So for the fun of it, I decided to enter the Hack A Day Trinket contest. Basically they want to see the most creative and fun way their logo can be slapped on something so I figured why not engrave it into the back of my latest project? The PlayStation 2 Advance has now been permanently branded with my favorite blogs likeness. There are 20 winners and a cool prize (an Adafruit 5v Trinket Micro Controller) for all 20. So we shall see if they like my efforts!
Case #2 for [Gman] is almost done. Unlike the last case, this one was done up from scratch. Though I love vacuum forming and making these from nothing more than a block of wood, the whole process is a great deal more time consuming. With that said, this is probably one of the best vacuum formed casings I’ve made to date and I’m quite proud with not only the form but the quality of the cuts and general layout.
Most will notice right away that this resembles the [Wii U] controller. That was the point, however now a Game Cube portable is going to be stuffed into it! And I say stuffed because apparently the commissioner is going to be putting the whole original disc drive into it as opposed to the now standard [WiiKey Fusion] mod chips that allow people to play ROMs of their games via SD card. But it should be interesting to see the progress on in the near future!
Got a few more jobs to finish up and then in the next couple of weeks the meet-up so things are about to get crazy busy! Loving every second of it though and can’t wait!
Sorry again for nearly another 10 days between posts. I’ve been sick, busy and making a lot of progress all at the same time. Still fine tuning the skills of the basic CNC work, but as you can tell I’m starting to get the hang of it. What would have taken hours to do, now cuts out in a matter of minutes, however the free time is eaten up by the design work that is required. I’ve come to realize that what will make you good and fast at cutting is how intimate your knowledge with CAD is. It’s getting there, but still has a ways to go.
The above pic is the case I cut today for Nintendork from the MBB forums. Though I’m not sure if this is the case I’ll send because of the fact that I messed up a bit with the D-pad and had to FrankenCase in a replacement because I of it. This has caused a lot of sanding and I think I might just order in another case and save this one for a different project. Still deciding but we’ll see how the finished product looks and if it’s no good than I’ll get another case for it.
I’ve also made a lot of progress with Tchay’s casings and the first one will be on it’s way to Hollywood CA, on Tuesday.
All in all that’s pretty much what I’ve been doing but there is a lot more on the way so stay tuned.
In a time span of less than a week, my knowledge of CNC work has grown over 100% and I still don’t feel like I’ve scratched the surface. As you can see by the video, I did my first test cut on a vacuum-formed casing. The results were nothing less than perfect in terms of how the machine performed. I had a few errors in my design which resulted in the cutting of right buttons twice making them far too big, but that was not the machines fault.
This was cut in about a 6 or 7 minute span and would have been only 5 had I had my drawing done correctly. But the cuts and the placement came out beautifully! This really is an exciting step for me as it gives me the confidence that I can take my work to the next level. Time alone will tell how far this goes, but I have to say that I’m more excited by today’s results than I’ve been with anything for awhile! (Modding wise of course).
I’ll have more projects coming up shortly (like today) that further shows the capabilities of this machine, software and user! Stay tuned!
Though I still do not know how to use it properly (and this pic doesn’t even have the axis motors on it yet) you can be rest assured that tomorrow I’ll be playing with this for some time, making sure everything is in its place. There will be a learning curve like anything else and even though it’s a small starter unit, I’ll get the basics of this and the software down before getting into anything bigger. So stay tuned for the next couple of weeks as cool things will be happening soon enough.
Just shy of 12 weeks in the making, the SNES-001 Advance is complete and ready to find it’s new home! This has been one of the most fun projects that I’ve completed, mainly because it was a concept that solved an over 20 year old problem. Though of course these days, playing consoles this old on a TV via original hardware is a rarity, but I think back to the times I was 11 or 12 years old and always having to fight for TV time because someone else with more influence than I had was using it! So enter the SNES-001 Advance, which has two custom controllers that allow for up to two players sharing the same point of view in the palm of their hands!
This was a rather simple mod by design and theory, but took a great deal of time to get correct. Honestly the wiring was the easiest part of this, but getting the controllers to function correctly via the tact switches or the D-pad was the most frustrating part of the whole build! But these issue were over come, leaving a solid and fun system to play with. The wooden, LED encasement of the system I think adds a nice touch as a collectors item, combining rustic with a modern flair which I guess pretty much sums up the reason for a lot of console based mods.
This will also be for sale on eBay and when I have that up and listed, I’ll make another post! Should be interesting to see where this goes!
But as always, check out the video below as well as the links to the forums for more info on the build! Thanks for watching!
Made By Bacteria Work Log Link
And Here is the Link to Ebay! Happy Bidding! Current Starting Bid of $499.99
Downing's Basement 