Do we have room for another N64P? (t64 WIP)

[kibble]

Thanks for the help offer, stuntpenguin, unfortunately what I need to accomplish is the opposite of what a mouse does; I need to convert the binary output from the internal digital-to-analog converter to a quadrature signal. A ball mouse converts the quadrature to binary data.

I gots ma parts today! Got the 3.5" LCD, PIC16F877A in TQFP package, 2.00MHz smd resonators and the connectors for the LCD. I got several of the connectors because I will probably build several test boards and I don't want to be desoldering the connector every time. One of them will probably be for a breakout board so I can plug the thing into a breadboard for experimenting. The resonators are for the n64 controller chip so I don't have to use the thru-hole one that comes inside the controller.

[kibble]

Minor updates:

I got the audio to sound better by using a couple of resistors and a cap to float the inputs at about 2.5V, unfortunately, it turns out that the DS1803 digital potentiometer won't work properly for the amplifier volume control as it doesn't fully bring the output pins all the way to gnd when the volume would be all the way low; it still has about 200ohm resistance. I'd have to add a couple of transistors before the inputs to the amps to ground out the amps completely, if I wanted to mute the audio. This may turn out to not be such a big deal as the volume at it's lowest point is pretty low anyway, and besides, who would ever play a game on mute? I found that the DS1807 part is made specifically for audio volume control and works the same as the DS1803, unfortunately I can't find anyone that sells them.

Second, I'm working on the breakout board for the LCD for experimenting. I also ordered and received the parts for the backlight LED boost regulator.

And last but not least, now that I have a pretty good idea of what parts I'll be using for the final product and I know their sizes, I'm starting to get a pretty good image in my head of what the portable is gonna look like, I think you guys might like it.

[kibble]

can we see whats in your head

Nah, it might be too dirty...

Well, here's some sketches I did of what I have in mind, they're not to any sort of scale and may change somewhat on the final product.

[gamer255]

Love the design .
Nice drawing skills

[hailrazer]

Nice sketch. But the analog on bottom is very uncomfortable.

Much more natural for it to be on the top near the triggers

[kibble]

analog on bottom is very uncomfortable.

Much more natural for it to be on the top near the triggers

I can see what you mean and I had been debating as to which one to put on the top. I wasn't thinking about it when I did the drawing and just put them in those places.

Here's a pic with the parts laid out so you can kinda get an idea of the size of things. I kinda want smaller, flat buttons, not slanted like the one's in the official n64 controller though. I even thought about using a GC controller D-pad in place of the C buttons.

[hailrazer]

The Superpad has the flat buttons

I'm sure you knew that though . LOL

[kibble]

So I've read, but I've never owned one. The only time I've held one in my hand was maybe about 10Yr's ago!

[Bino Gas]

I like the design.

You might find this analog stick nub more comfortable than a psp analog. Thanks for the speaker part #.

[kibble]

I like the design.

You might find this analog stick nub more comfortable than a psp analog. Thanks for the speaker part #.

Dude! Thanks for that info! I'm definitely gonna order one of those! I wasn't too fond of the PSP nub and plus I noticed the resistance values of X and Y axis isn't exactly like a regular analog stick, so I was gonna have a fun time trying to get that to work.

[kibble]

MOAAAAAR PICS!!!!!!!!!

So I built a little step up board for the backlight. It's not gonna be used in the portable, it's only for testing purposes. Stupid me wired the connector backwards and so the LED's will only light if I flip the ribbon around. The bad thing is that the contacts are on the bottom so when I flip it, I have to lift the tab up for the contacts to touch the wires, which sucks cuz that's not how it's supposed to work. Oh well, good thing this is only for testing. I'll have to cut the traces on the board and rewire them.

[thewise1]

I'M BLIND!!

Love it!

[ShockSlayer]

Very nice.

SS

[Tchay]

Wow, dude you are awesome. We freaking need your skills over in the Wii department!!!

[kibble]

Funny you mention Wii as I had been thinking about that or maybe a Gamecube possibly being my next project, but not for a while.

I was messing around with some code tonight for the analog stick and I got my program for the PIC working to the point where it'll read the values from the ADC for both the X and Y axis, store their initial values, read new values, compare them with the initial values, calculate how much the value has changed and then store the new values so that they can be compared again later on. Now I gotta figure out how to make use of that data to generate the quadrature signals that will output to the controllers' chip. There's no pics or video of this as I did all the testing in MPLab, which I finally figured out how to use also! It really saves on the head scratching as you can see what's going on in the registers and how the data moves around.