why 12V?

DeathJr89 · Post by **DeathJr89** » Sun Aug 13, 2006 10:07 am

does the N64 actually need the full 12 volts for anything? why wouldnt you just use a 5V battery or something? i never looked inside, but just from looking around in here, i can't figure out why for batteries you wouldnt just use what you need...

demonofaj · Post by **demonofaj** » Sun Aug 13, 2006 10:09 am

Well, not necessarily 12 V. As in, we can power the converter with 12V. or any voltage, but the part/pin that says 12V. goes to a 7805 voltage linear regulator, and those can run off of 7.2 volts simple. So, you don't necessarily need 12V. just anything that can power both the 7805(6V and up) and your own converter, for me being 7V and up.

DeathJr89 · Post by **DeathJr89** » Sun Aug 13, 2006 10:15 am

but i mean, if you can find a battery that is about 4V as is, would you even need the regulator or converter? i mean they say that it needs 3.3V on all the diagrams, so i dont know why there actually needs to be a converter if you have a battery witht eh appropriate volts already, unless is there anything that needs the 7.2V that you were talking about?

Turbo Tax 1.0 · Post by **Turbo Tax 1.0** » Sun Aug 13, 2006 10:20 am

im not sure, you could try using a 3.7 volt li-poly battery for the 3.3 line and then using a step up converter to get 5

timmeh87 · Post by **timmeh87** » Sun Aug 13, 2006 10:34 am

thats asking for trouble.

for instance. remember having screen distortion on the input of the dc-dc? well that would be like putting CPU on the input of a dc-dc...

plus, those batteries get up to 4.2v open circuit, fully charged. i dunno if the 3.3v line would like that.

DeathJr89 · Post by **DeathJr89** » Sun Aug 13, 2006 10:41 am

alright, thanks for clearing that up guys, i'll just use the converter which everyone else is doin, it just seems easier rather than risking messing my stuff up by trying something new.

*o* · Post by ***o*** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 2:43 am

people often use a 7.2v power supply so that you only need one regulator for the 3.3v, it also allows you to run the screen and n64 directly (unregulated)

Krepticor · Post by **Krepticor** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 7:37 am

the point of the converter nonsense is for pure simplicity

The fact that you can use one 7.2V Li-Ion battery is much more simple than keeping up with which battery has lost power and the like

Also, The TI Converter is like nothing to hook up and only needs three components, a 100uF Capacitor (rated above 3.3 V), a small rectifier diode, and an inductor (which is technically optional) The point being that just get one of the free samples from TI and be happy

And yes the TI Samples are 100% free, even Free shipping!

DeathJr89 · Post by **DeathJr89** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 8:40 am

hooray for free stuff! which model of the sample saves the most space?

Post by **Gamelver** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 12:26 pm

they're all the same size, really, just with different types of pins.

demonofaj · Post by **demonofaj** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 5:13 pm

If you're a noob solder-er, you'll want some bigger contacts, the PTH08000, but not necessarily bigger in space, although you may need more components to properly power it. I chose the PTH08080, which is awesome converter, and it shows practically no distortion. I got a 7.2 V battery and used that to input in the converter, and put that in the 12v. place, it's all great...well, this tip may have revealed my next, up and coming project.

DeathJr89 · Post by **DeathJr89** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 6:53 pm

my soldering skills are pretty good (i did some really small stuff on this robot kit i got for christmas a few years back) so, that considered, would it just be simpler to go with the free sample one that they were talking about?

demonofaj · Post by **demonofaj** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 7:55 pm

Yea, all the good things at TI have free samples, well at least all of the DC-DC convertrs