Bacteria's project: "Project Unity"

[bacteria]

Well, I seem to be flittering between three parts of the project - tested the NeoGeo again and all fine. I need to add resistors as the colours are a bit washed out, 47 ohm resistors should do the trick. Got to remove the cart port off the old board and relocate it for the working board.

I'm also eyeing the PS2 as want to get the DVD remote working and also hard wire a PS1 memory card to memory port 2; and finish that system.

And, made a start on the new master controller! Like I said, flittering between the three things at the moment.

The JAMMA cart port grips the JAMMA trace boards like its life depends on it, which is no use, so I carefully dremmelled the middle of the port down, removed the pins, reduced the height of the plastic surround and then superglued the top parts of the pins when they were put back into the port. Basically, i'm doing my own cart port, cannibalizing from the generic one, to make it easy to get the trace board into place easily and remove it easily too without any force.

Also, discovered I can only have 50 pins in the NES game port after all, no issue as after all, that's what I got with the N64 cart port for the same job. The one in the middle of the pic is completed, on the right needs work done on it yet. All I need to do is mount the two pin halves together, separated apart a tiny bit more than they were originally, maybe about 1mm - that makes all the difference though.

[bacteria]

The NeoGeo motherboard needs the cart section turned around the easy way so i'm wiring the connectors so the mini board (with the cart slots) can move around the back, in effect reversing its position. I have 248 wires to connect, that's 496 solder joints, before I even know if it works or i've killed the board; that's about 4 hours soldering work!

Also, had to cut through 1/2" of the side of the board against the cart ports, which is ground; only problem is the NeoGeo board is a multi layer board so i'm hoping I didn't cut through anything in the process in the hidden layers - doubt I have as on both sides the top layer was ground which would tend to indicate the inner layers are too - can't be sure though until try it.

Anyway, done around 50 wires so far...

[bacteria]

Relocated half of it now. At this rate, I should have it wired up Wednesday and tested. Told myself if this wiring works, i'll buy myself a multicart for the NeoGeo. They cost about £85 and have a stack of game images on one cart; I have 3 original NeoGeo carts, however many titles cost mega money each which isn't an option (up to around £100-£200 for some, each). The 168 in 1 cart i'll get is supposed to work just like original game images, not emulation within the images either.

To get to that stage, I have to trust that the bit off the NeoGeo board (as in pic above) has not caused any damage, and also 496 solder joints and 248 wires are all working without ANY shorts; and also after having to bend the wires a bit too. This really has to be the biggest cart relocation test going!

[bacteria]

After 2 hours tonight, got the last half done. Got to reconnect the A/V lines and power, and also mount the motherboard onto books so as not to put pressure on the wires, then can test. Here's a pic of all the wiring so far!

[bacteria]

SUCCESS!



As you see, the motherboard and daughterboard are now connected and flat, with the game cart inserted - works! (ignore the image pic on the screen, photos of a television always look mis-representative. Added a 47 ohm resistor to the C-Sync line to make the image less washed out and more normal. I can adjust the resistor if needed until get it right if need to.

Next job will be to add the daughter board to the plastic game cart holder and have that secured to wood for strength; hope the wires are ok being rotated to right angle, facing the opposite way around than of course it was originally designed to. Going to have to be careful in that step - once it is done, and working, i'll secure it firmly into place so it won't have any way to move.

[bacteria]

COol update!

Got to work to get the game cart facing the opposite way, which was the whole point of the rewiring exercise - I want the board behind and the cart at the front, not the cart over the board.

Connected some scrap MDF to the cart holder and also motherboard. The MDF holding the cart slots is screwed to the MDF on the motherboard so can be removed if any repairs are needed.



Thought it prudent to test with my Puzzle Bobble cart first rather than my multi cart, just in case!

Success!

[bacteria]

Here's quite a big update. Spent ages getting this "just right".

Here was the NeoGeo finished, and working fine:



Here it is, screwed to the system case in 4 places. It is strong, and the cart is quite easy to insert and remove too.



One factor I knew would be a pain was the fact that some carts are big and some small, some deep, some not. Some systems like N64 and Megadrive, you want the game cart sticking out about 2 or 3 cms from the system, however if you try that with the NeoGeo for example, you don't get enough "wiggle" to get the cart out easily (plus the system case would need to be longer!). What that means in reality, is when the system is finished, I won't keep the Unity system "loaded" with games as it will look ugly, with different carts, different shapes, different sizes and also sticking out different amounts, that means i'll only insert a cart when using it.

Anyway:



Cart loaded.

I was hoping to have the Saturn drive to the right of the NeoGeo cart (above the PS2 drive) however there isn't enough space now, need to raise the Saturn drive unit by about 25mm so it will work and install fine in position, which means I have a gap between the PS2 and Saturn - so i'm going to use that space for an N64 (I think I have enough space for the motherboard in there somewhere).

Got the NeoGeo in there fine and did more wiring (for the controls), but not tested it in its final position as I need to turn around the Unity system and make double sure there are not boards too close to each others or wires caught.

The next video on this system will cover quite a bit of ground; i'll have the PS2, N64, Saturn and NeoGeo installed and all working (minus master controller); layer 3 will have DreamCast and GameCube (with GBA Player as before), but once i've got the above systems done and finished, i'll set onto remaking the master controller as mentioned before.

[bacteria]

Tested the NeoGeo, works fine. As mentioned, the game cart inserts and removes easily too.

Then tested the PS2 again, works fine too.

Next step will now be N64, with longer cart wiring probably. Then I can fit the Saturn into the Unity system; then onwards!

[xan_racketBOY_fan]

Insane - love that you're throwing a MVS in the mix. This project reminds me of Yoshi's Boxx, have you seen it?

[bacteria]

That system I saw a while back; it is rather basic compared to the Unity system. He's only got 5 systems plus PC so 6 in total, has to remove the side panel to change NES and Atari games, and of course each system needs own controllers. Neat idea, but simple. Only thing his system can do that mine can't is to have all systems on at the same time (not a great idea anyway if you think about it) as he's using a computer PSU whereas i'm using one 12v transformer. The systems he chose also all run off 12v and 5v so simple; avoiding the systems that use a bucket load of other voltages.

A good system for sure, but basic frankly.