Worklog Miceeno's N64 Portable 2020

[Miceeno]

I've been sitting on the mountain of parts to build this portable since late 2018. Although I'm still waiting on the 64drive I ordered for it in July 2018. With or without it the virus has given me the time and motivation to make some progress on this project. I probably would have tried this in last years Summer Building Competition but I was too busy remodeling my kitchen. I spent the summer hand building cabinets from scratch (I spent the whole year doing the remodel).

This is the current plan:

-RAM swapped N64
-64drive (or Everdrive 64 at this point, although I'd like to use the 64drive to go along with the ultraVGA)
-ultraVGA
-10 inch 4:3 VGA screen
-Try the parallel Red Board thing I've talked about in other threads
-Aluminum Case (maybe)

I worked as a machinist for 9 years and had access to a lot of nice equipment. It's a shame that I only utilized it to whittle that chunky boy out of billet aluminium in 2018. I should have taken the time to build it in CAD/CAM and CNC something nice. This time my plan is to fold some sheet aluminum and braze it together. The fun with this is that anybody can do this with minimal equipment. You only need a propane/map gas torch and the brazing rods.

I don't know if this disqualifies me but I wired up the ultraVGA in January 2019. I made a post in this thread about it. Here's what I've got:

 

[printsmith3d]

gonna do any sort of board trim or just keeping it OG? Love the UltraVGA board, your connections are tight.

 

[Miceeno]

Nope, no trim. I've got more space than I know what to do with with this big ass screen.

 

[printsmith3d]

Nope, no trim. I've got more space than I know what to do with with this big ass screen.
View attachment 11505

Ohhhh damn that's a chonker!!!

 

[Miceeno]

The boards are basically done. I've gone overboard on features. I've got all the A/V in and outs as well as 4 controller ports. The the biggest pain in the ass was the little limit switch on the Player 1 port that will disconnect the internal controller when an external is plugged in.

Also year(s) ago I made posts in other threads about theoretically running the red boards in parallel. Yeah-no, don't. I was running two 2s1p battery/boards in parallel. Everything was working great. The cells were discharging correctly, I was getting double the charge rate (when compared to a single red board), and play 'n charge was working correctly. The problem was when I was going for a 100% charge. I was monitoring the cell's voltages and the state of charge according the the red board. The cells sat at 3.9 volts for around two hours, they didn't want to reach 4.2 volts so the boards weren't changing the LEDs from Red (charging) to Green (charged). Around the two hour mark one of the red boards let the magic smoke out so I disconnected everything. What I've deduced is the balancing circuitry on one board was fighting the charge circuitry on the other.

Long story short I'm running 2s2p on one red board. I haven't got plans to take the dead red board out because I've already planned most of my layout around it being there and it's currently providing structural integrity to my "single-ish board design".

 

[printsmith3d]

looks cool, mind me asking what kind of switch you used for the P1 switching?

 

[Miceeno]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/264091271380

 

[printsmith3d]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/264091271380

Cool thanks, really cool idea. Are you doing a video out as well? I see some fort of VGA plug there.

 

[Miceeno]

VGA and Composite Out. Line Level Audio and a switched Headphone Out.

 

[printsmith3d]

VGA and Composite Out. Line Level Audio and a switched Headphone Out.

Nice, looks cool. How are you going to be switching video output, or will it just display on both the portable and the tv?

 

[Miceeno]

Nice, looks cool. How are you going to be switching video output, or will it just display on both the portable and the tv?

On the back there's a row of buttons above the VGA port. Those buttons are for the on screen display. The large button to the side turns the screen on and off (There's also the power led for the screen above that). When running both the internal screen and the VGA out the picture dims on both displays. If the internal screen is switched off then the output displays normally. The composite output isn't affected in the same way because it's not being used internally.

 

[Miceeno]

Two steps forward and one step back.

I've done some case work and built the heatsink. My I/O daughter board was originally attached to the heatsink. I decided I didn't like this because the giant cable attaching it to the main board was cumbersome and if it wasn't folded correctly every time it would change the position of the daughter board (the heatsink would flex). This changing position made it impossible to consistently line the board up with the holes in the case. So I've rebuilt the daughter board and patched the holes in the case.

While building the case I wanted to keep it all metal but the braze just wasn't strong enough (I really need to buy a TIG welder). So I've reinforced the joints and patched the holes with JB Weld.

I've also made a slight modification to the audio circuit that can be seen on the daughter board. I've wired it so the audio signal goes into a volume potentiometer > switching headphone jack > second volume potentiometer > audio amp > speakers. The second audio pot is being used to set the gain on the amplifier and wont be accessible outside the case. This way the speakers aren't clipping at full volume.

And finally the new daughter board will take the place of the redundant burnt out red board. This way the only connections that need to be made on finally assembly are to the speakers and controller. Everything else is contained on the main board.

 

[Miceeno]

Case work and buttons always seem to take longer than they should, especially when franken-casing. I'm thinking my next portable will have a well engineered 3d printed case. Looking at how well thought out the G-BOY is I'm having a hard time wanting to go this route in the future. Although using sheet aluminum and JB Weld is definitely the way to go for franken-casing. It's a lot tougher than using plastic and epoxy. Heck I've been doing some tests and JB Weld is stronger than plastic specific epoxy when gluing plastic to plastic.

I made some changes to my internals. I added the new IO board I made in the last post. And I had to cut a lot of the heatsink layer away to make room for buttons and the new battery. My original intention was to attach the buttons directly to the heatsink layer but it wasn't rigid enough for satisfactory button feel. So the buttons are screwed to the front of the case and the heatsink layer has been cut away for clearance. As for the battery I've switched to Panasonic 3400mAh 18650's. With some adjustment I've doubled the battery capacity in close to the same space.

 

[cheese]

8x 18650s!
You're going against the Thicc Boi in terms of battery life with that

 

[Miceeno]

I've finished the work on the Retro-Bit Tribute 64 controller.

 

[cheese]

I love the headers you put on there, that has to make assembly/testing much easier

 

[Miceeno]

The portable is finally done. It's really hard to capture the color of this Duplicolor Purple Metalcast paint. It's super dark unless it's in direct light then it's a bright metallic purple. I also had to resort to an Everdrive64 X7 as my 64drives I ordered summer 2018 still haven't arrived.

I'm going to start making a video, maybe it will be done by the end of the contest.

 

[Miceeno]

Final update and contest submission.

Specs/Features:

RAM Swapped N64 Rev 04
UltraVGA
EverDrive-64 X7
10 Inch 640x480 LCD
PAM8403 Amp
DS Lite Speakers
Switching Headphone Jack
Red Board Play and Charge
8 Panasonic 3400mAh 18650's
8 Hours Battery Life 7.4v 13600mAh 2s4p
VGA and Composite Video Out
4 Player Controller Inputs
Player 1 Auto Switching
Built In Retro-Bit Tribute N64 Controller
Soldered in Memory Pak
Folded/Franken-cased Aluminum Case Painted with Purple Duplicolor Metalcast

 

[HackerBilly]

As creator of the ThiicBoi. I do have to say congrats thats super epic! A 10" screen and 8 18640s Amazing!

 

[frostedfires]

Amazing work! Also nice video editing, lots of transitions done very well. Looks like a very unique portable, I dig it.