Bacteria's project: "Project Unity"

[bacteria]

Spent a couple of hours tonight, got an N64 board prepped, all ports removed, etc; and i've worked out there is space between the NeoGeo and PS2 board to house the N64 board, and keep the wires 7.5" long for the cart relocation. That saves me time having to use loads of shielded cable. I'll get the N64 wired up in the next day or two and working. Then, just need to get the Saturn in place - the motherboard is really easy to put into the Unity system, however will need more work for the drive unit as that needs to be mounted and also made to look nice. Then, video time, then i'll make a start on the new revised master controller, get the console controller sections made for it, then another video. By that stage, there will be 4 systems working together, out of the 20 it'll end up with.

[bacteria]

Ok, all N64 wired up, worked first time. Going to get it mounted into the casing tomorrow night.

[bacteria]

Quite a good update!

Got to work on the Saturn drive unit. Made the surround for it, this was the first part, the front piece reinforced as i'll have to have something screwed into it later, maybe, to pull the drive unit out to change discs



Cut a piece of 20mm MDF and screwed above the PS2 drive unit, giving about a 3mm gap so there is no contact with the drive unit. On top, superglued a piece of styrene to give a flat and smooth surface for the drive unit to move along. To secure the Saturn motherboard in place and elevated from the NeoGeo board, superglued three strips of thin hardwood to the MDF of the NeoGeo section, the Saturn motherboard is literally resting there, and I have one screw securing the board in place in the MDF, that's all. Dead easy to remove the section if need to!



And here it is in place.

On top of the unit is the N64 board ready to install, going to make a shelf to hold the Saturn drive unit in place (and also means when the drive is pulled out, the drive unit is supported too, and that will also be the base (bottom) for the first of the remaining cart consoles (N64 to start). Made no effort to reduce the size of the expansion pack as don't need to, the N64 motherboard will be back a fair bit in the case so i'll have another console in front of it, meaning the overall height is no issue with the expansion pack.



The last two drive unit systems will go above the Saturn one; carts on left, drive systems on right.

I've got up to 24cms remaining height, the drive units will need about 19 cms so no issue, and probably won't need much more than that for the cart systems either.

Going to check my wiring is fine, then make the shelf for the N64, and then test all the systems (PS2, NeoGeo, Saturn, N64) and make a video to show progress so far. Then I can take a bit of a break and make a start on making the new master controller.

[bacteria]

In process of uploading new YouTube video on this project now, will take about 1.5 hours from now to upload, it's around 15 minutes long. Hope you enjoy it!

(i'll provide a link tonight or tomorrow to it if you haven't found it already!)

[bacteria]

Here is it - left it uploading earlier!



(it would be nice if YouTube videos could be embedded on this forum BTW!) - just a suggestion!

[bacteria]

Done the holes for the two joysticks, NES cart and both d-pads. Got the 2 action buttons to do yet, going to use white buttons and have a multi-coloured LED inside; i've bought 4 of them, they have green, red and blue diodes inside one 5mm LED, each with a pair of contacts, which means in effect you can adjust the voltages to get different colours showing. I need to make the buttons for this to work of course.

In the pic, using the d-pad in the middle for general use, and it's a d-pad on a short stick which means it should be far better for normal use than a normal d-pad; and on the bottom left is a d-pad cross made to size, and also 8 tact switches to allow the Intellivision 8 way movement.



Got the NES cart (which will in practice be gutted for the case which will be used to house a controller board for each console system) sticking out a bit, to make it easy to remove and insert into the master controller when done.

Got a fair bit of work to do yet, and experimenting with the LED's when they arrive; also have to do the shoulder buttons, then onto painting.

[bacteria]

So, project update time!

Was going to use a d-pad on a small shaft, from one of a couple of choices I have from plug'n'plays; however decided actually, the very best d-pad and buttons for that matter is from this controller from a crappy plug'n'play - which has excellent d-pad and also buttons - buttons have good depression and feel positive. From the N-Joystick plug'n'play - my favourite modding controller for cases!



Here's the controller, surface around the buttons is flat, so ideal. I used the buttons for the previous master controller too, BTW, fortunately I had a spare one.



Board inside is easy to wire up and cut down



Cut out the surrounds, and made a pretty exact hole in the case, in the pic the piece is held precisely in place with no glue or tape - just a tight fit. Added strips of plastic, superglued to join the surrounds to the case properly.





Buttons are all straight and also level to each other too

[bacteria]

Sanded the squares in the keypad to fit the new tact switches (that took a while), and done the shoulder buttons; done two holes for top button and one for bottom, as bottom is L2 and R2 shoulders, the top ones are L1 and R1, and made the division to meet between the end joint of my index finger, so the button on the side will have contact first then the other one for full tact depression (clicky tact switch), this is for the GameCube and DreamCast primarily.



(controller is upside down in pic for illustration)

Next job will be painting.

[bacteria]

Got the controller painted and varnished. Will post pics of it in next day or two, leaving it to dry fully before handling.

Been rather sick, felt bad yesterday, on mend today. Work colleague was coughing his guts up on Thursday and Friday and frankly shouldn't have been working, but did, and I got sick off him. Had rough last couple of nights. After extra sleeps today, came to lunchtime and I started to get more on the mend, feeling mostly back to normal again mid-afternoon although my voice isn't as strong as normal. I'll be right to get back to work tomorrow, had to take today off - couldn't concentrate, felt woozy and lethargic, wasn't fit to work; clearly i'm getting better now though. So, in afternoon, took it easy, didn't do any modding work (barely) but did work on some graphics, and prepare a NES cart.

Removed the three NES screws, dremelled off the middle screw post as that will get in the way of the console controller board, cleaned the cart and removed the glue residue from the label on the front with a Dettol Anti-septic wipe - they are great for cleaning plastics. Prepared one of the JAMMA connectors making it 50 pin (25 per side) and as you see, the decals are done for the first system.

[CRTGAMER]

The decals are done for the first system.

The Decals look really good, can you go into detail how you made them? Do they have a clear protector and what was used for the glue?