Downing's 2nd N64p "The Nimbus 64"

[Downing]

The ones to the C buttons and the, the stick and the D-pad are all over a foot.

That would be your problem.

That and apparently something else....shortened up all the wires, (big pain in the ass btw) hooked it all back up and still nothing. But I still can't get the start button to work....I think I know what's causing the issues, but it's next to impossible for me to get to because of some poor planning on where I was putting the switch...now it blocks everything I need access too. One way or another, I might have to hack up the case and move something....ehh...but we'll see if I can't get it figured out!

 

[Downing]

Looks like these problems are stemming deeper than what I thought. Cut down all the wires today and still couldn't get the buttons to work. I even replaced the stick and used the right hand pot of a GC control stick, but the stick will not move at all which leads me to believe the signal is not getting through the PCB of the controller. I know why as well because I had to cut the end of the controller off so it would fit in the case and tried to reroute the tracer, but I don't think it's sitting correctly on the board. Whats worse is I can't get to it without taking the entire controller out of the case as well as the headphone jack the is super glued in! humbug

 

[Downing]

And I've broken the headphone jack which indecently is also the audio amp as it appears.....Dangit!!!! Curse you Loctite 401 for making such a superior bond, even stronger than the plastic and metal that you were holding in place! So I'm starting over. New controller will be put in place, better and shorter wire will be in place and controls will be tested before the headphone jack is put in place! Does anyone have a spare or can I use the secondary jack that came with the screen as a replacement? I know it's a bit different, but I don't see why it wouldn't work. Let me know!

 

[Downing]

Alright, audio is fixed! I was able to take the busted amp off it's PCB and take the other one, lay it right on top, solder the pins and boom! It worked perfectly! The strange thing is though, that the when I hooked it up, I would get sound through the headphone jack, but not the speakers...so I was playing with the wires and found that when I held one of them, the speakers worked. Some kind of grounding issue was screwing up the works. What makes it better is when I touched two wires together, the speakers go louder and clearer. So I soldered those two together and it works perfectly now! Now all that's left is to wire up the controls and drill a new hole for headphone jack because the new controller along with the 2 PCBs stuck together won't allow for the jack to fit in the same spot anymore. Ah well, no worries.

 

[Downing]

Alright, every button works now and I have a third degree burn on my thumb because of it! But the stick is still a bit screwy. I'm sure it's mounted the right way, nothing is inverted, it works in 360 degrees, but it won't hold a straight line, and just isn't right...not sure what else I can do, so I'm not gonna worry about it tonight. It will be done this week though which is all I care about!

 

[Downing]

It's Done!!! Well, the hard parts anyway

At about 8PM tonight, I put the final screw into the back of the case, flipped it on and boom! It was working! I figured out the control stick, turned out it was in the sticks PCB, so I wired it right to the pins and it worked! The only issues I'm having now are the ones that pop up after you tighten the system down. When presser is applied on the right hand side of the system, it'll shut off. My guess is it's pushing one of the power cables and loosening the connection enough to break it. So I'm gonna have to open it up again, do some last minute checks, but for all intensive purposes, it's complete! I'll have a video posted by the end of the week! Thanks again guys! This one only took about 6 weeks! Pretty excited! Can't wait to do the next one! But, looks like I might actually have a commission for some vac formed cases to do shortly! That would be cool! Keep ya posted!

 

[zeturi]

Cool dude. Make sure to double check everything before you shut it for good!

 

[Jidan]

One of my friends just linked this from Engadget to me on Facebook. Great job! And you got Engadget'd awful quickly. Again, awesome!

 

[Mako321]

Awesome, and you made it quickly! You should start being ss about this and build 14 of them.

 

[Downing]

Haha, thanks guys! Yeah, I was amazed! I just talked with the guy who wrote the article on Engadget and he was like "we had to post this as soon as we saw it!" I haven't even made a topic about it yet! Actually, I posted the vid on You Tube and within 3 hours it was on Engadget! I was like holy $@%&! That's quite the feeling!