Schmeman's Mother Themed Portable

[Schmeman]

I've been so excited lately working on my Super Nintendo Portable lately and I thought that I would share my progress with you guys.



First of all I'm making a SNESp using the ZN-40 case (like life of brian) and my case is going to be themed after a certain video game (lets see if you guys can guess based on my avatar Hint: the game has three installments).
When I got Ben's book I couldn't stop reading it and ended up reading it cover to cover in one sitting. I just got my PS1 screen in the mail today and took it apart today. However I'm waiting until my case gets in the mail before I work on it anymore.

Also I decided to use these batteries for my project

http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?P ... rodID=3914" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Along with this smart charger

http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?P ... rodID=4208" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I think they will work nicely. I had a question though, can I play while charging or do I need to have two plugs; one for charging and one for playing from the wall?

Anyways here are some pictures that I frantically took in my excitement.

man that thing was annoying to take apart ><

Here's a fine example of excitement clouding my judgment of picture taking, but anyways I was happy to get the thing out

Here is the motherboard with a bunch of junk taken off and the capacitors rewired

Probably one of the most annoying things to take off but at least I'm better at desoldering

And there is the PS1 screen i got today, seemed to take forever to come in the mail... but it was only four days or so... it's like waiting for class to end. The more excited you are for it to happen the longer it takes.

Well there's all my progress so far. As I said earlier I'm waiting for my case from polycase to come in the mail and then I can start making my case, which will be fun.

I don't really have a way to see if I ruined the SNES yet but I hope I didn't.

[AfroLH]

It's gonna be Mother Themed?
That'll be pretty sick if done right.

[gamerjr]

Golden sun nah i dont think so but mother is the 2nd best rpg out there.

[Schmeman]

Hey I'm currently soldering wire to the cart-slot and I'm getting really frustrated because I can't seem to get them to stick ><.

Does anyone have any tips when it comes to soldering?

[SonyPortableizer]

first, make sure you doing it the right way, not like me, where you solder wires on a gameboy on the wrong side, in reverse order, on the wrong set of pins.
Put the iron on the pins, get the pin hot, put the wire on the pin, let the wire get hot as well, put the line of solder on the two, and will hopefully flow well


If you get helping hands, they well, help. They hold the wire real close, and all you have to do is push it down with said iron, and then move the iron close

[Schmeman]

Here's a small little update to prove that I'm actually working and not just farting around.
Wish I could take a week off of work just to work on it, but who knew living was expensive...

I decided I don't want to continue working on anything "technical" until I finish the case

Here is the front of the case so far:



I know I used quite a bit of epoxy putty, but at least most of my sanding is out of the way. Plus, I couldn't really think of any other way to get rid of the indent that is on the front of the ZN-40 case.

In case you don't know what I mean I took a picture of the spare case I bought (in "case" I screwed up). <------ Really bad pun...



I haven't yet started on the back of the case, but hey, one step at a time right?

I did have one problem that I wasn't sure how to clean up. On the front of my case there are little tiny cracks that won't go away no matter how much I sand. As usual here's a really blurry picture in an attempt to help others to understand.



I was considering using some more epoxy putty on top of them and then sanding it down smooth. Any suggestions?
I noticed the mention of bondo spot filler on the forums quite a bit, and I was wondering if anyone would think this would work for my problem... It's too bad I'm such a perfectionist because every tiny thing bugs me... oh well

[Hifeno]

so far looks good. I got my first ps1 screen this past weekend for $20 at a flea market. All thats left for me to start one is a small snes. They all seem so expencive and I wanted to do this for under $75. Which I could do if I can find a small snes for under $25 dollars. I have everything else. Good work so far.

Also where did you get the stuff to fill in the gaps, holes. I was just going to use bondo. Will that work?

[Schmeman]

I have no experience working with bondo, however, everything I used on my case so far was epoxy putty.

It comes in a tube and when you mix the putty together it starts a chemical reaction that allows it to become hard. You can get it at your local hardware store, but you can also get some at Wal-mart. That's where I got mine.

I recommend buying some cheap plastic gloves before you use it though. I didn't the first time I used it and I spent forever washing the stuff off of my fingertips. Life of Brian recommends using water when working with Epoxy Putty.

You should check out Life of Brian's work log, it has a lot of information that should be very useful.

Here is a link to his topic

http://forums.benheck.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=22953" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


EDIT: I don't know why I bothered editing this but, I used water with the next bit of epoxy I used on the back of the case and it's sooooo much better than plastic gloves. I wasn't nearly as annoyed

[Schmeman]

I'm not sure how much anyone really cares but I thought I'd give a small update anyways.

I've been busy with work lately but I managed to finish wiring my cartridge slot, it took me forever but now I'm at least better at it.


next up is the batteries... which scares me but whatever



Also what do you guys think of these names:

Pork Army Portable
Gygas' Gaming Gizmo
The sNESSp

[OhSnap!]

Gygas' Gaming Gizmo

me likes it its a bit of a tongue twister though

[gumbyx84]

Looks mighty interesting. Can't wait to see what the final product will look like.

[Schmeman]

I had one question if anyone wanted to answer it. I just finished reattaching my cartridge slot to my motherboard via ribbon wire. And now it won't show anything when I turn on the system. I know it's not fried because I can hear the sound of it turning on and off ( little crackling noise). I suppose after all that blabbering here is my question: When stripping the wires, does it matter if a few strands fall off? The ribbon wire is so tiny its almost completely unavoidable.

[OhSnap!]

no a few little strands are fine, you may have a short circuit so make sure none of those loose strands are bridging any of those connections

[themadhacker]

try some better wire than ribbon cable. the wire strands tend to break off inside of the insulation.

[Schmeman]

I started this project about a year ago.. but I'm picking it back up again. With year 2 of college almost over, and the fact that I'm opting out of summer school (thank god) I decided that I would go to my dad's house in California for about a month. Bringing this project with me and hoping to finish it by the end of June. Can't wait to be chillin' with Gygas' Gaming Gizmo!