Worklog XL-DMG-N64P

[spiiderBytes]

Bamboo, could you provide us a good link to buy the right angle header pins and connectors you used for the cartridge slot relocation?

This is hands down the best alternative to extensive soldering I have ever seen!

 

[fibbef]

Dumb question, but do you have your expansion/jumper pack connected? I don’t know how many times that was my problem.

I’m with the other guys in thinking it could be your power source. I don’t remember if my pth is outputting a little over or under, but I know it’s not a spot-on 3.3v. That being said, I can’t really comment on the under/overvolting, but those UltraFire do have a bad reputation. One thing you might try is wiring an RCA jack to your composite line and testing on a regular TV. At the very least, by eliminating your screen you would be reducing the load on your batteries.

Also, holy crap - do you actually have a paid PhotoBucket account!?

 

[Bamboo]

It could also be that your (shit) ultrafire batteries aren't outputting enough current.

Yeah... didnt realize how bad a rep they had til I ordered them. I did check their output and it is accurate, so even if I don't end up running them for the final build, they should work for bench testing.

Bamboo, could you provide us a good link to buy the right angle header pins and connectors you used for the cartridge slot relocation?

This is hands down the best alternative to extensive soldering I have ever seen!

Thanks, glad you like it! I'd like it better too if I could figure out why it isn't working lol

You can actually search for right angle headers on ebay and get a ton of options. They also have double row pins which my be even better for this but I don't think the spacing is the same for the cartridge itself

Here's a link though:
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/401417930565

It was super easy to bend and solder to the pins. I checked continuity again on all of them and found two I needed to fix. Even after that though, no dice so far

Dumb question, but do you have your expansion/jumper pack connected? I don’t know how many times that was my problem.

I’m with the other guys in thinking it could be your power source. I don’t remember if my pth is outputting a little over or under, but I know it’s not a spot-on 3.3v. That being said, I can’t really comment on the under/overvolting, but those UltraFire do have a bad reputation. One thing you might try is wiring an RCA jack to your composite line and testing on a regular TV. At the very least, by eliminating your screen you would be reducing the load on your batteries.

Also, holy crap - do you actually have a paid PhotoBucket account!?

I do have my jumper pack connected

I may try that soon, to see if maybe it is a screen problem/power thing but I doubt it. I've been checking voltages to the composite line and I'm getting a measly 0.01v and nothing to the L/R audio at the corner contacts. I think something is just not working at the cartridge relocation or I fried the board somehow during storage or testing.

And yeah I paid the $3 or so a month to keep all my photos hosted on forums. I do a lot of car modification and am on a lot of other forums lol did it long ago

I've gotta say I'm learning a ton but I SO wish that I hadn't stripped the board the way I did following the bacteria vids. It's making this troubleshooting situation so frustrating.

I'm going to keep tinkering but I also just ordered another motherboard with all the ports and I'm going to slowly do it right if I can't make this one work.

 

[Bamboo]

Hey again everyone! I have more updates and more questions. Thanks in advance!

Got the new board yesterday. Checked it with the my jumper pack, av cords and power. Loaded up great!

Hooked up the screen and that worked great too!



So next up, I started moving over my power wiring from the old board to the new. I was very careful not to bridge the 12v line with the 3.3. Rechecked output on the pth08080 and the 1.87k resistor puts out a perfect 3.3v.

At this point though, my ultrafire batteries and/or China pcb/battery holder shit the bed. It turned the screen and led on but no game activation, then stopped outputting power altogether. Then ripped out my battery pack and directly wired in a DC power adapter I had lying around rated at 12v - 1A output. Same deal as the batteries, screen and led are on but no game. All my wires for power are 18g speaker wire so that should be fine.

I did a search and it takes ~19 watts to power the n64 right? 12v @0.8a and 3.3v @2.7a, not including the screen. Add the screen to the mix and youve got low 20s wattage needs. So I'd guess that the DC power cord and terrible shitty ultrafire batteries may have produced enough voltage but not enough amperage for the wattage requirement? I checked the 5v point by the composite line and it was only receiving 1.27v.

Is this off base or does it make sense? Every time I see that blue screen instead of a game loading I'm getting closer and closer to madness lol