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

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 4:57 am

Scary bit now, starting to get the system together. A mistake at this stage could potentially cause a lot of grief. The GBA boards need to be in place on the N64 mobo; a top layer needs placing on top of this, supporting the fan in place; the PSone screen will go on top..

I spent ages (a good hour or so) turning the GBA around, putting the two GBA boards together, placing them on the N64 (making sure I used electrical tape to stop shorts) and trying not to tangle the many, many wires. I didn't want to do something silly at this stage and either snag a wire or make a short. I then secured the GBA mobos in place with a couple of wires (non conductive), hot glued across the distance of the GBA mobo; then a good sized blob of hot glue securing the rear of the GBA cart slot to the N64 mobo. For extra strength, when I am able to turn the whole assembly over onto its front (when mounting the buttons in the case for example) I will secure the GBA cart slot to the N64 mobo underneath too.

I needed access to the GBA cart under the case, and as little of the GBA mobos across the space where the buttons will go as possible. Unfortunately, to get access to the GBA cart I had to go over the button area a little more than I originally intended, so I might need to relocate the Start, Select, So-mo and GBA menu buttons to the other side of the case, to the right of the D-pad; I won't know conclusively until I can see with the top on how much space I have to play with. I have to keep the GBA mobos high, as the idea of the case is that the fat bit is all the electronics for the systems, and the thin bit is the rest of the case (where you hold the system).

Below is a pic of the system as it is now, with the fan in place for illustration purposes.

"A" is the GBA board, "B" is the GBA mobo underneath it and "C" is the fan.

"A" is the GBA cart, just visible.

You will need to take my word for it as I couldn't get a good camera angle, but the height of the highest part of the GBA boards (the capacitors) reach 55m (approx) from the table, and the top of the fan is also 55mm from the table (approx). This means the final height of the thick part of the system will be around 70mm tall.

The other thing which will be a compromise potentially is that I can only get the GBA cart access in one place, so I will have a "bulge" under the case for the access. I was hoping not to have this issue, so I could have put the GBA mobos elsewhere, but as covered earlier, my attempt at cart relocation for the GBA ended in tears before.

UPDATE:

Ok, thought around the problem; I will re-do this tomorrow - if I reverse the GBA section upside down and over onto the area where the pins are for the N64 cart, the GBA cart will be facing upwards. If I then reverse the case entirely so the fan is at the underside of the case, the GBA cart will be at the base of the system, and accessible; where it should be. I also shouldn't have the issues with the actual case itself being an odd shape.

Oh well, most of a morning's work lost! I hadn't appreciated all the issues until I had done the work... anyway, it is worth doing this job right!

This will mean extending the buttons to the joystick and buttons as they will all be on the opposite sides now. I will have to drape the wires over the N64 mobo area; it won't affect airflow, and you won't see anything when the case is on, so it doesn't really matter how this looks.

More updates tomorrow...

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 5:36 am

Update, did what I said before. Actually, this is nice!

I have possibly gained in height anything up to about 3mm, if that; however, the GBA cart slot is EASY to get to now, the GBA boards don't hang over the buttons area (in fact, it fits perfectly) and there is plenty of airflow available. I stopped shorts by using paper masking tape, the wide variety, before putting the GBA boards on top.

Tested the GBA, fine.

I just need to jiggle the GBA boards for optimum positioning, and hot glue them in place now. I can then make the top (which will now be the base

) and reverse the whole thing to mount the PSone screen. I can then start to make the case and extend the button wires as necessary

).

Happy so far

I even managed to improve on my own design at the WIP stage!!

Run out of time for today, more updates tomorrow (off to work soon). Tomorrow I have to clear out out garage first and get the rubbish to the tip, then I can crack on with this project again.

As well as squaring the GBA boards in place, I also need to remove that ugly power plug for the GBA Transverter and wire the power directly to the solder joints on the mobo, so I can get the GBA board sheer with the edge of the unit. Fingers crossed, testing time then again! This is a small job, I should have done it before.

Kyo · Post by **Kyo** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 5:56 am

looking good. Chaotic, but good.

Are that duracells I see?

minkster · Post by **minkster** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 7:03 am

Man that thing is compact! I'm impressed with the wiring, very good job. I'm just curious, is your design going to be vertical or horizontal?

And a little off topic but, are you the same bacteria from the gp2x forums? The name sounds familiar.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 8:42 am

Kyo - Yes, it has become a little chaotic! Yes, duracells - only for the GBA mobo itself. The GBA in its original form uses 2 AA batteries; they last for quite a while, but without the GBA screen to power, these will last for ages, as they only power the actual GBA mobo itself, nothing else.

minkster - Yes, thanks, it is compact. Thanks for the comments. The buttons, and all the controls will be on the sides of the pic above. I have everything mounted with the N64 mobo vertical.

Yes, it is me, I am bacteria (and use the same avator!) on both forums!

nightwheel · Post by **nightwheel** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 9:54 am

Can we have a sneak peak at your case for this thing if you are working on one alrady?

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 10:08 am

I have the raw materials to hand, a design (50% as per previous posts, the other 50% in my head at the moment), nothing made yet - should be able to post pics as I go along with the making of the case this week.

Once I start making the case, progress will be fairly swift.

Making the case last has benefits of adaptability and last minute changes and modifications!

timmeh87 · Post by **timmeh87** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 4:36 pm

wow thats a lot of wires everywhere.

if you are running more than one wire to the same place you can use a wider section of ribbon instead of individual wires...

Im just a neat freak with my wires.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 5:33 pm

timmeh87 - every wire I am using is required. There are two reasons the wiring is looking messy - 1) rigging up the GBA system to the N64 gives a stack of wiring, and 2) the fact the top of my case is now the bottom, so wires (once neat) have to trail across the system and need extensions now. using ribbon cables is not an option.

I have been very methodical in making notes about what wires connect to what, otherwise this would be impossible now. When the case is shut, you won't see any wiring, so the neatness side isn't important!

Kyo · Post by **Kyo** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 5:46 pm

I think what he means is really just if two wires go to the same place (a button, a switch, or RGB + sound) keep them together instead of tearing them apart

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 6:15 pm

Kyo - Sure, understand the comment; it would make sense in principle, however the ribbon cable I am using are individual wires and not the stuck-together ribbon cable type (so I can't do what you suggest as they are actually separate wires, so don't need tearing apart - see an earlier post). I am using colour coding so I know what goes where; eg white + yellow; white + red, blue + brown, etc, etc.

(this was the pic from an earlier post of the wires):

timmeh87 · Post by **timmeh87** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 7:35 pm

true that.

its a shame you are ripping up good round IDE cable. I wish I had some of that...

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 1:11 am

I had other sources of wires from this and that lying about, but I used these because they were convenient and uniform, I have a couple of spare ribbon cables, and I had two of these cables from a computer I bought a few months ago which I didn't need (I have a few computers at home).

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 3:11 am

I managed to maneuver the GBA (and its Transverter board) as much onto the N64 board as I could, given that a couple of capacitors from the GBA system were getting in the way; they are pressed against one of the N64 heatsinks. I did check - the heatsinks are non conductive (aluminium after all) so this is not an issue. The rest of the areas where the board components meet has been covered with paper masking tape and electrical tape. I then secured the GBA system to the N64 mobo by three wires, hot glued across the boards - this is easy to dismantle if needed, and does the job.

I had to shave a bit off the fan exhaust as the only place it could sit on the N64 mobo was on top of a fairly tall capacitor, and the side of the GBA cart slot. This is not a problem, as the side I had to shave on has enough clearance without hindering the fan. I then filled in the gaps made with electrical tape, so the airflow through the fan isn't compromised.

Fan in place as below. The top of the fan is approximately the same height as the top of the GBA cart and there is about 5mm or so gap under the fan before the heatsinks. The only downside (if it is one) is that having the GBA where it is has risen my overall height of the case by about 3mm (no big deal!).

The GBA cart is very slightly inside the dimensions of the side of the case, however I don't want to stress the flimsy ribbon cable, so I will either have to make the middle section about 5mm wider or make it slightly sloped (my personal choice anyway, and probably keep everything as is. The top of the fan is in line with the top of the N64 board.

The SD card for the GBA flashcart will stick out the base of the cart (ie out the side of the case), which will be ideal (once it arrives from Canada that is!).

Pic below shows system playing a GBA game.

In case you spot the clear ring around the speakers, they are crude speaker backs (top of a Cornetto ice-cream packaging

), although it can easily be the base of a plastic/foam cup - I will cover this later - it is to give better base and stop speakers sounding tinny. Cheap, but effective!

More updates later.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 8:13 am

I thought "great, height from base of current system to top is 55mm"; then realised that the top of the GBA cart is a little taller - had to settle with 65mm therefore as I want the GBA cart enclosed in the system.

This meant that I didn't have to dremel shapes out of the fan exhaust unit after all, so I made sure it was double sealed on the area I opened.

Ok, time to make the back, so I can then turn the system around and get the screen in place, ready for the case to start to take shape...

Step 1: Cut out a piece of mounting board the same size as the N64 mobo. Work out where the fan needs to be, then stick some thin self-adhesive foam pads in place to hold the fan.

Step 2: Cut out some strips of mounting board and hot glue on the side of the case. 4 needed.

Step 3: Score the card with a craft knife, 65mm from the base (to make it uniform height), fold card over and stick sticky pads in place - I circled them in yellow so you can see them better. The orange circle is because there isn't enough space for a self-adhesive pad, so I will hot glue this bit.

Step 4: Put the card on top to secure. Make sure the mounting board is square with the N64 mobo.

That is the back of the case done. It will be covered properly at a later stage; the purpose of this is to provide a base so I can turn the system over and work on it; so the back is supported, non conductive and fairly rigid. I might either have the rear of the case on top of this card, or might remove the card completely and put the case rear in its place (depends on what the GBA flashcard looks like when it comes - it is supposed to be the latest model, slimmer and front loading.

Having the back "on legs" also means it is easy to pass wires back and forth for connecting things together and making them a bit neater.

If I make this back more permanent, I can reinforce it very easily with hot glue.

I have two pics of the side views, to help clarify matters: