Trying my hand at an n64p too

[brentphx]

Apparently I am VERY easily distracted. I was keeping this n64 board around for testing my screens... but having it open was just too much temptation.

Plans:
3x 3.7V 5Ah packs from batteryspace w/ charger and protection circuit left over from my GCp
4.3" amazon screen
Polycase AG-85
Everdrive64 inside (may scrap this idea- a second everdrive may not arrive in time for the build off and I don't want to risk the one I have now)
10k ohm Wheel Pot
Headphone jack (switchable)
Heat sinks

Consumables:
Wire, 30g kynar and 22g solid from RS
Diamond Dremel wheels Harbor Freight
Solder and iron
Epoxy/CA Superglue: HF or Hobby Lobby, big ole pile of different options
Hot Glue/gun
Test leads
Desoldering wick (best invention EVER)
Stepping bits, drill bits
Sand paper: course through fine
Large particle board for portable workspace safety
Safety glasses, gloves
Hand tools
Drill Press, the poor man’s CNC

Work so far: (total time spent ~4 hrs)

Removed from case per this guide
Tested video out, power in with stock connectors still attached just in case
Expansion pack successfully folded per this guide
Cart relocated per this guide


Trimmed mostly matching this guide. I made a few changes to where power was pulled, I ran it to the pins that used to be for the power switch instead of scratching the traces. In hindsight, I wouldn't have cut the power traces above the cart pins... it was just rework bridging the power per the relocation guide and didn't save me any room. I guess I should've read that a 9th time before cutting. 3.3v in to pin 6, 7.4 v in to pin 8, v to C13 pad , r audio to c122, l audio to c23
Controller wiring:
p1.1 to c104 pad, 1.2 fil2 pad, 1.3 gnd

p2.1 to fil3 2.2 to fil4 2.3 to gnd


Video is using shielded cable that came with the screen, grounded. Retained stock plug for the video board, soldered to the 30 gauge wires for quick disconnect.


Test fit inside the case post trim. I will need to redo my relocation... too much stiff wire. I should've used WAY more flexible wire, so note to self (and other modders) don't use heavy gauge solid core wire for your relocation. Soldering it was a breeze, but it's REALLY hard to adjust where the slot goes with out breaking wires off the mobo. I'll flip the mobo upside down in the case and it will need to just be a short 90 degree relocation.


Still to do:

Redo relocation with short wires
Remove the guts from a stock controller, relocate buttons/sticks
Wire controller to n64, wire controller port for 2 player
Cut case and make mounting brackets for boards/batteries

 

[brentphx]

I got a lot done after work today, making up for a lost mon & tues...


1st party controller dissected and rewired to the chip, all connections check out with the multi meter but won't know until I wire the controller board to the n64. Memory pack hardwired to the chip as well, that's a lot of precision wiring!

tact switches wired on small pieces of project board running a common ground between each - ... + going to the chip leg for their respective pad. I'm fairly confident that it will work when plugged in.

cart slot relocation has been removed. I have some stranded wire of a smaller gauge that is way more flexible, I'm playing with cart locations with the ag case. I may end up actually just hardwiring my everdrive and regaining the space for the slot. that would make this much easier to fit into the case! I'm just worried about soldering to my precious cart!!

 

[brentphx]

I know the cart board can take a beating, but I just don't know how much I want to solder to something as precious as the everdrive... I sure do want the space that that cart slot takes up though.

I uploaded the pictures of the controller wiring/mem card relocation:





The mem card wires are twisted in such a way that it will lay the card flat against the controller chip or let me keep it sticking up, I believe I'll be mounting it to the top of the case under the display (but I'll need to relocate the cap and resistor from the bottom of the controller board first). Wiring these up is good practice for my GCp and the wkf wiring. I might just spend the afternoon with the GCP today and set this aside until I make up my mind on the everdrive vs cart slot debate that I'm having with myself.

 

[brentphx]

I'm not making the same mistake twice, these relocation wires are perfect, I can tuck the SD card just under the expansion pack and still should be able to clear the heatsinks on the proc.



It's aliiiiive... I had a wtf moment when initially trying to power it on, but checked and rechecked wiring... I knew it had to be grounding. After noticing that there wasn't continuity between grounding on the everdrive and grounding on the mobo, I added another thick ground wire to the backside of the everdrive... viola, powered up.



Cut down controller, wire on the analog, then it's case time... almost done!!

 

[Miceeno]

I like how you skipped most of the extra ground wires and the LR audio to the cartridge, makes it less work and cleaner. I noticed you have the power switch jumped to stay on, this is unnecessary if you bypass the switch. You can trim quite a bit off of the side with the power switch if you opt to bypass it. See Buds trim guide in the sticky for details on where to connect power.

Good luck on the case! In my opinion the case is the hardest part, that's why I started with it in my project.

 

[brentphx]

I have looked at that guide a dozen times... but awwww man, now I'm thinking that the extra room sure would be nice! I suppose I could convince myself to do some rework on the board to get just a bit more breathing room in the case lol

Good tips... thx. I'll start mapping out my connection points again, will post pics if I start cutting.

Before I get too far... at the bottom left of the trimmed pic at cap C81, I get having to connect cap C14 on the right, but where is the third line going- it heads under the board with no explanation on what it's connecting to? Anyone know?

 

[laingsoft]

I tried an AG N64 at one point. Room is a real Sega with that case. I "solved" the problem by adding controller "flanks" on the back that got the batteries out of the way, and using smaller, cylindrical cells.

I think SS also solved the space problem by pushing the screen bezel and joystick outside of the case, but I can't really remember what he did.

You can also build a spacer to make the case fatter, but I didn't think that would look very nice.

 

[brentphx]

Trust me when I say I have seriously considered molding the bezel of the screen into the case to raise it up away from the everdrive. I keep going back and forth though, if I do it won't be flush... if I don't I may have to work a little harder on the internals and be more creative playing pcb tetris!

 

[brentphx]

Well, I'm rushing a bit... but... It's alive. I'm working on the buttons in the case at the moment but figured I'd share a video of it powered up in the case (without the top half on) while I work on the top half. I still have to do the l/r/c triggers in the bottom... but now I know how much room I'll have.

3 weeks ago or so, I ordered one of the gc style n64 replacement pcb's from the guy in Germany over on gcforever... it came in today and went together really easily. I ordered a gc style replacement stick from amazon just in case I end up needing/wanting the bezel. The only issue I have at the moment with the circuit board is that it comes with the pot but without the gc style thumbstick, so I'll try one of them from a gc controller tomorrow.

 

[Miceeno]

Let us all know how good the GC stick pcb is. I've seriously considered buying one. Recently I've purchased the oem replacement and the gc style replacement off amazon and I am very pleased with the quality of both sticks. Although the gc style stick is ultra sensitive! This is unnoticable in regular play of most games but when playing in the shooting galleries in Zelda OOT/MM its impossible to hit the targets. When I play my n64 I primarily use the gc style stick because it won't wearout like the oem but I switch to the oem for the shooting galleries. The superpad style sticks are good all around but not as good as the oem (when tight). I've considered wireing a superpad up with a GC stick for comparison but I haven't got around to it. I figure it should be as good as a hori mini pad. The best stick is on any modern controller while playing the games on emulators.

Please let us know the quality of the GC stick with the pcb you got!

 

[brentphx]

I probably won't play very much on it until I have it all mounted in the case... BUT... I installed it today and initially thought it wasn't working. A quick re-read of the manual and I realized I never set the tolerances on the first boot. I reset the chip, power on, rotate for 4 seconds, power off... then it worked next time i turned it on. It worked fine for a quick test in diddy kong racing. I didn't play the whole track though.

On the plus side, by just having the pcb/stick I won't have to waste all that space with the stock n64 analog housing. That plastic case was huge. This is tiny in comparison. I am not worried about fitting it now.

 

[brentphx]

Well, I'm not going to finish in time for the m.b.b. contest... even with the week extension. I have officially run out of time but I'm almost there. I have the case almost ready to go, leaving just a rough cut on the screen hole and the top plate to cut. I still need to mount the tact pads to the buttons and doublecheck my wiring. It appears as though it will all fit inside the case once I have hard mounting tabs for everything. Not bad considering I started ~ a month ago and was working on 2 at once lol.

Now that there's no time limit, I may go back and revisit the display... I think I want some sort of bezel around it to stand out a bit- can't decide. BTW- plast-fix is amazing. Why the Heck was I using epoxy when I had this in the garage?? Soooo much easier to work with. Can't wait to cut my GCp case in half to make the extension piece. It'll be a breeze with this stuff. I used it to mount the pivot points for the shoulders/z button. I should've used it to mount the guides for the buttons. I'm half tempted to go back and remove the epoxy and redo them! Watch the guide videos on the stuff... it's sooo easy to use!

 

[Blargaman91]

I like the layout of those buttons, kind of under the screen. I imagine it feels more like a real controller. Are those speaker holes up at the top, too?

 

[brentphx]

I stole the speakers out of an old Toshiba laptop I had lying around, and yep those are speakers up top...since I wanted a 4.3" screen I kinda had to get creative with the button layout. I had to compress the c buttons a bit and the thumb stick needed to be below the screen to accommodate the screen and everdrive. I held it a lot before deciding where to put them and it still felt good to the hands, I located the shoulders and z where my kids would still be able to get to them and would still be playable by me.

 

[brentphx]

I'm not sure why I'm having a problem with the controller, but I have rewired and it's still happening... worked before moving to the case when all tact boards were free floating. I started mounting everything in the case and connected up the l/r/z wires, c wires, and a/b wires to their respective tact boards mounted to the top of the case. I am getting signal from L, u/d/l/r, and a few c buttons but nothing from a/b/start/R that I know of. The buttons still tone out continuity while depressed, ground when not, as well data as to the chip when not.

I don't think I hurt the tact switches while mounting as they still tone out properly before/after presses. The only thing that I've changed was running a common ground for the buttons mounted to the top half of the case to minimize wire clutter but I removed the data lines and grounded it by touching it to ground on the board and it still didn't send the signal from the chip to the everdrive menu. In troubleshooting, I also removed/rewired to the chip along the bottom row and the bottom right pins of the chip and also tried individual grounds. All rewiring toned out continuity. All buttons were working just the other day, what am I overlooking? I tried going back to square 1 with it by redoing ground and rewiring data. I'm at a loss. I guess I can try connecting the wires from the mobo to a stock controller to eliminate the mobo as an issue... other ideas?

 

[brentphx]

Project was shelved due to work/life demands... brought back out late last week after my 3 yo reminded me he still wanted to play it! When the controller didn't work, despite my most careful wiring I had a failed attempt months ago at shockslayer's guide to only using the controller chip. I didn't get it working but fortunately kept the chip (and the small amt of board it was mounted on).

I was previously trying to reuse the resistors that were connected on the controller board, this time I scrapped those and picked up new 1M and 560k resistors as called for on his image/guide, wired up the oscillator, then got back to work with my magnifying glass to redo the controller wiring. This time I didn't bother wiring up the expansion pack, but I am quite proud of the rest of the soldering! (If that link doesn't work, it's because picasa worked great, and Google+ blows). I'll thow the image up somewhere else and embed normally if anyone cares to see. I have been able to close the case up and play for a while... feels great to actually hold it in my hands and play but I did mess up the audio amp wiring when closing it. Looks like I might finally get to move this to the completed projects soon!!!

 

[brentphx]

I finished... played a test game with the case open yesterday. DONE. Worked Perfectly. Closed the case and prepared to go sit on the couch and play a victory game!

Ugggggh, I think I just went back to square 1.

I closed up the case and was not as careful as I had been in the past. When I fired it up, no audio. When I opened the case back up there was a small wire that had popped off somewhere near my everdrive. It may have been one of my extra grounds required to get it to run. I can't clearly make out where it goes.

I set that issue aside and went to look into the audio issue. While rotating the case so that I could easily see all of the connections to the amp... with the power switch turned off... I hear a Bzzzzzzt. Oh $#!t, that sound is never good. I think I shorted the amp against something. Now, no audio and nothing to the monitor. The light on the everdrive stays solid red... doesn't flash like it used to while booting. I have followed all my wires, continuity on everything I can find and the correct power levels.

Spent 4 hours trying to bring it back from the dead with no luck. I'm gonna scream if I killed the everdrive.

 

[Miceeno]

I'm sorry to hear. I had a N64 laptop I was working on a while back (I've never posted pictures or anything) and I was in the same situation. I closed it up and when for the victory game as you did but mine was fully functional. Except I thought it would be cool to test my head phone jack. Bad idea. I had the headphone output wired directly to the audio output on the N64. And the act of plugging head phones in shorted the left audio, right audio, and ground together which killed the DAC (I assume). After that the N64 was dead but my RGB to VGA and my LCD controller board were still functional. I guess I could have tried to perform open heart surgery on it and replace the DAC or the whole N64 but I was so bummed I scrapped the whole project. It wasn't that impressive of a portable or anything, but I do plan to use the parts in an upcoming build.

Any way, your situation reminded me of one of mine. I hope you find a solution! Good luck!

 

[brentphx]

Resurrected from the dead, aka the bottom of my craftsman box, I think I'll see how badly I messed this up... 6 years later. I will be revisiting some of my mistakes and shortcuts, there seems to be new toys on the market that might be helpful too.