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

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 2:00 am

A bit premature - I couldn't get to the cables I needed to solder to places and some were hidden, so I lifted the system out of the case, laid them beside each other, and using fairly long wires (about 12") to connect all the previous contacts to their new positions. This is quite a long process, especially as the wiring is a spaghetti junction with all the moving about, although I am taking the opportunity to tidy the wires up as I am re-connecting the wiring.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 3:19 am

This is what I mean:

Even if I could separate all the wires going to the four switches, it woudl prove difficult to mount them in the case, so I rigged up four new switches and secured them in place with screws. I will have to wire each of the wires from the switches to these now.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 4:57 am

Looks a mess, but works. My heart did sink when I tried the GBA, I got multicoloured pixel dots (meaning no signal from the GBA to the Transverter - seen that a lot in the past!), it then occured to me that I forgot to plug in two AA batteries for the GBA mobo - did so, worked great (signal now going to the Transverter)!

I just tested my wiring with the GBA and N64 parts, I can't test everything yet as there is plenty to re-wire up yet (inc D-pad, switches, power) and the GBA cart is a proper one rather than the M3 Flashcard. Once the screen is on the case I will change the cart before working out making the rear of the casing.

I have about another 2-3 hours soldering to do yet before job done, I then will need to test the system fully before putting the screen back in place again. You can see from the pic, lots of wiring; also you can see more of how things are fitting in the case. The car adapter will probably be located between the A and B buttons, towards the edge of the case. I intend to change the two AA batteries for the GBA to a Duracell Ultra photo 3v battery I bought as it is smaller (one battery is about 2/3 the size of one AA battery, and I only need one instead of two), and I also intend to change the two tiny watch batteries powering the N64 memory card for a similar Duracell battery - they are good until 2016, so the one powering the N64 memory card probably won't need changing for the best part of 9-10 years.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 10:25 am

Finished the wiring.

Dremeled out the D-pad holder from the NES controller (removing the base) and hot glued it in place.

Everything is wired, however I need to check the connections before switching on. If I have made any mistakes here, it could be disasterous, at best a control may not work, at worst I could feed the wrong current to the N64 (and blow it) or the GBA (and blow it). I have to trust my wiring as it would not be easy to trace back wires at this stage - faith in other words, and crossed fingers - I don't want to kill the project at this (nearly) final stage!

Finished project today, may get a chance tomorrow, maybe Thursday; certainly Friday morning.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 9:58 am

Works fine, just tested the system.

I am in the process of painting the D-pad cross, then I can mount it in the case tomorrow morning, when it is dried. I can't do any more work on the project until the D-pad cross is installed. I would prefer a white D-pad cross than the NES black colour as it will look better on the case.

Once done, I can then secure the joystick in position with hot glue, tidy the cables a bit, put the screen in place on the case, position the car adapter, change the two AA batteries for one smaller 3v battery, then start building up the case. The vertical sides and base will probably be mounting board with an acetate covering to make it look like it is plastic; however the portions on the back where my fingers will hold the unit, are likely to be perspex, for strength. The joystick pertrudes by a couple of millimeters or so, which will need to be enclosed in a circular holder (plastic milk bottle top is likely to do the job) and I need a hole for the "Z" button - making these holes in mounting board will weaken it, so plastic will be favourite. The other benefit of perspex here is that I will need screws to secure the backs to the case, so they are easily removable if needed. I might even consider leaving most of the area unpainted as a "window" to the insides - not decided yet.

This is the stage where things should start to happen quickly (time permitting). Still plenty of work to do before work is completed.

I have tomorrow morning available for the project; however my wife has taken all next week off to be with me as holiday, so I will be able to do some updates during the week, no doubt, but it will be the odd hour or so here and there as opposed to few hours at a time (otherwise she will sulk and I will get it in the neck!). Inspite of this, I believe I should have this project finished in the next 2-3 weeks.

My next mini and larger projects include a few diverse things: * opening up an electric toothbrush and see how it works (may be something useful for modding - switches, motors, etc?) * making a desk fan from a large PC fan * hacking apart an old PC keyboard to make a unit just housing the cursor keys and the six buttons above to go on the left of my keyboard, for FTS gaming (I have a Nostroma N52 Belkin unit, it's rubbish, I can make better - anyone want to offer me a good price for it??) * modding my old Compaq Ipaq 3660 PDA (battery dead, buttons awkward, etc) into something useful and bring it back to life with far better battery life * modding a GP2x (once tv-out is fixed to a proper 320x240 resolution) to improve the system extensively. Just some nice project ideas!

timmeh87 · Post by **timmeh87** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 3:42 pm

I came by here to look at the latest pictures and I noticed that this thread has more posts or views than any of the stickies in this forum. It is about to pass "show us yourselves" in F42 as the biggest thread on the forums. (or at least on top)

Anyways, its looking pretty good. Im glad to see its all still working

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 1:09 am

timmeh87 - it has a while to go to exceed the viewings on "show us yourselves" in F42, by about 8000 viewings at the moment. I get great pleasure in seeing the numbers go up on the reads on my thread, and especially when people post comments (no had that many to date!...). It shows people are interested in my work, which keeps my incentive.

Once I complete this project I am going to make a case to house some of the games and the console system in it (still relevant to the project after all - making a "case"!). I can't fit in all the games, too heavy and too bulky - I have 74 N64 games at the moment.

Anyway, I have the morning aside for the project, so expect some updates soon!!

I tried layering several coats of spray paint on the NES D-pad, looked like it worked fine but didn't cover the middle bit fully, so gave it another layer of spray paint and wiped off most of the paint; I then used a base paint coat, then when dry, spray painted a couple of layers, then one layer of varnish. Seems to have done the trick.

About to mount in the D-pad assembly and the joystick; I will post pics then.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 2:09 am

Joystick and D-pad in place and secured. In the joystick controller, the joystick was secured primarily by a post with a screw, so I dremelled the post off and incorporated it in the design (top right of joystick in pic). I just used a little hot glue to keep the joystick top in place. The D-pad is a snug fit, on the right of the joystick in the pic. The D-pad is secured in place in four positions by hot glue and bits of mounting board as required to provide a secure point. I secured the trailing wires under the gap in the joystick (the metal cap bit doesn't rotate, so no hindrance). May as well make it tidy after all!

As you can see, there is very little extra room in the system, any less wide and it would not only be harder to hold (when playing) but also quite a squeeze.

Another reason to keep the wires tidy, apart from neatness and accessibility, is that I may incorporate vertical struts between the front and back of the case to make it extra rigid when holding; basically both the front and back of the case would then be double strength as opposed to just their own single strengths, if that makes sense.

Oh yes, BTW - the hot glue you see on the joystick isn't from me, that was done by the manufacturers of the joystick - shows they use hot glue too!

Lovely stuff!

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 2:33 am

I referred before to using a plastic milk bottle top to house the base of the joystick, as it sticks out of the bottom by a couple of millimeters?

Roughly in place on joystick:

As you may notice, it is the right size!

I have now sanded the lettering off the cap; once painted it will look nice and flat. No point making one when, with a bit of thought, I could find a substitute from recycling! The milk bottle top is made of nice, fairly rigid thin plastic, and the right size.

My home-made A and B buttons work great, but I am going to remake the Start button as it isn't as good as the others (the Start button was an early one I made before perfecting the method). Doing that now: I won't post pics of this as I did it before.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 3:57 am

Aargh - typical - the VERY LAST soldering joint (putting on the replacement Start button) - a tiny blob of solder fell onto the case, I removed it as quickly as I could, however the solder had removed about 2mm circle of spray paint from the perspex! In a bid to keep it looking nice, I spray painted a paint brush and applied this paint to the area concerned directly. If when it dries the repair is invisible, then phew, great - if not, I may have to spray paint the front of the case when I finish the project.

UPDATE - the repair job with the spray paint worked, there is barely a pin-prick noticeable, I can live with that.

Newly made Start button is as good as the others now.

Run out of time now today (off to work in a couple of hours), next job on the project is to put the PSone screen back on, position the other parts (batteries, car adapter, etc) in place; test system, then carry on the case build.

Post by **Skyone** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 5:34 am

Regardless of said blob accident, your project is looking to be the most detailed on this forum. Awesome job.

TheOnlyOneHeFears · Post by **TheOnlyOneHeFears** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 2:06 pm

I haven't posted here very often (read hardly at all

), but this is one of the sweetest if not the sweetest portable/project I have seen on the forums since I've been here. Keep it up, you're an inspiration for the rest of us

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 2:10 pm

Thanks for the kind comments, greatly appreciated.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 4:33 am

Secured the corners of the PSone screen with small pieces of 1mm sticky foam pads and put the top of the unit on the system. You can now see the completed front of the system, warts and all.

I extended the wires carrying the voltage to the systems in order to get everything looking neat, now the top is on the case, I can plan where the car adapter, etc will go, and therefore reduce the size of the wires carrying the voltages (to the N64 and GBA). I know from work I did a while ago on this project that extra distances on these wires can have an impact on the N64 system as it is running close to its bootable limit. When I used thin wires, the N64 had to be rebooted a few times before it worked, I solved this issue with using proper electrical wires, works first time now, however once when I tested the N64 a couple of days ago it rebooted itself once before all was ok. The reason for this is that I had to extend some of the wires by several inches; so the logic is if I reduce excess wiring from the same wires in places I can now reduce, status quo is restored.

Anyway, here is the pic, now showing all the buttons in place, as well as the joystick and D-pad. I had considered painting the joystick area, but thought if this was white, as per the D-pad, the system would look unbalanced; keeping the light grey colour keeps it balanced. I did however decide the D-pad, as black, looked strange, hence the colour change.

BTW - weighed the system, just out of interest. Including an N64 cart (about 100g), the system is just under 1.2kg. By the time the rear case is on and project finished, it will be about 1.3-1.35kg (inc N64 cart).

If I didn't have the GBA mobo, cart, small battery, GBA Transverter and extra wiring installed, I would have saved about 200g or so only.

If I had included battery packs (as many people do), the weight would be higher.

It is hard to see how the weight can be reduced on such a project, although I would have thought it possible to make a straight N64p with vacuum formed case at just over 1kg as this plastic would be slightly lighter than my materials, plus cart (about 100g or so, depending on title) plus battery weight if using Li-ions or similar.

So I guess my system isn't actually that heavy, in comparison. Just out of interest, perhaps forum members who have made an N64p could post the weights of their completed systems - just out of interest??

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 5:32 am

The controller mobos stick out by about 6mm or so from the (straight) side by the joystick, so I have a choice of either 1) keeping the rear of the case (where you hold the unit) straight and having a recess for this, or losing about 6-8mm of holding space and keep the line straight (but may cramp the area for holding, or 2) making this area at an angle, thereby also eliminating the need for the milk bottle top to raise the case area.

Option 2 seems best.

I have about 1.5-2cm space at the rear of the case, on purpose, to accommodate the extra wiring (as per earlier pic); however the space on the sides is very limited and will only just be enough to allow for the extras which need including. It will be tight.