi vince, I dont know of you answered in you video but how did to get the yellow axle of the wheel off of the kart with such ease
Cool video I subbed! And I didn't know that Mario kart toy was a thing until I saw this video
Awesome video! 👌
This video is literally not in my subscriptions box
It wasn't in mine either... I found it when I went to the channel itself. That's kinda weird how UA-cam doesn't put some videos in subscriptions even though I'm subscribed to Vince
UA-cam can do whatever the hell they want and they can screw whoever the hell they want as long as there are advertisers paying
@@justcallme00oogy I don't think it's intentional when a video doesn't get added to subscription box, so I wouldn't blame UA-cam. I think it's probably a glitch and had something to do with the amount of videos being uploaded at the time. If there are more videos being uploaded than normal, this happens.
But I feel like many people have this problem a lot of times and if UA-cam really wanted to fix it they could
I think they are just prioritizing it although I could be wrong though but either way it does really suck because I miss out on a good video and creators miss out of views and lose trust in UA-cam
@@justcallme00oogy again, it probably is just a glitch. If there are too many videos being uploaded at once then the servers probably have a hard time keeping up. It isn't a big enough problem to warrant upgrading the servers right now
Fresh video, I'm excited!
I can see @09:30 the Chinese on the left 白黑 White Black and on the right 紅白黑 Red White Black, for the 5 wires connected to the steering part.
Nice video! Very interesting I wondered how this item worked 🤔 Love your channel! I’ve been subscribed for a long time and I liked this vid! :D
Great video mate👍
Dam!! No space to upgrade the motor. Tanx Vince. Awesome video.
Was looking at the rear axle bearings and thinking a set of sealed ball bearings would provide quite a lot of improvement as the PTFE over brass leads to a fair bit of inertia to overcome before the motor can drive the axle and the brass sheath over steel rod is going to wear considerably. I would so be putting a pair of sealed ball bearings in stead of that doomed to fail brass and PTFE arrangement and replace cheap Chinese motor with one of better quality that is able to utilise the same power range and frequency as the cheapo one, maybe reinforce the gearbox cage to stop loss of power due to flexing of plastic parts?
ad a turbo too
@@fatbelly2438 Make a 2JZ swap
Weight maybe?
how do i get the wheels off? I'm afraid to break the yellow bit.
4:54 - Wait, did he just pulled the yellow part? Isn't it attached or something?
He said in the video that they were attached with glue, and that he basically snapped it...
Thank you! I'm just intrigged. I can't remove the front tire rims so easilly... I've been trying so hard!
Is there a way you could buy a way better camera for the thing? So it would fit inside and work the same and everything just way better quality?
The small BGA winbond chip is a DDR3L RAM chip. The other one is a NOR flash part.
The STM32F chip is a microcontroller- it probably drives the motors and reads the potentiometer and that kind of thing. I'd put money on the Realtek chip being a webcam SoC, and those chips don't have any hardware for generating motor drive signals, so the microcontroller is there to handle that.
@@skonkfactory neat 👍🏾
Thanks for the info Skonk :-)
great video 🦔
I hear the signal to the cart is not very strong and can drop off when the cart gets too far from the control is there a fix for that I wonder? Bigger ariels perhaps?
I have a question. I can't get the front wheels off. The yellow rims to be precise. I pulled very hard on them and am afraid of something breaking off. In the video they come off very easily and I'm wondering if I've done something wrong. I wanted to take the wheels off without unscrewing the whole kart
The camera on top makes the kart look like an F1 car from some angles tbh, which is cool
How do you remove the wheel so easily . Feels like its gonna break
Because it has hard glue.
Thank you for the video but my Kart fell into the water, do you think I can recover it or is it dead?
honestly this is such an awesome toy
You have some stones Vince. Broke your Luigi model and tear this one apart. These are getting hard to come by here in the States. The Luigi is very hard to find. I’ll be getting mine at the end of the week. I think it’s going to be fun.
Thank you for awesome video. Very interesting . But I have one little question. How did you take off the wheels so easily ? I tried to take it off to clean but it doesn't work. I'm afraid to break it.
Same for me. They are very hard to take off.
Great video. Do you happen to know where one can buy replacement parts for anything on this unit besides tires
This is very interesting!
I'm looking to teardown my extra Mario and Luigi karts to turn them into Wario and WaLuigi. How are the figures attached to their karts?
Did you heat up the axles to take them apart? They seem to be glued
I can't figure out how to get them off either
Thx for the video, any idea where to get the gears set for the Mario kart?
Was waiting for one of these videos!
I know your video is 4 years old but by chance do you know where the antenna is cause I wanna try to mod it and make it more powerful
Considering the Kart's minimal use of necessary components,
I wonder if the motherboard, camera, battery and USB port could be installed in to the chassis of a gutted RC car that had a larger wheelbase/clearance and higher torque motor.
Very good
I like this vidéo
Vince what’s the name for the second gear? Mine snapped an I don’t know what to do. It’s the front the makes it steer, if there is no name can you recommend me some ways to repair please.
Vince, PLEASE do a speed test without all that cosmetic stuff, to see if the kart could go a little faster!
how do you mod this? how can I put a better motor, better battery life and better wifi signal?
Anyone know if it's possible to get a new axle gear? My kids broke some of the gears.
Just got one of these. Noticed that mine doesn’t go perfectly straight when in reverse either. Still a lot of have. I haven’t unpacked the gates yet. Using it free roam with my cats is enough fun for now. Too bad we can’t take pictures with the camera.
ive been doing exactly the same my 2 cats love it
PLEASE HELP !!
I have taken my kart apart to take out mario and sculpt toad inside.
When some of the parts put on the car it turns on,camera works,steering works but it wont drive forward or backward. The backward red light is on when i press the b button. Can it be something with weight?? Please help me so i can finish my custom toad car and drive with it together with my mario car. PLEASE HELP!!!
How in the hell did you pull of the wheels so easily, maybe I have a newer model or something where it's glued or something
Thank you for the video! Was wondering how these little cars work.
Was surprised to see actual bushings on the rear axle, but i suppose you have to have those since the axle itself is not round. As a side note, they look very similar to those small metal grommets you put into fabric with special pliers. If so then it's a clever cheap solution instead of having them custom made. If someone is so inclined looks like there is plenty of space to replace them with bearings for slightly higher speeds.
As far as steering, the motor-potentiometer combo is basically a servo. Motor turns steering and servo tells the kart at what angle it's turned. I suspect it can easily be replaced with an actual RC servo, though some plastic might need to be cut away. Still, better steering is always good.
Likewise the drive motor can be upgraded, but only with another brushed motor since it's just two wires. Again, as pointed out in the video, some plastic modifications will be required.
And last, while i am not too familiar with microchips, i suspect that those closest to the charge port are the battery charge controller and motor controller for the back. Those can benefit from a small heatsink if the drive motor gets upgraded.
Speaking of microchips, looks like the Realthech with the thermal paste is a 64-bit chip (RTD1195) that does a bit of everything on the car. It's similar to what runs a Raspberry Pi, a popular micro-computer. www.realtek.com/en/products/communications-network-ics/item/rtd1195
The other one under the same heatsink is a 1GB RAM chip. www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/winbond-electronics/W631GG6MB-11-TR/7931131
W29NO to the left of those two is a communications chip. And the STM32 to the right is another smaller memory chip. And while i don't have a board to take a closer look at, i will not be surprised if that tiny black rectangle with four dots, one on each corner, is the transistor/relay that actually powers the rear motor.
Hopefully i'm reading everything right about them lol. Would be great to get some thermal images of the board with it actually running and both motors under load, that way it's easier to determine what's what.
There's definitely a power MOSFET of some sort for driving the motors; motors need a massive inrush of current to get started - too much for a logic chip to source! I'm not sure which black rectangle you're referencing though. Where on the board is it?
By the way, I have a reasonably complete table of hardware on the Switchbrew wiki page for this game, which lists everything and its purpose, if you're interested in learning about the specific microchips.
@@CFSworks At 10:02 you can see a small chip of some sort kinda in line with AN in "Taiwan" on the main chip. That's what i was referring to. I suspected it to be the mosfet (or transistor, as i called it) since it's the closest chip to the drive motor solder points. Really my biggest interest for locating said mosfet is just to see what it's capable of and how far the drive motor can be upgraded before having to swap that transistor for something more powerful.
Also wow, that is a lot of neat info on that page! Though at it's core not many things need to be upgraded to make the cars more fun, and most of those are hardware (motors and an external signal booster, or at least better internal antennas instead of those paper staples lol). Still, awesome to know what's what and how's how. Speaking of antennas, a mini omnidirectional FPV antenna should work fantastic for the car since that's what they are made for.
@@AgentWest Ah I think I see what you're looking at - there's another one next to the Winbond flash chip (on its left side), right? Honestly those things look pretty small to me, but they're connected to pretty wide traces so they must be moving some current. Note that the STM32F is what's actually responsible for cycling the motors on/off, so that chip you're looking at is reasonably appropriately-placed, if that is its purpose.
Those staples are pretty bad. Judging from photos in the FCC filing, they look like they're about 2mm wide and 15mm around the loop, which would make them 1/8th wavelength at 2.45GHz. Just upgrading those things to quarter-wavelength would yield a pretty good improvement, I think. They also seem to have a radiation pattern that mostly goes straight up (I have a surprisingly easy time operating my kart when I'm a floor above it) but I'd have to model them to know for sure.
@@CFSworks 32F is a motor controller? From what i was able to find it just looked like a memory chip, but i might have miss-read or was looking at a different chip with similar designation.
It's odd that the car has two antennas, yet they both broadcast vertically. Maybe the idea was that a person is taller than a car so signal has to go up more? Still, looks like there is plenty of space in there for a simple wire loop around the perimeter of the board. Wonder why they did not go with that.
@@AgentWest The STM32F is a microcontroller (so you're half-right: it does *have* memory) which, here, is responsible for all of the "real-time" parts of the kart: polling sensors, generating PWM signals for motors (and running the control loop that keeps the steering at the desired angle), reading the "ignition button," and controlling the lights. The RTD1195 does all of the network/video tasks and communicates with the STM32F for everything else.
I just modeled out the antenna (as a 9.5mm by 2mm rectangular wire loop) and it looks like it has a gain of +0.9dB out the sides, -6.0dB out the front and back (i.e. looking through the hole), and +1.6dB out the top and bottom. I'm sure my model is off a bit (especially as I don't have exact dimensions), but that matches up with how loop antennas that short generally behave. The most likely reason the two of them in there are at a 90° angle is to cover each other's "blind spots." The good vertical reception seems to be due to being in neither antenna's blind spot when the Switch is above (or, though I haven't tried it, below) the kart.
Interesting video Vince! I wonder what the stm32 microcontroller is used here for?
Quick question, is it possible to extend the “WiFi Aerials” for better connectivity?
Hey. Great video. Id like to take my front wheels off but they are an way stronger than yours. Im afraid to pull more as it feels id brake the steering arm. How hard did you have to pull the first time?
I would also like to know
Would it be possible to increase the Karts range from the switch?
How your wheels came off so easily??
how fast this thing go?
Just wondering?
Thanks for his! I’m wanting to make a drift mod using some Nerf third-party 180 motors and pvc piping for the tyres! Needs more juice for the battery tho. Will have to figure something out. Also, shaving off some plastic at the front axel so I can get more turn would be great too!
Always use non conductive tool when detaching the ribbon dont wanna short anything as the battery is still connected.
4:28 2013 may mean YYWW = year 2020 week 13 (late March)
Already want a spare battery, so I don’t have to wait for it to charge. I can’t find that specific one anywhere though. Might tape a battery pack to the top and just let it charge while using it 😂
the wheel hubs seem to come off so easy in your video .i am trying to remove them from my kart to replace them with some of my own design but they wont come off .any advice would be greatly apreciated.
its ok i managed to get them off.great vid by the way thnks a bunch
@@y3ll4z how did you manage to do it? can’t find an answer anywhere
Hi, I was cleaning the rear tires and I accidentally remove the tire from the axle. I put them back together but the whole axle looks as if I didn't push the axle all the way inside the tire. Did you have the same problem?
The W631GG is a 1Gb DDR3 SDRAM and the W29N0 is a 1G-bit Flash NAND.
This must be the first RC car that has 1 GB of ram
I forgot to mention that the car is making a soft ticking noise when its on like a router working but a lot softer you have to listen close. Pleaasee HELP
Totally normal, built in gyroscope adjusting the steering.
Winbond chip closest to processor is RAM and the other one outside the shield is memory.
What kind of motor is used in the rear? Is it a simple brush motor or a stepper motor?
Brushed motor, it only has two wires.
Where are the power MOSFETs for driving the motors. I couldn't see any. I was expecting a H bridge
Can you replace the camera for a better one?
Tho does it still drive?
Alguien sabe cómo sacar la rueda para sacarle los pelos que se enredan entre el eje y la llanta ? Traté de hacerle un poco de fuerza pero me da miedo romperla o dañarla. 😔
Aaah and see if is possible to change the motor with a more powerfull, that would be AWESOME!
I think the yoof call this a "tear down".
Nice stuff.
Vince can u tell me the height and width of the Kart? Because I wanna know! Thanks
I don't know why but the camera unattached to the kart kind of looks like the PS3 eye camera
I hope modders can change the wifi so it has better wifi signal.
STM32F is an ARM Cortex M4.
Pretty standard stuff.
The Winbond chip in the can with the Realtek processor will be DDR RAM and the other part outside the can will be NAND Flash memory.
Additionally, given its placement, the ST chip will be an interface to the USB C port possibly to negotiate charging voltage and current when charging. I presume the USB data will go to the Realtek chip for firmware upgrades (unless it can do those over Wi-Fi...)
And the RTD1195 chip is a SoC.
Where to get a new battery pls
I`ve always loved Nintendo`s innovation
This is Robotic from Nintendo.
DJI (with Robomaster S1): our battle will be legendary
Here to being here from less than 100 viewers!
maybe you could improve the speed by changing the gears of the backside motor
Just would change the gear ratio, so either technical top speed or acceleration
It looks to be a 180 size motor. Not too sure tho.. but yes, more torque and 3D print some new pins
what would be a more viableé better overall improvement: upgrade motor, or gear multiplier to increase speed and accelerationÉ
Thanks, this helped me reinstall Mario. Apparently he just came loose on my son
I wonder what api or sdk the programmers use
Knowing Nintendo, probably they probably forced the toymakers to use an in-house made one.
The framework is internally called "RCD" - which I would guess stands for "remote control devices." The fact that they created a separate framework for the whole wireless setup and split out the parts unique to the kart (which, by the way, is codenamed "Fuji") suggests that other products using the RCD framework may be on the horizon.
I'm about 95% sure the kart is actually a first-party Nintendo product. There's some driver code that they've open-sourced (for GPL compliance reasons as the kart runs Linux) and it's got Japanese comments all over the place.
@@CFSworks Hi, could you link to any resources that reference all of this? I'm prototyping with RC cars and would love to know more about the internals of the kart, thanks!
EDIT: nevermind, just read your other comments about the switchbrew page, thanks a bunch
I would of switched mario with another character. Just a simple replacement mod. No I'm not referring to hacking. Just the character.
Front wheels cannot be removed as easy as its shown on video
The chip is a realtek I recognize the crab on it.
The cart was made 24th of May 2020.
You were asking about the "motion controls." I think the IMU is that chip on Side-B of the board, front-and-center, with 4 pins on the side and 3 pins on the front/back. I believe its part number is LSM6DSL by STMicroelectronics. Would greatly appreciate confirmation on this if you ever look at the board again. :)
I'd love to modify mine to go faster. Also I'd like to put a Caddx Vista and drive it with my goggles on
12:10 24th of May*
It will be more fun if they make it open source for programmers
I just subscribed
I freaking sent it to Nintendo to fix it, and the damn thing still won’t connect after they said they fixed it
i can imagine expanding this to tank games
Me copping him:moment of silence when I see I don’t no wtf I’m doing
I wonder what happen if you but a small brushless engine upgradate battery and try to play the game lol
By the way, this thing runs some version of Linux!
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Nintendo switch diy 😎