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

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 9:01 am

I decided to reinforce the cart slot to give maximum strength. The hot glue and the two 90 degree metal pieces keep the cart firmly in place, but when you insert a cartridge into the slot there isn't much force at the top of the cart slot stopping the cart slot from eventually getting a bit slack after lots of use.

I therefore cut out two slits in the spare bit of the metal sheet (be careful, as before), to add this extra strength to the construction.

Covered most of the strips with electrical tape so no bare wire from the cart slot connectors can short, fixed the top part of the metal inside the ridge of the cart slot and between the screws on the 90 degree metal parts. Lots of hot glue used to cover the whole areas. The metal provides the strength, the hot glue provides the bond.

One thing I suggest before going further is to test a stack of games to make sure they work. If they don't you may have to dremel and/or cut away some of the hot glue from between the steel plate and the cart slot as it might be that some of the hot glue is stopping a cart being inserted completely, so therefore not making proper contact with the cart. Far easier to make any alterations at this stage than later.

I then cut-out a piece of mounting board (I could have used normal card instead) to be placed on the back of the N64 mobo for the controller to sit on. Small amounts of hot glue keep the card in place.

Final test that everything works and no wire was snagged in error - all ok.

Next job will be to complete the controller by wiring the controller buttons (tact switches) and wire up the joystick, and the motor for the rumble pack. I can then test to see if the rumble pack I connected a few days back works by testing a game which uses rumble.

Once this is done, I can place the controller on the mounting board, and then build the box top with mounting board (as per diagram in last post) which will have the PSone mobo resting on top of it.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 9:34 am

On the back side of the controller, there are the connections for the Z button, shoulder buttons and the joystick wires; on the front are the other buttons, plus a couple of extra ones on this joystick for "slow" and "auto" features.

The red blob with the orange circle in it is the solder joint I will attach the "common" wire - all the red areas are the parts all the common wire works with. I found this out with my multimeter.

Back on project later / tommorrow!

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 2:53 am

D-pad mod:

Take the humble NES controller. Why use the NES controller you ask? It is a good size, feels nice, works well and is easy to mod.

Open it up

Dremel off the part we don't need, just keeping the D-pad and its solder points (indicated on pic below)

Wire it up to the controller - you need to solder purely to the points shown on the pic. I find a good tactic is to get your soldering iron very hot (I use a 30watt one), get a nice blob of solder on it and quickly and very accurately transfer the solder to the contacts on the controller, you can then solder wires to that contact point. The white wire in the photo is the common wire. I used a blob of hot glue to secure the wires down after soldering them.

(larger pic of controller's D-pad connections to the NES D-pad)

I need to have additional identical wires to the D-pad for the GBA when I hook it up, best to do it now; I then hot glued the wiring in place as before.

The D-pad part of the NES case will be used for the project case as it has the right moulding to secure the D-pad top and mobo in the correct place. Makes sense to use it.

The wires from the cable are great as they are very flexible and thin wires, 5 colours. If I run out of wires from my IDE cable I will use these.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 5:04 am

Wired up the buttons - the "C" up, down, left, right; B, A, Start, right shoulder, left shoulder, Slow-mo (this controller supports it).

As you see in the pic, the wires are all connected to the 12mm tact switches. You only connect to one of the sides of the tact switches for 2 wire contact - handy, as it means I can use the other side (2 contacts) of the tact switches for the GBA connections. As before, the wires soldered to the controller are hot glued in place so they don't get detached.

I intend to use the slow-mo button (on the N64 controller) as the combination button on the GBA (right shoulder+left shoulder+A+B = menu to save or load games from the flashcard I use in the GBA).

On the other side of the controller mobo are the connections for the Z button as well as the wires for the joystick extension.

This is why I like this joystick - it is flat on the top, no angles! The device is mechanical reliant on springs, but feels better and more responsive than the official N64 controller too.

As spares, or for playing my normal N64 console on my tv (if I need to anymore!), I just bought two more of these SuperPad Plus controller for Â£11 from some guy on e-bay.

Anyway, I have now finished wiring all the wires for the controller, including the joystick and the rumble motor.

To summerise, this comprises of: unofficial N64 controller (SuperPad Plus), official rumble pack, Scoot memory card (1mb), switch to change between memory card and rumble pack (and LED's to show which is operational), battery watch pack for the memory card, 12mm tact switches connecting all the connections, joystick extended, rumble motor extended, NES D-pad; and an awful lot of wiring!!

I made a careful note of what pair of wires for the tact switches connect to what:

Next job is to test it all, fingers crossed! I need to solder the three controller wires (3v, data, ground) to the N64 mobo as I disconnected them a while ago to make working on the controller easier. I then need to test everything is ok by putting the finished controller on its place behind the cart slot, and testing a game with the joystick and A button - preferably a game which wants a rumble pack, so I can check this works fine.

Anyway, I have been working on this project today for 4 hours solid, working on the D-pad and finishing the controller wiring, I feel like I need a break now! I may do more work on this project later, whether I do or not today, I will be doing the project again tomorrow.

I am hoping all works fine and all the work on the rumble pack was worth all the effort. If there isn't enough "rumble", I will simply attach a second motor.

ShockSlayer · Post by **ShockSlayer** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 7:51 am

those tact switches are going to be connected to something else? I though that in tacts, the other 2 contact were paralell(connected) to the ones you used.

SS

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 10:05 am

ShockSlayer wrote:those tact switches are going to be connected to something else? I though that in tacts, the other 2 contact were paralell(connected) to the ones you used.

SS

In the photo below; A is connected to A and B is connected to B. I tested them with my multimeter. If you connect a wire to A and one to B and press the switch, you get contact; either combination. This means I can have A from the N64 on one side and A from the GBA on the other (just to make life easier). When the power is off from the GBA (powering the N64 system) then the tact switch will complete the circuit to the N64, when power is on for the GBA, the N64 will be off, so the circuit will complete when the tact switch is pressed. Technically, both will complete the circuit (of course), however if one system has no power it cannot respond, so the actions you press for will happen on the system with power. Simple, but effective.

(this is the best image I can get from my camera on 12mm tact switches).

I intend to butcher some old buttons (some maybe from the N64, or elsewhere), shorten them and attach them to the tact switches. I am using tact switches because they are far easier to mount and are reliable. Using the rubber buttons, you need to use the button mounting and position everything carefully so the button works without sticking; using tact switches by-passes this, and keeps the height down. Tact switches are used in the Nintendo GBA SP and the Nintendo DS systems; you quickly get used to the "comforting" quiet sound of a button press!

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 2:32 am

In testing mode now.

Placed the controller with all its bits on its place on the N64 mobo and soldered the controller wires back to the N64 mobo. I can push the controller up a bit more before I hot glue it in place if I need to. On the bottom pic it shows the wires from the controller under the wires for the cart slot. It doesn't matter that the D-pad part of the controller extends a bit, after all I need to have space to put the joystick, buttons, etc anyway. The one thing I need to play with though is speakers. The ones I am using sound excellent but are big; so I either have to mount them at the rear of the case and as such have no speaker holes at the front at all; or use some of the mylar speakers Nintendo use in their GBA's - I have a couple spare. Sound quality is very good with these tiny speakers, better than the PSone speakers, however I need to test them to see if they are good enough. I either mount large speakers behind or small ones at the front; jury is out at the moment.

Testing with Diddy Kong Racing (fun game).

Turned the system on, with a little prayer and hesitation, all fine!

The memory pack seems to be fine, not sure about the rumble yet, need to try a game on one one N64 I still have unmodded, see when a rumble happens and then try and do the same with the N64p and see what happens to compare. It might be that the motor needs more voltage to work - time will tell.

Close-up - the controller fits snugly in place as designed. The rear of the controller is in line with the end of the N64 mobo as planned. I may have to re-solder some of my trailing wires though as some have got a bit entangled; this is a pain and will take a while to sort out.

Anyway, the joystick works great (lovely joystick), the tact switches work very well indeed, I am very happy with them, and the memory pack seems fully functional. Just the rumble pack to investigate...

I may well do one design change though, I will probably have the section you see above at the top of the case with the top of the N64 mobo (and fan, etc) sandwiched against the PSone mobo. Reasoning - the controller doesn't fit the other way around and it would save me re-wiring or extending wires to accomodate the extra lengths needed (as controller is reversed from my original plan). This has the advantage of making nearly half the game title on the cart visible at the front of the console instead of the rear. No issues with cooling: in either combination, air comes in via the gaps by the cart slot (no point making this airtight and then having to make holes elsewhere in the case for airholes), around the controller and rear of N64 mobo, round the front, over the processors and exhausted out the back of the fan - no difference really. Six of one and half a dozen of the other...

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 6:53 am

Rumble pack refused to work. Wires were all ok, connections solid, tested ok, enough power (2.89v, I tried 2.4v on my unmodded N64 and this was ok), changed the power wires to thicker ones. Nothing I tried made the rumble work. Perhaps the rumble pack was dead; or a wire in the memory pack split to another line which then meant the rumble pack was getting the wrong signal. I don't know enough about this to further test. Perhaps it can't work.

The games I tested which used rumble didn't seem to greatly benefit from rumble, and frankly by this time I got fed up with it. I could buy a Tremor Pack from e-bay for Â£4.50 and hook this up, but really, I can't be bothered with this now; hassle isn't worth the perceived benefit: also the case would have been about 4cm bigger than planned and there would be trouble with mounting speakers (as per last post). Removing the rumble pack altogether removes the problems, and eliminates the need to manually switch between the memory and rumble pack - it is now a no-brainer.

The controller at the top is flush with the base of the N64 mobo, and I only need to trim about 2mm from the middle of the controller to make that flush too. The controller's wires are wedged under the cart slot wires, and the controller is kept in place by two buttons hot glued in place. This makes it easy to repair the controller in the future if I need to - lift and remove is all that is needed.

The controller is the right way around again, so I don't have to mount the module inverted as per last post anymore. (bonus of no rumble pack).

Allowing for the PSone screen and PSone mobo and the casing, the middle portion of my case is going to be 61mm tall only (as the fan is the same height as the jumper pack)

Metal Mario · Post by **Metal Mario** » Sun Jul 29, 2007 4:22 pm

What is your control stick from?

Twisted Warthog · Post by **Twisted Warthog** » Sun Jul 29, 2007 4:32 pm

Can you not read? It clearly says it up a bit.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 2:49 am

Metal Mario wrote:What is your control stick from?

The one from the SuperPad controller - a third party controller. Very nice to use, pity it is so tall; but better that than the official N64 one which wears out quickly and doesn't centre so well.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 3:57 am

Before I secure the top part on the N64 mobo part as covered before, I thought I would take a small sideline and consider the case; more specifically the location of the various buttons and controls (this is important at this stage).

If I really wanted, I could have the case part on the sides about 1cm thick, or less quite easily, however that would be uncomfortable to use, and anyway I need more space for the GBA boards.

The ideal thickness of a case to hold it comfortably is the gap between your thumb and forefinger, in my case, about the thickness of a boxed N64 game, 32mm thick. (Excuse my hairy hands!)

The height of the joystick assembly is 30mm, it needs 1-2mm extra for the joystick to move freely at the base; so 32mm. This is fine, but I need the thickness of the wood for the case too - no issue with the top piece as it will recess the joystick top, however it is an issue at the base - I will need to glue a piece at the base, so that part of the case will be 2.5mm thicker. Can't be helped, if I make the case this extra 2.5mm thicker, it makes the case less confortable to hold (32mm is perfect, 34.5mm is slightly too thick).

The wood I will be using is the backing wood material you get from picture frames - not the crappy stuff but the smooth variation. It is very rigid and tough, and smooth.

Next job, I covered the N64 game box with a piece of paper (A3) and wrapped it up. I then decided where the D-pad, joystick, left shoulder button and Z buttons go.

I positioned the joystick in a comfortable and easy to use position, then drew the positions for the Z and L shoulder buttons. I then worked out the position for the D-pad, in a comfortable and easy to use position, and also in a place where my fingers didn't hover over the Z button. I then positioned the second Left shoulder button. Looking at where my fingers under the unit sit, I saw I need 80mm clearance, so I made it 85mm to be safe. (the thick line on the photos - the excess length is not needed). Last job was to position the speaker.

Front:

Back:

Side:

Top:

I have decided to have the height of the case the same height as the N64 box, as it is a good and easy to hold height. I just have the other side of the case to do now, for the buttons area ("C" buttons, A, B, Start, Select (for GBA), combination button (GBA saving/loading menu and N64 Slow-Mo). Run out of time today, will do this tomorrow.

This portable is being made to be as comfortable to use as possible; there is no point in saving a couple of centimeters of space here and there to have a console with cramped buttons. In saying this, the console will be smaller than some others on the forum!

Sizing: (joystick, D-pad area) 180x85mm, other side (buttons) 180x85mm (to make it symetrical), N64 mobo area (middle) 128mm wide - total case size will be c. 180mm high (7"), 298mm wide (12").

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 4:02 am

Great, just took delivery of two SuperPad controllers from some guy on e-bay, Â£11 delivered. Good deal, paid this for one of these before! I now have spares if I ever need them; although I primarily bought them to use on my N64 for the tv (I don't like the official N64 controllers).

ShockSlayer · Post by **ShockSlayer** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 9:47 am

I hace always questioned those controllers, are they easy to sit down and use for hours?

SS

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 10:27 am

I haven't used them for a long play session, but they do mould nicely in your hands, so I guess I can say they are fine to use for a long play period; certainly far better than the official N64 controllers, no matter how I hold the official ones, they are uncomfortable and hard to use. In contrast, these SuperPad ones are fine.

I initially got this controller because the buttons are flat (not angled and different heights, and the joystick is flat and not at an angle - ideal for my console project. It then transpired when I opened the controller up that the joystick is much better quality too.