My first portable: N64p

[soulfirebang]

Hi, New here, came here specifically for tips
I found a very thorough Tutorial on the web, but i need to get some new instructions so i can improve things like battery life and cartridge placement
I have some experience with wiring and stuff (I'm 13 years old, I don't know if that's surprising or not)
So let's make this short and to the point:

1) what do you recommend to increase battery life, i want to have as long battery life as possible

2) on the mother board the cartridge slot sticks strait up, how could I get it to stick out the top [of finished product] like a GBA, and what wires do i need, how do i hook it up (I have searched all over the web and didn't find any info on this)

I haven't started the project yet, still need some tools and stuff so once I open the 64 the answer might be obvious, but i want to know as much as possible before i start, to prevent [to an extent] frying the 64

thanks ahead of time!

[Life of Brian]

We actually have a lot of people on these forums your age. Welcome to the forums!

1) what do you recommend to increase battery life, i want to have as long battery life as possible

2) on the mother board the cartridge slot sticks strait up, how could I get it to stick out the top [of finished product] like a GBA, and what wires do i need, how do i hook it up (I have searched all over the web and didn't find any info on this)

I suggest getting a "switching regulator" to increase battery life. Instead of dropping the voltage down from what your batteries provide to what your system needs and getting rid of the extra energy as heat (that's what a linear regulator does), a switching regulator is far more efficient and doesn't produce near as much heat. You could also get two batteries and wire them parallel to approximately double your battery life. I did both of these things for my SNES portable and I get wonderfully long battery life.

Question number 2 is easy - just rewire the entire cartridge slot. You'll need to disconnect it from the motherboard and then just run wires from where they used to connect to the board to the cartridge slot.

[soulfirebang]

hmm... I get what you're saying, (especially about #2)

another question i forgot to post:

Could i use a ds Battery? since a DS is essentially a portable 64? if i can, do I need more than one, and how long do you think it would last?

[CronoTriggerfan]

Welcome to the forums! Just to expand on Brian's good suggestion, there are some very basic things you can do to increase battery life as well. When building a portable, (or anything electronic related, really) remember that time is based in amperage per hour, or in our case, milliamps. So the less amperage your system draws, and the higher the amperage capacity of your battery, the better. To lower the mAh, you should LED mod your LCD, that way you're shaving about 400 mAh off of your system's total amperage draw. As far as a battery goes, higher capacity is best. To get the most capacity for size, you'd need to use lithium ion or polymer batteries, but they also have a nasty habit of exploding if they're charged improperly. I'd recommend using Ni-MH batteries, and nothing less than say, 4 amps, or 4,000 mAh. 5-6 would be even better, but the more batteries you put in, the bigger and heavier your portable is going to become. Check out www.batteryspace.com for some good prices and ideas of battery packs. If the price is a bit steep, search for that battery on eBay, I'm sure something will come up. Good luck, and keep us posted!

CTFan

[soulfirebang]

Welcome to the forums! Just to expand on Brian's good suggestion, there are some very basic things you can do to increase battery life as well. When building a portable, (or anything electronic related, really) remember that time is based in amperage per hour, or in our case, milliamps. So the less amperage your system draws, and the higher the amperage capacity of your battery, the better. To lower --

CTFan

Oh... well something I've always been confused about, isn't there like a limit, or a certain strength to a battery, so it won't OVER power the system, and, i dunno, make it explode?

[Valium]

hmm... I get what you're saying, (especially about #2)

another question i forgot to post:

Could i use a ds Battery? since a DS is essentially a portable 64? if i can, do I need more than one, and how long do you think it would last?

Ds runs on I'm guessing around 3.7 volts. A N64 is, 12 volts? 7.5 volts? I don't remember

Even once you get past the voltage, the DS uses very little amperage, their batteries are probably at max, 1000mAh. Which would probably power a N64 for about a half hour.

[CronoTriggerfan]

Could i use a ds Battery? since a DS is essentially a portable 64? if i can, do I need more than one, and how long do you think it would last?

If you're asking this, you probably shouldn't be starting off with an N64, you just need to learn electronics basics. A DS battery is, what, 3 volts at 1800mAh, about? The N64 requires 12 and 3.3v respectively, and your screen will need about 7.5, depending on the model, with a total amperage draw of, well, a lot. So to answer your question, no way, and do some research before trying something like this. Read these forums, check out Ben's book, look at electronics how-to's on the internet, and more importantly, START SMALL, maybe not even with a portable. Try your hand at an NESp, or maybe SNESp, and work your way up to N64 after you've gained some skill and knowledge. I was 13 or 14 when I finished my first portable, and it was hard enough, even knowing the basics.

CTFan

[soulfirebang]

Could i use a ds Battery? since a DS is essentially a portable 64? if i can, do I need more than one, and how long do you think it would last?

If you're asking this, you probably shouldn't be starting off with an N64, you just need to learn electronics basics. A DS battery is, what, 3 volts at 1800mAh, about? The N64 requires 12 and 3.3v respectively, and your screen will need about 7.5, depending on the model, with a total amperage draw of, well, a lot. So to answer your question, no way, and do some research before trying something like this. Read these forums, check out Ben's book, look at electronics how-to's on the internet, and more importantly, START SMALL, maybe not even with a portable. Try your hand at an NESp, or maybe SNESp, and work your way up to N64 after you've gained some skill and knowledge. I was 13 or 14 when I finished my first portable, and it was hard enough, even knowing the basics.

CTFan

Well, the main reason I asked that is I didn't know the amperage of a DS battery, if I had known, It would have been obvious and I wouldn't have asked.
And I'm up for the challenge, I like stuff like this. (plus, I don't have a snes or anything else hackable, just an N64)

well, i can't think of any more Q's, I'll post when I think of some I guess, or when I have photos... or something.

[vskid]

Could i use a ds Battery? since a DS is essentially a portable 64? if i can, do I need more than one, and how long do you think it would last?

You would need, like, 10 to get any decent playing time. And they're lithium-ion batteries, so protection circuits are needed unless you want it to turn into a torch. In short, forget it.

If you want to use Li-ion batteries, http://www.batteryspace.com/ has a nice selection, just make sure you get a protection circuit and a smart charger. NiMH batteries are cheaper, more forgiving (won't explode if you abuse them), and not too much bigger than Li-ions. BatterySpace has nicely priced NiMH packs, but RadioShack also has a good 7.2v 3300mAh pack for $25 if you don't want to buy online. With the 7.2v 3300mAh pack, you could probably get 1-2 hour of play time out of it (2 hours is pushing it). Like Brian said, you could about double playing time if you added another pack in parallel.

EDIT: DS batteries are 3.7v, about 900mAh. PSP batteries are around 1800mAh.

[bacteria]

Yes, good luck on your project and welcome to the forum.

The only thing my project (in the stickies) didn't do was be powered from batteries. I don't need it to be. The two voltages the N64 takes can be a fair bit lower than what they should be (I can't remember the figures exactly, if I recall it was about 10.83v and 2.87v as minimum). Also in my sticky you will see lots of step-by-step pics of relocating the cart slot, as you asked about it.

Hopefully you are making a proper self contained unit (N64, screen and controller included in one self contained unit) rather than just sticking a screen on top of the N64? Do you intend to make your own case, vacuum form one or frankencase?

[soulfirebang]

Do you intend to make your own case, vacuum form one or frankencase?

yes I do intend on making a case, and a good one at that, I'm not really a perfectionist, but I want thing to be the best they can.

If I know what you're saying about a vaccum form (and i think i do, L64 like shell?) I plan on doing that, my dad and I are asking around on how to do it, i know the basics, like the wood part (building) but need to know more, does anyone know?

#4) how can i make a vacuum sealed shell (ex: L64 Shell)

[lifeisbetterwithketchup]

if I recall it was about 10.83v and 2.87v as minimum).

I believe the 3.3v line had to be almost exactly 3.3v, but some mobo's were more flexible (could go lower). The "12v" line just goes into a 7805, so you could have down to 7v on there.

[Life of Brian]

yes I do intend on making a case, and a good one at that, I'm not really a perfectionist, but I want thing to be the best they can.

I like your attitude - that's definitely the way to go about projects like these.

If I know what you're saying about a vaccum form (and i think i do, L64 like shell?) I plan on doing that, my dad and I are asking around on how to do it, i know the basics, like the wood part (building) but need to know more, does anyone know?

#4) how can i make a vacuum sealed shell (ex: L64 Shell)

Those are questions easily answered by the Case Construction forum. Read all the threads you can find there about vacuum forming and hopefully you should be up to speed. That section of the forum hasn't been around for too long (well I guess that's relative), so it shouldn't take too long to research it.

[soulfirebang]

If I know what you're saying about a vaccum form (and i think i do, L64 like shell?) I plan on doing that, my dad and I are asking around on how to do it, i know the basics, like the wood part (building) but need to know more, does anyone know?

#4) how can i make a vacuum sealed shell (ex: L64 Shell)

Those are questions easily answered by the Case Construction forum. Read all the threads you can find there about vacuum forming and hopefully you should be up to speed. That section of the forum hasn't been around for too long (well I guess that's relative), so it shouldn't take too long to research it.

If you look at the date i posted that date, you'll see it was 4 days ago, And I found instructions, but, you had know way of knowing, so thank you!

[Life of Brian]

Well... you're welcome anyway