Worklog [2022 Contest Entry] Luke's 3rd N64p

Luke

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Eager to rejoin this community after quite a hiatus. I am making this thread now to hold the motivation I now have to participate in this competition, which I am very excited about. I have not started yet and have not finalized my plan but here are some things I want to do.
  • frankencased - a hat tip to the late 2000's when that was the main method, before the age of 3d printing
  • typical 7.4v / 3.3v power via two (or four) 18650's and a ti reg
  • composite video and audio using onboard circuits, nothing fancy
  • stupidly large screen - 4:3, maybe 8"??

That's pretty much all I have at the moment. As I said this is mostly a placeholder. Looking forward to getting started on this!


Side note on coming back, I have a few worklogs that I had abandoned that I do plan on picking back up. I still have all the parts and progress as I did at the time I left off.
pi in a 3ds case
wii portable
 

Luke

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  • composite video
Well, possibly...
PXL_20220529_181517272~2.jpg

I think this didn't turn out too bad considering I really don't have very steady hands.
Pretty nervous about doing the other side.

I still want to have a big screen, 6-8". I am eyeing this one at the moment: amazon
Anyone have any experience with anything like that, or have other suggestions for a screen, >5", that accepts vga and has a native res of 640x480? Maybe I should just use a 5" one.
 
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I would consider using thinner wires for those signal wires, like 34-awg (ish) enameled copper wire. Also looks like you doubled up those ground leads? Not sure if that's needed (I really dislike soldering 2 wires to one pad). Also some of those might be a bit cold, give them a good tug to ensure they're not just stuck on there but properly soldered.

That brown wire looks Thicc; is that carrying a lot of current?
 

Luke

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It's all so small I didn't see it until I took the picture that some of them seemed to turn out better than others, but I did tug on them all pretty hard and particularly the ones that seemed like they could be weak, but they all seemed secure and didn't budge whatsoever. The gauge I used was 30. Brown is 3.3v, I wanted to use a single wire and didn't want to use 30 gauge, but yeah that thing is way overkill. I'll probably swap it with something a bit smaller.

I'm not clear on why I need multiple grounds as opposed to one bigger one like the 3v3, but that's what's stated in the UltraVGA thread. Maybe someone else who's used it can weigh in?
You need at least 2 grounds connected to the RCP.
There should be at least 2 and preferably more ground wires mixed in with the rcp signals. These wires should be physically close to the signals (especially VCLK) and all of the same length.
 
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> It's all so small I didn't see it until I took the picture that some of them seemed to turn out better than others

Ah yes, I actually often use my phone to snap a picture, then zoom in on that as 'cheap microscope'. Some phones have pretty good macro abilities and if you have plenty of light you can see issues (like cold joints) much better than with the naked eye or a simple magnifying glass in my experience.

> I'm not clear on why I need multiple grounds as opposed to one bigger one like the 3v3, but that's what's stated in the UltraVGA thread. Maybe someone else who's used it can weigh in?

That's interesting. Yes it seems as marshallh is saying you should have 2 grounds (top and bottom) but the wiring should be 'equal' to the signal wires (e.g. use the same wire and the same length wire). I don't think he meant 'use 2 wires _per_ pad'.
 

Luke

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Yeah I kinda wish I had taken a picture after each one, a little more convenient to touch a joint up when it's still the one you just did on the end and not in the middle.

Agreed, nothing special about 2 wires per pad, I decided on 4 wires total and that's just kinda what I did.
 

Luke

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Setting the VGA aside for now and looking back to an oversized composite option...

This is an 8" LCD I had for reasons I don't remember.
I don't know if I ever had a driver but if I did I couldn't find it, so I ordered a new one.

Note the untrimmed n64 mobo for size comparison lol...
PXL_20220601_211340239.jpg

The screen's back light has a very subtle flicker, which I assume is due to plugging it directly in to the driver (top left plug) rather than through an inverter (that wasn't included - middle left plug).

1654118381944.png



Need to do a bit more research but I assume buying one of these would possibly fix it. Only $10 2 day delivery on Amazon, so it's probably worth a shot unless someone tells me otherwise.
1654118661811.png



Thoughts? I know it probably seems ridiculous to have a screen that big, I'm just going for something unique, and I think it could be pretty cool if I pull it off right with a case design that complements it.
 
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Luke

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I am quite pleasantly surprised that my soldering the UltraVGA to the rcp was successful. I had a connection from 3v3 to gnd that I had to debug but after that was taken care of I checked continuity for quite a bit longer before flipping it on. Next I'll arrange the wires in a more pleasing way and secure them to the board with glue. Can't tell from the pictures but the difference between this and composite is like night and day.

PXL_20220603_034744093.jpg

I still need to figure out if I'm using this screen or a 5" screen with native 480p resolution. On one hand, that screen would probably be technically superior... but on the other hand, if I want to use an 8" screen in any portable 64 ever (and I reeeeeally do), the composite on this thing is complete garbage, and despite not having the native 480p res, the vga feels about 10x better.
 

Pacal

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Hey nice job wiring the Ultra Vga, not having more around i know you have to be very careful doing it.
 

Luke

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Hey nice job wiring the Ultra Vga, not having more around i know you have to be very careful doing it.
Indeed, I think you are probably as happy as I am to have been active during the time marshallh made those. Soldering to the RCP was way harder and more nerve-racking, but can always get more n64s if I mess that part up!
 

Pacal

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Indeed, I think you are probably as happy as I am to have been active during the time marshallh made those. Soldering to the RCP was way harder and more nerve-racking, but can always get more n64s if I mess that part up!
yes I am, if only I had known that marshallh wasn't going to make more I would have bought another one.
 
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Yeah the difference between VGA and composite is huge. We can tell from the pictures but everyone who has seen it in person knows how big of a deal it is, that's why so many folks use these VGA boards to get that pixel perfect output.

I've ended up using a 480p screen not just for the resolution, as most games run 240p-ish anyways, but the screen I had is just so much nicer (bright, IPS). I used the n64 advanced which also has good 240-480 conversion options and such so the image looks quite good, but sometimes looks a bit more 'pixely' than how it would look on a CRT.
 
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If you add the scan lines it actually makes the “pixeliness” go away. N64adv has that option either with osd menu or closing jumper 4 on the pcb.

Also, does anyone know any significant differences between n64adv vga boards and the Ultra boards from Marshall?
 

Luke

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If you add the scan lines it actually makes the “pixeliness” go away. N64adv has that option either with osd menu or closing jumper 4 on the pcb.
Hmm, I'd be interested to see that. It's a feature of his UltraHDMI and was going to be in the UltraVGA too, but
Going to remove the scanlines and stuff that doesn't apply when using small panels (I tried, it doesn't look good)
 

Luke

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TLDR, I found a pretty nice third party controller with a great joystick, and was able to trim it pretty small. See pictures below.

Tiny progress. Been banging my head trying to figure out what to do for a controller. My process in the past for n64s has been to get some 3rd party controller, find an oem joystick that is compatible and then call it done. I started off doing the same, I bust open a "SharkPad Pro 64", I try with a joycon stick, then a nunchuck stick, and they are both okay but have minor problems. I start looking for more controllers in my box and come across this bad boy - the Retro Fighters Brawler64.

It's a controller that I backed on Kickstarter a few years ago. Third party (obviously), pot joystick, and yet the joystick I really like and might not need to swap out. It's a controller that presumably did not have quality sacrificed for profitability.

Taking it apart reveals as much. The buttons, triggers, etc, appear to be of good quality. Dismantling further I get to the bare circuit board. It's quite clean, and very clear what all the traces are.
PXL_20220612_031444961.jpg


There are only 4 components on the board - 3 capacitors and 1 resistor. All 3 capacitors are between 3v3 and gnd. Can't imagine what the one resistor (R6) does, but that's within where I would trim anyway, as is one of the capacitors, so I figure this will be a no-brainer, and that my trim will look something like what what I drew in red above.

I determine 3v3, data, and gnd points closer to the chip, solder it up, and for sanity verify it's working fine. I do the trim as shown above, and to my dismay the controller is no longer detected. I was a dummy for not being sure about which all traces needed 3v3/gnd before I cut it. But luckily, it was pretty easy to figure out the one other 3v3 and the two other gnd connections that were needed. Making those adjustments I test it again and the controller is detected. Further, I can connect start to ground and that press works fine. Then to my dismay, the hand cursor on the file select screen is going crazy. But of course, this should have been expected as my joystick is disconnected. I wire that up, turn it on, and everything is working great, and Mario can be moved around just fine.
PXL_20220612_050308481~2.jpg


Please forgive my rough sanding, will definitely touch that up.
 
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