Worklog Booshman's N64 portable

cheese

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The gamepad speakers aren't the loudest, a bit quieter than a ds at full volume.
Also, you wired the input and output of the potentiometer backwards, the outputs are pins 2 and 3, and the inputs are 4 and 5.

Place it with the pins pointing down and the 5-pin edge facing toward you. From left to right, the pins are:

1) Common (GND for audio use)
2) R1 Wiper (Out 1 for audio)
3) R2 Wiper (Out 2 for audio)
4) R2 End (In 2 for audio)
5) R1 End (In 1 for audio)
 
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Thanks for that pinout, not only did I have the input/ output the wrong way around, but I also had ground at the wrong end, :blush:
Both channels are equal in volume now. 0 is silent for the speakers, but in the headphones you can still hear a little of the audio.

Should I add a resistor to each the left and right audio before it reaches the pot? Would that lower the signal enough to make the lowest setting silent though the headphones, and also lower the speaker volume a little at full volume to avoid it crackling I'm getting.
 
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I ran some wires to my headphone jack from the pins of the one attached to the amp. The sound quality is as good, which means I'll be able to use this amp. I'll have to find a spot for it somewhere and run the wires up to the little spot I have for the jack.

Things are looking good. Lowering the overal volume a touch would be preferable though,
 

cheese

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Should I add a resistor to each the left and right audio before it reaches the pot? Would that lower the signal enough to make the lowest setting silent though the headphones, and also lower the speaker volume a little at full volume to avoid it crackling I'm getting.
That would lower the overall volume, yes
 
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That would lower the overall volume, yes
Cool, I'll give it a go, cheers.

It's good to know before I get the soldering iron heated up and start. I have such limited time to work on this thing I hate to go into things blind on what might be a crap shoot.
 
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Success, I managed to sort out the audio issue, and desolder the original pink jack and add my own smaller black one.

I added a 2k resistor to each channel at the N64 to lower the volume overall a little, as through the headphones it was very loud, I then added a smaller resistor between the amp and the speakers which lowered them just a touch more, and has stopped the distortion i was getting at full volume.

After removing the original jack and adding mine the audio only had one channel and the sound to the speakers wasn't shut off when I plugged in headphones. After a lot of messing about I got the proper pin configuration sorted and it's working as required.

I have done some case work too. As mentioned the front was a bit warped so I spent time fixing that. I also added some extra holes tot he rear for an extra button and some LEDs for a battery indictor. Both halves just need a few clear coats to get them finished.



I also made a custom thumb stick. When checking the analog sick in the test porgram I was getting around 60 in each direction, due to the central stick being quite thick and the hole in the case fairly small. The only option I could see was to make the case hole wider, or the stem of the analog stick thinner. So I combined a few parts to make one I hope works. I will only be able to check the test program once I get the controller wired up again, but I'm confident it will be much better.

(The stick on the left is for comparison)
 
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MRKane

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Hot damn that craftsmanship is just too good! Someone please tell me that we can pay to get injection mould copies of this somehow!
 
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Hot damn that craftsmanship is just too good! Someone please tell me that we can pay to get injection mould copies of this somehow!
Glad you like it. It's taken a long time to get it how I want it to look. Lots of going back and sanding on the inside to get components to fit in there too. Even something as simple as colouring the Nintendo logo turned out to be a real pain. I ended up going with a waterslide decal for the "C".

I think I'm going to add a fan to the bottom edge of te recess in the rear half to be safe. After all the work I've done on it, I don't want the case overheating and warping. Right now the case has no vent holes at all.
 
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I'm going to move ahead with getting eveything wired up and see if I can get it all working before attempting to fit it all in the case. I drew a diagram of how I think I should wire the batteries, so that they work and that I don't have lots of wires crossing each other. Does this look alright?



I also got this battery indicator. Would I wire that between the power swtich and the N64 motherboard?

 
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I've been looking at these fans, they're tiny. 15mmx4mm.


I was thinking I could use 2 and have one suck in air with the other blowing out, giving it some good air flow. Here's a mockup:


Would it be a simple as wiring the positive and negative backward to have the fan spin the other way around?
 

MRKane

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Those are really nice little fans! As a quick answer: Some fans will happily run backwards if you reverse polarity, but others won't. To save boring you with technical reasons the safe bet is to just jury rig something to try it :)

Pertaining to your wiring: For linking up to the charging board that looks to be correct (but I'm not an expert there so grain of salt and caution etc.). I'll note one thing about the battery tester: the voltage on the "out" side of the redboard you've got there will be different to the actual voltage across the batteries themselves - I don't know why, it's just what I measured, and to get around this I wired my voltage indicator straight into the batteries because I like accurate measures, and living dangerously.
 
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Those are really nice little fans! As a quick answer: Some fans will happily run backwards if you reverse polarity, but others won't. To save boring you with technical reasons the safe bet is to just jury rig something to try it :)

Pertaining to your wiring: For linking up to the charging board that looks to be correct (but I'm not an expert there so grain of salt and caution etc.). I'll note one thing about the battery tester: the voltage on the "out" side of the redboard you've got there will be different to the actual voltage across the batteries themselves - I don't know why, it's just what I measured, and to get around this I wired my voltage indicator straight into the batteries because I like accurate measures, and living dangerously.
Does it matter where you wire the indicator to the batteries, or is it ok to take the +/- from anywhere?
 

MRKane

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I took it from the ports going into the redboard, but you might be happy with the ports going out - potentially more a matter of preference :)
 
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I took it from the ports going into the redboard, but you might be happy with the ports going out - potentially more a matter of preference :)
I'm confused, I thought you said that the ports going out are inaccurate? My fist plan was to have it there but after the switch, so you can only chack the battery if the console is on. If I were to wire it where the wires go into the redboard, so between the charge port and the board, won't the reading be affected if it's plugged into the and charging?
 

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Yes it is affected if it's charging, and sorry to confuse you! I'm really a terrible communicator.
 

cheese

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Those fans won't run backwards! You'll just blow out the circuit on the fan if you try to reverse the polarity

As for the batteries, that would be the correct way to wire them, and I would suggest putting the battery indicator where you originally thought, between the power switch and the n64. The slightly lower output from the red board will just means it will show low battery slightly early.
 
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Yes it is affected if it's charging, and sorry to confuse you! I'm really a terrible communicator.
Hey man, I'm appreciative of the input,

Those fans won't run backwards! You'll just blow out the circuit on the fan if you try to reverse the polarity

As for the batteries, that would be the correct way to wire them, and I would suggest putting the battery indicator where you originally thought, between the power switch and the n64. The slightly lower output from the red board will just means it will show low battery slightly early.
Ah shit, well there goes that idea. Saved me some money and time with that info though, so thanks. My plan B was some other 15mm fans with a similar setup, one sucking in and one blowing out.



Would this type work?
 

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Hey man, I'm appreciative of the input,


Ah shit, well there goes that idea. Saved me some money and time with that info though, so thanks. My plan B was some other 15mm fans with a similar setup, one sucking in and one blowing out.



Would this type work?
They'd work, yes. The practicality is dubious to me, though.
 
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They'd work, yes. The practicality is dubious to me, though.
Well as it is I've got no vents or fans. Can I get away with nothing at all? I don't want to have everything closed up and have to dismantle and mod the case due to overheating.
 
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