The new DSpico IR flash cart adds Pokéwalker support

Phenom Mod has opened preorders for the DSpico IR, a major hardware revision of the open-source Nintendo DS flash cart that adds built-in infrared communication and a faster Raspberry Pi processor. The $30 cartridge fixes the biggest hardware gap from last year's original release.

The Nintendo DS launched in 2004 and quickly became the best-selling handheld console in history. Its massive library spawned a huge aftermarket of flash cartridges, but for nearly twenty years, players had to rely on R4 clones. Those older carts are notoriously flawed. They rely on undocumented ASIC chips, drain the handheld's battery quickly, and often include firmware timebombs that intentionally brick the cartridge after a few years. The LNH Team changed the baseline in late 2025 with the original DSpico, the world's first fully open-source DS and DSi flash cartridge.

It actually talks to a Pokéwalker

The new IR revision swaps the original RP2040 chip for the newer Raspberry Pi RP2350. That upgrade provides a third Programmable I/O block, which Phenom Mod uses to drive a dedicated infrared transceiver. This means the flash cart can natively communicate with official IR accessories, like the Pokéwalker pedometer bundled with Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver. The older R4 cards, and even the first DSpico, lacked the hardware to do this.

The RP2350 chip also brings enough processing overhead to handle real-time game decompression. Using a web tool called NDZ Studio, players can compress standard .nds ROM files into a new .ndz format. The DSpico IR decompresses the data on the fly as you play. It cuts file sizes by roughly half without introducing gameplay lag.

Phenom Mod also packed in 8MB of external PSRAM, a massive jump from the 264 KB on the original board. This lets the cart cache more game data in memory, reducing how often it needs to read from the micro SD card. The result is lower power consumption overall. They also swapped the old micro USB port for USB-C, which is a relief for anyone tired of keeping legacy cables in their desk drawer.

Seeing it in action

Tito Perez over at Macho Nacho Productions does a wonderful video about it. Perez breaks down the new hardware, tests the infrared support with a real Pokéwalker, and compares the power draw against older flash carts. It is worth a watch to see the real-time decompression working on actual hardware.

You can order it from handheld.deals right now. If I didn't just get an Ayn Thor, I'd be getting one of these!