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

[kibble]

I am going to have pictures up in the next few days, might wanna hold off on buying a screen till ya see the internals, they are very small, fits completely behind the LCD.

I would like to see that. I really want to use the thinnest possible screen and controller I can get my grubby mitts on. I actually have and have had a 4" TFT portable TV that has a really nice image but, what stops me from using it is the fact that the LCD itself is a little more than 3/4" thick, too big. I also have a really nice, thin LCD from a portable DVD player that can take S-video and has it's own little controller board separate from the DVD mainboard but it's 7" and widescreen and there's two pins on the controller that are data pins which I think communicate with the mainboard to set whether it's gonna work on 4:3 or wide so I'd have to figure out a way to get around that.

BTW, I see that under your avatar it says you're in California, whereabouts? I'm in California too.

[palmertech]

Long Beach, 90803.

I have a 7" DVD player screen that can go into 4:3, all you need to do is short two pins. Might wanna try that, unless it is obviously wired different.

[kibble]

Oh, I used to live in Ventura but, just moved up to Santa Maria about two months ago.

Well, the DVD screen does 4:3 when you first turn it on, but I noticed that it will not come on if those two data pins aren't connected to anything. I used my o-scope to see what they were doing, one appears to be a data pin and the other looks like some sort of clock. When you first turn the screen on they show some activity and then they stop. Sometimes I wish I had a logic analyzer. Even if I could use it as a 4:3, the fact that it's larger would mean I'd have to waste some space anyway.

[Skyone]

I live in Ventura County!

[kibble]

Too bad I wasn't working on this when I was still living there. We're planning on moving back to Ventura eventually, we don't wanna stay up here forever (boring and nothing to do) plus their games stores kinda suck, well, except for one place up in San Luis called Cheap Thrills.

I completely forgot I had these LCD's, 3.5" TFT with LED backlight and less than 1/4" thick. Unfortunately they take 18bit RGB data and I have no controllers for them. I got them from two of my PDA phones that I broke the touchscreen on. If I could find or make a controller small enough to fit on the back of them that accepted video input, that would be awesome. I have been searching for a video to 18bit RGB chip but have found nothing so far. Interfacing it directly to the RCP chip would be even better, but that puts out 21bits of color data plus the sync signals all together.... ideas, ideas..... LOL

[dragonhead]

kibble, what about pulling RGB-analog straight from the n64 and running it into an ADC to get the digital signal you need?

[64M320N3]

Doesn't that screen use digital RGB?
I have something like it, but analogue signals don't work on mine. If yours is different or you can make a decoder board you will have to tell me what parts you used.
Correct me if I am wrong, but wouldn't be cheaper to buy, say, a 3.5" monitor off dealextreme.com than build a decoder board for that thing?

[kibble]

kibble, what about pulling RGB-analog straight from the n64 and running it into an ADC to get the digital signal you need?

That's one idea, then I'd just have to figure out a way to generate the clock signals for it.

Doesn't that screen use digital RGB?
I have something like it, but analogue signals don't work on mine. If yours is different or you can make a decoder board you will have to tell me what parts you used.
Correct me if I am wrong, but wouldn't be cheaper to buy, say, a 3.5" monitor off dealextreme.com than build a decoder board for that thing?

Yes, it uses 6 bits for each of the colors. It probably would be cheaper/quicker to use parts already made, of course but, messing with this stuff would be a learning experience. One IC that I do know is necessary for this LCD is a Samsung LCC3600A right before the inputs. Oh and btw, this screen is a Samsung LTS350Q1-PE1 that came out of a Samsung SCH-I700. I'm most likely not going to be including this display on this project for now. Maybe later on I'll make it a project in itself to figure out how to use that screen and then maybe I'll make another portable.

[64M320N3]

It probably would be cheaper/quicker to use parts already made, of course but, messing with this stuff would be a learning experience.

Isn't this whole project a learning experience?
Also, if you figure it out I might have to PM you or something. (Decoder board for the screen, that is).
Keep us updated man! I love your work!

[ShockSlayer]

You should integrate the psone screen, and the battery protection PCB(assuming you are using li-ions). Also, will the 3.3v stepdown be integrated? Read first post, lulz. What, you guys don't have a strikethrough BBCode?

SS

[palmertech]

I think it would be awesome to just step up 3.6v from a single li-ion cell to 12v and 5v, and then down to 3.3v, since the biggest power hog is the 3.3v line anyways.

[bacteria]

Awesome project!

[Skyone]

I think it would be awesome to just step up 3.6v from a single li-ion cell to 12v and 5v, and then down to 3.3v, since the biggest power hog is the 3.3v line anyways.

No real point in that. Stepping up is generally less efficient than down. Very efficient 5/3.3v switching step-downs are out there and should be substituted in.

[kibble]

Thanks for all the kind comments!

Well actually, I am using a step-up converter for the DAC, only because I don't want to have to run another power line all the way from the battery input to the spot where it's required so I'll be stepping up the 3.3V to 5V on the spot. I mentioned that I got it to work a few posts back. Plus it's not a ridiculous drain on the 3.3V line so it should be ok. I have yet to test one of my 64's with both the 3.3V regulator and the step-up in place on batteries. I will be doing that soon.

I'm going to be completely eliminating the AMP-NUS chip and replacing it's function with either an op-amp or a couple of simple amps made with some 2N3904's, possibly powered by the 5V line as well, haven't quite decided yet. I still need to do some testing with the amp section.

As for other updates; I decided to completely re-do the lines going from the CPU to the RCP as they were like 39.7 miles south of unsatisfactory. They're turning out much nicer the second time around. Still waiting to receive my parts from DigiKey and Mouser so I can do more testing.

BTW, I hadn't mentioned this yet, but for the game-save RAM, I'm not using a regular battery backed SRAM chip. I'm actually using a non-volatile FM28V100 FRAM chip from Ramtron. It works (written to and read from) just like an SRAM chip but has the ability of storing it's contents like a flash chip. I haven't used one yet so I'm going to modify one of my memory cards by taking out the SRAM chip and battery and putting one of these in its place and see how it works out. If it all goes to plan, I'll be leaving that section in the circuit board layout, if not, it's back to the drawing board....

[dragonhead]

Thanks for all the kind comments!

Well actually, I am using a step-up converter for the DAC, only because I don't want to have to run another power line all the way from the battery input to the spot where it's required so I'll be stepping up the 3.3V to 5V on the spot. I mentioned that I got it to work a few posts back. Plus it's not a ridiculous drain on the 3.3V line so it should be ok. I have yet to test one of my 64's with both the 3.3V regulator and the step-up in place on batteries. I will be doing that soon.

I'm going to be completely eliminating the AMP-NUS chip and replacing it's function with either an op-amp or a couple of simple amps made with some 2N3904's, possibly powered by the 5V line as well, haven't quite decided yet. I still need to do some testing with the amp section.

As for other updates; I decided to completely re-do the lines going from the CPU to the RCP as they were like 39.7 miles south of unsatisfactory. They're turning out much nicer the second time around. Still waiting to receive my parts from DigiKey and Mouser so I can do more testing.

BTW, I hadn't mentioned this yet, but for the game-save RAM, I'm not using a regular battery backed SRAM chip. I'm actually using a non-volatile FM28V100 FRAM chip from Ramtron. It works (written to and read from) just like an SRAM chip but has the ability of storing it's contents like a flash chip. I haven't used one yet so I'm going to modify one of my memory cards by taking out the SRAM chip and battery and putting one of these in its place and see how it works out. If it all goes to plan, I'll be leaving that section in the circuit board layout, if not, it's back to the drawing board....

actually i thought of something, if you were able to integrate a DAC for the pocket-pc screen, it would eliminate an extra circuit board from the system, making it more like a commercially built handheld device. this page might be helpful to you. http://www.analog.com/en/analog-to-digi ... index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;