Erlex's SNESp WIP! (PROBLEMS)

[Erlex]

Hello.

Its been nearly a year since I last seriously worked on my SNESp, but I broke it out again! I am determined to finish it this time; hopefully by summer.
Right out of the gate I broke my PSone screen , but I have a new one on the way. I was going to wait to start this WIP until I got my screen, but I am board and wanted to get my ideas together. What better way to do so than post! Woo who!

First of all, I have the cart slot relocated and it works. (cant really prove that considering I have no screen, but trust me ) I did that last year. The newest development is that I have the controller board cut down and wired to tact switches and I am getting ready to hook it up via my 4PDT (four pole double throw) switch. I am not sure, but the idea might be original!

(I am using a famicom controller btw)

Forgive that godforsaken mess of a diagram. I hope it gets the point across. Basically what the switch allows me to do is switch which port the built in controller goes to. The point of which is to make it easy to switch over control to the second player in games requiring the players to take turns. Much easier than having a controller plugged in if the first and second player are just taking turns. (I will include a second player port for simultaneous play as well) Besides all that, its going to be pretty typical. I don't want to go too crazy for my first portable.

Here is an old picture I took of the relocated cart slot. That was about a year ago.


This one is currently how it looks. The battery I am going to use is on the right. (warning large picture)
http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/926/newpict.jpg

And here is a draft of the shape and scale of the final system. Its kinda hopeful. But we will see.


Well that's pretty much it until I get my screen. Wish me luck!

-Erlex

Updated! 4/8/09

[eurddrue]

wow, looks like you already did better than most members on their first portable.

[Erlex]

Why thank you sir.

LOL I just now noticed, that there is a typo on the battery label. It says "Do bot short circuit."

[bacteria]

Never a good idea to short circuit a battery! If you do it with a Li-ion, put it back in the charger and it should be ok again.

Yoshi's Island is a cracking game!

[Erlex]

Oh I dint short circuit the battery, I was merely pointing out the directions not to do so were misspelled.

[Kurt_]

Man, you should try to bot short circuit it. It's AMAZING!

[Erlex]

Hello hello again.

I have an update! Not really a huge huge one but its worth mentioning.
I have received my new screen and have it hooked up and running fantastically. I received my protection circuit and charger today and they are hooked up to my li-poly batteries. I had some difficulty getting them to work. I was not getting any voltage across my protection circuit until I hooked up the charger to the SNES side of it of the circuit, turned on the system, and took off the charger; it finally ran off the batteries Not sure what was up with that. But anyways its running fine now. Here are some updated pictures.



The batteries are in a pan because of loveablechevy's little incident... I figure if they don't blow up on their own after being discharged and charged again then they are not going to and ill take the pan away.



Here is that controller mod I detailed at the beginning of the WIP. Works great, no problems at all. Note I realized after I bought the switch I didn't need to switch over the voltage line, but I had already bought the switch so what the hell.



Here is a before and after picture of my battery. The top one is how it came and the bottom is obviously the one I modified to be thinner. Splayed out like that it is almost exactly the same size as the SNES mobo.

So that's it for today.
I will be starting on my case this weekend. I am currently waiting on my ebay LEDs and some IC circuit supplies from Digikey.
Ill keep the updates coming so stay tuned!
Feedback is always welcome

[Life of Brian]

Cool beans. Looks like you're just about finished with the electronics side of it all. Or rather, until you finish the case.

[Erlex]

Small update.
I timed how long the game would run on the batteries, it lasted about 1 hour and 45 minutes before the distortion due to the low voltage was enough to be pretty annoying. That makes the capacity of my batteries closer to 2000 mAh, not 4000. But that's okay, I payed $15 for them. Furthermore the screen has yet to be led modded, that should increase the life some.

Cool beans. Looks like you're just about finished with the electronics side of it all. Or rather, until you finish the case.

Yep yep.
Just going to add a headphone jack, integrated volume and brightness control, and LED mod and that will be it!

EDIT: Okay so, I went to charge my battery because it was low so I hooked it up and everything seemed fine. I come back a while later and check its progress with my multimeter and the pack is at 8.1v! I fear that if I left it, it would have surely melted down... I e-mailed BatterySpace, I am assuming its a problem with my charger because I am curtain its suppose to cut off when the battery reaches 7.4v. Any ideas???

[Bustinthejustin]

If I'm not mistaken, batteries will typically be of a higher voltage than that of the rated voltage when fully charged. Like 1.5v AA batteries fully charged might be 1.8v. I don't think the batteries have a problem, but as I have no experience with portables, I'm not sure if it will kill your portable.

[Erlex]

Well I did a bit more reading and it turns out that the charger cuts off at 8.4v, and sure enough it did. It turns out the batteries need to be over charged a bit to achieve a full charge. I feel kind of silly

[eurddrue]

Well I did a bit more reading and it turns out that the charger cuts off at 8.4v, and sure enough it did. It turns out the batteries need to be over charged a bit to achieve a full charge. I feel kind of silly

It's ok you only have 39 posts, and everybody makes silly mistakes, especially as noobs.

[MegatronUK]

Let us know how you get on with those batteries - I also bought the exact same ones from Ebay too. I'll be a bit annoyed if they're nowhere near their 4000mAh rating....

[Erlex]

Hey.
I got my screen LED modded with six LEDs. They are wired parallel in three pairs. Each pair is wired in series and the whole array is running directly off the batteries. Each LED has a 15 ohm resistor on it. Only draws 60mA. I also hacked off the bottom of the screen. You can check out my tutorial if you want to know how I did it. http://forums.benheck.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=30607" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I am short on time lately, but all I have to do now is make the case (ugh). Should be done somewhat soon!

Whoa.. it works...


What a mess!

[gamerjr]

???? how many wires do you have hooked up to there? or is all of those wires for the LED mostly?