Worklog Naimlessones Nameless N64 Portable

[Naimlessone]

Heya peeps.

Been on a bit of a hiatus from modding for the last year or so, but I'm back now. A few weeks back I thought about all of my modding supplies and selling it off to help pay for a Switch. After I got it all laid out I started getting that itch again so here I am.

Been messing around for the last few weeks, mainly on trying to get my feet wet with the PortablizeMii pack with not much luck and decided to get some practice on an N64 portable before going back and messing with the Wii.

This will be the worklog with a separate post for the finished product.

It'll be a pretty simple build with nothing too fancy added:

• Rev 4 (NUS-CPU-04) board (Haven't decided whether I want to ram swap or not yet, leaning toward not right now but we'll see when I start casework how much room I'll have/need) Not doing the ram swap. The case design will allow for the expansion pack to stick through the back of my case.
• 4.3” TFT Amazon monitor 7" TFT amazon monitor (The case design will allow me to use one of the 7" screens I had stocked away.
• 7.4v 3500mAh 7000mAh battery pack
• Switching Headphone jack w/digital audio amp
• 3DS slider joystick
• 3DS XL buttons as c-buttons
• Case will be vacuum-formed Casework to be determined... (I have some OKW sample cases I got last year with my Eye on one in particular, the Smaller Interface-Terminal enclosure but I'm unsure If I'll have the clearance I'll need for it)

I'll update with progress pics as best as I can as I go.

 

[Naimlessone]

Update:

Got the issue fixed from my question thread after doing a partial trim of the board, leaving only the cart slot attached. Figured out my testing screen was bad, and I needed the 2k ohm resistor fix to 3.3v and pin 8 on the PIF.

After confirming that it works I removed the cart slot and finished trimming the board

Next step is to try and trim down the expansion pack as much as possible, and wire up the cart slot and get an idea of how much room I'll need in my case and I can start designing the case.

 

[Nold]

Nicely done. But you should improve the PIF-Resistor wiring. You can get 3.3v at C145, right next to the PIF. ;-)

 

[Naimlessone]

Nicely done. But you should improve the PIF-Resistor wiring. You can get 3.3v at C145, right next to the PIF. ;-)

Good to know! I will definitely do that then. I had planned on trying to do something different with that when I started the final wiring, but wasn't sure what.


Also, I have been seriously considering building a vacuum-forming setup to try and make a vacuum formed case. I feel like with the amount of time and energy I would spend with my current thoughts on case-making which would involve hours of frankencasing, that I could cut that way back and have a much nicer looking case with a vacuum formed case. It would also make it much easier to replicate If I wanted to make multiples of a certain design, and would be cheaper than buying/commissioning/designing-in-CAD a 3d printed case (with all of the test prints, etc.). Still doing some research on this though, figuring out costs of materials and stuff. I have woodworking equipment already and lumber enough to make a vacuum form, just need to find the plastic/acrylic/material and read through the Case-building guide in the general modding section.

I know it's not a very popular thing anymore since the rise of 3D printing, and that it will still involve some frankencasing, but I think it would be a neat thing to try out.

 

[Naimlessone]

So, I've decided to dive in with building a vacuum forming rig. Thinking about 12" X 18" in size.

A question I have is (mainly aimed at those who have vacuum-formed before), is what type of plastic sheets work the best for vacuum forming a portable case? I was looking at using ABS sheets 1/16" thick but wasn't sure if that would be thick enough and if I should go with a 3/32" thick sheet instead. I assume that ABS sheets would be the easiest to work with as that's what most cases (Polycase/OKW enclosures) are made of. Any suggestions for a first timer?

Other than that, I started making a couple molds out of some scrap boards I had from some other projects around the house today. The smaller block is for a separate cartridge cover that will be attached to cover the cart slot (obviously) and the expansion pack, which will stick through the back of the case slightly.





Need to pick up a router and bits to round over some of the edges on the grips and cart cover, as well as a slight rounding around the entire main body of the case mold. A router will give me the best way to give a nice uniform edge to the entire case. I'm trying to design the molds in a way to make it possible to use the 'handle molds' on different size case bases for various screen sizes.


All my case bodies are 5.5" tall, but one is 10" wide and another is 8" wide for 5-7" and 3.5-4.3" screens respectively.



My plan is to make the grips for the mold attach to each body for the vacuum forming process so I only have to make one set of grips. The grips are the perfect width and height for the 18650 cylindrical batteries to set in once the proper rounding off is done to them and can be modified after vac-forming for various trigger setups.

I need to pick up some metal duct tape (the silver reflective type), caulk screws, and a cheap toaster oven tomorrow to tear down for the heating side of the vacuum rig. I know it needs to heat up to ~350*F for the sheeting to form properly and as my sheets will only be 12"x18" a couple of elements from that should heat it up plenty evenly.

All of this will (hopefully) make it a much more comfortable handheld in the end. I guess we'll see.

 

[fibbef]

I’m unofficially racing you for project completion. Really I just need more motivation.

The vacuum forming sounds like a good idea. I’m also going to try for the controller grip shape but my construction method is taking a slightly different route.

Funny you had the exact same trimming issue as me; I’m seeing some parallels in our builds.

 

[Naimlessone]

It's all good! I'm pretty excited about the case design possibilities that vacuum forming would provide (I know I'm kind of late to the party on that lol). I'm in kind of a holding pattern until I get my ABS sheets in the mail. Which should be early next week. Then I can finally start making my hotbox and vacuum table. Until then I'm just messing around designing some different case designs. Landscape and portrait. N64 and Wii boards in mind (that's my next project I'll be working on after I finish this one).

 

[Jack Sasquatch]

I had good results with my first (and only) vacuum formed case, using HIPS. I've heard that ABS is a lot harder to work with, and I was very satisfied with the machinability of my case. Very easy to take off slivers with an x-acto knife, for instance. If you haven't, check out Downing's case guide for tips building the table, etc.

That being said, I'm interested to hear how it goes for you with ABS.

 

[Naimlessone]

I'll be sure to post my results. I did read through the vacuum forming sections of Downings guide before deciding on doing this. This week of waiting for my plastic sheets is letting me take some time and be a little creative with my ideas on some Wii portable cases too. I feel like I shouldn't be this excited about something like this, but I guess that's normal when I've only ever frankencased before.

 

[Naimlessone]

So I had a few hours to tear down the toaster oven and build the hot box part of my vacuum forming rig. Turned out pretty well I think. Heating section has an inside dimension of 10 1/2" x 14 1/2" outside is 12" x 16" same as my ABS Sheets (that I'm still waiting for, unfortunately).

I used 1"x6" white pine for the sides and a scrap piece of 3/4" plywood for the base.

I kept the controls from the oven intact and cut out the excess metal holding the two elements to leave only what I needed to support and hold them in place. I rewired everything exactly how it was in the oven.

Then I lined the inside with reflective metal foil tape, the kind insulators use on duct work.

I left about ~3.5" of space between the top edge of the box and the top edge of the elements. After I build the frame to hold the sheet I'll have about ~4" of space for the plastic to sag into the chamber.

I still have to make the frame and vacuum box but I'm gonna hold off on that until I get the plastic so I don't build anything too large.

 

[Nold]

Nice stuff! Can't wait to see how your case comes out. Love vacuum forming, would like to giving it a shot, too.. But I don't even have the space for it >.<

 

[Naimlessone]

So, I got to browsing through some the old posts on the Cutting edge subforum (some of the n64 portables) and realized that the last time I made a 64 portable I used a 3ds slider, but that was before any kind of controller board ala the GC+ for Wii portables. I remembered using a combination of resistors.

So I googled it, and it came up with an old post on the MR forum for using a combination of 1k resistors between the lines on the 3ds slider.
http://forums.modretro.com/index.php?threads/how-to-wire-up-a-3ds-analog-stick.8256/


Is that still the common method for using them? Or is there another preferred/suggested method? I'm not really opposed to putting a regular joystick in but am curious as to the best type to use. Any 10k ohm analog stick should work unless I'm mistaken, correct? Like a Gamecube or ps2 joystick?

 

[Naimlessone]

Little update:

My plastic ABS sheets came in the mail on Tuesday. 24"x16"x1/16" thick. So I cut them in half to 12"x16" sheets and built a couple frames to hold them out of 1/2" aluminum angle stock and some 90 degree flat brackets. Then I built the vacuum box to fit just inside if the verticle angles of the frames.

It took a couple sheets to figure out that my heat box leaves a cold spot on the back of the sheet, and I needed to rotate the sheet 180 midway through heating. I finally got a few good, consistent pulls and ended up setting up my phone to take a (crappy) video of the process.


Here is another showing the result and me trimming the excess plastic using a pair of tin shears. Cut like butter.


Next step is to build a stand to attach the Dremel to at a 90-degree angle so I can evenly trim the case halves per Downings case guide. I also need to redesign my cart slot cover as the results I got were not satisfactory.

Hope I can get some more done this weekend

 

[Jack Sasquatch]

That looks dope, man. Very well done for a first attempt. IIRC my table didn't seem to pull in all the ultra-fine details like the dimples in the table. I also regretted standing the wood off the table so much...trimming the sheet just to get the mold out was a nightmare.

Of course, you are using a smaller gauge plastic by 0.02". Might have made a big difference.

 

[Naimlessone]

Thanks man! Well, after checkingit out this morning as I stayed home from work due to the weather we're having in the northeast US, I saw that my molds had shrunk quite a bit and, especially in the middle of the the longer sides, tended to warp into the inside of the case. I had this issue before on some frankencased cases I mad in the past.

@Jack Sasquatch did you have the same problem using the HIPS plastic you mentioned? I'm going to try that out and see if it works better before I try to fix these as I can see it taking a lot of work to correct it. I'm thinking that the case being 10" wide is an issue with the warping. I also spread a thin layer of Oatly Medium Black ABS solvent on the inside of the case to strengthen the corners and edges where I pried the buck out of the plastic mold. That may have helped contribute to the warping.

Either way, I'm already low on plastic sheets and need to order more, so I think I'm just gonna go ahead and order some and in the meantime get to work on another project involving another console, hehe.

 

[fibbef]

Ooo I had never seen a vid of a vacuum former in action. That’s pretty neat!

FYI Dremel makes a workstation stand that lets you adjust the angle up to 90 degrees. Not sure if that’s the kind of thing you’re going for. You mentioned Downing and I know that he used to have one of those.

 

[Jack Sasquatch]

Interesting. Yeah, I don't remember specifically fighting with that problem, but my case does dip a bit in the middle of the (8") longest side. Both halves seemed to do it equally, and since I used the "tooth-locking" method of securing them, they lined up well. FWIW I wasn't exactly cramming the internals in, either. Lotta room for error.

Consider, too, that you have a pretty sharp radius on most of your corners compared to the half-inch-ish radius I spec'd for my case. I think the plastic having to stretch significantly in such a small distance may have contributed to it.

All I can say about finishing the edges....B E L T S A N D E R

 

[Naimlessone]

So this project will be put on hold for a week or so, whenever I get around to ordering a new shipment of Plastic sheeting. I think I'm gonna try some polystyrene this time around.

My two 'good' pulls went to crap on me. I think it was as @Jack Sasquatch had mentioned about my corners being so sharp/drastic. I used a 1/4" round over router bit on the buck along the edges, and I think a combination of that (mostly) and the layer of ABS cement I applied to try and strengthen the corners of the case made the sides warp something bad. All four sides of each half are curled in like dried leaves. Pretty disappointed in that.

I did make another smaller case for a wii portable I'm working on alongside this project. You can see by the pictures in that thread how much better it turned out. I didn't apply any ABS cement but I also used a 3/8" round over router bit along all the corners of the top of that mold and It seems to have turned out much better. But I'm having other issues with that project but I'll leave those over there.

I do have a few ZN-45 cases laying around I could use on this one though if I decide to get a little frisky.... We'll see.

 

[fibbef]

Blame the ABS cement. Unless you apply it in very small amounts or use it on a rock solid piece of plastic, it will cause some warping. Sorry to hear about the first case, it looked really good.

Yeeeessssss, delay your portable while I....do absolutely nothing on mine.

 

[Naimlessone]

Yeah, The first couple of tries on the vacuum former where I was getting the hang of it didn't seem bad with no abs cement on it. I didn't trim the excess plastic off of it though. At least I learned not to do that with the ABS cement coating. I will be back to work on it though after I finish the WiiP.