Bacteria's N64/GBA combined portable - Nintendo 64 Advance

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 3:38 am

Running out of time today, will do more tomorrow; before I go, a few pics, updates and thoughts:

Lifted off the cart slot, pressed the plastic circles attaching the expansion port to the N64 mobo and lifted the espansion port off the mobo with a screwdriver, as I did on page 1 of this guide.

I decided this time, as I will be soldering to the bottom side of the N64 mobo to connect wires from the cart slot connector to the cart pins, that rather than bend off the pins as before and soldering to their connections, it made more sense to reduce the size of these pins and solder directly to them (as the pins connect directly to the intended soldering points). This will give far stronger solder joints as there is more surface area to solder to.

Before I do this, I just removed the two pins which don't connect to anything (ie no pin holes under them):

I will reduce the pins height in the pic with wire snippers (or I could dremel, but clippers will be neater and easier).

One consideration I noticed is that the cart sits nice and flat with the cart slot connector on one side, but not quite on the other side. The raised bit is only the black plastic part not the metal part, so can be easily dremeled down to be flush with the cart if required. This might make it easier to make the cart holder solid.

The cart will have to stick out of the finished console so it is easy to get a cart in and out, however it only needs to stick out about 2.5cms for this; which is ideal, because by the time I mount the cart onto the back of the mobo I need 10cms for the controller and all its wiring - which I have nicely. I anticipate the final height of the console will be 19cms (with cart installed, otherwise it will be smaller); the width is likely to be 25.5cms (using the large speakers I intend to use) although I will try to reduce this to about 24cms if I can, the depth 6.5cms at the thickest part. Dimensions are including the casing. It will be interesting to see how accurate this prediction will be in the end.

More updates Monday - I will be snipping the pins, soldering wires to them and mounting the backing plate for the cart slot, and attaching the cart holder to the backing plate very securely. (time permitting).

Felino · Post by **Felino** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 4:14 am

Please learn how to use a camera.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 6:27 am

Felino wrote:Please learn how to use a camera.

My camera is fairly basic, has no optical zoom, and I don't have a tripod; it isn't worth spending money and getting a new camera for the little I use it. The pics are clear enough for their purpose (some are very good, some not so, but adequate); what's your problem?

Post by **CronoTriggerfan** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 10:42 am

What game is that in there?

CTFan

Master of Portables · Fri Jul 20, 2007 11:08 am

I'm not sure about this, but it could be that Fifa soccer thing he mentioned back a couple pages that he was using to test...

TheOnlyOneHeFears · Post by **TheOnlyOneHeFears** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 12:21 pm

Yeah, it's Fifa 64. If I remember rightly, it was appalling

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 1:32 pm

Yes guys, it is the FIFA 64 game. Yes, it doesn't look like a great game, especially on a PSone screen, but came with others in a lot I got on e-bay. Reason I use it is as soon as you turn the game on it tells you if the memory card is working or not, which has been rather useful!!

I tend to play with other carts too (for variety), but figured FIFA 64, and the NBA Zone game I have are "breakable" titles, if any game has to die!

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 7:44 pm

Can't sleep again, so got up for a couple of hours.

First job: bent each pin back (only once so it doesn't snap off), clipped it down so the top couple of millimeters of metal connector is remaining. This will give a far stronger solder joint. I then tinned each connector quickly in preparation to the soldering.

I needed to ensure that there was about 2-3 cms clearance at the sides of the cart so it is easy to remove and insert into the console without lots of fiddling about. I need to do this because, unlike other N64p projects, the cart on my system will not be inserted at the rear of the case but in the middle area. Incorporating the controller unit dictated this design change from the standard design (I planned this design from the start). From the edge of the raised area to the drawn line is 40mm, which represents the end of the cart slot. At this point, I have placed two 90 degree pieces of metal I had lying about (I could have just used any-old piece of metal and bent it 90 degrees, and drilled a couple of holes in it to secure to the base) and drew the positions of the holes I need to drill through, so the posts can be secured by tiny screws and bolts to keep them in place. These posts will provide the back-stop for the cart slot so it can't come detached if the cart is inserted with a bit too much force. I need to dremel the posts down a bit so they are flush with the top of the cart slot and no higher.

The pic below shows the cart and the cart slot in position, with the posts in place, and a ruler to show I have about 10.5cms clearance for the controller and all its wires (I need a minimum of 10cms). I have plenty of height available for the controller.

I will dremel the base plate down to size, to incorporate the posts; drill holes for the posts and attach them, screw what there is of the base plate and secure it to the mobo, do the wiring; not tonight though, off to bed now.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 10:12 am

Toying with the idea, space constraints will determine whether I do this; of taking apart my BigBoy Advance (GBA) and putting the two mobos together on the button control side (not the side with the joystick on my N64p project) and hooking up the system to be a two console system - N64 and also GBA. I will be using a D-pad anyway and I just need to hook up the A, B, left and right shoulder, start buttons to the GBA too; speakers, and RGB output to the PSone screen; and dual-function the Z button as the GBA "select" button (or one of the other free ones); and a switch to swap power between the N64 and GBA mobos on the same power source (or use two power-in plugs; one for the N64 system and the other for the GBA system...

Quite a possibility; all depends on space issues in my project as to whether I can do it or not...makes sense though! Barely any extra weight; only a couple of small mobo's....only one portable to serve two systems I like...yummy!

Anyway, see how it goes...

Post by **CronoTriggerfan** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 10:33 am

Meh, I say don't do it. The BigBoy Advance is cool on it's own!

Besides, if it's that big a deal to play GBA on N64, there's third-party adapters out there to do so. Or is this more of a "let's see if I can do it" technical feat? Because if it is, I can definitely relate.

CTFan

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 1:48 pm

CronoTriggerfan - The BigBoy Advance is far too big, it was my first real attempt at such a project, I learnt a lot doing it.

I used electrical switches from Maplin, which are too unresponsive as you need to press the buttons down more firmly (I should have used tact switches or game buttons); the case is too big, heavy and too thick. I thought if I am going to remake it anyway, I have everything I need in the N64 case as it stands, just more wiring and two fairly small mobos to incorporate (space permitting). I can't use RGB on the PSone screen from the N64 as my N64 is PAL, so I may as well use them for the GBA!

And yes, it is naturally also a "let's see if I can do it" - isn't that basically what this forum is about at its root? ("let's see if I can make this portable"!).

If I can do it, it would be nice only having one system doing both!

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 2:37 am

Just did the most dangerous part of this mod, and by "dangerous" I mean to personal safety. Guys, be really careful here, if you are a youngster, please get your dad to do this part for you. I wasn't especially looking forward to doing this part of the mod, as you can easily lose parts of your fingers or cause other serious damage to yourself if the dremel bit goes astray - it can slice off your finger far easier than it slices through metal after all! Take as many precautions as you can. Seriously.

This part involves dremeling off parts of the steel sheet to shape it to size, using the diamond sideways cutter attachment. Cutting metal with metal creates LOTS of sparks, tiny metal shavings (wear goggles), and be prepared for the fact that on several times the dremel cutter will slip along the metal surface; so be careful to ensure you are safe before each cut; as you need to cut the whole way through the metal (if you score the metal and bend it then the metal will be distorted and be useless). I found it a good idea to install the 90 degree metal bits before slicing the plate as these provide stop-points for the dremel when it flies off course; gives a bit of extra safety.

First job was to drill holes for the metal 90 degree pieces and screw them in place. The dremel is not powerful enough to easily drill through metal, I used a power drill I have for this. I had a small accident here, I decided to drill the hole with the 90 degree metal bit in place, it came loose, wound up the drill bit a bit and spun madly against my thumb and forefinger; no cuts, but I got a blood blister and bruise for my trouble; i'm ok though. You have to expect some small accidents using power tools and doing modding (I have some tiny burn marks on my leg from molten solder too!) - these are to be expected, but losing a finger is not acceptable (so please be VERY careful)!!

Once the bits were screwed and bolted in place, I sliced off the residue from the screws to make them flat along the bolt with my diamond sideways cutter. It is a good idea to cover the screw head (under the plate) with electrical tape to ensure it doesn't make contact with anything underneath, although it looks like there is a good couple of millimeters of clearance, so no issue, just being careful.

Second job was to cut the steel plate so that it comes quite snug to the edge of the cart slot; so I have easy access to the soldering to the pins; and to apply lots of hot glue to keep the cart slot onto the base plate. The 90 degree metal pieces provide a back-stop for the cart; these too will be hot-glued to the cart slot; to keep everything solid. I probably don't need to shave the couple of millimeters from the top of the cart slot as I thought, best to keep it as is so the strength of the cart slot isn't compromised. I could also use the slightly raised area as a backstop for the cart holder I will need to make.

Pic of the plate, finished. I marked a second line as per pic, to cut along; it doesn't matter the line isn't perfectly straight, I have plenty of tolerance in this design.

Pic showing the cart slot mounted (with cart inserted), to show it all looks as it should. It isn't glued in place on the pic, this is to show how it looks and fits together.

The metal plate will be screwed in place to the N64 mobo by four screws, using the placements on the N64 mobo. The top edge cannot be screwed to the mobo, this will have to have a plastic blank put under the metal sheet onto the N64 mobo, and hot-glued into place, to keep the whole thing solid.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 3:30 am

Piece is now installed on the back of the N64 mobo as described before. It is screwed to the N64 mobo in three places (the fourth one didn't take a screw, so I hot-glued it in place instead). I placed a piece of plastic under the top part of the steel plate and hot-glued it in place, then hot-glued the cart slot in place - I did this whilst the cart was installed so I didn't seal the cart slot to the steel plate at a skew. I got a little too much hot-glue between the cart slot and plate at the front, where the cart goes in, so I had to drill away the hot-glue from the part concerned.

I have tested inserting and removing a cart into the unit, works great, nice and solid.

As you can see from the pic, I have made it easy for myself to solder the wires as I have good access to the areas concerned. I also have plenty of space for the controller behind this area too. Worked out lovely!

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 5:46 am

I am in the process of doing all the wiring from the N64 mobo to the cart slot at the moment, will post pics when it is done later.

I spent a while yesterday researching on this RGB and PAL business. Lots of people say you can't have RGB on PAL, and the reason on the internet I found was that it was a way that Nintendo used to make it hard for Europeans to play import games (the other theory is about Nintendo not enabling RGB as it didn't prove popular - however this can't be right as it would be cheaper for Nintendo to produce one uniform system than two variations); the pins on the chip you can connect directly to for RGB simply go nowhere on the PAL systems, with the exception of the green line.

However....French and Australian N64 consoles seem to use the VDC-NUS chip as used on NTSC. France is SECAM however the output from the N64 is actually PAL. If you have a French or Australian N64 you play PAL games and output as PAL. if your chip says VDC-NUS then you can have RGB, if it says DENC-NUS then it can't (as mine, as UK models). So the lesson here boys and girls, is to buy a French or Australian N64 if you use PAL! If I was to need to replace my existing N64 mobo (or it fries) I will get one, however it isn't worth buying one otherwise - they also cost more to buy anyway.

For more information: http://nfggames.com/forum/index.php?s=2 ... owtopic=37 the guy is called Guest_GREATFUNKY. Anyway, interesting reading.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 3:14 am

Finished wiring, as per pic below.

Process took me 2.5 hours, to strip each wire and solder in place. You could solder to the points I did, or pass each wire through the hole under the solder point to the other side of the mobo and solder to the corresponding solder point (up to you). I had to solder the wires twice, I wired them backwards the first time (doh!).

I also secured the cart slot with more hot glue, including at the front of it where it meets the metal sheet (hold mobo vertically and let the hot glue dribble down between the metal sheet and the front of the cart slot, so it seals a maximum area).

Troubleshooting:

Hot glue - if you aren't careful you can end up with too much hot glue between the metal sheet and the cart slot - on one side I got it perfectly done, on the other I had a "raised area" which I had to dremel away and use a knife and screwdrivers to remove, otherwise the cart can't go in enough in the cart slot. If you try some games and they run, yet others don't, it could well be this problem (not all games use all pin connectors, far from it).

Make sure no wires you solder touch any other (obviously) and do not let any wires touch the parts below - I had one wire doing this, the N64 took several seconds to boot up as opposed to instantly as normal, and didn't run the game; corrected the problem and all was fine.

If you have checked the above and some games play yet others still don't, it may be that either a single strand of wire from a connection is touching another (I had this too), or a wire has come free and needs resoldering. Spend a few minutes visually inspecting each pin and each wire for problems, and use a multimeter for further checking.

Project pics:

The pic below hopefully shows what wires to what - the (red) pin on the top left side is connected to the lower pin on the top part of the cart slot (red), the blue pin connects from the lower pin on the left side of the pins to the top pin on the cart slot, etc. Visualize that the front of the cart slot (has the lettering on the black strip on the cart slot) is positioned towards the front of the N64 mobo before you removed it, so it has to be wired appropriately here to match this.

I used the multi-coloured IDE wire strands as before - great for checking what wire goes where when troubleshooting!

When finished, it looks like below. I made the wires at the top short on purpose so as to reduce the wiring clutter; then used longer wires for the remaining connections so I could put the controller in place, under the cart slot wires, thereby not wasting any space.

The above will sit on top of the PSone mobo, so I will make an enclosure to give the other half of the cart holder, make the cart slot extra rock solid and secure, and provide a flat surface to lay on the PSone mobo. I will make this out of mounting board as it is thin, strong and non-conductive. This can simply lay on top of the PSone mobo secured in place with only a small amount of hot glue. This helps to make my console quite modular and easy to take apart in the future if I need to make any modifications or repairs.

The diagram below illustrates what I mean - the diagonal green lines indicate the sides of the mounting board connecting to the N64 mobo; giving a strong enclosure.