Hey everyone,
I'm pretty new to Portablizing and console modding, but I thought I would post my worklog for you all to see. If you have any advice or tips, please let me know!
I was first introduced to portablizing quite a few years ago when I was 18. I didn't know much about electronics, I'd only successfully jailbroke my iPod touch, (yes, iPod touch. It was that long ago.) softmodded my Wii, and flashed my Xbox 360 Disk Drive. I made an attempt at an N64 Portable, but it was a complete failure. I was just trying to follow some tutorials on the subject without really learning the steps and process behind it. As such I recently decided that I want to do it again, but do it right. I do cyber security work, and I have really wanted to try my hand at electronics, so I figured that this would be a great way to get into the field.
I decided to do an N64 portable for a few reasons:
1. It probably won't be as hard as a GC or a Wii.
2. There is a decent amount of documentation on the subject available.
3. It has some of my favorite games that I played as a child.
The part that intimidated me the most was building a case. I looked at some of the cases at Polycase, but I wanted something a bit sleeker. I saw some 3D printed cases and I was really interested but the 3D printer I got for Christmas last year was having some serious issues, so I thought that I would try getting one of those GBA plastic carrying cases I've seen a few modders use. After losing 6 bid wars on Ebay( who knew that they were so popular?), I decided to see if I could fix my 3D Printer.
I have a Solidoodle 2 with a 6'" x 6" by 6" print bed. I spent 2 weeks researching the crap out of Google, I finally was able to get it to print!
Now, the biggest problem with my printer is that it has a pretty small print bed. So I took the files that Chris Downing released ( Huge shout out and thanks to him!) and split them in Tinkercad so that they would fit.
While my n64 console, screen, batteries, etc were shipping, I decided to start printing off the case. I was using black ABS plastic and I was having a major headache trying to get the bracket pieces to not warp. I finally decided that ABS wasn't doing it for me and ordered some PLA.
Here it is:
And to my delight, the brackets printed off extremely well!
Here is the case as it stands now:
I'm planning on doing some finishing work to the case (sanding, etc) and sticking it together with ABS glue (which I'm not sure how it will work because PLA parts) or using some Goop that I've seen other modders use, then applying Bondo, spray painting, and clear coating. I'm kinda digging on the black and red color scheme and I think I'll be keeping that.
If you have any tips for these steps, I would greatly appreciate them, or if you just have any comments and suggestions, I could use them.
I'm super pumped for this new BitBuilt forum and I plan on being an active member.
I'll give you more updates as they happen. I plan on creating a super sweet, detailed guide on building one of these things sometime soon to contribute to the forums.
I'm pretty new to Portablizing and console modding, but I thought I would post my worklog for you all to see. If you have any advice or tips, please let me know!
I was first introduced to portablizing quite a few years ago when I was 18. I didn't know much about electronics, I'd only successfully jailbroke my iPod touch, (yes, iPod touch. It was that long ago.) softmodded my Wii, and flashed my Xbox 360 Disk Drive. I made an attempt at an N64 Portable, but it was a complete failure. I was just trying to follow some tutorials on the subject without really learning the steps and process behind it. As such I recently decided that I want to do it again, but do it right. I do cyber security work, and I have really wanted to try my hand at electronics, so I figured that this would be a great way to get into the field.
I decided to do an N64 portable for a few reasons:
1. It probably won't be as hard as a GC or a Wii.
2. There is a decent amount of documentation on the subject available.
3. It has some of my favorite games that I played as a child.
The part that intimidated me the most was building a case. I looked at some of the cases at Polycase, but I wanted something a bit sleeker. I saw some 3D printed cases and I was really interested but the 3D printer I got for Christmas last year was having some serious issues, so I thought that I would try getting one of those GBA plastic carrying cases I've seen a few modders use. After losing 6 bid wars on Ebay( who knew that they were so popular?), I decided to see if I could fix my 3D Printer.
I have a Solidoodle 2 with a 6'" x 6" by 6" print bed. I spent 2 weeks researching the crap out of Google, I finally was able to get it to print!
Now, the biggest problem with my printer is that it has a pretty small print bed. So I took the files that Chris Downing released ( Huge shout out and thanks to him!) and split them in Tinkercad so that they would fit.
While my n64 console, screen, batteries, etc were shipping, I decided to start printing off the case. I was using black ABS plastic and I was having a major headache trying to get the bracket pieces to not warp. I finally decided that ABS wasn't doing it for me and ordered some PLA.
Here it is:
And to my delight, the brackets printed off extremely well!
Here is the case as it stands now:
I'm planning on doing some finishing work to the case (sanding, etc) and sticking it together with ABS glue (which I'm not sure how it will work because PLA parts) or using some Goop that I've seen other modders use, then applying Bondo, spray painting, and clear coating. I'm kinda digging on the black and red color scheme and I think I'll be keeping that.
If you have any tips for these steps, I would greatly appreciate them, or if you just have any comments and suggestions, I could use them.
I'm super pumped for this new BitBuilt forum and I plan on being an active member.
I'll give you more updates as they happen. I plan on creating a super sweet, detailed guide on building one of these things sometime soon to contribute to the forums.
. Surprised you haven't upgraded parts on it. Like everyone else this should look awesome once it's done.
