Building the ultimate n64 rumble pak plus memory card

Intec back in the day made a hyper pak with both rumble and memory capabilities. So I decided to buy it for 11usd and tear it apart to see if I could make it better.

When I got it I learned it used a variant of the sharp SRAM chip that Nintendo used for it's controller paks. So of course I removed both the battery and the SRAM chip, then I replaced it with FRAM by cypress technologies. (Now it doesn't need a battery for saving).

Another cool thing about this pak is that it obtains power for the rumble from the controller. Since I modded it for FRAM with a FM28V020 is now completely battery-less. I am currently waiting for capacitors so I can replace the current ones with spiffy Panasonics as well as a new motor for the rumble.

The funny thing about the motor is that it was listed on ebay as part for a certain type of toy.

Stay tuned.

 

MEM RUMing cool!

 

Nyko had a Hyper Pak for the N64 (and other consoles) too. It had rumble and 4x storage from compression though.
Same parent company or they just didn't care lol.

Nice mod, I saved the info. Know of any other ones that get power from the controller, and don't use compression?

 

Not to my knowledge. Also make sure when you do this mod to make notes of chip and cap orientation, because the solder mask doesn't have any of this.

 

Is that a switch so it can only be one or the other at any given time?

 

Yes. If you play certain games like Lego racer on the n64 you will notice there is a screen telling you to remove the memory card and insert the rumble pak. Based on the previous I am assuming the n64 can't do both at the same time.

 

I've modded oem rumble paks to not use batteries. If you plug 3-4 controllers in with rumble paks not using batteries there is a potential you will draw too much current for the controller ports. Just and FYI.

 

> Based on the previous I am assuming the n64 can't do both at the same time.
I was always wondering about that, and having taken a quick peek into libdragon just now it looks like that's because the memory and rumble pak share the same address space. But if you throw some additional logic to look at the target address for writes into the mix (rumble writes go to a pretty high address, outside of the memory pack's valid area I think), it may be possible to demultiplex them properly, maybe...?
However, that'd leave the problem of games explicitly checking what accessory is currently plugged in, and - at least in libdragon - that can be only one single value/thing; one might get lucky if the game only checks for memory pack presence and just blindly writes to the rumble pack, but I have no clue how many, if any, titles do that.
But tbh I don't think looking into this would be worth the time, since all games supporting multiple accessories have sth similar Lego Racer's "plug things around now" screen anyways, and throwing a switch at that point just isn't a big deal.

 

I have done the same and the power draw is always a real concern, but honestly when I have people over we rarely use rumble paks. I guess for someone playing by themselves this should be fine. Another one of my concerns is that I have additional logic since I am using a GameCube stick so that only adds to it. Also I realize there is glare in the images and I am sorry for that. I only get to solder after I get home at 7pm and my basement has crap lighting.

General risk: if you are following my write up make sure you don't use more than two of these at one time.

*Not responsible for soldering done whilst drunk or stupid.*

 

Small update: I received my new Panasonic caps and have since replaced the old ones. I have done further tidying up of the pcb. *Elaboration* Some may have noticed the diode on the pcb iis wonky in some pictures and in other it's perfectly straight. This is because these paks were thrown together fast without regard for work ethic. I have also replaced the wires with solid core from an ethernet cable and have made them as small as possible. i will post pics and possibly a video when I get the motor.

 

Would there be a way to increase the power (mA I assume)
in the console to accommodate the 4 controllers at once?

 

This is a hard question. For reference I have built a pico psu for my n64 and this allowed me to use a wideboy 64 agb on a n64 with the 64dd connected. I needed this because the 64dd pulls current even when it isn't being used and otherwise the wideboy would freeze. I don't know if this would work being that I believe the power for the rumble pak comes from an ic. (but don't quote me on the that) I would need to do more investigating on the topic. My time is pretty thin, so I solder at night when I get home (this is why there is glare in my images). I will definitely put it on the back burner for things to work on.

 

maybe build a new PSU for the system, or just disconnect the controller power pins from the motherboard and wire them to a separate 3.3v PSU that can supply enough power.

 

Small update. I received my capacitors in the mail and replaced the old ones. I also got the motor, but it requires more amps to spin up than the old one. Because of the previous finding, the majority of the time it wouldn't work. I have one more motor coming and if it has the same issue I will just put the original back in.

 

Done and this thing works great.

 

Could you increase the capacity of the caps to reduce the strain on the systems power supply and to help get the motor started?

Or were the new caps already bigger?