Mr. Saturn's SNESp (Updated: Finished w/ Pictures)

[Mr. Saturn]

Hey guys, let me start off by saying that this is my first post. I am a total noob, no real experience soldering or doing any of this kinda stuff except for the occasional battery change on old SNES cartridges. I’m actually a noob to forums as well, this is my first post in any forum anywhere. I think the work that you all have done is incredible and I would like to join your ranks. I admire all of your projects and think they’re great. Ever since I was young I’ve wanted to have my SNES as a portable. When I stumbled upon Ben’s work and this site I immediately knew that I had to fulfill my childhood wish. I’ve been reading the threads on this site for a few weeks now and have started to assemble some supplies. First off, I bought Ben’s book. Then I practiced soldering / desoldering.

This past weekend I took apart the SNES mini and made the necessary adjustments to make the board more portable. The only thing I have left to do with that is remove the cartridge slot (I know, that’s still a big task). Seeing as how I do not have a screen yet, I can’t hook the SNES board up to see if I’ve ruined it, I’m kinda hoping/praying that I didn’t. The screen is in the mail, (psone screen), so I expect that in about a week.

I’ve decided on the ZN-40 for the case and I’ve already received it from Polycase. It may not be the most original, but I really liked how the ones I’ve seen on this site using that case have turned out. As I mentioned before, cartridge slot relocated to the back. I’m going for a vintage / retro SNES look, gray with a little blue/purple maybe. I’m gonna try to use a potentiometer for the volume and contrast, I think that gives it a little more retro feel. Also, I’m gonna try to hook up a low battery mod (we’ll see how that goes). I’m going to be using the buttons from an Ascii controller (similar to the Super Famicon controller: red, yellow, green, blue) because I like that they are convex and that’s the controller I’ve used with my SNES for as long as I can remember.

So, that is my first post. A declaration of intent. I have some questions, but this is already such a long post that I feel bad posting any more. Hopefully this won’t be rude, but soon after this post (most likely within 48) I’ll post my question. I’ll whet your appetite: it’s about batteries. If there are already some good threads on them that you guys know of, I’ll take a look, but so far I haven’t found anything that answers my specific question. Thanks for your interest and thanks for any advice or help you can provide to this noob.

[AfroLH]

Seeing your name I hope it is Earthbound Themed!!!

[64M320N3]

OMG a noob with long drawn out thoughts instead of a quick "how do you do this, although it may not be practical or make any sense?", and with correct spelling and punctuation too!
You get an A in my gradebook.
Anyway, I am greatly anticipating another ZN45 SNES portable. Those things are beautiful (if you do it right).
Keep it updated, Mr. Saturn!

[eurddrue]

Seeing your name I hope it is Earthbound Themed!!!

actually that would be pretty rockin to have your portable be themed. Not like mario's with just a triforce symbol(although that is pretty kick ass) More like ben's laptop that he made that's on the homepage now.

[Kurt_]

I prefer the plain theme. I don't know why. Peanut, mint and such just never tickled my fancy. I love Earthbound too, it's definitely in my top 10 videogames. I made myself a Mr. Saturn bobblehead, even.

As far as your portable, I suggest NOT relocating the cartridge slot. On my first portable, I fried two or three SNES systems relocating the cartridge slot. In the end, I decided to leave it as-is. It's just a suggestion, if you feel you're capable, go for it, but the cartridge fits nicely between your legs when you're sitting, and I had quite a bit of stress and grief while relocating/troubleshooting. Mind you, I used wires that were probably too long (5" or so) and used acid flux, which is conductive (USE NO-CLEAN FLUX)

As far as the case, the ZN-40 is an excellent choice. It wouldn't fit an original SNES board, but the mini/SNOACs could fit just fine I believe.

As far as batteries go, Lithium ion would best, if you can spare some extra money. Ni-MH come in second, and Ni-CD in last (I would rank them lower than "No battery / Only A/C power, due to lower charge capacity and high weight). Your main concern as far as batteries are concerned is the size. To get 7.2 volts (what the 5" PSOne screen runs on, assuming you're using that), you'd need either two lithium batteries, or 6 Ni-MH/Ni-Cad. With battery technology these days, you could find some wicked-small batteries. And lithium batteries are SLIM (<1/4" thick)
On mine, I used a 4Ah battery pack (Lithium Polymer), and stopped battery testing at 6 hours because I got bored of playing all day in between food and regular breaks. The SNES and an LED-modded PSOne screen won't require more than 2000mAh for a good 3 hours of playtime. To put this into a beginners perspective, a cellphone battery is a 3.7V, 800mAh (0.8Ah) Lithium Polymer battery, generally. I have some Lithium cells that are not much bigger (thicker, mostly) that weigh in at a whopping 1.8Ah, amazing for their size. Two of those and you're set, with minimal loss of space, and ample playing time.

http://www.putfile.com/pic/5352020

That was a quick colour-sketch of what I envisioned mine to look like in the beginning. The problem was that not all paint colours are available in a spray can. If you have an airbrush or similar, all the power to you! Otherwise, you may want to check out what colours you have at your disposal before you look into painting it.

http://www.putfile.com/pic/6147177

That was the final design.

(Stop calling yourself a noob, you're going about this correctly, none of this "solder first, ask questions later" stuff.)

[Mr. Saturn]

It’s good to hear from you guys. I appreciate all of your help and suggestions. On the subject of a themed portable I think I’m just going to stick with a no-theme, or if I did do anything artistic with the case it would be something basic. The only idea I could think of for a “theme” to incorporate the Mr. Saturn onto the portable case would be to draw or paint black lines on or in the space for the cartridge to make a nose, eyes, whiskers, and maybe a bow and give it a semi-3-d feel. But I won’t make that decision for a while, and not until everything else is in order.

Kurt_ thanks for the info on the batteries. I was thinking of getting these from Batteryspace: http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?P ... rodID=3390
Two Polymer Lithium-Ion 3.7 volt, 5700maH. I figure that should get the job done, fit in the case, and last for a while. However, my first official question on these forums is: for the PCB that I’ll need, batteryspace says that there needs to be a 2.5 volt / cell overdischarge protection. I have no idea what this means. Someone suggested this PCB (http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?P ... rodID=3954) for a 4250maH polymer li-ion, but the overdischarge protection voltage for single cell on this PCB is 2.3 volts and the betteries I'm looking at require 2.5. Will this work for the batteries I am planning to use? Will I need 2 PCB’s because I am planning on using 2 batteries? Finally, will this charger work (http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?P ... rodID=3379) with my planned set up?

I am fearful of the cartridge slot relocation. It definitely sounds like it’s given a lot of people problems. And I am a beginner. Part of me wants to take the easier route and just leave it, but I think it looks slick on the SNESp’s I’ve seen that have it, and it would take up less space. Although I must say, the pictures of Kurt_’s SNESp without the relocation look sharp as well. Frying the board is also a concern as I haven’t handled too many before. I guess I’ll think on it some more while I assemble the pieces. Once I receive all the parts I’ll have a better idea of what options are more viable and how everything is going to fit inside.


P.S. I’d love to see a pic of that Mr. Saturn Bobblehead

[Kurt_]

Those batteries will last you 10+ hours easily. If you need more room in your design, I recommend downsizing them. Otherwise, I love overkill.

You only need one protection circuit, they've designed several for fairly common 7.4V LiPo packs. That linked circuit will work, as will just about any 2-cell Lithium Ion circuit board.

http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?P ... rodID=2774

I had this one, and was very satisfied with it, especially since it has the option of hooking up a fuel gauge to it, and the solder points are clearly labeled and large/easy to solder to.

And yes, that charger will work.

Also,

http://img213.imageshack.us/my.php?imag ... 042pj9.jpg
http://img49.imageshack.us/my.php?image ... 041io6.jpg

[Mr. Saturn]

Kurt_, thanks for the info. 10+ hours of battery life is a little much, so I took your advice and downsized the batteries a little. As you said, smaller batteries also will help conserve the space inside. The PCB with the battery fuel gauge option was interesting. I haven’t seen any like that before. The gauge itself would look a little out of place on my portable though, I think. I’m still thinking I’ll attempt to use a low battery mod with the Zener diodes as mentioned in other posts. That way I’ll only be using 1 LED with low power consumption and have more flexibility to put it on the surface of the case some place.

Purchased the batteries, PCB, and battery charger tonight. So I think that’s pretty much all of the major components I’ll need. Just waiting for them all to get here. Of course I still got the screen to do and the daunting task of the case. But everything is in motion. I’m looking forward to working on it these next few week(end)s. I’ll try to keep this thread updated as I go, but as for now just waiting on parts to arrive or for new questions I may have.


That Mr. Saturn bobblehead is sweet. The only thing I can think of to make it better is if it said “healthful and dandy” and played the Onett music.

[Kurt_]

The whiskers and hair are from a broom.

What mAh did your batteries have?

[Life of Brian]

Alright, you've set the stage - now you need to hook us up with plenty of pictures once you have some progress! Do you plan on using epoxy putty to even out the front of the case? If so you might need some pointers, which I would be glad to share.

[Mr. Saturn]

I went with two 4250mAH polymer li-ion batteries. Seemed like the popular choice and the most mAH for the size. I measured the inside dimensions of the case and realized that for the 5700mAH batteries I was originally going to get, setting it up the way I was envisioning, it would either be a really tight fit or would not fit at all. Decided to play it safe and downsize.

I was planning on evening out the case (wasn’t sure how though), and I would greatly appreciate any help or pointers. Some basic questions I have are: what type of epoxy have you found to be the best or would recommend for someone with no experience? Would it be a good idea to practice on something before attempting to use it on the actual case? And any other pointers you think would help. Thanks so much for all the info and advice, you guys are life-savers.

[Kurt_]

The popular choice for modifying cases is a combination of bondo putty and bondo.

The putty is for structural components. It's an epoxy that comes in a cylinder, and when you cut it and mix it together, it becomes really really strong. It's sold under a bunch of different names, but all have essentially the same packaging: two plastic tubes with the putty sticks inside. I believe the putty unmixed is usually coloured green and light grey. I've never actually used any, I never could find it. They sell it at places like Canadian Tire and home renovation stores.

When I refer to just straight bondo, I am referring to a xylene compound dissolved in acetone. It comes in a metal polysporin-like tube (but much bigger) and is designed for car-body work. What this does is smooths out the surface of your case to a perfectly flat or curved surface. It usually takes a few applications and a lot of sanding, but the results are phenomenal. The tube is red and black, and about an inch and a half in diameter at the top. It also makes case work much easier, as when you're delicately fitting two pieces of case together to make one with the putty, you don't have to worry about the perfect smooth surface, you just have to focus on getting the part to fit right, and correcting surface imperfections later.

Apart from that, all you need is your case, hotglue, and screws and screwposts (nylon rod works well for this).

If you need any nylon rod I have 8 feet of 1/4" OD (minimum order from some local place) I got for another project, but it's dirt cheap just about anywhere. The stuff I got was some premium special stuff. Still, it was only $0.50 / ft

That's about the basics. Large amounts of hotglue are great for holding down things like switches and other things that don't need to take a whole lot of force, and for organizing wires inside your case. It really saves on the work, and provides an equally-satisfactory result.

[Dark-Aries]

The popular choice for modifying cases is a combination of bondo putty and bondo.

The putty is for structural components. It's an epoxy that comes in a cylinder, and when you cut it and mix it together, it becomes really really strong. It's sold under a bunch of different names, but all have essentially the same packaging: two plastic tubes with the putty sticks inside. I believe the putty unmixed is usually coloured green and light grey. I've never actually used any, I never could find it. They sell it at places like Canadian Tire and home renovation stores.

When I refer to just straight bondo, I am referring to a xylene compound dissolved in acetone. It comes in a metal polysporin-like tube (but much bigger) and is designed for car-body work. What this does is smooths out the surface of your case to a perfectly flat or curved surface. It usually takes a few applications and a lot of sanding, but the results are phenomenal. The tube is red and black, and about an inch and a half in diameter at the top. It also makes case work much easier, as when you're delicately fitting two pieces of case together to make one with the putty, you don't have to worry about the perfect smooth surface, you just have to focus on getting the part to fit right, and correcting surface imperfections later.

Apart from that, all you need is your case, hotglue, and screws and screwposts (nylon rod works well for this).


If you need any nylon rod I have 8 feet of 1/4" OD (minimum order from some local place) I got for another project, but it's dirt cheap just about anywhere. The stuff I got was some premium special stuff. Still, it was only $0.50 / ft

That's about the basics. Large amounts of hotglue are great for holding down things like switches and other things that don't need to take a whole lot of force, and for organizing wires inside your case. It really saves on the work, and provides an equally-satisfactory result.

You found bondo putty at Canadian Tire, what section? All I can find is cans of actual Bondo, and maybe a tube of some Epoxy Bondo, but it comes in like a toothpaste bottle.

[Kurt_]

I didn't, I think HD-C did though.

http://www.canadiantire.ca/browse/produ ... earch=true

They sell mighty putty now, apparently. It's the same stuff, but it has infomercials with the dude from oxyclean!

[Mr. Saturn]

Alright guys, here it is: my first portable. After a few months, a lot of questions, and a lot of patience, my SNESp is finally finished (okay, well, it’s actually only about 96% finished; still needs the low-battery mod, but it’s finished enough for now). Out of enthusiasm I had to post these pictures and share with you guys. For now I only have the pictures of the outside of the case. I’ll post pictures of the disaster zone that is the insides whenever I get around to doing the low-battery mod.

It’s not terribly original (Life of Brian I hope you think of this imitation of your great work for SNESp’s as flattery and not stealing), and it’s not perfect, but I’m really happy with how it turned out. So without further ado:



This is the front of my SNESp with a flash from the camera. The flash helps hide some of the imperfections.



This is closer to the actual color and shows it in a more accurate light. I tried to get it as close to the SNES colors as possible. Apologies for the blurriness of the picture. This is a shot with the game running, so it actually does work.



Back: Shoulder buttons, cartridge slot, and game (as Mr. Saturn what other game would you expect?)



Top: Battery charger on the left, power switch on the right



Top (no cartridge): Self-explanatory. Shows the space for the cartridge and how the cartridge slot connects to the case (although that part is hard to see)



Bottom: Headphone jack, and that’s pretty much it.



Things that could be better are: the smoothness of some areas on the front of the case, the L and R shoulder buttons are labeled wrong (the are wired correctly, just put them in on the wrong side; left side says R and vice versa), and there isn’t quite enough room for the headphone jack (it causes the left bottom side to stick up a tiny bit). But I can overlook these things. I’m really happy with everything and amazed that it all works. Even Super Mario World 2 works fine (I’ve heard this game can cause problems with the cartridge slot relocated). Thought for sure I’d fry something or mess something up, but I was pretty lucky. I learned a lot while working on this and enjoyed it a lot, especially because I made it myself, there’s not too many of these things out there, and it works! I can now play my SNES games anywhere. Thanks for looking and for all of your help. Hope you enjoy.