Worklog Noah's Wiiner

[Noah]

 

[Noah]

After shorting the wires I now get a steady blink on the flash drive (not like it's being read but it is on and initialized) but portablizemii still doesn't boot.

However, after booting into Priiloader and then the HBC, all of the apps are showing up on the HBC.

 

[Noah]

Everything but Postloader seems to run just fine. I even loaded up Melee with no issues.

 

[Noah]

In the end, my foolishness from before was the issue. From too much swapping of the USB pins my drive got funky and no longer works correctly. Put the pack on a different drive and it loads right up!

 

[ShockSlayer]

THIS PROJECT IS LIKE WATCHING SOMEONE FALL DOWN STAIRS IN SLOW MOTION

in fact....

 

[Noah]

Or a trimmed N64 board right?

 

[Noah]

WIINER INTENSIFIES

 

[pengy]

Lookin good Noah. How are you handling the 3DS sliders? Was a proper fix aside from a microcontroller solution ever discovered for them?

 

[Noah]

Thanks! I didn't even know there was a microcontroller fix. Do you have a link? Currently I have them wired just straight to the controller.

 

[pengy]

RDC designed a board a few years ago with a microcontroller onboard. I heard that when wiring things directly there were issues with the joystick "crawling" or sometimes not having max reach at the edges. Here's a link. Maybe gman will have some more insight since he uses them so often It would be nice to hear some thoughts about them so I can decide if direct wiring might work on my PS2 project.

http://modretro.com/xen/index.php?threads/wts-ps2minids2-and-3ds2an-boards.12373/

 

[Noah]

Oh yeah. I don't go through RDC since he waaaay over charges for his shit and generally it's proven to be low quality. However, @Aurelio has designed a GameCube controller replacement that has full 3DS stick capabilities. I'll be switching my controller out for this once it's released.

 

[pengy]

I've never read anyone saying anything bad about RDCs products' quality and I've used them before with great success

I always thought his prices were more than fair, especially ~$25 for his controller boards, considering he does all the design, pays to have boards made, then hand desolders and resolders all the components but to each his own.

Regardless, I'll test when I get mine and see if it works fine for me directly wired to the original board!

Keep truckin

 

[Noah]

I've never read anyone saying anything bad about RDCs products' quality and I've used them before with great success

I always thought his prices were more than fair, especially ~$25 for his controller boards, considering he does all the design, pays to have boards made, then hand desolders and resolders all the components but to each his own.

Regardless, I'll test when I get mine and see if it works fine for me directly wired to the original board!

Keep truckin

IIRC he asked BadAss consoles for the KiCad files for his MEGAdrive V6.

It's not that I don't like the guy, it's that I don't like what he does. Portablizing, for the longest time, was a budgeted hobby that mainly teens and young adults would engage in, usually ones without money. Last I heard he charges like $50 for his controller boards which I wouldn't even spend on a normal controller unless it was a Hori or something

His board is also quite big which turned me right off from using it. The case I have is quite thin and doesn't have much room for more pointless boards I don't need inside.

In the end it's each to his own as you said, but portablizers aren't a community you should try and make vast riches off of because someone will come along and beat your product and it's price. Take Aurelio's controller boards for example. He is selling them to make a profit. However, he is selling them at such a fair price I don't think anyone will try to undermine the success he will have because there is very little profit margins from what I've heard AND it's going to cost less than what you could find controllers for online or at any retro gaming store.

Or even some of the products that are in the BitBuilt Store (spoiler warning), such as the 64CC. I make those myself and they maybe make like a dollar for every one sold before PayPal fees.

I don't want to cause any drama or anything (believe me, I've done my fair share!) so I'll just leave it at that.

 

[pengy]

Welp, it does say $25 in that thread linked, but that's very old. $50 seems like a lot of money but I very much doubt he makes much of a profit either way, pretty low margin area to try to profit in lol. However, hopefully his ps2 board is still $25, because the ps2 controllers are kind of a giant hassle xD

What's the 64cc? I might be building another n64p someday.

 

[Noah]

What's the 64cc? I might be building another n64p someday.

64 Controller Converter. It converts the analog signals from a pot based joystick to a format readable by a 1st party N64 controller for compatibility with GameCube joysticks and the like. It's going under a redesign right now so within a couple of weeks I'll be blowing out my stock for like $3 a piece +$2 shipping so make sure you grab one if you want it!

The new design is going to rest right inside of the original N64 joystick shell and will allow for a drop-in replacement (more like upgrade) to the GameCube sticks for a solderless and easy replacement for your average Joe. There will be new enclosures produced (prototypes and early models 3D printed with ABS, then later injection molded) so that everything fits in nicely. Of course this is still in the design and testing stages but it's moving along quite nicely.

All in all I hope it'll finally rid the market of those gross GameCube style replacement sticks for the 64 or at least provide serious gamers with a more decent replacement.

 

[pengy]

Sounds pretty cool and obviously a ridiculously cheap price for the effort that probably goes in, however I suspect if you want to mass produce and injection mold them you will end up raising your prices fairly significantly

Anyways I've derailed this thread to an extreme extent so my apologies in that regard lol. I'd like to make sure the portablizing community stays alive so I will probably make my first real build log thread when I get moving on my PS2 fliptop.

 

[Noah]

Sounds neat. I'll probably be looking into a PS or Sony section soon since that console in particular seems to be dominating the "Other" forum.

As for the price being raised I'm not sure that it'll go up that much. I'm in talks with a few people right now so I'll have to look into it later.

 

[Aurelio]

My board is going to be quite cheap. I don't like to say its price since it's not out yet (it's ready, just need to assemble a bunch of them).
@Noah: you are going to get yours very soon

Also, about RDC boards, 25$ is for the 3DS converter board only, 50$ is for the custom controller board (with components got from a Nintendo controller) that does not include the 3DS converter

 

[Doom]

My board is going to be quite cheap. I don't like to say its price since it's not out yet (it's ready, just need to assemble a bunch of them).
@Noah: you are going to get yours very soon

Me too pls lord pizza.

 

[pengy]

So Aurelio, are you integrating a microcontroller based solution for the 3DS sliders or is it direct wiring like a lot of people actually seem to be? Have you noticed any problems with that method that really do necessitate the use of the microcontroller?