Laptop style N64

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 1:24 am

Yes, this works fine although sometimes the heatsink lifts, which defeats the object (at least, I found this to be the case). You can use the Nintendo gunk and hot glue the sides of the heatsink to the mobo (a bit like I did, although I didn't use the Nintendo gunk). This will keep the heatsink in place.

evilteddy · Post by **evilteddy** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 1:41 am

As for the nintendo thermal pads my dog chewed them so I chucked them out. Wouldn't having no thermal compund or pads on cause very poor movement of heat between the chips and heatsinks? I thought Marshall was talking about using a wire to hold the heatsinks in place because he was using thermal compound instead of thermal adhesive (I remember reading somewhere that they were different and that only the adhesive sticks the heatsink on). Heatsink compound only costs a couple of bucks anyway so I will just make sure of it.

On another topic I just got my whole spaghetti city running of 6 nimh AAs I had lying around. It worked, unless you turned sound on or increased the brightness off 0. Apart from a proof of concept these will now be serving as my batteries until I can get enough money for the awesome batteries that come next.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 7:59 am

Para 1: Yes.

Para 2: You can run a PSone screen and N64 mobo off AA NiMH cells (freshly charged) although you don't get long with them - however they are fine for testing the system before you get better cells. If your cells are not freshly charged before using them you will have much less power (NiMH reduce their charge even when not being used).

evilteddy · Post by **evilteddy** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 3:42 pm

Well stuff is happening again! My tact switches arrived today and I was very impressed. They are pretty big and will make for nice playing. I am also halfway through making the top half of my case. I will try to finish that as well as the bottom half of the case today though this is probably going to be impossible, there is so much to do. I also have my heatsink compound as well as a quaint slim 40mm fan. I'll definitely mount them today because I am getting sick and tired of the intro song in Banjo Kazooie or DK64 (Do not listen to the DK rap if you wish to keep your brain cells).

I'll post pics later.

BTW is this a good battery for My 64p link. Lipo battery.
Will it explode on me, charge well, will I need a dedicated charger or does it have a PCB on board that will control everything and stave off the apocolypse. Thanks.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 8:13 pm

Battery looks fine, although you will need a charger for it too.

evilteddy · Post by **evilteddy** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 11:14 pm

Piccies of heatsink and two parts of case mocked up. I have some casework ahead of me. Do all lipos have battery protection circuits to protect from discharging or will I have to do that.
Pics-

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Thu Apr 24, 2008 2:58 am

evilteddy - coming on nicely. Please make your pics bigger, they are too tiny. Aim for 600 pixels or 700 pixels wide if possible, then we can see your system better.

Looking at your pics, your system looks about the same dimensions as my multi-system project in terms of length and breadth however yours is thicker (I can tell this as you are using the controller plugs - I am guessing the thickness of your system is about 40mm??

Anyway, nice work. How do you plan to finish it off, painting the perspex, spray painting, covering in paper (like wallpaper)??

You have plenty of space in there to replace the speakers for better ones if you like - either cone or mylar speakers (very flat) - the sound quality is very considerably better if you don't use the PSone speakers. Any 8ohm speakers are fine, and very cheap to buy (40-50mm diameter ones).

evilteddy · Post by **evilteddy** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 9:55 pm

I am planning on leaving the case clear. Not because it will look good because I am pretty sure it won't. Its just to show off the electronics to my friends and anyone else wondering how it works. To me being able to show off the electronics is more important to being able to show off a nice case.

I actually have a couple of speakers hanging around that will make great replacements. I will put them in sometime because sometimes headphones just aren't enough.

My system is pretty thick for a few reasons-
1.I do not have a hump on the back like many portables. The whole case is as thick as the memory expansion pack and cartridge slot needs it to be with a little spare.
2.This is my first time modding a N64 and it shows. If I restarted the project I could shrink the case a lot. Though I haven't fried anything which is nice but probably say's more about the 1996 board than my skill.
3.I put the cartridge slot on the wrong side. Most people put the cartridge slot on the bottom but mine was put on the top so I have to keep it out of the way of the heatsinks or rather I put the cartridge slot on and found out later that fitting heatsinks could be a problem. They fit but with less than a mm to spare.
4. There is also too much space on the sides. Just bad case design to blame as well as thinking I would use 8 Dnimh batteries put through a regulator.

Which leads me to one of my bits of news - Ta Dah and Tah Dah again

I ordered these this morning and I can't wait for them to arrive. I will have to have a switch to switch the charger but I also need to know if the batterys will have a circuit in them to prevent overdischarge or if I should have one in there. I already am going to put in a battery indicator so it would be simple to rig up a mechanism to turn off when the batteries get close to 3V.

I have also put the heatsinks on and watched the Banjo Kazooie intro for 15 minutes. Having announced cooling as a success I decided to start drilling holes for buttons so I could actually play rather than just watching.

Oh and consider those photos resized as soon as I can get back at my laptop tonight.

evilteddy · Post by **evilteddy** » Sat Apr 26, 2008 3:55 pm

I thought this deserved a new post. I spent a many hours yesterday wiring buttons and drilling holes and I have finally finished mounting the controls. I tested on Banjo Kazooie and everything but the B button worked. After rewiring everything and attacking it with my multimeter I worked out I need to replace the tact switch.

I'll post pictures as soon as I can.

B button is working again. I replaced the tact switch with a spare I bought.

evilteddy · Post by **evilteddy** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 5:01 am

Well here is a pic of the controller as it will go in the portable. The triggers haven't been put in yet but I will have z on the left and they will use the standard mushy contact-

HBN · Post by **HBN** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 7:26 am

Lookin' good! Look like you'll beat me to finishing mine,

.

Meh, I don't mind.

evilteddy · Post by **evilteddy** » Mon May 05, 2008 2:36 am

Well my battery charger arrived today and the first thing I noticed was the franglish instructions on the back saying it was only useful on 11.1V batteries up to 1A however the website that is selling it clearly counteracts this claim saying it can charge batteries of all sizes. Can anyone shed some light on this. Do I need to return this? does higher capacity mean high internal resistance? Will it work? enlighten me.

evilteddy · Post by **evilteddy** » Mon May 05, 2008 2:37 am

Well I redid the buttons so they are now much better to press. This built in controller is starting to feel like it will take some ssb mashing.

evilteddy · Post by **evilteddy** » Fri May 09, 2008 2:39 am

And my batteries have arrived. They are tiny. My prediction is that the amount of empty space inside my case will cause me to knock up a vacuum table very soon and get to a remake. I'm thinking L64 meets well L64. I really can't think of a more beautiful case design but rest assured it won't be a copy just a tribute.

Anyway batteries are great and the charging test is going on now. If house does not burn down batteries are okay.

Well I went away for a few minutes while writing this post to check up on the charging battery and saw that it had finished charging. Long ago I had the AAs hooked up (7.6V) and I just put the 11.1V battery pack in its place. Long story short I didn't see that the regulator that takes higher voltages down to 7.5V was on the wrong side of the circuit and I switched it on. Nintendo is alright but the ps1 screen has bit the dust.

I had come so close to finishing this project with no casualties. This was literally the last soldering joint I needed to do to have a fully functional portable (electronically at least). My parents have kindly offered to foot the bill for a replacement seeing as I've been working hard on it but before I order another is there a way to make dead screens work again? A fuse I can short, I know there is that connection you can make but my screen isn't powering on in the first place (I think). Anyway cya guys. I'm going to check the screens sticky.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Fri May 09, 2008 3:42 am

Bad luck mate. There is a fuse on the bottom of the PSone mobo you can short, although I tried this on a fried board (bought it like that as a bargain), all it did was smoke another component, still didn't work!

What you can do is to keep the screen, if you are using an unmodded screen (as I do), then the florescent tube inside will eventually die, so you can use your existing screen/tube to replace it.

Always a good idea to test voltages before hooking everything up!

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Laptop style N64

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