New and need some help....

[lucastheboss]

hello everyone,

just joined and hopping to mod some consoles to portables

but anyways I'm trying to figure out how the heck I'm going to make money for all the parts since i am totally out of cash and I'm only 13.... I'm out of cash since i bought 2 TES oblivion games.. one from gamestop (the digital one) and was hopping it would work with wine (emulator software) since i have a mac... i didn't know it was a thing like steam so i was kinda screwed T_T... then i bought one on disk and everything worked fine... but enough with the blabbering or my life............ i have like $5 and was wondering how much money it would cost to make a portable NES....

THINGS I HAVE SO FAR:
NES
Battery from a dvd player

and i dont know what screen to use too.... i was thinking about the PSone screen.... i also dont know how to make a case or what to make it out of..... if you guys could help that would be nice .

THANKS,
Lucas

 

[Hermaphroditus]

Battery from a DVD player probably won't work unless you make a special protection circuit and such. Otherwise, depending on the battery life you want, you can just scope around THIS website here for batteries and a protection circuit.
NES, good.
You can get a TFT backup screen from eBay/DealExtreme for like 20-30 dollars, but you need to make an audio circuit, no big deal, all together parts, including the speakers, for that can be obtained for like 10-15 dollars.
Casing can vary a lot in cost, it really depends on what you want and how you want it to look. You could just get some old tupperware laying around the house, or make a custom case via vacuum forming, or whatever.
You'll need a soldering iron and solder and wires and dremel other various things for modding, all together the tools will probably run you nearly 100 dollars. Usually less, but just say 100 to be safe.

 

[lucastheboss]

m trying to base the case around mario's instrucables tutorial.... but i dont know what it is and where to get it

what about this i have a remote controlled car remote and i took it apart and on the back of the remote is where the battery goes (9V) and i was thinking somehow hook up the battery to where ever you add the power to and vula you have your power... the thing is... i dont know if it is:

A. enough volts
B. if its possible to hook it up
C: going to cost a lot of cash for 9V batteries

and for the screen maybe use the dvd player screen? not sure if it would work tho.


(sorry if im trying to be cheap )

 

[Hermaphroditus]

You'd probably go through a fair amount of 9V batteries if you were to use those. Batteries aren't really something you can skimp on.

As for a DVD Player screen, it's possible. But you need one that has some sort of video-in, and also you would have to keep the DVD player motherboard, so it's best to just get a cheap TFT screen like I said from DX or eBay.

 

[Aux]

According to Mario's guide, 3500 mAh will power an average NES portable for around 3 hours (depending on your screen, of course). This means the portable will consume around 1200 mAh per hour. 9V batteries are about 560 mAh. Can you see our problem? Running on a 9V battery, your portable won't even last half an hour. You really do need to get some real batteries.

You need to generate at least 5V, as well. AA will only do 1.5 each, so you'd need 4 to get 6V (then a regulator to pull that down to 5). However that'll only give you 2000 mAh equivalent- little more than an hour and a half of battery life. The sweet spot for a portable is really ~3 hours... more than that and your batteries are 80% of the thing, and less than that and it's not really practical. However to achieve this with AA you'd need a whopping 8 batteries. That's going to get expensive, fast. And who wants to carry around a bandolier of batteries?

I mean, you could go that route. It's the easiest, and the cheapest in the short term. They sell battery holders for such at Radio Shack for <$5. It'll work, and it'll suck pretty bad, and you'll be sad.

What you really want is a rechargeable pack of Li-Ions or Li-Polymer batteries. These are trickier to work with so if you're not sure about what you're doing, get a pre-made pack and a protection circuit. THE PROTECTION CIRCUIT IS KEY. Otherwise, they will literally explode. Fire and everything. Poke around batteryspace (this is the section you want) and find something with a good balance of "what you're willing to spend" vs battery life- take their mAh rating, and divide by 1200 to get the number of hours of battery life. Under "Protection" on the description page, make sure you get the PCB protection circuit to keep them from exploding all over everything. You also probably want a smart charger (http://www.batteryspace.com/smartcharger12afor74vli-ionpolymerrechargeablebatterypack--ullisted.aspx).

As you can see, portabilizing is not for the faint-of-heart, nor is it cheap. But if you're patient, willing to learn, and able to scrape up the cash, it's definitely a worthwhile hobby.

 

[themadhacker]

For a first time portable I would buy some cheap 7.2v rechargeable ni-cad or ni-mh rc batteries from radioshack.

 

[Prog]

If you were to do what themadhacker said, you'd have to use a regulator to step down to 5V or you'll probably fry your NES.

 

[Aux]

If you were to do what themadhacker said, you'd have to use a regulator to step down to 5V or you'll probably fry your NES.

You're gonna need a regulator no matter what you use. LiPos will do 7.4v. AAs, 6v.

7.2 probably won't fry your NES, but it won't be very happy with it.