Hey!
Welcome to my 1st(Successful) portable Nintendo 64 Console called the Gameboy 64! It was named like that because of how it's handled like a gameboy advance!
I worked on this unit for 3-4 weeks to finish including the case design and everything, but didn't want to post a worklog until i finished it so here you go
Parts used:
Before i start, here's a nice picture:
Problems i faced:
Welcome to my 1st(Successful) portable Nintendo 64 Console called the Gameboy 64! It was named like that because of how it's handled like a gameboy advance!
I worked on this unit for 3-4 weeks to finish including the case design and everything, but didn't want to post a worklog until i finished it so here you go
Parts used:
- Nintendo 64 REV 05 (Minimum trim)
- Original Nintendo 64 Controller with the buttons.
- Nintendo 64 Joystick Gamecube style
- Expansion pack(Trimmed)
- N64PMS
- Panasonic NCR18650B 3400mAh x2 (Parallel)
- 5" LCD TFT screen
- PAM8803 Class D audio amplifier
- EverDrive64 v3.0
- 32GB micro SD card with an SD card adapter(i know it's an overkill but that's what i have at the moment
)
Before i start, here's a nice picture:
Here's the n64 stripped off it's cloths, as well as the everdrive without it's fabulous case.
The idea is to connect the everdrive directly to the n64's motherboard and expose an SDcard adapter so you can just take off the microSD to add games and put it back, instead of having a big slot for games to fit in, you just put the SD card.
The wires are approx. 40mm~ and all cut to have the same length.
A quick test to check if it was working, which it was. I have connected all 50 wires to the motherboard, i heard that you can connect less wires, but since this is my first console portable, i opted for the safe way.
This is the 5" i'll be using.. I know, the bubble, i just had to use it, no other options. the board runs at 12-24v, however i modified it to run at 3.3v, how convenient, am i right?
A quick test before the powersupply becomes USELESS!
The mainboards that will be used as shown above
A quick test with the n64pms.
--------------------------------------------
Now for the trimming phase, I'll be doing the minimum trim as this is my first portable console.
That was my first trim with console modding, and i really love this idea, HELLA nice..
This is the working unit, trimmed and sanded. as well as the expansion pack right there.
Moving on to the controller, i decided that it also needs some trimming:
This is the controller trimmed, as well as desoldered the memory pak slot.
I decided that i will not persue the memory pack as it adds a lot of wires for little benefit, at least for me, hopefully in the future i will add memory pak slots.
Here's the preparation of the microSD card adapter.
Now things are ready!
The idea is to connect the everdrive directly to the n64's motherboard and expose an SDcard adapter so you can just take off the microSD to add games and put it back, instead of having a big slot for games to fit in, you just put the SD card.
The wires are approx. 40mm~ and all cut to have the same length.
A quick test to check if it was working, which it was. I have connected all 50 wires to the motherboard, i heard that you can connect less wires, but since this is my first console portable, i opted for the safe way.
This is the 5" i'll be using.. I know, the bubble, i just had to use it, no other options. the board runs at 12-24v, however i modified it to run at 3.3v, how convenient, am i right?
A quick test before the powersupply becomes USELESS!
The mainboards that will be used as shown above
A quick test with the n64pms.
--------------------------------------------
Now for the trimming phase, I'll be doing the minimum trim as this is my first portable console.
That was my first trim with console modding, and i really love this idea, HELLA nice..
This is the working unit, trimmed and sanded. as well as the expansion pack right there.
Moving on to the controller, i decided that it also needs some trimming:
This is the controller trimmed, as well as desoldered the memory pak slot.
I decided that i will not persue the memory pack as it adds a lot of wires for little benefit, at least for me, hopefully in the future i will add memory pak slots.
Here's the preparation of the microSD card adapter.
Now things are ready!
So from the name of the portable, Gameboy64, i wanted to to keep it as close as the gameboy advance design, Also, i wanted to mention that the case also used some ideas from the G-wii case that was made by
Gman, to be exact, the analog frame as well as the LCD frame.
I don't have all the pictures of the design but here's the result, i did do some tweaking before printing it out though.
I know, it's not the best paint job out there. but this is my first time working with these things. i added body filler and sanded it for a while, then used this nice color, i love it.
-----------------------------
The assembly stage:
I decided to use the LCD's back panel as the bed for the motherboards, i used kapton tape to insulate the motherboards from the panel since it's conductive, in fact, you'll see me use it to insulate the other motherboards as well.
Since I'm using 3400mAh in parallel, the system can run for about 2 hours and 40mins(?) give or take. and charges for like 3 hours.
The SD card will always sit in this position, all you have to do is remove the microSD and add your games
The button on the Left represents the power button, that is connected directly to the n64pms as well as the LED, you can also press the button for a bit to change the LED color, all thanks to Gman and his contributions!
Here's my first successful portable the GameBoy 64!
There's still one thing i want to do, I'll paint the Letters with different colors: RED, BLUE, GREEN, and YELLOW.
Gman, to be exact, the analog frame as well as the LCD frame.
I don't have all the pictures of the design but here's the result, i did do some tweaking before printing it out though.
I know, it's not the best paint job out there. but this is my first time working with these things. i added body filler and sanded it for a while, then used this nice color, i love it.
-----------------------------
The assembly stage:
I decided to use the LCD's back panel as the bed for the motherboards, i used kapton tape to insulate the motherboards from the panel since it's conductive, in fact, you'll see me use it to insulate the other motherboards as well.
Since I'm using 3400mAh in parallel, the system can run for about 2 hours and 40mins(?) give or take. and charges for like 3 hours.
The SD card will always sit in this position, all you have to do is remove the microSD and add your games
The button on the Left represents the power button, that is connected directly to the n64pms as well as the LED, you can also press the button for a bit to change the LED color, all thanks to Gman and his contributions!
Here's my first successful portable
the GameBoy 64!There's still one thing i want to do, I'll paint the Letters with different colors: RED, BLUE, GREEN, and YELLOW.
Problems i faced:
- I faced problems with the picture, Because i was using 30AWG magnet wires, it had a lot of noise, but thanks Aurelio, he helped me out on discord, i had to twist the wire from the composite pin on the n64 to the driver board, and ground it to cancel the noise, it kind of reduced the noise for about 80%, im still thankful for it.
- The pre-amplifier on the board. since i was using the n64pms, im powering the whole system using 5v and 3.3v, and the pre-amplifier requires 12v. i faced the problem of no audio from the PAM8803 at first, but because of this wonderful community, on discord, Noah helped me out with the pins to bypass the pre-amplifier, and send the signal directly to the PAM8803 instead.
- The expansion pak, i did not expect it to be problematic, when testing the system, it would always freeze up when i touch the bottom case because it move the expansion pak a little bit, i sanded the place, now it freeze less often, however, im printing a new case at the moment that would give the whole system space and the expansion pak wouldnt get jerked around.(I'd appreciate some ideas about the expansion pak.)
- The squishy tact switches.. man they gave me a headache.. i used the adafruit one here, It's terrible, it made me open the whole system just to replace one because it wasn't grounding the pin anymore, it actually does not work anymore, thankfully, these arrived at the end, but i only used it for the Z button. I think the problem with the adafruit one is the rubber on top of the button, it can easily be displaced, on the other hand, the switches that i got from china, their rubber was safely placed and wouldnt budge because of the design.
- Gman for providing amazing power management systems.
- Noah for providing me information about the n64 pinouts.
- Aurelio for helping me with some technical issues.
- Wesk.
- Bitbuilt.
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