Downing's Basement

Last night I finished off a small side project that I’ve been wanting to do for awhile. Though not a complex project or visually remarkable, this new tool will help out a lot in the future as I dive into new systems and try new things with the old. So yes, I basically just made myself a 3D Printed TV to mount on the wall in front of my work bench.

The screen itself is a 5.6″ 4:3 Ratio 480p screen which plays nicely with older consoles and since older is what I’m usually working on, it seemed the logical choice. (plus I that’s all I had to work with anyway). A good benefit though is this can take VGA and HDMI input as well as composite so there’s a wide range of possible uses for this. The bummer though is this screen board did not have audio output, so anything HDMI will be a pain to test audio with. However, there is an L&R input for composite or VGA (or anything audio for that matter) to goes to one of RDC’s original SmaIIamp boards, which in turn power the speakers. I had to add a 5V step down reg though as the reg on the screen had 1.3V, 3.3V and 12V…pretty useless as far powering an amp that requires 5V to run. Oh well, had a few spares kicking around to I used one of them up.

So again, all in all, not a very complicated project but hopefully a useful one. This took probably 3 hours to design, 8 hours to print and 4 hours to wire & assemble and has probably $120 worth of parts and materials. So all in all, not that bad…could have bought one for cheaper I’m sure, but where’s the fun in that?

Next, an update on my current N64 Commission. It’s moving along, though a bit slower due to the above project as the test box was/is needed for the systems completion. The front half is just about complete though, but I decided that the tact switch board for the screen and audio controls needed to be made into a real PCB as well and those are currently at the fab shop getting produced.

Now the back halves need the same loving attention. Currently they are sitting on my desk covered in filler that needs to be sanded, refilled, sanded, primed, sanded primed, painted and clear coated…with a few more sanding in there somewhere. But yeah, that’s where things stand right now and I hope to start work on this again very shortly. Thanks for checking in!