Joeafro N64 WIP will need some help/advice etc

[joeafro]

So i opened her up and can see its a 1996 dont know what that means but i guess its an earlier revision


Got down to removing the ports. Pretty standard not to difficult


Hmm this was the interesting part making it as small as possible. Think i did an Ok job, well it still powers on at least. Will test it on the tv tommorow.


I hope to rcp wire it so hopefully i can lose the top section. But besides that can i make it any smaller?

Im waiting on a 3.5" screen from china and havent decided on a case, batteries or even a name yet let me know what you guys are thinking

[mako321]

Relocate the caps on the right and trim the mobo down to the contacts, methinks. (Hopefully no traces in the way)

[Bush]

You're good at this.

[AdumUp]

Nice trim sir!... I don't know if It can get much smaller than that. Will you be building your own custom enclosure or using something from polycase

[Basement_Modder]

Nice trim sir!... I don't know if It can get much smaller than that. Will you be building your own custom enclosure or using something from polycase

learn2N64

It can get way smaller, even without RCP.

[Bush]

For a name, how about JoeFro64?

[AdumUp]

Nice trim sir!... I don't know if It can get much smaller than that. Will you be building your own custom enclosure or using something from polycase

learn2N64

It can get way smaller, even without RCP.

Sorry Sir, i just cant recall seeing anyone making it smaller than that. I know Bacteria's video had a N64 he had done about the same size, but he just chopped it up and wired everything together but i think he said there was a problem with doing that.

[joeafro]

Thanks guys. The caps on the right are next to traces so i cant trim there. Iv been tryng to RCP wire but its a massive mission . Im not sure about joefro64 was maybe thinkng about afro64??? Hopefully if i can sort everything out il take more pics.

[blaze3927]

i found a really good guide for this type of wiring on acidmods, i'll see if i can find it
helped me heaps with PSP stuff. the gist of it is
flux-apply solder-flux-clean iron- apply wire to point-hold down with tweezers/small flat head screwdriver-solder- clean iron -repeat

[The Smooth]

Nice trim sir!... I don't know if It can get much smaller than that. Will you be building your own custom enclosure or using something from polycase

learn2N64

It can get way smaller, even without RCP.

Sorry Sir, i just cant recall seeing anyone making it smaller than that. I know Bacteria's video had a N64 he had done about the same size, but he just chopped it up and wired everything together but i think he said there was a problem with doing that.

Don't listen to bacteria.

[Bush]

He is an idiot. I know people who have ruined their projects by following his advice. Also, he makes people into zombies.

[bentendo64]

Here is my trimming of N64 pcb:

You can still cut off a little above the solder holes for the cart slot, but I think that's it, nice job!

[joeafro]

Nice trim bentendo. How come you relocated those caps, did it save space? How come you wired the left chip to the right but didnt rcp the cart slot? Also what wire did you use it looks interesting.

I couldnt figure out why my rcp'd cart slot wouldnt work for the longest time. Then one day got and electric shock off my soldering iron, tested it and it was putting out 9v

Its safe to say that board is fried but i have a new n64 and soldering iron now so will start again soon.

Dont know if i will bother with rcp its a lot of effort for not much space saving. Might do the cart slot similar to the triforce64 think thats a good solution.

[Snow_Cat]

That's normal, irons are big inductors, my old Radioshack/Nextech was spitting out 48VAC. My multimeter couldn't detect any current from it to ground with a 100 Ω resistor. Though it was a really crappy meter, so I replaced the iron with one that is grounded even though mine never did fry any components or shock me. The 'new' 60W iron scares people from borrowing it; makes lots of 'scary' noises.

Even if you iron was hot in more ways than one, as long as the pcb wasn't connected to anything (or on a ground pad) it should be okay since the current could not flow through the board and damage it, except from inductors which would couple to the iron's EM field... but that's just crazy.

[Hrduncan]

true some is wrong some is right you kinda have to research more than those videos as there are some better methods but his videos do get a lot of projects off the ground any updates?