"The Six Four" worklog

[klu]

Hello everyone! After getting my battery questions answered over the last few days, and finally being able to power up my system and get the screen to work, I thought I'd make a worklog so that I can have a constant reminder to stop being lazy and finish this thing haha.

So here is how the last few days have gone for me:

First, I had one of my LiPo's plugged in charging over night and it blew up around 2 a.m. starting a fire in my house haha. Thankfully it was small and the fire department was able to put it out and get all the toxic fumes out of my house.

Normally explosions kind of turn me off from finishing projects, but something about this project keeps intriguing me, so I ordered a new LiPo battery pack today with the PCB and fuel gauge already hooked up to the pack. I also ordered a new charger and tamiya male and female connectors for charging. (Plus I ordered a liposack so I can trying charging these batteries without the risk of burning my house down ) In all seriousness, though, I'm going to be a lot smarter about my batteries this time around, now witnessing first hand how dangerous they can be. No more of this ignorant "pshhh everything will be fine" attitude.

Annnyyyhow, since I have to wait for that stuff to come (which will probably take a week), I decided to hook up my already wired n64/regulator/screen to an 8 x AA battery holder I had to see if my batteries screwed anything up i.e. mobo or screen. So, what was the result of that?

Heck yeah! Everything is (pretty much) good to go!

The only thing now is that the screen is showing inverted colors:

I'm pretty sure that is because I have 8 1.5V batteries powering this thing right now though (12V), and the screen needs ~7V. This is fine though because I was only using AA's to test everything, I'll be using a 7.4V LiPo battery pack which will hopefully solve the problem... or I'll have to check my wiring

Anyway I'm super pumped to show some progress with this thing and I hopefully will be updating periodically with progress!

TL;DR Batteries exploded, bought new ones (waiting to receive them), hooked up some AA's for testing, everything is running fine, screen is inverted which I need to fix

 

[Ashen]

You've probably killed your screen. Putting 12v into a PSOne screen is a bad idea. Its splattered all over these forums that 8v is about the max it can take.

 

[klu]

yeah I figured as much. But that's fine cause the screen has a hole burned in the middle of it anyway (the white dot in the pictures above), which would probably get annoying while playing it. Guess I'll be ordering a new screen!

 

[vskid3]

Unless you have an endless pile of money to burn (quite literally), you would benefit from reading, thinking, and asking questions before you do anything. You have nearly burned your house down and probably toasted your PSone screen (which it sounds like you may have already damaged, unless you bought it with the burn).

Everyone fries something eventually, but you need to learn from your mistakes, and even better, the mistakes of others. I said in your other thread that the PSone screen would not work with high voltages. If someone says not to do something and you do it anyway, expect no pity if you toast something.

 

[klu]

Well first off I want to say that I'm not expecting pity from anyone if I make a mistake; I take full responsibility for my actions.

That being said, I agree that it was incredibly dumb of me to not take more safety precautions when it comes to the battery situation. Beta was the first to respond I believe and he said "dispose of them", which, in hindsight, was a warning I should have paid attention to.

And you're right, it will be beneficial of me to ask more questions because a lot of you on here are experts in the n64(-and-other-systems) modding field. Also, I know you told me about the screen not working with high voltages, and I just want you to know that I took that into consideration when testing my system with AAs. At the time I just didn't really care about what happened to the screen because of the dead white area in the middle, leading me to believe I'd probably just replace it anyway.

I don't want you to think I don't want or am not thankful for your help, even though that's probably how it seems when I don't follow your advice.

TL;DR I'm sorry if I don't seem thankful for the help you guys give here because it really is beneficial to people new to modding, like myself.

Anyway, on a positive note, I was able to test the screen and mobo at 7.5V and the screen still works with the proper colors!

 

[zeturi]

Even if the screen had problems, it'd be better to be careful with it, since you can still use it as a test screen. If anything unintentional causes it to break further down the line, it's not too big of a deal anyway because it was only being used as a test monitor. Try to be more careful with these old electronics, because they aren't being made anymore and eventually they'll be all gone. Good luck with your project.

 

[klu]

Even if the screen had problems, it'd be better to be careful with it, since you can still use it as a test screen. If anything unintentional causes it to break further down the line, it's not too big of a deal anyway because it was only being used as a test monitor. Try to be more careful with these old electronics, because they aren't being made anymore and eventually they'll be all gone. Good luck with your project.

Thank you! I think using it as a test screen is a good idea. And I will be more careful in the future.

Right now I'm working on the case, a ZN-45 (I will upload pictures later when I get the chance). I'm thinking I'll paint it silver and maybe have like black/gray/white buttons on it, kind of for a monochrome look? How do people feel about that idea? Also, anything I should look for when buying paints? I assume it needs something in the paint to make it not rub off easily.

 

[nuke]

Krylon Fusion. They have it pretty much everywhere and you won't need to get primer. Plus its ridiculously cheap.
I'd say just stick with one color, looks better IMO and its easier than like,stenciling or whatever.

 

[ToastBucket]

Oh, about the inversion thingy. There is a capacitor array on the back of the board about in the middle that deals with video filtering. I accidentally popped one off and it gave me an inverted image. You might have blown that cap or something.

 

[klu]

thanks to nuke and toastbucket for the tips! i've been waiting for my new batteries to arrive all week (they should be here tomorrow), but once they get here i'll be able to wire them up to the new (used) psone screen i bought at a local video game store. Tested the screen already and it works wonderfully!

In other news, I've been working on my case. Got the screen whole cut:

And I cut out the psone screen front and literally just got done bondo-ing it to the front of the zn45... no pictures at the moment of that but soon!

on a side note, how long does the bondo smell stick around? I've never used it before and it was pretty awful when I was applying it. Thankfully i was in a really well ventilated area and had a mask on while doing it so i didn't inhale too much of it

 

[klu]

got my batteries yesterday! wired 'em up, everything is working great

also, here is my progress on my case. still a LOT to do but it's super fun working on it!

 

[Malus]

Nice looking Case so far

 

[klu]

2 quick questions I just thought about when reviewing my wiring and such:

1) Where does "7.2 AC Adapter" go to from the DPDT switch in this diagram (credit to ShockSlayer)? I'm just not that clear on what its purpose is if you already have power running to the board and a charge jack hooked up.

and 2) Can I leave the switch on my N64 permanently on and just use the DPDT switch to turn on/off the device and still charge it? I feel like I read somewhere that you need to turn off the N64 mobo while charging the device but I could be wrong.

Thanks Malus! More pictures of my casework to come tomorrow

 

[klu]

Sorry for the double post, but I think I understand part of what I was asking earlier.

So in ShockSlayers diagram, when the switch is in the down position it will be powered off wall power, and when it is in the up position it is running off the batteries. This lets you play and charge your batteries at the same time. I'm still not sure where the 7.2v AC adapter wire goes to though from the switch... do you connect it to the main power line? Bud said on another thread that I found "In that diagram where it says "7.2v AC" that's where you connect the positive pole of the power jack to the switch." butttt isn't that what the pin directly left of this is for? I think i'm just confusing myself by thinking too hard...

Anyway, so I also found this diagram by Life of Brian when searching around old threads:

Now the wiring is slightly different in this picture, and what I gather from it (and please correct me if I'm wrong) is that in the down position you are charging your batteries but you cannot play. In the up position you are running the system off your batteries.

Any input on this would help a lot, so thanks for your two cents!

Edit: Here's the link to the topic I quoted Bud from: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=9165
and here is the link to where I found LoB's diagram: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=1469
that search function on here is quite handy

 

[Ashen]

SS's diagram is the one you want to use. SS's diagram utilizes 2 power jacks, one for charging and one for playing off wall wart power, which is what SS means by 7.2v DC in. Wiring ground to a switch like in LoB's diagram is completely redundant and generally a bad idea. Ground is ground is ground is ground and it should always be linked together and connected to all components in a portable and never switched. The only exception being some audio circuits where speaker - is not really ground, but that doesn't apply to what we're talking about here.

At any rate, using SS's method when the unit is switched "on" it will play FROM the batteries. When switched "off" it will play FROM the AC adapter jack AND allow charging of the batteries at the same time from the charge jack.

EDIT: also, if you still don't understand how to wire this and what to wire to you need to wait until you fully understand it to try. Mis-wiring the main power jack/charging jack/switch/batteries can potentially lead to exploded batteries and fire, which is bad. Especially the 2nd time.

 

[klu]

EDIT: also, if you still don't understand how to wire this and what to wire to you need to wait until you fully understand it to try. Mis-wiring the main power jack/charging jack/switch/batteries can potentially lead to exploded batteries and fire, which is bad. Especially the 2nd time.

Precisely why I'm waiting and asking questions! Info was quite helpful, and this

using SS's method when the unit is switched "on" it will play FROM the batteries. When switched "off" it will play FROM the AC adapter jack AND allow charging of the batteries at the same time from the charge jack.

is the understanding I had of it, I was just double checking with my last post.

So you say it "utilizes 2 power jacks, one for charging and one for playing off wall wart power", so there are literally 2 jacks coming out of the system? One used for charging the batteries, the other used for giving the system power so you can play off the wall instead of batteries?

 

[klu]

Double-posting again -- understand it now, just needed to read and reread Ashen's info a few times. Essentially this is what the wiring is like if I'm not mistaken:

Let me know if that crude drawing is wrong, please. And credit to ShockSlayer for the original diagram that I drew on top of

Here is some progress on my case by the way:

gonna bondo it up later tonight and try to get it as level and smooth as possible. Then off to cutting holes for all the other pieces of the case! I have a laundry list of things to still complete but I'm not in a rush so that's alright.

 

[unicycler17]

Case looks really good! But do you realize that the octagonal shape of nintendo joystick mounts make it so that you need to mount them facing a certain way, allowing you to easily move forward, diagonal, and sideways in games? It looks like you've mounted the joystick piece slightly sideways, if that makes any sense.

 

[nuke]

Yup, looks a bit slanted, but whatever. Looking awesome.

 

[klu]

thanks unicycler17 and nuke for pointing that out, went ahead and fixed it today. then i bondo'd again and sanded again, here's the result so far:

gonna get some like jb weld or some type of epoxy and fill in those small dips and airholes in the bondo job, but i'm pretty proud of myself so far seeing as though i've never used bondo before! hopefully will be done sanding it all and getting it smooth by the end of the weekend.

oh, also, decided on going with charge OR play instead of charge'n'play because i just don't really want that i decided. so i wired up a spdt switch today and everything is working great!

more stuff to come this weekend probably.