Round 3, fight! (with pictures)

Includes but not limited to: SNES, Genesis, Sega CD, PlayStation 1, Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, Game Gear and I guess the Virtual Boy.

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superdeformed
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Round 3, fight! (with pictures)

Post by superdeformed »

Unsatisfied with my first and second portable N64s, I'm going at it for the 3rd time. I've completely scrapped the second one for the board and controls, and taken the screen out of my first. My main goal for this one was to make it fairly small and comfortable to hold (unlike my first one), but with a good sized screen (unlike my second, with a 2.5" intec screen pad). So basically something smack dab in the middle of the two.

I also wanted to use the expansion pack in this one without taking up a whole lot of space depth wise, so that was the first thing I set out to do. It took about 2 days work to wire the pack straight to the board and make a bracket for it. Probably would have taken less if I hadn't missed one of the connections the first time through :oops:. Here's what I came up with for it:

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It's a little dark, but you can probably get the idea still. I also cleaned up the cartridge slot area and put longer wires on it, but that only took a couple of hours to do.

Next was figuring out a way to hold the heatsinks in place, which turned out to be the most time consuming part so far. In the process of making a bracket for the heatsinks, I also decided I would try to mount the controller, screen, and power supply all on the same one to make a single unit. After a few days (plus painting and drying time) I had one bracket to hold the N64, screen, and power supply together, and two smaller brackets to hold the cartridge slot in place.

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The bracket is made out of thin sheet steel, and painted to prevent rusting.

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Top view of the board. The controller is screwed down to a piece of sheet copper, which was soldered down to one of the mounts that sticks up off the board.

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Back view of the board with brackets in place. Both are made out of the aluminum panels that come with project boxes as an alternate cover.

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Side view with everything in place. The board in the center is the DC-DC converter (PTH08080 from TI) and a 7805 to power a 30mm fan.

Overall the entire unit is just under 2.5" thick. I'm planning to have the controls below and to the sides of the screen, and the battery (6-cell RC pack) above the cartridge slot (which points down). So far I've spent a little over a week doing everything, and all that's left now is to hook up all the wires and make a case for it.

edit: rehosted images on imageshack, stupid geocities
Last edited by superdeformed on Fri Apr 14, 2006 10:26 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Gamelver
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Post by Gamelver »

looking good so far :).

It looks like it'll be real sturdy and hold up well to some intense N64p playing ;). nice job on the expansion pack rewiring, too. I'm looking forward to seeing your third N64p :D.
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timmeh87
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Post by timmeh87 »

wow. this is spoookily close to how ive done mine so far. good work. i think we're the only ones whove ever done the expansion pack thing sucessfully
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vb_master
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Post by vb_master »

Gamelver wrote:intense N64p playing ;).
I don't think it could handle the N64 kid. :P
Turbo Tax 1.0
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Post by Turbo Tax 1.0 »

wow nice job relocating the expansion slot you must be damn good with an iron :D
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Skyone
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Post by Skyone »

Jesus, what iron do you use?

That makes me, tim and you the only 3 that have relocated it, I'm freaking proud!

Good luck!
timmeh87
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Post by timmeh87 »

ah, so youve done it too?
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Skyone
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Post by Skyone »

Ya, with the 4mb RAM extension. My irons are to bulky, and fat. I was at my uncles when I did it, he has some $300 Weller, it went smoothly. :wink:
Krepticor
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Post by Krepticor »

yea i'm seriously looking to buy a good weller soon

I kinda uhh...butcher whatevr i tend to touch with the standard radioshack iron core model i have

What is a good model weller station that can be used but wn't break the bank?
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joevennix
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Post by joevennix »

Wow, that's completely awesome. That jumper pak relocation... whew. You must have serious skill man.
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Klefmung
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Post by Klefmung »

Skyone wrote:Jesus, what iron do you use?

That makes me, tim and you the only 3 that have relocated it, I'm freaking proud!

Good luck!
I almost had something like that, relocating the disc reader board on the GC, but I ripped the wires out and put it back where it was. >_>
gannon wrote:hmm... *ponders about power abuse* :P
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vb_master
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Post by vb_master »

Klefmung wrote:>_>
You use those in every post, I hate it when people use those in excess. >_<.
superdeformed
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Post by superdeformed »

These are the soldering irons that I use, and the tips that I usually use with each:

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The one on the left is one of these. I bought it last year for $50 new. The second one is a long out of production EC2002 station (uses this iron), which I got at the beginning of this year for $40 used at a surplus electronics store. They both work great and you can get pretty much the same style tips for either of them, but I usually use the EC2002 as it's digitally temperature controlled.

If you're looking for a good cheap soldering iron, the WLC100 works great, but I'd also suggest checking out http://www.circuitspecialists.com. A friend recommended that site to me when I was looking into desoldering tweezers, and said that the CSI stations are pretty much the same as the Hakko brand ones.
Neildo_64
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Post by Neildo_64 »

I use a Weller 100W/140W soldering gun. It cost me somewhere around $50 about 2 years ago.

The pros: Heats fast. Melts solder quickly. Isn't always hot. Tips arent outrageously priced. Very durable.
The cons: Its a little heavy (not really, but compared to a soldering iron). Its 140W so it gets REALLY hot. Kinda big so sometimes its hard to get into small places.

Overall, I really like this and even for soldering small things it seems to work great. I used it to relocate the controller expansion port and it worked great. I think its because its so hot that you dont have to let it sit on the solder; it almost instantly melts it so you can get the heat out of the way fast.
joevennix
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Post by joevennix »

100W GUN??!?!?!
Wow you are lucky you haven't fried anything yet.
Yet...

Seriously, 100W is way too hot for small electronics work. 15-40W is fine, 60W is pushing it, but 100W??? Those things are supposed to be used for soldering pipes and such.

I bet they could give you some nasty burns too.
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