Well, I'm pretty much a nerd, and....

[Parablank]

I need help. I've been always intrigued by modded portables, though I don't really find myself to actually make one. However, recently, I've decided it'd be a good project to brush up on my soldering skills, and learn a lot about hardware (who knows? Maybe it'll evolve into a hobby and I'll be building a decent N64 portable in a year). I've looked at a lot of references and guides, but it's way too overwhelming. I know that I will be building a NES portable, but will NOAC's make the project harder? I'm pretty cheap, and the least amount on eBay that I found is about 40-50$. I also don't know what screens/LCDs are compatible and has good quality while retaining a good size of the portable it's self.

Basically this is the preferred spec list:

NOAC NES Clone (link me to a cheap and good one)
4-5 inches screen
Headphone jack
About a 5-6 hour battery
Brightness adjustment slider/scroll

As you can tell, it's pretty ambitious. :/

I have these materials:

Soldering Bar
Sand paper
Bunch of wiring, but I don't know what type they are.
A battery from my portable DVD player but it's about 10 inches long. :\
Link me to a good Dremel?

Thanks!

I'm also considering just starting off small and making one of these.

But the screen is way too small. D=

[Mcdoodle]

I need help. I've been always intrigued by modded portables, though I don't really find myself to actually make one. However, recently, I've decided it'd be a good project to brush up on my soldering skills, and learn a lot about hardware (who knows? Maybe it'll evolve into a hobby and I'll be building a decent N64 portable in a year). I've looked at a lot of references and guides, but it's way too overwhelming. I know that I will be building a NES portable, but will NOAC's make the project harder? I'm pretty cheap, and the least amount on eBay that I found is about 40-50$. I also don't know what screens/LCDs are compatible and has good quality while retaining a good size of the portable it's self.

NOAC's are cheaper and easier to work with then the NES. Any screen with a composite port can work

Basically this is the preferred spec list:

NOAC NES Clone (link me to a cheap and good one)
4-5 inches screen
Headphone jack
About a 5-6 hour battery
Brightness adjustment slider/scroll

RetroN1 is probably the cheapest you are going to find.
Psone screen is the best but you can find some 4.3" screens on ebay.
You can get a headphone jack at RadioShack, Mouser or Digi-key.
These Li-ion batteries are going to be the best. Make sure you get a PCB and charger with it.
The Psone screen has brightness button already on it, not sure about the 4.3" screens.

[Parablank]

I need help. I've been always intrigued by modded portables, though I don't really find myself to actually make one. However, recently, I've decided it'd be a good project to brush up on my soldering skills, and learn a lot about hardware (who knows? Maybe it'll evolve into a hobby and I'll be building a decent N64 portable in a year). I've looked at a lot of references and guides, but it's way too overwhelming. I know that I will be building a NES portable, but will NOAC's make the project harder? I'm pretty cheap, and the least amount on eBay that I found is about 40-50$. I also don't know what screens/LCDs are compatible and has good quality while retaining a good size of the portable it's self.

NOAC's are cheaper and easier to work with then the NES. Any screen with a composite port can work

Basically this is the preferred spec list:

NOAC NES Clone (link me to a cheap and good one)
4-5 inches screen
Headphone jack
About a 5-6 hour battery
Brightness adjustment slider/scroll

RetroN1 is probably the cheapest you are going to find.
Psone screen is the best but you can find some 4.3" screens on ebay.
You can get a headphone jack at RadioShack, Mouser or Digi-key.
These Li-ion batteries are going to be the best. Make sure you get a PCB and charger with it.
The Psone screen has brightness button already on it, not sure about the 4.3" screens.

So do you basically start off like normal for the NOACs, stripping the board, and taking off the RF Box? Is there any certain steps/precautions that you have to take?

Also, I'm also thinking now of designing a laptop type of portable, but I guess that's way out of my reach. Is it possible to have AV output?

[tom61]

So do you basically start off like normal for the NOACs, stripping the board, and taking off the RF Box? Is there any certain steps/precautions that you have to take?

NOACs are quite a bit different than a regular NES, most lack a RF box, and there is very little to strip off the board, which is much, much smaller to begin with. Reading through worklogs on here will help give you an idea of what to do.

[Allen]

Yobo FC boards are small but may cost more.
http://forums.modretro.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=782" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Tibia]

I had a RetroN1. It's fully compatible with the regular NES controllers. I tried the included ones, and they were absolute crap. There are three small boards inside. One has the controller ports and power/reset, one has the cartridge slot and main brains, and one has power input and video out. I had mine working with just the main board. I can't show you a finished portable because the traces lifted and it died, but I'm the only person I've heard of with that problem. I'd go for the RetroN1, if I were to try again.

[eagle5953]

Definitely try a NOAC. Compared to almost anything else, portiblizing it is easier and cheaper: they are small, already run on batteries, and are easy to find.

[iHackedit]

Considering were on the topic of NOAC's, does the Retro Duo Run on a NOAC?

[tom61]

Considering were on the topic of NOAC's, does the Retro Duo Run on a NOAC?

There's more info about the Retro Duo in the Nintendo 16-bit section of the forum, but it does have a separate NOAC board and SNES board.

Any NES/Famicom clone in recent years will be a NOAC. All the multi-console units I've seen so far have separate boards for each console slot, with the only possible troubles in using being that some have translation logic to convert the controllers between normally incompatible systems(like SNES to Genesis). I've not heard of any emulator with cart slots(like a couple of the Sega Genesis/Megadrive portables) for the NES. The clones from the late 80's early 90's may use multiple chips, though.