Posts Tagged ‘Downings Basement’

CPU/Retro Gaming Desk takes control

Posted: 07/07/2012 in Current Project, General News
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Now there is something very satisfying to see an idea come around into some form of physical manifestation, even if it’s only in appearance. Show above is the painted up/mocked up version of my new controller that will take the job of playing all three of Nintendo’s early generation systems.

This controller will be able to play the NES, SNES and N64 games all from one unit. Using a parallel printer cable and connections, this will automatically flip to the unit that is powered on. The three holes you see in the center there are LED holders and house an LED that will illuminate depending on which unit is on.

It’s got a long way to go yet, but it will be getting there soon and then I can finally put this project to bed! Lots of changes over the year, but will certainly be worth it! As always, have a look at the WorkLog on the MBB Forums to get up to speed!.

Two more cases en-route to the UK

Posted: 07/07/2012 in General News
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My new best customer, Evil Nod from the Made-by-Bacteria Forums, last week commissioned me to to make two cases for his two new portable gaming system commissions he just took on. These again were just case shells that I made up from wooden molds. Though this was a simple design for both of them, the thicknesses were a bit of an issue and when trying to form both at once, I ran into issues and had to redo them a couple of times. But it’s still a learning process.

These cases are not fully finished in the sense that they are cut to their final thickness. Evil Nod likes to cut them down after the fact so he is sure he has enough room to make it work. Can’t say I blame him and it saves me a step, but that’s why they don’t look like they line up properly. They will when he cuts them down.

You can view his progress on both builds at the links below. Looking forward to seeing the progress when they get across the pond!

Evil Nod’s SNES Commission

Evil Nod’s N64 Commission

Also if you’re new to my work, you can see other successful portable systems that I did case shells for!

New vacuum former slowly coming into existence

Posted: 07/07/2012 in Current Project, General News
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It’s probably been about 7 or 8 months of off-and-on planning, but the first part of my new vacuum former is now built!

Working with John Seik of Complex Mold & Machine of Holderness, NH we have the outer portion of the “Clamping Frame” completed. This frame has been precision cut and welded and now just in need of another length of aluminum tubing so we can make the cross mounts. The cross mounts will allow for up to 4 sizes of plastic to be used, reducing waste and allowing for short runs of multiple casings or projects at once.

It’s been very cool to see this take shape and more details can be found HERE at the MBB Forums.

I’ll be meeting with John again on Thursday and hopefully finishing off this clamp frame.  More updates as they get built!

My Most Beautiful Fail

Posted: 07/01/2012 in Current Project, General News
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Sure she’s pretty, but make-up doesn’t change her personality. What was supposed to be a simple LED and extended battery mod for this unit turned into merely a nice new custom paint job. Though normally this wouldn’t be a bad thing, I don’t like abandoning any project I start, much less one that got this far into. But then again, the project was never meant to take long in the first place and now I have several other projects/commissions that now need my attention.

So here it is, looks nice and plays just as well, but again without the advancements I was hoping for. Have a peek at the video below learn all about it, that is unless you’re ashamed with my apparent apathy towards project commitment!

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.

My thanks and looking forward

Posted: 06/27/2012 in General News
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The SNES-001 Advance was a huge success! I’d like to thank all who took a look and helped tip off the main sites like Engadget, Hack-A-Day and PC World! All three of these major news sites ran some pretty good press about the unit and I’m quite happy with the end result! Though the unit is still on eBay and no bids as of yet, it still has a day and there have been over 1600 views on the page and that in it’s own right has been amazing! So I’ll keep you up to date with that as more info become available.

But, no good triumph comes without consequence. Over the past three weeks I’ve managed to loose my job of nearly 5 years and have had one of my dogs (a Boston Terrier) fall ill with an eye ulcer which ended up costing my wife and I a cool $2500 to fix…yeah, ouch and a “WTF!!!” kind of ouch. So needless to say, the penny pinching is now upon us as our savings have been drained and I won’t be bringing in the same cash as I used to. But with that said, I do have a new job lined up to start on the 16th of July. So I’ve got some free time in between, but still won’t be taking the vacations we thought we would be.

But enough of that, this is a modding blog, real life is for the day time! I’ve got a couple more projects going that hopefully will hopefully add to the list of completed mods shortly, including a GameBoy Advance mod and finally going to finish up my computer desk with a few major adjustments from what it was supposed to be initially. I’ll be making posts about these in the future, but of course, the work logs can be found over at made-by-bacteria.com.

Again, I thank everyone who helped make the SNES-001 Advance such a success and we’ll see where these next projects go.

 

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