Retro game stuff talk

FlyingTomahawk

Got 2 more Famicoms that need some love and mods. You can never have enough consoles I guess. XD I removed one of the front caps for my other "white" Famicom.
I usually keep spare consoles around for parts.

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This time I wanted to go a bit further than the last time and created the rear PCB from scratch. And I want it to get power via 5V1A microUSB-B and have a more clean solution for the RCA connection, in this case 3.5mm 4 DIN jack plug. No drilling or grinding on the original case needed. It is my first prototype so be kind, and my soldering skills are not what they used to be. But all works as it should. On this particular Famicom I could remove the jailbars completely. I guess the newer models are better made than the previous ones?

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In comparison to the original PCB you don't need so many parts. And as you can see there is pleeeeeenty of space on that PCB. I also added an LED light just to be able to see if it is powered on correctly.
I messed up the Audio solder point left of the yellow cable on the main PCB so I had to grab that from a different point other then that everything went smooth. Took me a while to figure out which mod is best since there are so many out there.
Using a so called breadbord for the first time I could trial and error without soldering too much around. Great tool, highly recommended.

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Next step is painting the main body and find better looking controllers.
I would like to order custom PCBs but at the moment with all that stuff that is going on in China it ain't possible and I have a hard time to figure out how to handle PCB creator software. I tried KiCAD and a few others but struggle with it.

obsidianspider

@FlyingTomahawk looking good!

VictimRLSH

Breadboards are indeed a nice tool, but can get a bit confusing if you have many components and you need to cram them together due to limited space. You can cut the breadboards with a band saw and attach them to the tops of Lego bricks. Then they can be spread out over one or more Lego baseplates as wide as you need so it still resembles the layout of the original schematic or wiring diagram. Here I have even mounted some prefab modules and breakout boards on their own Lego breadboards so I can just plunk one down on a baseplate and wire it into an Arduino or whatever I'm playing with at the moment.

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FlyingTomahawk

@VictimRLSH

Hahaha... awesome idea with the Lego parts!
Who would have thought that after so many years Lego could become useful again.

VictimRLSH

@FlyingTomahawk Legos are also handy for quick snap together cases. I'm considering a Lego cased Pi at some point. Need to finish my Pi 4 build first and I just bricked the Pi so I have to wait for new one to get here to finish that.

mitu

@VictimRLSH Here's an idea for a Lego based case - https://www.reddit.com/r/snes/comments/f0xh16/.

obsidianspider

@VictimRLSH How the heck did you brick a Pi?

VictimRLSH

@obsidianspider said in Retro game stuff talk:

@VictimRLSH How the heck did you brick a Pi?

I posted about it in the Help forum, I was mounting it on standoffs in my "switch" case and I think I either broke a trace, busted a surface mount off its pads, or ESD'd it from a tool. I've tried new SD cards, flashing the bootloader, different PSUs, etc. I get a single fast blink from the ACT LED and then nada. Glad they don't cost much... :(

obsidianspider

@VictimRLSH Yikes! I knew the Pi 4s were more fiddly, but sheesh. Good luck with the replacement!

VictimRLSH

@obsidianspider Still continuing with the build, it still works as a placeholder. :) I examined it under a magnifier but couldn't see any physical signs of what happened. This is like 4th gen surface mount, some components border on the microscopic. Impossible to repair even if I COULD see what happened.

obsidianspider

As I continue to tinker with Pis and electronic stuff I have found that there are some places a Pi just won't fit. To learn more about what the ESP32 can do and also to try out a new (to me) gadget I ordered an ODROID-GO kit. It's not a powerhouse, but I'm impressed with what it can do. The RetroESP32 custom firmware is also really slick. This won't replace even a Pi Zero in terms of performance, but it's still pretty neat.

Rion

@obsidianspider said in Retro game stuff talk:

ODROID

Have you had a look at the ODROID-GO Advance?

obsidianspider

@Rion I have. I was waiting to see the reviews on it before buying, and they look great. Of course now, due to the COVID-19 stuff, the next shipments aren't expected until maybe May, but I am pretty sure that will end up being a go-to throw in my bag and take it with me kind of system. It looks fantastic, especially for the price.

WeirdH

@FlyingTomahawk said in Retro game stuff talk:

@VictimRLSH

Who would have thought that after so many years Lego could become useful again.

Excuse me, what? Lego has never stopped being useful. What a weird and disturbing thing to say.

ClassicGMR

@Rion said in Retro game stuff talk:

@obsidianspider said in Retro game stuff talk:

ODROID

Have you had a look at the ODROID-GO Advance?

I just bought one myself (OG Advance). I haven't had a chance to put it together yet so can't say how awesome it is BUT I will have it running this weekend. :)

obsidianspider

@ClassicGMR Lucky! Let us know how you like it.

VictimRLSH

@obsidianspider I saw a Kickstarter a while ago for a FLEXIBLE Arduino Uno compatible board (but much smaller than the Uno, kinda the same size as an Adafruit Metro/Trinket). They made many times their seed budget but I have not seen the actual device available yet. It would be awesome to make a Arduboy game watch out of one of those in the band and a .96" Color OLED display for the face.

obsidianspider

What's the plural of Lynx?
.

.

If you guessed "broken" then you'd be right.

After learning that a Lynx II will not power on without a game inserted I took a chance and bought two "for parts/repair" Lynxes on eBay. One has clearly been opened because the screws to close the case are missing, but that one at least has signs of life when you press the power button. The other Lynx is totally dead. From what I've been able to read on AtariAge and some other places it looks like there are a few common points of failure, so I'm going to check those out and hopefully in the end I can have one "stock" and one modified with a nice BennVenn TFT.

I also got some new test PCBs in the mail from OSH Park that should work with 1.3" and 1.54" TFTs. I hope to test them soon.

FlyingTomahawk

Osh park is shipping out pcbs?
Are they in the US?

obsidianspider

@FlyingTomahawk OSH Park are totally US-based. I ordered my boards on 3 March at 14:34 and received them today. Not bad for $3.45 including shipping.

Aside from me getting some IPA inside the 1.3" screen when cleaning up after my soldering (oof) both screens work with the same pinout and configuration files. I can just power off the pi, unplug one, plug in the other in the same spot, power things back on, and it just works. The juj driver is smooth as butter. I'm really loving how well this worked.