NES mini (entire NES system in controller!)

[blueskies]

Hey G-force, I love this mod and want to try a simpler version for myself. I have a few questions though..
1) any tips on desoldering the 60 pin connector and the grey cable from the NOAC?
2) could you post the wiring, or some tips, for the nes controller buttons to the NOAC?
3) kind of offtopic, do you know what the little switch on the SJ3 button board does? it's labelled M and SW2...

thanks mcgyver for all the help.

[GonzoMPM-1]

Hey G-force, I love this mod and want to try a simpler version for myself. I have a few questions though..
1) any tips on desoldering the 60 pin connector and the grey cable from the NOAC?

Use a desoldering braid or a desoldering iron. If you are discarding the 60 pin for a 72 pin connector, you may find it easier to snip the pins of the 60 pin above the board and then just de-solder the pins one at a time.

2) could you post the wiring, or some tips, for the nes controller buttons to the NOAC?

There's a LOT of revisions of NOAC, some of which aren't even in the FAQ.

Best to look at YOURs and then follow the traces and label as appropriate. If you're using a Super Joy III, the player 2 controller board is a lot cleaner and may save you some space.

3) kind of offtopic, do you know what the little switch on the SJ3 button board does? it's labelled M and SW2...

thanks mcgyver for all the help.

I think the little switch disables the built in games when you want to play off of a cartridge.

[blueskies]

Hey G-force, I love this mod and want to try a simpler version for myself. I have a few questions though..
1) any tips on desoldering the 60 pin connector and the grey cable from the NOAC?

Use a desoldering braid or a desoldering iron. If you are discarding the 60 pin for a 72 pin connector, you may find it easier to snip the pins of the 60 pin above the board and then just de-solder the pins one at a time.

Yeah that's what I thought.. I don't need the connector though, so I may just snip it off.

2) could you post the wiring, or some tips, for the nes controller buttons to the NOAC?

There's a LOT of revisions of NOAC, some of which aren't even in the FAQ.

Best to look at YOURs and then follow the traces and label as appropriate. If you're using a Super Joy III, the player 2 controller board is a lot cleaner and may save you some space.

I guess what I'm curious about is, can I just find the wire for 'A' on the nes pad and connect it to the 'A' point on the NOAC main board? (and so on of course). If so, that means at least 8 lines for buttons, which doesn't add up. Maybe there's already a link or tutorial for this, but I can't find it (meaning I'll look after I post )

3) kind of offtopic, do you know what the little switch on the SJ3 button board does? it's labelled M and SW2...

thanks mcgyver for all the help.

I think the little switch disables the built in games when you want to play off of a cartridge.

yep, you're right. It threw me off because there's no way to switch it from the outside.

Anyway, here's what I'm working with.

A dismantled SuperJoyIII and an NES controller, and the main board (zoomed).

I want something similar to the original post (because it's awesome), but without the cartridge connector, led and finish (because I'm not). Basically slimming down the SJ3, and changing cases. I think all I need to do is separate the main board on the SJ3, remove the connector, wire 8 buttons from the nes controller, wire the power, wire the switch, and wire the audio/video.

Here's some notes, please if you can, help me before I destroy this cool toy trying to make it cooler .

1) audio/video need each: 1 line to ground, 1 line to audio/video points respectively.
2) labeling of the wiring is as follows:
3.3V (not used)
VDD
VIDEO
AUDIO
GND
RESET
P2D4
P2D3
OUT0
P1D0
P2D0
SCK1
SCK2

(not much, but at least I figured something out..

questions:
1) nes pad wiring (link or help)
2) how to wire the on/off switch
3) how to wire the power connector

Thanks to anyone who helps, I really appreciate it.

[GonzoMPM-1]

Thanks to anyone who helps, I really appreciate it.

I presume you're planning on cutting down the original board with a dremmel cutter just to get around the original size limitations? You may well need to, as the logic chip in the real NES controller may not play nicely with the super joy. (I don't know).

Can you post a picture of the other side of the Super Joy control surfaces board? There's some stuff on the power supply and switch side that wasn't on mine.

[blueskies]

control board, top
main board, top
control, bottom
main, bottom (blurry, sorry)

I hadn't even thought about space constraints yet, I just assumed since the main board on SJ3 is so small, it would fit. I think the OP removed the logic chip and rewired it to the other side.. I might need to do this if there's no other space, but I was hoping for a quick hack (as always).

I had another thought about this one last night.. I'm thinking of leaving the existing cord on the nes controller so it can still be used on the console, and just adding the switch/power and av ports to the side so it can be used as a SJ3. would it be possible to just add on to the nes controls without taking off the cord?

small edit:

chopped and cleaned up the main board, removed switch, outlet and av connectors from the other board.

Here's what I have to work with. Will probably scrap the cord idea, and just have the AV wired directly in with plugs coming out to TV.

[GonzoMPM-1]

Well, here's the deal.

The poster who opened this thread used the NES controller's board and logic, which is what I recommend. But there's some stories about the NES controller's logic not working with NOAC chips. Its worth a try, especially given the additional ease of not having to wire a million things.

If, and only if you cannot get the regular board to work, you may in that case need to trim down the Super Joy's controller board, and wire it into the controller.

Just from a quick perusal of the photos you hosted, the components (2 caps, resister, zenier diode) on the board near the power connector appear to be related to power conditioning and protection, so you can lose them.

Beyond that, this looks like your wiring point plan.

You'd cut the board nearabouts the dotted lines, run the colored "jumpers" (thick colored banks) where indicated, and then take the control wires from the other marks as indicated. The jumpers are necessary to restore connections lost by removal of traces from trimming the board.

You'd wire the "-" of your battery or power plug (you'll need to add stuff to do both) straight to "ground," where as your "+" from the power switch should go through a switch, with other pin of the switch connected to the place marked as indicated for incoming voltage.

You can see that, if you're smart, you won't cut off the left side of the Super Joy controller at all, but rather simply trim it as necessary to remove the A/V part, and then line up the D-Pad areas with the proper orientation of the NES controller's D-pad.

Oh yeah, I didn't label it, but obviously you'd pull audio and video from either the NOAC itself or from where the gray cable puts it to the controller. Do whatever's easiest and most compact.

You'd also wire the yellow wire from the NOAC board to a switch, and take the other pin of the switch to V+, but you don't need to do this at all unless you're planning on using cartridges.

Anyway, here you go:

[blueskies]

Done! Here's the final wrap up. Mods, let me know if I should copy this into a new thread, I didn't mean to hijack this one, I just had related questions, and it kinda snowballed from there.
final pics:


I ended up wiring the controls directly to the sj3.. there's no way anything else could have fit in that case. It barely fits now, as you can see I had to use the ol' hot glue gun riser trick to add about 3mm, then I murdered it out with some black duct tape to cover all the ugliness. Bottom line, it plays great, and the controls are so tight!

Also, I wired in the 2 capacitors, 1 resistor, and the 3 pronged D-thingy (zenier diode as I think you called it Gonzo). I just followed the traces and drew out the wiring before taking anything off. I was nervous hooking straight power to the thing without any regulation, and it seems to work.

And in case you didn't catch it, that 4021 did a little backflip, and works great from the other side of the board.

I know this isn't as cool as the OP's hack, but it's just what I want. Thanks for the inspiration and help (that's you Gonzo).

Here's my own thread for this project, please post any comments there so this thread stays clean.

[GonzoMPM-1]

Done! Here's the final wrap up.

Nice job. I'd guess when you're motivated enough you can take a grinder to some of the risers in the case, flatten / shorten the buttons and D/Pad and shave enough space that you won't have to rely on a hot glue bridge.

I'm psyched that the original NES controller board worked for you as it did for the opening poster.

Finally, the 3 pronged part is a transistor. The one with this symbol on your original board is a zenier diode (which is a diode with a precise reverse break down voltage that can be used for voltage constant circuits).

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[Bino Gas]

here you can see the power switch. In the middle its off, to the left it plays cartridges, and to the right it plays the built in games.

How did G-force wire the switch on top?

[nevermind1534]

Holy thread revival, Batman!

[coolbuddyv]

Dear Friend...

first of all congrats for this fantastic mod....
in fact even i have been trying to do this for many years now but didnt have a good guide...
google searches landed me onto this wonderful forum...

i wanted some suggestions 4m u..
i want to make this mod for my self but i wanted one change...

----> i want that instead of fiting in cartridges there should be a pendrive or even a smaller 50-100 MB r/w memory module to be fitted within the CONTROLLER....and when i connect it to a TV screen i get the game listing (as it happens in preloaded consoles)


in short i want to replace the cartridge mechanism with onboard memory...


please help can i do this....

[themadhacker]

any idea how old this thread is?