Been a hot minute since I've updated my worklog. Been waiting on some parts to arrive, most notably my LCD screen which is definitely stuck somewhere in China, so I found a seller on Ebay that shipped from the states, should get here sometime next week so I can finally plug it in. I'm also waiting on my custom N64PMS+USBC PD board, and unfortunately I won't have the STUSB chip in my hands until mid July, but luckily I should have the red charging board before than because one of my packages did make it to Canada from Aliexpress, so I can theoretically do some testing without the USB C charging until I get the STUSB chip.
While awaiting all these components, I've done tons of work on my case design. As was with previous iterations of my case, it's heavily inspired by the WiiU gamepad, but I also took inspiration from the N64 controller for the DPAD and C button layouts, as well as DMG for the speaker grill. The bracket that holds the screen and LCD driver in place doubles as a way to mount the N64 controller PCB, audio amp and PMS/USB charging board.
I've been able to do some prototyping for my trigger designs and boy do they feel good, When I print the final versions I'll post a video of the buttons being pressed. The ZL and ZR proved the most challenging, but I think the hinge type mechanism I have is what I'll be using in the final version because it feels pretty good.
One of the original goals of my design was to have this portable be able to be docked for charging, video out and 4 player mode. After lots of the design process, I wasn't sure if I'm going to be going through with that but I think I have devised a way to do so. I prototyped a 3D printed connector which sandwiches a miniHDMI and 2 SPST NO switches together, which will be used to switch P1 and video out. The switches will be pressed in by a part of the dock printed next to the male miniHDMI connection. With the miniHDMI I have 19 pins to work with, and I need to route P1-4, video out and 3.3V, so each can have 3 pins and the left over will be given most likely to the 3.3V line. Now I should have made a custom PCB or gotten a miniHDMI on a breakout board, but this idea only came to be after I sent out my second PCB order, and I'm not gonna risk waiting on a miniHDMI breakout board from China to get here on time. I'm going to try to hand solder to the miniHDMI pins.... it may not be possible because they're damn tiny, but I will try none the less. If all else fails, I'll whip up a tiny custom PCB.
And finally, I've settled on not painting it the portable, opting to go the wet sanding route. I was able to source some PLA with specific pantone colours which I find closely resemble old school Nintendo controller grey colours which I'm super stoked about, and those are the colours you see in the CAD models above.
That't it for now. There's still some small internal structural features I need to make to hold the N64 motherboard in place, and add screw holes for the portable to be held together, but other than that the design is almost complete. Once my screen arrives I'm going to be prototyping the case, probably in black PLA since I have a few rolls of that lying around.
While awaiting all these components, I've done tons of work on my case design. As was with previous iterations of my case, it's heavily inspired by the WiiU gamepad, but I also took inspiration from the N64 controller for the DPAD and C button layouts, as well as DMG for the speaker grill. The bracket that holds the screen and LCD driver in place doubles as a way to mount the N64 controller PCB, audio amp and PMS/USB charging board.
I've been able to do some prototyping for my trigger designs and boy do they feel good, When I print the final versions I'll post a video of the buttons being pressed. The ZL and ZR proved the most challenging, but I think the hinge type mechanism I have is what I'll be using in the final version because it feels pretty good.
One of the original goals of my design was to have this portable be able to be docked for charging, video out and 4 player mode. After lots of the design process, I wasn't sure if I'm going to be going through with that but I think I have devised a way to do so. I prototyped a 3D printed connector which sandwiches a miniHDMI and 2 SPST NO switches together, which will be used to switch P1 and video out. The switches will be pressed in by a part of the dock printed next to the male miniHDMI connection. With the miniHDMI I have 19 pins to work with, and I need to route P1-4, video out and 3.3V, so each can have 3 pins and the left over will be given most likely to the 3.3V line. Now I should have made a custom PCB or gotten a miniHDMI on a breakout board, but this idea only came to be after I sent out my second PCB order, and I'm not gonna risk waiting on a miniHDMI breakout board from China to get here on time. I'm going to try to hand solder to the miniHDMI pins.... it may not be possible because they're damn tiny, but I will try none the less. If all else fails, I'll whip up a tiny custom PCB.
And finally, I've settled on not painting it the portable, opting to go the wet sanding route. I was able to source some PLA with specific pantone colours which I find closely resemble old school Nintendo controller grey colours which I'm super stoked about, and those are the colours you see in the CAD models above.
That't it for now. There's still some small internal structural features I need to make to hold the N64 motherboard in place, and add screw holes for the portable to be held together, but other than that the design is almost complete. Once my screen arrives I'm going to be prototyping the case, probably in black PLA since I have a few rolls of that lying around.
