Posts Tagged ‘Downing’

GeneBoy get’s a face lift and bionic-implants

Posted: 08/20/2012 in Current Project, General News
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The idea was simple. As noted in the previous post, I was selling (and have since sold) my N64 portable in an attempt to gain funds to buy my new CNC Router that I need for a variety of different reasons. Going on that logic, I thought it was a good idea to sell my latest portable, the GeneBoy Sega Genesis portable I did up earlier this year.

However, this particular portable of mine was not in a condition I would feel morally decent about if I were to take money for it. The paint was cracking and some of the buttons were not working well either. So I figured a quick re-casing would do nicely.  Yeah…quick, hahahaah…:-/ This spawned a whole mass of ideas to make this machine better and much more durable as I learned with the SNES-001 Advance, half-assed often requires two or three times the work in the end, and if this is going to a potential buyer with my name attached to it, it’d better hold up!

So where this stands now is about halfway done with the case work. I hope to have this completed by Wednesday, provided I don’t try and get smart again, but that’s bound to happen. Anyway, if you’re interested in buying this from me, I’m looking for $200 which for the amount of time and material that’s gone into this as a whole is really not a bad deal at all. Just let me know as the Nimbus II was sold in less than a day, though bargains will do that!

For Sale: N64 Portable “The Nimbus II” *SOLD*

Posted: 08/19/2012 in General News
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The better part of a year and a half ago I created my third portable Nintendo 64 called “The Nimbus II”. This was probably my best work I’d ever done and the least heard about project I’d ever completed. The previous N64p “The Nimbus 64” remains my heaviest hitter when it came to popular interest. However that was long ago and alas, even it’s half sized kin is still just sitting on the shelf.

With that said, I’ve found myself in a rather unique situation that’s allowed me to pursue these skill sets that I’ve acquired over the years to be put to practical use. However, cash is always an obstacle that needs to be over come.

The goal here is to get about a grand ($1000 USD) saved up to purchase a table top CNC router/engraver, the likes of which 16-year-old UK modding prodigy [Electro Modder] uses in his workshop. With this I’ll be able to do the prototyping and small run production that will be required to fuel my progress. On top of having this in house, I’ll also be hopefully finishing up my new vacuum forming machine that in combination with the CNC capabilities will really push me in the right direction.

So, here’s the deal. Parts alone in this unit are worth about $250 (the Li-Po batteries and PS1 Screen make up almost half that). That’s all I’m looking to recoup as it’s going to be used to get me the equipment I need to continue. The charger is not included but I’ll provide a link to the one that’s needed.

Also to help fuel this along, I’ll be re-casing my Geneboy portable and be putting that up for sale as well. I’ll only be asking $200 for that (or B.O.) So that should give me at least a good start on the router. I’ll also be taking any case commission that comes my way so if you need a custom casing done up for your next project, please send me the details!

But at any rate, here are some more pics of the Nimbus II. Please let me know if you’re interested!

  

*UPDATE* This unit has been sold and is on it’s way to Florida! Thanks StarKiller!

Phase II Complete, will now know exactly how much juice is set loose

Posted: 08/19/2012 in Current Project, General News
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Though I finished this off a week or so ago, I finally got around to making a video of it. It’s really just a quick demo to show how the addition of variable regulators, volt meters and an LED tester make this unit a very handy one indeed. I hope to be putting this to work before too long with some future projects.

Not much else can be said that hasn’t already been said in the previous video, but here is a pic of the working unit as well as links to the Made-by-Bacteria forum work log. Stay tuned for some even more exciting projects!

Testing of the test box is so far successful!

Posted: 07/25/2012 in Current Project, General News
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So far I have to say that I’m quite pleased that this worked on the first shot and didn’t turn my evening into a lesson on fire safety! In terms of the audio/video, everything worked exactly like it was meant to, a trend I intend to keep up once the regulators arrive in the mail.  Though of course I did once again wire the audio tact switches backwards…so down is up and up is down…and on the SNES-001 Advance I had the left switch as volume up and the right a volume down…I’ll get that right one day.

But as you see, I’ve made a quick demo video of the test and how it works, so please have a look! More info with more progress. Hopefully I’ll have this complete within the week and then I can start the testing of my controller for the computer desk. Until then, just wait!

UPS gets a color show

Posted: 07/24/2012 in Current Project, General News
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How befitting it is that the sacrificed encasement for this project comes from an abandoned product called ColorMorphics?! Though this was simply an unnecessary add-on to the unit while waiting for my regulators to arrive, I figured this would be a nice touch. Though the third LED from the right is still giving me trouble, you can see that all are in place and all are wired up. However, I did make a mistake that I didn’t notice until after I had all the LED’s in place. I wired up all Green LED’s, not Red! I know, the pic above shows blue, that was intentional as that’s not a voltage line, it’s the A/V power line and was supposed to be that way. But man was I surprised (and quite frankly temporarily blinded) when the bright green light came emitting from the unit to my retina! So, it’s a lot brighter than I was anticipating, but that’s really alright and I’m not redoing it at this point.

So after the regulators arrive and I can get those wired up correctly I’ll be able to start the testing of the test box and then back to my desk. Oh, and the pic up top also shows the far left switch being turned on but no light. I didn’t have both power supplies in plugged in so the pic below shows that in working order. More details soon!

Small side project underway

Posted: 06/29/2012 in Current Project, General News
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Now that the SNES-001 Advance’s fire is slowly burning down, it was time to start up a new project. Well this isn’t it, in fact this wasn’t even really meant to be a project in itself, but of course once I get an idea in my head, I have a nasty habit of letting it take me over.

With that said, this project was supposed to just be replacing the main screens protection cover as this Game Boy Advance was a bit roughed up. Bought from a friend of mine in a bulk deal, this unit was one of the first portable gaming units I owned outside of the original 1989 DMG version of the Game Boy. As it was first released in 2000, the technology was far superior to the Game Boy on it’s own, including having more power than the SNES which came out in 1992.

There was just one thing I did not care for with this unit though and that’s the fact that even after 11 years, Nintendo did not see the need to install a back light for the screen, a problem they hastily corrected with the Game Boy Advance SP. This of course led to the idea of adding a light to the screen of this unit to help with the issue.

Deciding to take the system a part and find out how much room I actually had to work with in the case seemed like the next logical step after deciding that 4 – 3mm bright white LED’s could light the screen up a bit. But of course this led to another problem as these units were powered only by 2 AA batteries. The addition of 4 LED’s at 3V and 20mAh each would greatly decrease the life of the batteries, so a new battery source would be required. And when a new source is added, a new method on how to replenish that source is needed. So taking apart an old Black Berry for the Mini-USB jack was quite fun and provided that medium for getting power from the charger to the battery.

So everything is now cut, spaced, painted and ready to get put into place, but I’m waiting on the right size resistors to arrive as for the 5V/3mm LED’s I did not have the correct rating on hand. Now I only hope that once all the wiring is in place, I’ll have enough room to close up the unit. It’s looking good so far, but I’ll keep you up to date and as always, check the MBB forums for more info!

The final solutions to this project include:
4- 3mm Bright White LED’s
1- 7.4v 2000mAh Li-Ion Camcorder battery with a 7805 linear regulator
1- Custom Red, White and Black paint job
1- New Screen Protector
1- Mini USB jack for battery recharge.

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