My First Portable - The N65

[Snipeye]

I've been working on one for a while now, haven't posted here... brief summary of things up to this point (If you want more detailed check BH or MBB):

Bought all the stuff
Waited forever for shipping
Ran into trouble with cart slot relocation
Went easy on the relocation, used 50-pin IDE cable and a connector
At some point, fried the board


Now, I ordered a new board, so that should get here relatively soon, and I recently tested a ps2 joystick with a madcatz n64 controller, it worked flawlessly. Once the new mobo gets here, I can really get things started.

 

[mymixed]

Cool... what kind of screen are you using?

- mymixed

 

[Snipeye]

Ah, yeah, forgot to mention that. Details here:

viewtopic.php?f=6&p=85045#p85045

 

[mymixed]

Oh, did you get it working yet?

- mymixed

 

[Snipeye]

Well, the screen works when hooked up to the DVD player, but dim scenes from the n64 made it go black... I'm thinking (hoping) it was just the almost-dead batteries, so I'll test it again when I can. BTW, has anybody ever used the name "N65" or am I being original?

 

[Basement_Modder]

Some dumbass noob on benheck made that his username and wanted to make a portable, but never got beyond the "lulz look at mah paint shoop diagram! " post.

 

[Snipeye]

Bump/Update Again:

My new mobo got here, works (almost) perfectly. I bought it defective, player 1 port is missing 2 pins. Fortunately, that's easily replaceable with parts from my old mobo. I tested my screen again - using an official power supply/RCA cable adapter for the n64, and my batteries to power the screen, I plugged it in with "Quarterback Club '99" in - just like on the CRT, a little "There are no controllers attached to the n64" screen popped up, which was good news. When I tried with "Star Wars Episode 1 Racing," however, on the CRT television a slowly fading in/out "No controllers" screen appears. On my LCD, I see a whitish, very, very faint blob scrolling down the screen, then starting at the top and scrolling down again.

Long story short: I don't think that this screen likes the n64, but it seems to like the DVD player and other things just fine. Anybody want to swap screens? I'm using the "#2" type in hailraizer's 3.5in screen guide. If your screen works on an n64, and my screen works on stuff except n64's, it should work out. Failing a swap, anybody wanna buy it?

 

[Snipeye]

Sold the screen, and soldered everything on to my new mobo - it's running off batteries perfectly right now, the last thing to solder is the cart slot relocation. I'll be buying a new screen off of ebay soon, then the casework begins... I'll probably do a vacuum form case so it fits right in my hands (mine are bigger than most people's). I bought a nice joystick cap for the ps2 joystick I'm using, it's actually got rubber on top instead of textured plastic. This things really coming together - thanks for all the help, guys.

 

[Snipeye]

...



I think I fried it. Again. Everything was working PERFECTLY, then I tried the cart slot relocation - when I flipped the switch, a white bar flashed across the screen, then nothing, at all. I was originally using the Lucid Method (which I will, in all probability, NEVER use again) so I desoldered EVERYTHING and resoldered using raw IDE, testing every single connection as I went. Plugged it into the TV again, flipped the switch.... white bar flash. Black everything. Sad Snipeye. Somebody test something for me - plug an n64 without a cart slot into a TV, with a jumper pak in, and turn it on. What happens? If you get the same results I'm getting, then something's wrong the relocation... again. If something else happens, my board's probably fried.

Any words of advice, perhaps troubleshooting (Something about an n64 just 'sleeping'?) in case it's not actually fried? I know the cart slot is perfect this time, because I tested literally every connection, each had less than 1/2ohm impedance. Using roughly 6-8 inches of IDE to relocate atm.

 

[Snipeye]

I tried a different game cart and confirmed-working power source to test and make sure it was dead, and I think it is. Anybody need/want parts?