as usual im going to walk you guys through the process and make a few suggestions along the way. by no means are these suggestions the absolute best, but i did thing this way for a reason ;)
general
official acekard homepage
while i only have a ds lite, a similar process applies to the dsi. if you are planning on getting an acekard for a dsi, make sure you purchase an acekard 2i, which is made specifically for the dsi. if you are getting the acekard for a regular ds or ds lite, make sure you are getting an acekard 2.
purchasing the acekard 2/2i
there are plenty of good retailers out there. just take a look around until you find one you like and think you can trust, preferably one that accepts paypal ;) the official acekard homepage is nice enough to provide a list of verified distributors sorted by continents, so check it out and find yourself a good distributor.
to give you an idea of what to expect, i paid $17.99 usd for just the acekard (no microsd card included) with free shipping. if you want to add in a microsd card (which you will need if you dont have an extra laying around) then throw one in, but its probably cheaper to just buy one in a store. also keep in mind that you will probably need a microsd -> sd adapter to be able to use the microsd card, and im not sure if that is included if you package it with the acekard.
acekard firmware
there are multiple firmwares for acekards, but the best is the akaio (acekard all in one) firmware. even the official acekard download page agrees ;)
akaio wiki
- an updated wiki with links to the latest version of akaio firmware, as well as other files you will need
initial setup
- download the latest version of akaio firmware
- copy the __aio directory and the akmenu4.nds file to the root of the microsd card
- download the latest loaders from the akaio loaders page. make sure you get the ak2/ak2i loaders ;) place the ak2loader.nds file in the __aio/loaders directory on your microsd
- download the latest wifi plugin from the akaio wifi page. copy the wfplugin.ak4 file into the __aio/plugin directory on your microsd
- download the latest cheat database from cheats.gbatemp.net. we are interested in the file named usrcheat.dat. once you have it downloaded place it in the __aio\cheats directory on your microsd
- backups can be placed anywhere on the microsd, so just created a directory in the root (nds roms for example) and place them in there. the same goes for homebrews unless specified elsewhere
- insert the acekard into your ds/dsi and launch it from the menu, & enjoy!
updating akaio firmware
the great thing about the akaio firmware is that it is regularly upated. when this happens simply download the update, then copy/paste the akmenu4.nds file and the __aio directory to the root of your microsd and select "copy and replace all". this will replace the files that need to be updated and leave the others unchanged.
the loaders, wifi plugin, and cheats database are also updated, so it is recommended that you updated those regularly as well. to do this just download the update and replace the older file with the new one on the microsd.
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i hope this helps someone out there :)
