mintyPi Build

obsidianspider

Well, it didn't explode overnight while charging and the little cheap charge/protect board does in fact have a LED that turns blue when the battery is done charging. I have no way to see how much "juice" is left in the battery at any given time, but I don't plan on playing this for hours on end anyway. That said, if there was a way to do it with software that would be really cool.

obsidianspider

@herb_fargus said in mintyPi Build:

Very nice. This is on my never ending to do list as well

Considering that I still have three partially built handhelds myself, I get it. That said, this "quick win" has inspired me to get back to my mothballed builds that are sitting in boxes.

celly

@obsidianspider outstanding! Looks great man!

backstander

Great work on this and glad you finished your first portable build ;-)

I have a question:
How hard is it to get to the microSD card slot after this is put together?

I actually picked up a New 3DS XL about 3 weeks ago and have been playing The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds in my spare time. Finally finished it over the weekend but I'm missing 3 heart pieces (which you get from extremely hard mini games).

lilbud

@backstander said in mintyPi Build:

I actually picked up a New 3DS XL

Hack it

obsidianspider

@backstander said in mintyPi Build:

Great work on this and glad you finished your first portable build ;-)

Yeah, yeah… 😜

I have a question:
How hard is it to get to the microSD card slot after this is put together?

Not hard at all. I tested with two different cards before my 32GB one came in the mail. You slide it under the custom PCB. The PCB has some flex to it and between that and the angle of the dangle of the SD card, it works just fine. Now, getting the card out once the whole thing is assembled? It'd be a pain in the butt to take apart the whole device. That's why wermy suggests a Pi 0W, and for the extra $5, it's very worth it.

I actually picked up a New 3DS XL about 3 weeks ago and have been playing The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds in my spare time. Finally finished it over the weekend but I'm missing 3 heart pieces (which you get from extremely hard mini games).

I love my n3DSXL

As @lilbud said, I highly recommend putting custom firmware on it. As long as you don't mind voiding your warranty, I find the convenience of being able to backup my games to the Micro SD very worth it. No losing games or swapping them out when I travel.

backstander

@obsidianspider

Now, getting the card out once the whole thing is assembled? It'd be a pain in the butt to take apart the whole device. That's why wermy suggests a Pi 0W, and for the extra $5, it's very worth it.

That's what I was worried about but I could see why you'd want to use the Pi 0W. I guess you can cross that bridge if you ever have to re-flash it ;-)

I love my n3DSXL

I do too! I'm glad I picked one up! I haven't gotten on this site in about a month because of my n3DSXL and being really busy at work.

As @lilbud said, I highly recommend putting custom firmware on it. As long as you don't mind voiding your warranty, I find the convenience of being able to backup my games to the Micro SD very worth it. No losing games or swapping them out when I travel.

Already have! I did this about 2 weeks ago. I got it used off of eBay so I'm not worried about the warranty. If I would have purchased it new I probably wouldn't have done it.

I couldn't get any of the libretro emulators to work (except for the PSX one but it was super slow motion!). It crashes the second I try to load a game. I've tried both the nightly and the last stable release, neither worked for me but I did get non-libretro emulators working though.

Last night I started on Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D which you can get the Nintendo Selects version for $14.99 at Walmart.com!

obsidianspider

@backstander It's not awful to take apart, but it's not like there's a little access slot that you can just pop it out.

I actually noticed today that my Start button was sticking, so I took thinks apart to tweak the hole a bit, then I readjusted the wiring and smooshed it all back in there. The lid closes a bit better now, but I noticed that the action buttons are bumping the screen when you close it. I can't really find a way to reduce the wiring on the hinge side since that's where most of the connections are located, but for what it is, it works.

caver01

@obsidianspider i noticed in their video that they are using silicone insulated wiring and only the thicker stuff where power is concerned. I would think that even the thickness of wire would affect the fit.

I was looking at your image and wondering if the wires could be soldered to lay low around the perimeter of the battery, but I know it still has to expand out while you have it disassembled. It seems like wire management is key to getting everything to fit.

obsidianspider

@caver01 I tried making things as neat as I could, but it's still very tight. I used 22ga for the power and 28ga for everything else.

obsidianspider

Not a fault of wermy, but more an issue with 3D printing in general: I found that in games where you have to press more than one action button at the same time (think rolling your thumb from B to A in Mario Kart to fire a shell while still driving) the buttons can bind up. I found that they're getting stuck on the ribs created by the 3D printing process itself. I tried some light sanding, but I also don't want to remove too much so they'd flop around. It's not ideal. If you press straight down, everything is fine, but if you can't do anything too complex with the controls.

The whole idea of a mintyPi is to be a novelty, not a hardcore gaming machine, but it's worth knowing.

Natron

@obsidianspider Did you print your parts with ABS filament? If so, you can smooth out a lot of those ridges in between layers by treating the pieces with acetone vapour for a short time. If you used PLA or something else, you could also try using a rotary cutter with a cone-shaped sanding bit on it. That would make the holes nice and smooth without widening them too badly I think.

This is an awesome build, and I think I may have to make one of these minty pi's one day.

obsidianspider

@natron I'm not sure what material was used. I bought them from wermy as I don't have a 3D printer.

Natron

@obsidianspider Oh, sorry, I must have missed that. In that case, I would recommend not doing the acetone vapour bath. It can go wrong if you leave it in too long and become all gummy and ruined, and if you can't make another it could be risky. Still love that build, though, thanks for sharing it.

obsidianspider

@natron I'm really liking it. I'll just have to remember what it is when I'm playing it.

caver01

@obsidianspider I suppose a smooth, injection molded part would not bind up the same, right? I wonder if there is a workaround for smoothing out this area such as a coating of epoxy or bondo that could be sanded nice and smooth without enlarging. Tedious and tiny, I know. Another thought would be to try a set of buttons you don’t care about and remove the orientation tabs. Maybe it’s the angled spots where the tabs are that bind up.