Wow, the parts of the N64 motherboard sure are well-labeled!

Post by **benheck** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 12:47 pm

This should be fairly easy to do. I'm gonna use a matrix of batteries to give 4000mAH at 12 volts and a 5" PSone screen with white LED's. How long do ya'll think it'll run like that?

Oh boy! I can't WAIT to make a N64p -VS- The Nintendo DS article! Because let's face it, the SP is basically a portable SNES that you have to buy games for all over again and the DS is an N64.

I've got the main case already designed, just gotta put in the details. It's going to be 9 x 5.5 x 2.25" and have the cartridge slide down the back. (Way to show my cards, eh?)

Probably rout in parts in 2 weeks.

HK-47 · Post by **HK-47** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 12:49 pm

Ohhh! Cant wait!

Post by **Triton** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 1:38 pm

GAH! i'd better hurry or ben will beat me to it! cant wait to see it ben (i gotta hurry up now!)

Post by **gannon** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 2:31 pm

I'd only wonder why you'd use 12V unless you're not using smaller 1.2V cells or something.

Post by **benheck** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 4:12 pm

Why, will it run off less?

I'm using some Ni-MH, and fitting in the 10th battery will be tricky... 9 would be fine.

9 would be 10.8 volts (or probably actually more) Would that be E-NUFF?

Hey, remember that lame SNES game called "TUFF E-NUFF"?

Post by **gannon** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 4:16 pm

lol, I don't quite remember that game

Anyways, the n64 will run off of a 7.2V battery

The n64 uses 3.3V and 5V, and it has an onboard 7805, so all you need is a 3.3V regulator or dc-dc converter

Post by **SpongeBuell** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 4:16 pm

benheckc wrote:Why, will it run off less?

Yeah, the 12 volt line goes right to a 7805, so you can go as low as 7.2 and as high as 36.

Edit: dang it, gannon! I knew you'd beat me to it!

seriously, I had a feeling you would

Dark Savant0 · Post by **Dark Savant0** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 4:27 pm

oh boy oh boy, now we need a sequel.

Wait, so who has the lowest prices on the book? I want to save some money so I can have some to start building portables, otherwise the book will be as useless as a coaster.

I wonder where you will put the z button?

JackFrost22 · Post by **JackFrost22** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 4:37 pm

$25 at www.bandn.com

Post by **Sparkfist** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 6:20 pm

Tisk Tisk Ben you know you could have just read some post in the N64 forum and had all the info ro the system. This is why most of use go to more than one forum when we hit the MB.

As for power, this might help too. THe 3.3v line from the AC adapter is made by having two 7805 regularors and two 3 omh resisters run in parallel to make 3v. I'm sure if you have 3 LDO chips you can do that and run the whole thing off one of your camcordor batteries with easy then.

Post by **benheck** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 8:06 pm

Great... NOW you guys tell me !

Honestly the only forums I ever look at is good old 42. So forgive me!

Yeah I traced the 12 volts directly to a SM 7805 but it also seems to make a pit-stop at the cartridge slot as well. By the way, is there a pinout for the cart slot? I CANNOT find one online to save my life! I know I don't need it, but it seems every other pin is GROUND and I wanted to make sure this weirdness was correct.

Well, I think I'll still use 9 C-size nickel-metal batteries. The rear half of the unit will basically be batteries and cartridge. It'll last a good long time! (Besides, I already have the 7.2 volt reg for the PSone screen installed on the N64 board) The unit has to be a certain size (X and Y) anyways, mostly because of the analog joystick assembly, so I may as well fill that space with batteries.

And I also already have the aluminum right-angle brackets attached to the board along with the re-placed cartridge slot and all the wiring.

That board does get REAL small once you desolder all the crap, including that weird-butt dual cartridge thing. If by some chance I got to do a sequel book I'd definitely work in the N64. Oddly enough a lot of systems I make (ie:, PSone, SNES) are systems I didn't play much or care a lot about. But I played the hell outta the N64 (Thanks Rare!)

One more thing... Someone above mentioned the 3.3 volt source... Do I need to get a reg to provide this, or what? Or is that "dual 7805 reg / resistor" thing in the power supply brick?

I gotta order some crap from Digikey anyway so if I need a 3.3 linear LDO reg it's not a big deal.

Oh, and I'm going to get some 10mm high heatsinks and thermal tape them to the 3 spots and use a small fan to cool it (like my PS2p) I figure moving air will make up for the lack of passive metal heat dispersion of the original N64 design. Plus a fan on a cartridge system will make people think "What the heck?"

G-force · Post by **G-force** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 8:10 pm

Y'know, I have heard over and over that you can use 7.2v, but has anybody really tried it? To my knowledge it was just assumed that because there was a regulator on the board it would work. It might not

What are you going to use for converting the 12v to 3v?

Post by **gannon** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 8:25 pm

I have used 7.2V plenty of times, so yes, it'll work.
Also, the 5V is only used for the n64's gpu

Post by **Gamelver** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 8:27 pm

yeah, I've used 7.2v and it works fine

.
and btw, I think it's best to have 3.3v instead of 3v, as at 3v there is some distrotion in sound and video

........I can't wait to see this, though

.

G-force · Post by **G-force** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 8:35 pm

Okay thats nice to know that it really works!

And for that 3.3v regulator, are you going to put a capacitor in front of it? I think that the reason my regulator setup didnt work was because I had no capacitor in front of it.