- Joined
- Nov 14, 2020
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What if Nintendo *didn't* hate ergonomics, or me personally?
This thing...
THIS FUCKING THING.
I hate it. You should too. We were eating good with the Circle Pad, bro. We did not need the world's stiffest excuse for a C-Stick known to man to follow it up, like sending out a Magikarp to use Splash after your opponent sends out Arceus or some shit.
And then they top it off by making it impossible to access the MicroSD slot without unscrewing the back? Madness!
I come to you, however, with a solution...
The "New" Nintendo 3DS: Director's Cut (N3DS DX)
The plan is simple. I want to make the N3DS XL but if Nintendo didn't hate us. And also throw in some modern amenities whilst I'm at it.
Some of the essentials will be:
- Two circle pads rather than the useless nipple of mediocrity.
- Capture Card modded system, with a USB C charging port.
- Custom PCB that takes the internal MicroSD card slot and makes it so that, when the system is off, the USB C port (used for charging the system and capture card shenanigans) can now be used to access the internal MicroSD. Yay for no longer needing to take the system apart! Bonus points if I can relocate the MicroSD so it's also easily removable too, I guess.
Now, I love photography. I love using the 3DS as a camera for videography and photography because, quite frankly, the unashamed shittiness of the quality is charming. So, what do I propose? Why, a custom lens mount for proper quality lenses so that I can just attach whatever the hell I like to this thing, and have an eldritch monstrosity ready to roll. Think Frankenstein's monster.
A digital camera is nothing without its flash or at least some form of lighting attachment, so I will figure out a way to include this built-in to the system (likely just a super bright LED that is toggled on and off with a soft latching button. Oh MAX16054, how I miss you so...)
All this extra flashing is gonna be taxing on that battery, so if I'm feeling fruity (which I always do) I'm gonna throw in some bigger batteries. Dual 18650s on a N3DSXL, anyone?
The Loopy N3DSXL boards are incredible. They fuck. Hard. But having to sand and dremel away at the shell is painstaking. Luckily, we're already making a custom shell anywhozies.
As such, the remaining essentials for this project are:
- Custom, larger shell with grips where the batteries are (and no case work required to get stuff to fit, yay!)
- Some sort of flash.
- Lens mount for high-quality lenses.
- Bigger battery capacity (aiming for dual 18650s with an AliExpress BQ25616 charge board and a PD trigger, and just bypassing the internal battery/charging circuitry).
Now, what about stretch goals? After all, I'm already *stretching* the ambition quite a bit (put those rotten tomatoes away please, they scare me).
Stretch goals are as follows:
- Wireless audio while retaining the headphone jack.
- Wireless charging.
- Custom homebrew camera app that lets me configure the flash intensity and brightness, with it actually going off while the photo is taken. (Hey, I said this is a stretch goal! I can do whatever I want in this bit and it won't reflect on the final build. Like, I can ramble for ages because it doesn't even matter. Did you know that according to all known laws of aviation, there is no way a bee should be able to fly? It's true, I saw a documentary about it).
- BlueRetro support for external controllers.
- A custom charging dock that lets me play on the TV (I like the switch gimmick a lot, ok?)
TL;DR
I will make a custom N3DSXL with dual circle pads, USB accessible storage, bigger battery capacity, an internal capture card, and also some photography stuff because I think it's funny.
If I get the time I'll fuckin throw in some wireless charging and audio for good measure to suck up to Apple while making a nice lil dock and adding external controller compatibility so I can rip off Nintendo's latest ventures.
This is basically a lot of simple mods just kinda sandwiched together. I think I need to make like one or two PCBs max for the essentials (with another few for the stretch goals). The main challenge will be the case's CAD work, which sounds fun while pushing my skills forward in a nice way and giving me something that I feel is currently missing in terms of easily replicable 3DS mods while adding a lot of QoL improvements to the system.
Unlike my last contest entry suggestion, I will be sticking with this for longer than like a week, so stay tuned for updates :p
Gonna be ordering a N3DSXL and a capture card soon to start figuring out the specific game plan. Isn't that fun?
This thing...
THIS FUCKING THING.
I hate it. You should too. We were eating good with the Circle Pad, bro. We did not need the world's stiffest excuse for a C-Stick known to man to follow it up, like sending out a Magikarp to use Splash after your opponent sends out Arceus or some shit.
And then they top it off by making it impossible to access the MicroSD slot without unscrewing the back? Madness!
I come to you, however, with a solution...
The "New" Nintendo 3DS: Director's Cut (N3DS DX)
The plan is simple. I want to make the N3DS XL but if Nintendo didn't hate us. And also throw in some modern amenities whilst I'm at it.
Some of the essentials will be:
- Two circle pads rather than the useless nipple of mediocrity.
- Capture Card modded system, with a USB C charging port.
- Custom PCB that takes the internal MicroSD card slot and makes it so that, when the system is off, the USB C port (used for charging the system and capture card shenanigans) can now be used to access the internal MicroSD. Yay for no longer needing to take the system apart! Bonus points if I can relocate the MicroSD so it's also easily removable too, I guess.
Now, I love photography. I love using the 3DS as a camera for videography and photography because, quite frankly, the unashamed shittiness of the quality is charming. So, what do I propose? Why, a custom lens mount for proper quality lenses so that I can just attach whatever the hell I like to this thing, and have an eldritch monstrosity ready to roll. Think Frankenstein's monster.
A digital camera is nothing without its flash or at least some form of lighting attachment, so I will figure out a way to include this built-in to the system (likely just a super bright LED that is toggled on and off with a soft latching button. Oh MAX16054, how I miss you so...)
All this extra flashing is gonna be taxing on that battery, so if I'm feeling fruity (which I always do) I'm gonna throw in some bigger batteries. Dual 18650s on a N3DSXL, anyone?
The Loopy N3DSXL boards are incredible. They fuck. Hard. But having to sand and dremel away at the shell is painstaking. Luckily, we're already making a custom shell anywhozies.
As such, the remaining essentials for this project are:
- Custom, larger shell with grips where the batteries are (and no case work required to get stuff to fit, yay!)
- Some sort of flash.
- Lens mount for high-quality lenses.
- Bigger battery capacity (aiming for dual 18650s with an AliExpress BQ25616 charge board and a PD trigger, and just bypassing the internal battery/charging circuitry).
Now, what about stretch goals? After all, I'm already *stretching* the ambition quite a bit (put those rotten tomatoes away please, they scare me).
Stretch goals are as follows:
- Wireless audio while retaining the headphone jack.
- Wireless charging.
- Custom homebrew camera app that lets me configure the flash intensity and brightness, with it actually going off while the photo is taken. (Hey, I said this is a stretch goal! I can do whatever I want in this bit and it won't reflect on the final build. Like, I can ramble for ages because it doesn't even matter. Did you know that according to all known laws of aviation, there is no way a bee should be able to fly? It's true, I saw a documentary about it).
- BlueRetro support for external controllers.
- A custom charging dock that lets me play on the TV (I like the switch gimmick a lot, ok?)
TL;DR
I will make a custom N3DSXL with dual circle pads, USB accessible storage, bigger battery capacity, an internal capture card, and also some photography stuff because I think it's funny.
If I get the time I'll fuckin throw in some wireless charging and audio for good measure to suck up to Apple while making a nice lil dock and adding external controller compatibility so I can rip off Nintendo's latest ventures.
This is basically a lot of simple mods just kinda sandwiched together. I think I need to make like one or two PCBs max for the essentials (with another few for the stretch goals). The main challenge will be the case's CAD work, which sounds fun while pushing my skills forward in a nice way and giving me something that I feel is currently missing in terms of easily replicable 3DS mods while adding a lot of QoL improvements to the system.
Unlike my last contest entry suggestion, I will be sticking with this for longer than like a week, so stay tuned for updates :p
Gonna be ordering a N3DSXL and a capture card soon to start figuring out the specific game plan. Isn't that fun?
