My N64p (56k warning)

[Skyone]

Very very nice power board! I like your electronics work, its effort shows.

[codeman]

I was thinking about designing another (better) board and selling it. Would anyone be interested? I don't want to put forth the effort if no one would even want it!

[eurddrue]

I was thinking about designing another (better) board and selling it. Would anyone be interested? I don't want to put forth the effort if no one would even want it!

Totally, depending on the price.

[marshallh]

I was wondernig if you'd ever finish it Nice work.

The PCB house I use is Advanced Circuits - if you're a student you can get their $33-each special, you only have to buy one PCB, but you can order several. The boards are FR4 0.060" silkscreen and soldermask both sides. Tolerances are pretty nice also. You also get a free microwave popcorn and coupon for Domino's pizza

[grossaffe]

looks like the cart-slot could use a little sanding, but it looks like a damn fine portable.

[codeman]

The board would probably be about $20 each, with only a PIC populated. I would program the PIC with the generic program and would give the option of doing a little customization for a little extra. Whoever bought the board would be responsible for buying the rest of the components and soldering them on, sorry. Is that amounting to too much money?

@marshallh: Yeah yeah...I know it took me forever, rub it in why don't ya. Some of my friends at school have dealt with Advanced Circuits before and they were happy with them. But for getting 5 instead of one PCB, I have yet to find anyone better than pcbfabexpress. You can get 5 boards with everything included for about $15 each!

@grossaffe: Thanks! I know...the back is kind of ugly, but I don't enjoy working on the case as much as I enjoy the electronics, so I just gave up and called it done

[grossaffe]

@grossaffe: Thanks! I know...the back is kind of ugly, but I don't enjoy working on the case as much as I enjoy the electronics, so I just gave up and called it done

I wouldn't say 'ugly', 'unrefined' seems like a better fit.

[eurddrue]

@grossaffe: Thanks! I know...the back is kind of ugly, but I don't enjoy working on the case as much as I enjoy the electronics, so I just gave up and called it done

I wouldn't say 'ugly', 'unrefined' seems like a better fit.

Now, there have been UGLY portables before, yours isn't even close to them...doesn't mention any names

$20 plus 10 dollars in parts as an estimate? That wouldn't be so bad. I would buy one, if you walked me through in pm's

[thewizdawg]

That power board is pretty slick!

Does it work only with an N64 or could you use it for other portables? Also what type of batteries could you use?

I'd probably buy one or two.

[codeman]

The board is designed around the PTH08080 regulator from TI. So the board is capable of taking any input that it can handle and outputting any voltage that it is capable of generating. So it should be fairly flexible for most of your needs.

The parts should only cost about $10 (just as a rough estimate). I would be sure to include documentation about how to assemble it and what each part does! You'd just need to have some surface mount soldering experience.

As of right now I'm trying to overcome the mistake I made with this first power board. It's tricky business trying to make a high-side switch using three terminal power MOSFETS, because they don't inherently block current in both directions when they're turned off. I have a solution that will work in theory, but I'm going to see if I can find something a little more elegant than what I've come up with.

[eurddrue]

How difficult would this SMT soldering be? are the pieces very close together?

[codeman]

With a good pair of small tweezers and a fine-tipped soldering iron...it's actually pretty easy. Well provided you have a steady hand as well. The parts would probably be about 4-5 millimeters apart. I'd try to keep them as close as possible to each other to minimize the overall size.

[eurddrue]

As long as it's not extreme, I'm pretty sure most of us could handle it. So, how will this board work? Does it act as a 3.3v convertor too? (please? )

[codeman]

Basically...the biggest feature of the power board would be that it completely replaces any power switches for your system. So you wouldn't need the bulky, high-current switch to turn on the power.

The second part is that it isolates the batteries from the wall-power. It's designed so that if the batteries are installed, it will draw its power from them...but then once the wall adapter is plugged in it will automatically switch over to draw power from the wall and the batteries will be completely cut off. So it prevents any sort of back-charging on the batteries which might damage them.

The regulator is on board also, so it does have an output for the 3.3v line...or whatever voltage you set the regulator to generate. I also plan to add a low-battery indicator that the user can "program" themselves.

[eurddrue]

So we will still have to wire up our battery charging jacks, but the system can run off wall power, and it will completely shut off the batteries? cool. And a low batter indicator light That's pretty tight.