Posts Tagged ‘Mod’

Latest Portable Commission Complete

Posted: 05/25/2015 in Current Project, General News
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IMAG1614_1

Alright after about 5 months of working off an on  with this project as time allowed, my first portable in a year is complete.

A commission I took at the end of last year, I was finally able to get this guy done and will be shipping out the buyer next week. This is a very basic N64 as far as portables go, but it still did have it’s issues and took a bit longer to fix than anticipated.

System Specs.

5″ TFT LCD Display
2 – 2mm Mylar Speakers
Custom Audio Amp by RDC
2 – 3.7v 5000mAh Li-Po Batteries in Series for 7.4v Output
Standard N64 Motherboard with heavy trim
Expansion Pak
Hardwired Memory Pak
Custom 3D Printed and CNC Machined Enclosure
3.5mm Headphone Jack with Manual On/Off
Dual Power Circuit for Wall and Battery Power

All in all I’m happy with this though the casing issues did irritate me to no end. But the custom audio amp (by RDC), the two seperate power circuits for wall power and battery power and the modular case style were all new techniques/items that I’ve never done before and with the next project I’ll be able to improve on the ideas and their usages.

I didn’t do up a build log for this one but I might do up a couple of posts on the modular case building technique I used as I think that could be pretty helpful for other case makers and portablizers.

So the next project is to finish off my OUYA portable that I’m about 3/4 of the way complete. That one should be fun once it’s complete. So until we meet again, enjoy the video!

 

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!

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.