N64 Liuhu Edition

[Liuhuparta]

I have came up with two questions now. Firstly I would like to know if there needs to be some components between N64's AV output and PSOne's AV input? With GameCube I hade to put one resistor and capasitor which were inside the signal cable. I tried to put the same components this time with N64, but the picture is getting some interferences. Secondly I want to ask if somebody knows, can the N64's 5 volt regulator handle 1,6 ampers? Then I could connect my 3,3 volt regulator to that and would save a lot of battery power without speaking of the heat it generates.

[evilteddy]

Just connect the wires straight from the av output to the psone screen as per the diagrams in the sticky. No extra components are needed unless you are messing around with RGB or s-video.

From what I remember the 5 volt regulator on the n64 is a 7805 which means that it will probably only supply 7805 and also that it is a linear regulator. This means that this will still waste extra energy as heat to drop it to the right voltage. Seeing as you obviously have the smarts to do it why don't you build your own using a switching regulator like the LM317. It will supply 1.5A at anything from 1.2 - 37V.

[Liuhuparta]

Yeah, I tried to connect it alredy without components at all and the sreen was all fuzzy and it has horisontal interferences. I understand you haven't read the whole topic, but I have said that I made a LM317 circuit and it's working fine. I'm just wondering if there's some way to save batteris, because it's now running straight from the battery voltage.



Here's the whole thing I have made now. You can't see it in this picture, but the picture in the screen isn't sharp. Also the N64 is still crashing! If anybody has any ideas, why it does that, tell me immediately! Can the fault be in the Expansion Pak connections if it works couple of minutes without failing? Some times it crashes almost instantly with SM64. I'm beginning to consider soldering that whole beast all over again.

[SifuF]

Firstly I would like to know if there needs to be some components between N64's AV output and PSOne's AV input?

Well done so far.

PAL N64's have a capacitor on the video line in the AV cable. NTSC does not.
My recent portables worked fine when connected directly to the screen,
But the first Sixtyfree gave a bad picture with out the cap (All were PAL).

This is the PAL AV cable:

Also the N64 is still crashing! If anybody has any ideas, why it does that, tell me immediately!

This is most likely to be heat related. Thermal paste/grease must only be used if the heatsink is clamped down or secured by some other method. Hot glue most certainly will not do. The glue will heat up and allow the heatsink to move within a matter of seconds. The fact that your heatsinks don't feel very hot could be because of a poor connection with the chips.

I would recommend removing the thermal paste, and attaching the heatsinks using a thermal adhesive or thermal pads.
You could also try a slightly larger heatsink on the expansion pack.

SifuF

[Liuhuparta]

Firstly, thanks for answers.

Well I have secured only the two largest heatsinks and the three others aren't secured at any way... There's just thermal paste between them and chips. I didn't want to clamp them down, because I wasn't sure, if the connections between the Expansion Pak and the mother board are OK. If I had to redo them, I would have needed some space to solder. I have secured the heatsinks with super glue. Is that a good choice? I think I could order some thermal pads but I'm not too sure, which would work nicely. I'm new to heating chips so forgive me about that.

I also received my rubber tact switches today and they feel awesome.

Edit:



Today I worked a whole lot with the buttons. The star button is an old B-button from 3rd party GC-controller. I had to sand the B away. I thought I never get it as glossy as the others, but then I invented the smoothest sand paper ever: paper! Tomorrow I will test them and make something like a small cup for the D-pad, so it will perform nicely.

Edit 2:

Now I have made a circuit, which will light up a led, when the batteries are low. I also tested the screen while pressing heatsinks hard towards the chips and it did not crash. Yesterday I ordered thermal adhesive, which I use to replace the paste. I just came up with one stupid thing. My charger charges the batteries with one amper and the machine uses more than two which means that I can't use this thing while it's charging. Damn it.

[Liuhuparta]

I bet you allready forgot this project of mine! Well it's not ready so it's not over yet. I had a holiday week at school so sorry for lack of updates. Now I back for more.



In the picture above you can see all the stuff exluding the batteries. Controls and batteries are going to both sides of the console. On the top there are R- and Z-buttons plus L on the both sides for symmetry. On the bottom you see the rumble motors. Today I soldered the rumble pak to controller board. Do you have any good tips for material for insulating the PCBs when laying on top of each other inside the case? It should me warmproof because it will be layed on top of the heatsinks.



Here's the whole cable hell from the side with cardridge. I've used allmost none hotglue. I'm trying to use it as little as possible. The portable is about five centimeters high, not nine!

The freaking N64 still can't function without crashes! I just replaced the thermal pastes today with these thermal adhesives so I have no idea for the reason of this. Any help would be higly appreciated. Without that I'm probably quite stuck indeed.

[daftmike]

You might be experiencing crashes due to low voltage on the 3.3V line, measure it when the portable is running and make sure it is within a tenth of a volt or so of 3.3

[Liuhuparta]

I'm getting PTH08000 so hopefully that will fix this problem. I think, I'm getting the batteries tomorrow.

[thewise1]

What daftmike said could also be the problem. The n64 can sometimes be very picky about the voltage, a lot of people say to use a 2.2k resistor in the pth08000 but that will only give you something like 3.1 volts, if you can get your hands on one use a 1.8k resistor. It will give you almost exactly 3.3 volts.

[XCVG]

I found a 1.8k resistor inside an old VCR. It's one of my most treasured possesions.

[Life of Brian]

You could always wire two or more resistors in series to get the value you need...

I've really enjoyed reading your worklog, Liuhuparta! I'm looking forward to seeing more!

[Liuhuparta]

Now after today's testing I notice everything working except screen button combinations. Before it worked and now it doesn't. After it worked I just soldered the rumble pack to controller PCB and sorted out some of the wires. I tried desoldering the 3,3 volt line from rumble pack to see, if it works without it, but it still goes crazy. I managed to track down the problem: not gates "get stuck" after first button press which means that, when you have ones pressed start and any of C-buttons, it just tries to increase or decrease volume or brightness depending which C-button you pressed. I have checked about everything dozens of times and it seems that I haven't messed anything up. Tomorrow I think I'll have to desolder one part at a time away to see, where the problem is. Mysterious.

[XCVG]

Now after today's testing I notice everything working except screen button combinations. Before it worked and now it doesn't. After it worked I just soldered the rumble pack to controller PCB and sorted out some of the wires. I tried desoldering the 3,3 volt line from rumble pack to see, if it works without it, but it still goes crazy. I managed to track down the problem: not gates "get stuck" after first button press which means that, when you have ones pressed start and any of C-buttons, it just tries to increase or decrease volume or brightness depending which C-button you pressed. I have checked about everything dozens of times and it seems that I haven't messed anything up. Tomorrow I think I'll have to desolder one part at a time away to see, where the problem is. Mysterious.

Maybe you overheated a part when soldering. It happens to the best of us.

[Liuhuparta]

I allready switched the port chips to new ones (that's why I use stands for them!) and it still works like crap. I'm pretty sure the problem isn't in the port circuit PCB, because I haven't touched that after it worked. Thanks for the idea though. Two heads are better than one and so on.

[Liuhuparta]

I got the button combinations working and I must admit, it was quite stupid mistake I made. I powered the logic gates from the 7,4 volt line so 3,3 volts weren't enough to act like "one" for inverter. Now they take their power from the 3,3 volt line and they work like charm again. I was using more than 3,3 volts before so they worked because of that.



Here are the batteries under work.



Here everything is almost working... The damn Nintendo 64 still crashes after all this! I changed it to use PTH08000 so the problem can't be with the 3,3 volts. I think I'll switch some heat sinks to bigger ones tomorrow if that's the problem. I'm really getting tired with all this crashing. That thing is so picky