Bacteria's "Make a portable Nintendo N64 handheld" video log

[MrPopo]

This is fantastic work man!

[bacteria]

Thanks!


Finished wiring, did first test, tentitively - after all, been doing a fair bit of work on the system and this is the test to see if it works or fries. Anyway, it works fine, although I must have a dry joint somewhere as if the case front is tilted a little I get a light buzzing sound and the video garbles, move the case a bit more and all fine again. Will have to see if I can find where the issue is on the many many joints that have been soldered too. At least the system is working, it's now at the troubleshooting stage! (these projects never work great first time around, there are always things to resolve).

Toying with the idea of making a video in the next days, after finishing this project but before doing final videos, of "hints, tips and modding techniques" to cover a spectrum of things like relocating capacitors, cutting a board and attaching small wires to tiny traces, trimming boards and reducing shorts, etc - general, helpful modding tips and techniques that I think people will find very useful. Actually, i'll do it - it will be of benefit to people.

Back to troubleshooting on the project, testings, etc. I have two more pieces of video to take before releasing the final WIP project video - the bit I have just done, when it all works ok, and case closing. All being well, video should be uploaded during the week, it all depends upon how long troubleshooting and general testing takes, before can move to the next stage.

Initial tests - there are lots of things to test, all the buttons, controls, etc etc.

So far, only getting output from one speaker, not sure the problem with the other one - could be lost part of a trace when reduced the PSone screen board a bit more a while back - can solder the contact straight to the capacitor on the back of the board - no problem. Pluged in th multi-function port - volume + and - work fine but must have missed wired the screen contrast - as the + is fine. Recharge is fine, as did before; the joystick seems ok, no "controller missing" when game starts so controller must be ok (did a fair bit of rewiring to that). Got to test the d-pad (which was rewired to traces), buttons (I know Start works, that is all I have tested so far). Also then need to test headphone jack, external controller, memory/rumble pack, rumble motor, Z button, shoulder buttons, confirm joystick is responsive. Lots to do yet, testing will be done over playing a few games as some test different ways.

This stage is the fun and frustrating part of the project - fun because you start to see things coming together and frustrating as you need to keep removing the console board, etc to make repairs and get things not working, working.

Pic so far - put the two case halves together, sandwiched between a 1 inch thick foam pad, so no chance of shorts, and easy to separate the case halves for testings.

Ignore the look of the screen image - camera clearly doesn't like the reflection of the screen image and the external lighting - the lines are not on the screen image.

[bacteria]

Video 19 uploaded!

Removing reset button, installing shoulder buttons, installing fan assembly to keep system cool.

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[bacteria]

Relocated the expansion pack on the N64 board, got it working nicely; then decided to bend the wires backwards (as planned) to flatten it against board - one single wire came loose, so when the system was turned back on, it shorted and fried the N64 board.

No problem, going to use a new N64 console board to put in proper heatsinks this time, relocate the expansion pack and trim the board right down in size, including wiring directly to the cart pins and removing the whole area. No problem, I have a few spare consoles!

Still expect to complete by end of April with any luck; although obviously this problem has caused a delay!

[MrPopo]

Man, that sucks. That basically requires you to do all the work over again, doesn't it?

[bacteria]

Only for the controller and the console board!

[DNT 2.5]

You need to clean up that rat's nest of wiring, I use heat shrink and group similar wires together,
What I did for the wiring on mine was combine the Composite, Raudio,Laudio and ground together.
Then I built the Power supply ( more or less, it supplies power) I color coded the 12V lines, the 5V lines, and the 3.3V line came from the PTH08080WAH I just grouped them together, makes life much easier, not to mention it will actually allow the console to cool better, You don't see an Xbox connected together with a rats nest of wires , do you?

[bacteria]

The "rats nest" as you put it is because i'm not securing the wires into their final places (ie secured to the sides of the case where I can) until I know everything works fine, otherwise it is hard to trace what wire does what and also make changes.

Now I have discovered that I can fit in the expansion pack fine and also 4mm high heatsinks on the chips (problem I had before was down to a couple of copper pieces and hot glue that elevated the board in the wrong places; also cart relocation wires getting in the way), I need to wire the cart slot wires around the board far neater, then all will be fine. Going to have to wire backwards though, from the cart slot to the board though to do it.

This will help with airflow; originally was going to use the airspace around the game cart for hot air removal, however, instead going to seal that and make a couple of holes at the top of the case so air is forced over the chips and out of the top of the case - will work far more effectively.

[bacteria]

Been ages since posted in this thread. Killed an N64 board trying to relocate the expansion pack, turned out I didn't need to do that anyway (good thing the consoles cost about £3 each!), although in process also killed an expansion pack! From time to time memory cards fail, I have had that with unmodded ones in the past (old electronics can fail); anyway, my memory/rumble pack suddenly failed and died - when I removed it I put it into an unmodded controller and it confirmed it was toast. The old controller also got a bit flaky. Modded a new controller the same way, this time worked great; new rumble/memory card worked fine (tried one I thought was dead in the interim and it proved in fact to be dead); the fine wiring to the audio amp on the PSone screen I cut down ages ago needed two wires re-soldered (that was hard soldering!).

Bottom line, is new console board, new controller, new expansion pack, new rumble/memory pack; connected to batteries; everything seems to work. Just a little more testing to do before close case up. Going to remake the multi-function output port as decided not to bother with a 2nd controller port as I will never use it - means the multi-function port can be far smaller now, might even fit into a GameBoy game cart!

Start work again tomorrow after my last days off, so should hopefully get the final video log done Sunday/Monday, all being well.

On a different note, got a composite mod board today for the Intellivision console, will start a thread in due course about that, and the image quality gained.

Wiring tidier now, just some minor wiring remaining.

[MrPopo]

Very exciting Bac.