Bacteria project: N64³: --abandoned--

[jjhammerstein]

I wouldn't have dug this up for anyone else.

[themadhacker]

The best site in the world.

I thought this was the greatest site in the world

[thewise1]

So why are those ones so much better than the one that bacteria has?

[jjhammerstein]

It's red, in the event that he wants to match his case color.

[thewise1]

Oh, yeah, he did give us a little spoiler of the color, I thought you meant it was better technologically, not cosmetically. I would prefer my joystick not to blend in with the system, but that's just me, if the primary color is red then it would be cool to have just the black joystick. Think the d-pad on the red alert GBA.

[palmertech]

The PSP slim joystick has a more reliable return spring that will not get loose with age. You would have to play the portable a LOT to make a difference, though.

I am trying to find a source for the Tapwave Zodiac Analog, it is a REAL joystick, but very small. Also, the PS2 RetroCon has an extremely small true analog joystick.

[jjhammerstein]

Oh, yeah, he did give us a little spoiler of the color, I thought you meant it was better technologically, not cosmetically. I would prefer my joystick not to blend in with the system, but that's just me, if the primary color is red then it would be cool to have just the black joystick. Think the d-pad on the red alert GBA.

I agree. Just giving options. Actually, NO, I'm NOT! It was Palmertech's idea, I'm just helping. Blame him. XD


It's not as small, but you can cut down the stem of a standard PS2/GC joystick to give it lower clearance and less travel.

[bacteria]

I didn't want a red joystick as the controls will be black to compliment. You can get the following colours if you want:



Eg red ones

Cutting down a standard joystick will increase the force needed to move the stick (mechanical advantage), so not the answer.

It will be interesting to see how the PSP joystick performs. If it is good, it will provide a very slim backing to go inside a case and a very small top without the usual joystick height - possibilities in a portable are exciting, as long as it performs well of course.

[XCVG]

Eh, I tried one and it's okay. It really sucks on the PSP though because of its position. I imagine it would be better in the primary position. I wish the DS had one though. SM64DS really sucks in the control department.

[bacteria]

That's encouraging - I heard a while back that people hate the PSP joystick; I looked at it and thought it fine - if people hate it because of its position on the PSP, that is different to hating the joystick as a joystick and not relevant to a modding project; so great, hope the joystick is good!

Tomorrow I will be finishing slicing the board and start the wiring - will take my time and check every contact as I do it.

[Sun-Wukong]

*Picture of Joysticks*

Wow, those are scaled down so small I though they were tact switches for a few seconds.

[bacteria]

Too late to go back now!



102mm wide. The PSone screen has a breadth of 94mm; I am on track, although of course I may end up more like 103mm when I finish the wiring. You will notice I only clipped off one of the legs of the expansion pack (which will be removed anyway). The severed wires from the cart slot to the board will be rewired on the back so I can use the cart slot to test a game out without rewiring the game cart. Once successful, this will also make it really easy to rewire the cart slot.

I was careful not to cut through any components, hoping there's no damage to anything and all I need to do is re-wire the boards together.

Taking my time on this, when the system turns on it either fries or works after all - may not get a second chance!

Difficult to do a WIP on this part, but you get the general idea of what I am trying out. I have spare N64 PAL boards so I will compare every connection on both sides of the board and re-wire them as needed. My experience of kynar wire so far is that is is single strand and strong, easy to solder to small connections (which is great), however it isn't overly flexible when you have a few strands of it in close proximity, so will be interesting to see how I get on with it for this work. I probably got some interference from the wiring before too - having short wires will help, and I can always put some grounding wires between some of the connection wires to reduce interference if I need to.

Anyway, on to the wiring!

Here is what the screen looks like on top - the grounding strip on the left can go of course, and a fair bit of the top and bottom too; so the PSone screen will cover about 98% of the board.

[bacteria]

Hot glued two plastic strips onto the two ends of the chopped board, so I can work on the board easily; and stuck the other controller port so the board doesn't wobble on the desk.

Wired from the cart slot edge to the other end of the U4 chip on one side. I hope over tomorrow and Thursday to have the wiring finished and be in a position to test.

Gap is needed for when the small board is folded onto the larger one.

top


bottom


Looks like the PAL board is different to the NTSC one; looking at the photo produced by someone who removed all the screening and left the traces, the pic is different to my PAL board (eg the wiring to the U4 chip).

Using a thick wire for the 3.3v line as that takes a fair bit of amperage, normal controller wire for the 12v line and grounds, and kylar wire for the rest. One nice thing with kylar wire is that it fits between the small holes going between the boards to connect front and back - handy!

[XCVG]

A lot of people cut off the metal ground... stuff on the sides of the board. You can also trim a bit off the top and bottom with your mad skillz.

[bacteria]

Sure, trimming off the grounding edge is quite standard, however cutting a motherboard in two and rewiring it is not. I intend to take a reasonable amount off the top and bottom of the board anyway. The pic was illustration to show how small it is at the moment.

First things first though, I only desoldered the second controller port (not needed anyway) and the video port, as I want to keep things intact; when working, remove more, etc. That's primarily why I am keeping the main controller port and power supply intake and cart slot in place for the moment - do too much at a time and it is harder to see where a fault is - all will be modded in the usual fashion in due course, assuming I can get the board to boot ok after the board rewiring.

Question - why are there some jumpers on the board (some small some large) marked as "R" (ie resistor position) yet nothing on them, just solder? The larger ones seem to connect to their pair by a thin trace, the small ones don't seem to go anywhere. I am hoping they aren't there to make a resistance to the stock traces, or my project will be doomed to fail, as my wire extensions will by definition make some adjustments I would have thought to the resistance anyway (I guess). I am hoping that either these blobs do nothing on a PAL board or won't be affected!

The larger ones are like the one on the top of the two pics in my last post (I wired to a nearly place) and the small ones with a green wire attaching (through the board and soldered to the position without introducing more solder to it).

Anyone know what these jumpers are for and if my wiring is likely to cause issues?