Bacteria's making a new casing that's "modder friendly"

Ok, cut the holes out from the case. Leaving the on/off switches, volume control buttons until later when work out their best positions - ie when the cart slot holder is in place, which is the next job.

Soon be at the stage to get this with a final sand and then paint. Cutting all these holes took a while; it will be interesting to see how long I take making a second case, obviously this first one takes the longest, I want to make a template to save time for future ones and maybe halve the preparation time with any luck.



I will document this work on my second case in a different and easy to follow format, this thread is on-going progress after all, as it happens and without too much structure.

 

How many in total do you plan to build?

 

I'll see how it goes, I only anticipate realistically around a dozen or two being sold in total anyway, which would be fine. I'm prepared to make a few portables complete for commissions if asked too.

 

Good progress in a short time:

Used a reject case top to form a template which I can then make future cases, so I know where to cut the holes / mark them out for people.



Previously, i've spent literally days on spray painting, getting a bit of a spit from the canister and having to re-sand yet again, finding some parts need about 1/4mm filling so having to prepare the hole thing, allowing hours before coats, etc, etc. Then when you think it's perfect, finding a small imperfection, trying to resolve it and most of the time making more work as a result.

NO MORE! This time i've used a mini paint roller with wall paint (after sanding the casing of course to roughen the surface for the paint to adhere), and got a really good result just from one coat; and fast, the entire case was painted in about 2 minutes. Need to apply one more coat certainly, maybe two as max more, will then varnish. The effect from a roller isn't perfectly smooth of course however gives a light texture which not only looks nice but also hides any tiny imperfections there may be really effectively.

Pic after one coat:



Went to B&Q this morning and got a medium sized tin of this paint for half price, so enough to paint many cases with it - i'll be the default colour for people and painted for no extra charge, if the buyer wants the case painted, as long as it's this colour. The colour is a beige, so neutral, will look nice against the black surround when that is spray painted a deep black.

 

I'm glad you used other objects to show the scale of the model. At first I thought this thing was going to be massive.

 

Yeah, I know.

The system isn't massive at all, isn't small but isn't overly large; i'd say it's "about right" personally for a system. Being slimline on the sides, it's very comfortable to use as not thick on the sides.

The perspective on the above photo isn't exactly perfect, not easy to hold a painted object in one hand and camera in another and look in the camera screen at the same time!

This beige will look beautiful against the black screen surround and black shoulder buttons.

 

Personally I would go with black. Black seems to be a likable color. Beige seems a bit odd and reminds me of old plastic computer cases that have turned yellow over the years heh. The C buttons would have a bad contrast as well don't you think? Do you have a base price of what you would be selling these for?

 

Beige is neutral and works well with the prime colours needed for the various buttons (ie red, green, blue and yellow), as well as black.

Pricing, yes got an idea but will only know for sure when made a second casing from scratch and seen how long it takes to make one. This will be documented later.

 

Ok, back of case is painted and varnished. Front of case is painted and varnished, and dry. Buttons have been completed, set onto a slightly larger piece at the back to keep them in place inside the casing. The black screen front section is painted and varnished as are the shoulder buttons.



Tomorrow will start assembly.

 

Will there be enough roomto fit the 4Mb Expansion Pak inside the case?

 

Yes, board only of course.

 

Got the buttons in place today, tried epoxy but it doesn't want to stick HIPS (plasticard) so useless and didn't want to use hot glue if could help it - Poly-Weld works fine on plastic beads and plasticard but doesn't like perspex. Anyway, Poly-Weld was fine for this application. The backing piece (perspex) is screwed in various places to the casing posts; one of the shoulder buttons is installed although needs the rubber topped tact button to be placed to finish it off. Got the d-pad to do next.



I think it looks nice so far! The black screen surround is still drying so can't put that in place yet, however, it comes to around 4mm from the blue button (the "A" button).

 

really like how it is coming along

 

Yes, it's coming along very well. Looking forward to seeing the final product.

Yakumo

 

As you'll see in the worklog, there is a lot of manual work involved in casemaking, which is why commissioning such portables is not cheap.

I don't think anyone has made their own buttons for a system before, and it is interesting feeling the large buttons, they are really easy to use, although had to make the holes slightly larger so they didn't catch on their recoil.

The black GBA style screen front has had a few coats of spray paint (I really don't like spray paint) and got a good finish, gave it some clear varnish, and it's in the airing cupboard as that will dry it out much faster. I can then get that into the casing, prior to that, going to get the d-pad in, and the case front is done then.

Was toying with the speakers - the GBA has one speaker grill and although I could have replicated that on my casing, it would have looked wrong. Having regular style speaker holes are fine but I rather like to keep the front clear and have the speakers at the back.

 

Installed the d-pad



Put in the sides for the game cart holder, used Poly-Weld to hold it in place and will use hot glue to keep it there.



I should have left painting the case backing until I had done this, so will now have to fill in any gaps between the pieces and then paint the case backing again! The insides will be painted black.

This is only placed into position at the moment for illustration.



I've decided to only make this one casing for myself at this stage due to the level of work needed, as the d-pad and control buttons are secured into place by screws on a plate, I can easily re-assemble them quickly, so what i'll do is to make it a "live" video, to explain what is done and why whilst doing it. This will be useful for people just buying the case halves and building the unit up themselves. I've not been able to make an assembly video before as have tended to glue things into place before; so this will be a rather interesting video.

I'm learning a lot as going along, and also making templates so can make completed cases for people far quicker, to keep the price reasonable, however no point spending time making up spares, they'll be made to order.

Redoing the black screen surround as it was glossy and will look better using a roller as per the casing.

 

Project update (to bring things up to date):

The screen surround is to be raised as a separate piece after all, so with that in mind, I drilled many holes through the case to use hot glue to secure the screen front through the case, the hot glue basically providing a sealed plug.



Used a spare screen surround to ensure the black plate was central to the screen, then got onto the hot glue!



On the shoulder buttons, this is how they are attached; hole through the middle, plastic rod through it, the rod has a screw through it for strength.



The flat part is Poly-Welded to the case on the flat side



Game cart holder completed, hot glued the backing piece to a strip of thin wood.



So, more pics:

The case backing, complete with game cart inserted



Case insides - only thing needed are the tact switches for the shoulder buttons



Screen inserted into place (just pops into place and stays there); screen board in place - as you see, screen board fits in nicely and no trimming needed.



Front view



Got my wife to take this photo - as you see, it's very easy indeed to get to all the buttons, joystick, shoulder buttons; it really is comfy to hold.



Not put in "Z" button yet.


Getting this case to this state has taken a massive amount of time and I know I can make them much faster, and also improve on a couple of areas too. I've learnt a lot from making this case which will help me make the next batch, better.

I want to get back to my Alpha Omega project and do some more work on that before getting back to this N64 project. I need a break as otherwise the N64 project will become little fun for me.

When I get back to this, i'll make some more cases, see how quickly I can make them this time around, then get onto the electronics side of the project. I'll also document in a better way making the case from the case halves to the finished casing too.

So, I will be back on this in the next weeks, need a break from it in the meantime (ie back to Alpha Omega project in interim), rest assured when this N64 project is done i'll be making great videos (my best N64 videos ever); will be selling the case halves and completed cases and also taking a small number of commissions for completed systems too. All in good time. I'm not going to hurry this, quality first.

 

looks like someone on Bacteria's messageboard bit him to the gba punch?

http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/07/n64boy-advance-is-one-fine-lookin-nintendo-64-handheld/

 

Indeed, Hailrazer, a great modder completed the system using a GBA portable case - nice idea.

His case is smaller than mine so needed a lot of board reduction, and it's also thinner so the game cart sticks out the top. Nice job he did!

 

yeah he did a good job of utilizing that carry case