*Gasp!* (see page 6 for LOB64 pinout!)

[Life of Brian]

Brian connected an N64 to a small portable screen for the first time! What could possibly be next!?

I played some Rogue Squadron until my AA batteries I used to power the screen for "testing" ran out...

That's the screen I won from the last contest, by the way. You can see I'm finally putting it to good use.


I don't think anyone answered my question in the Technical Q&A forum about why I made two PHT08000 circuits:


I'll give you another hint - I've been playing around with a couple of RJ-45 ports and some Cat 5 cable. What could that possibly be used to connect?


I also have another question - why are there so many pinouts on these forums for N64? The board has just about everything labeled on it already. When I was doing research I thought that I should take pretty close notes because there are so many pinouts for it, but just about everything I would need is silk-screened on the board already. I guess that's more of a rhetorical question or just a comment, but it surprised me nonetheless. I am, however, happy that there is so much information available. It definitely makes everything easier. Reading bacteria's tear-down and walkthrough of making an N64 is really helpful, as well as everyone else's notes. I love this forum!

One more question - if I keep about a third of the RF shielding plus the original heatsinks like in marshallh's L64 shown below, do you think it will be enough to dissipate the heat? I was playing the system quite a bit and it didn't get all that hot. I really don't understand why some think a fan is necessary.

^marshallh's image, not mine, just borrowing it for my question.

[eurddrue]

awesome! glad your putting your prize to use! THis is going to be a sweet portable, I can feel it in my veins.

What is your question about the PTH08000, and why do they have 2 caps on them?

[jleemero]

I think it'll be pretty cool to see portables made to link up.
And N64's, no less!

[evilteddy]

Here's my theory with the rj45 cable and two pths. You are making two n64ps consecutively and you need a regulator for each one. The RJ45 will be a link cable on which video and audio will go from the master (running the game) to the slave and the controller connections will go back in reverse. You don't even need eight wires for that so I hope you will do something where you won't even need to flick a switch for the 64s to run in link mode. I'm thinking a signal down line 8 that when high (aka plugged in) switches the slave which is off into slave mode. Use transistors or whatever method you please. If that is confusing what I mean is Plug in 64s turn on 64 with game in that will send a high signal down line eight which will switch transistors so that the n64 mobo on the slave is turned off the video switches from internal to the RJ45 signal and the controller switches to going out externally and acting as basically an external video unit with controls like techknott made for his xbox.

Of course I could be wrong.

[bacteria]

Yes Brian, the N64's board is quite well labeled as you say.

Hailrazer's N64 as I recall didn't use a fan and that worked fine. A while back people were adamant a fan was needed, however as you say, using the provided shielding to dissipate heat should suffice, and also saves using heatsinks too. Make sure your expansion pack (if you use one instead of a jumper pak) connects to this shielding too to dissipate its heat too. How about putting the N64 board in a sealed envelope (with a few small holes in it for heat escape) and running it for a couple of hours; if it still works fine and is barely warm, you know all is fine! (cheap and dirty way to test).

BTW Brian, is this the N64 project you intend to put into one of the cases you bought from me the other day, out of interest?

[marshallh]

Mine needed more cooling that it had. It worked fine for about half and hour before getting somewhat warm. I played it for an hour and a half with no problems.

However just for convenience I'd just leave the stock heatsinks on there and cut down the aluminum U that covers them. That should be sufficient.

[ShockSlayer]

Oh crap. *realizes what LoB is about to do*
This is gonna be awesome.

SS

[jjhammerstein]

Oh crap. *realizes what LoB is about to do*
This is gonna be awesome.

SS

Jerk.

[thewise1]

Oh crap. *realizes what LoB is about to do*
This is gonna be awesome.

SS

Jerk.

What did ss do? you didn't add j/k wut gives?

[ShockSlayer]

Somehow I don't get it, maybe an excuse for a 1 word post?

Anyways, to answer the question about the 2 caps, there are 2 in the general application diagram in the data sheet. In this application, its unneccessary(like a fan), but I can't hurt.

SS

[mmoshkowich]

Please tell me your doing a ZN-40 N64 I know Neildo did one and gordon tried it, but try putting it all in the case. It would be awesome, specially somebody like you with your L33t Bondo Skills.

[jjhammerstein]

You're a jerk for knowing and not sharing.

[bacteria]

(look at the last sentence of my post above)...

[Life of Brian]

@ evilteddy: Bingo! You actually thought it out a bit more than I had. I only need 6 wires to connect the two (video, r audio, l audio, ground, controller data, 3.3v for controller 2) so I think what you suggested is do-able.

BTW Brian, is this the N64 project you intend to put into one of the cases you bought from me the other day, out of interest?

I think I'll give them a try to see if it saves any time or not. However, it's not set in stone and I'll need to play around with them when I get them. It might be that I will have to make a case from scratch, but we'll see. I've also thought about outsourcing the paint job. I'm making a purple one for my wife. She requested it so naturally I must oblige

@ mmoshkowich: No, I think I'm done with the ZN cases for a while. They're great, but that bondo job takes FOREVER to get perfect.

[collinE]

I don't get it. what does it do to make a master and slave N64?