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The exact wire gauge is not critical. 34AWG will be fine. No glue needed! The components are held in place by the wires. Super glue would probably just get in the way of making solid joints.

When manually wiring RDRAM stuff you need to keep all wires as short and direct as possible, without crossing any wires. If you are wiring up an external PCB (like the jumper pak or an expansion pak) you usually have to add parallel GND wires next to each RDRAM signal too. Seconding...

Small Shinobi scaler update! Here it is pasted up... ...and here's the fully assembled board! Yes, the H-Sync/V-Sync buffer is backwards. I swapped it around right after. My SDRAM footprint was 0.508mm pitch instead of 0.500mm. I fell for one of UltraLibrarian's classic blunders! Darn...

Do not solder that part onto the original LDO's footprint. It has a different pinout and will not work. The LDO on the Wii has Vout on pin 3 and the tab. Some motherboards use a Sharp PQ070XHA2 regulator, and some use a Richtek RT9009. You can purchase a replacement RT9009 from Win-Source...

I get my FPCs from two places, GoldPhoenix and PCBWay. Each service has pros and cons. GoldPhoenix FPC Pool service (opens every few days, closes after a few days or when pool is full) Super duper cheap, only $1.20 per square inch 1/2 layers, ENIG, 0.1mm thickness, 0.5oz/in² copper and 5/5mil...

PCBs arrived! Right now I'm waiting on the parts for the Shinobi scaler to get here. In the meantime I started fleshing out the audio system for the portable. The 1-Chip SNES has a pretty straightforward audio setup: the S-APU generates I2S, which is converted to analog audio by a DAC on the...

ChinaMxin on AliExpress has all three versions of the IP2721 in stock! Regular IP2721: 5V, 15V, 20V IP2721_MAX12: 5V, 9V, 12V IP2721_D: 5V, 9V, 12V, 15V, 20V New datasheet that includes info on the D version. The new IP2721_D version uses both the SEL and SELP pins to set the negotiated...

The datasheet for the part you're using will often have a recommended layout and/or a list of layout guidelines. Often you can just copy the provided layout if you aren't comfortable winging it! Also, here are two application notes I really like that walk you through making a good switching...

Welp, got sidetracked with other projects for a while... My new SNES and scaler PCBs should be here in a few days; in the meantime, I've done some preliminary CAD work in Fusion 360. The case is around 190x97x33mm and has original size SNES D-pad and face buttons. My initial attempts were...

PM'd!

Well, I struggled with the original TV5725 and SDRAM layout for a week and a half... I even had a dream about the final PCB being a compact square, and was pretty frustrated I couldn't make the board match the form factor in my mind's eye. And I was hesitant to alter the SDRAM layout, since it...

Yep, a single custom PCB will never be able to beat the OMEGA when it comes to size (especially since OMEGAs "stack" the NAND and AVE under the RAM and CPU.) But it'll open the door to more integrated builds, like a single-PCB portable with regulation/charging, GC+, and direct drive all on one...

Small update, mostly PCB design stuff this time! All the errors in my αSNES mobo prototype have been fixed. This includes the various pins incorrectly connected to 5V or GND, missing video passives, and the other tweaks I mentioned in my last post, like powering the loudspeakers from 5V to get...

A while back I stripped and scanned a SNES Jr (SNS-101) to help verify the existing 1Chip SNES schematics floating around on the internet. Never a good policy to blindly trust someone else's work without cross-checking it yourself! You can find the scans here if you're interested. I've also just...

αSNES (alphaSNES): A modern, zero-compromise, single-PCB Super Nintendo Entertainment System portable. Why? After getting I2S audio from the SNES in 2020, I thought it would be a shame to build a SNESp with digital audio, yet settle for composite video, a hand-wired cartridge slot, and all the...

For 3.5" 640x480 I'd recommend the JT035IPS02-V0 over the PD035VX2. It's full 24-bit color instead of 18-bit, and IPS. Really vibrant with great viewing angles. Only downside is the Wisecoco driver board doesn't support composite video in AFAIK.

Solder paste stenciling was an absolute nightmare... For some reason, JLCPCB's stencil was warped right in the middle between the GPU and CPU. I eventually managed to get the CPU and GPU pasted properly but had to wipe off the RAM pads and do them separately in a second pass. I've gotten dozens...

After months and months of procrastination, I've finally begun assembling a prototype of my Wii motherboard redesign, which I'm calling Vegas. The name is an homage to Nintendo's naming scheme for the Wii's chipset (Broadway and Hollywood, both famous hubs of entertainment in the US). I designed...

Yeah, I have both a legit GDEMU v5.5 ($140, whole morning wasted constantly refreshing the order page, rude email from Deunan confirming my order) and a clone v5.15 from AliExpress ($45 at the time, painless). They function identically.

If you don't have a VA0/1, or just want to experience the authentic clicking and whirring of the original disc drive, you can also burn games in CDI format to CDs and play them with zero modification to the Dreamcast. That might be even cheaper than a GDEMU if you happen to own a laptop with an...