I want to add an external reset switch to the N64

Complete newbie to console hacking, so please make any answers detailed and fool-proof.

Anyway, I recently bought an Everdrive 64 (which is brilliant, by the way) for my N64, and since I no longer have to change cartridges to play different games, it's become a little annoying to have to get up and walk to the N64 to press RESET (doesn't technology make you lazy? :witless, so I want to add an external reset switch, via a long wire (which I might entwine around the N64's joypad wire, and stick the reset switch to the joypad). Can this be done just by adding a simple touch button switch thing (what are they called?) connected by two wires, to two points on the N64's motherboard? If so, what points (please link to photos, if possible), and is anything else necessary? My N64 is PAL, if that is relevent.

Thanks for any answers.

 

What revision is it? I have a NUS-CPU-4 NTSC-USA model I'm using for pictorial references. Should be the same for the reset function.

Anyways, all you need is the signal wire. Other end should go to ground (GND). In the image below, I've marked where the GND and reset signals are on my model.



Here they are again from the bottom.



All you simply need to do is run 1 wire from the reset signal connection to the controller. Could even replace the controller cord with one from a USB cable to have the 4 needed conductors in one cable. The button is simply a normally closed model meaning it has a connection from the signal wire to ground at all times. The connection is broken when you press the button. All you need now is a "normally closed momentary switch" (Google the section quoted for more info) of some sort in the controller. Connect the new reset signal wire to one end and the other to the controller ground point (black wire). On the console side you will need to figure out how to get that 4th wire to connect since the controller has only 3 wires. Maybe a simple single wire plug or something like that. Then you're done. Test it out to make sure it works.

Hope this helps!

 

Thanks for such a quick and detailed response, but there's one thing I don't understand; you say that the operation of forcing a reset is to BREAK the connection between the GROUND and RESET, right? Well, surely if I add a button to do this (and it's wires to connect the button to those two points, of course), then when I press the button nothing will happen, as the original reset switch on the N64 is still making the connection, so my pressing my newly-installed button will only break the new connection? So do I have to somehow permanently break the original reset switch too?

Like I say, I'm a total beginner, so apologies if I'm missing something obvious.

BTW, my N64 is NUS-001(EUR).

 

^ Good point and you are correct. Break the original connection somehow. Might be able to just tape the button down or remove it completely. My bad for forgetting such a newbie thing.

What a n00b mistake I made...

 

No problem, no doubt you were busy with something else whilst posting, and overlooked it because it's so obvious to anyone experienced in such matters. I wish the mistakes I made were caused by knowing too much about something, instead of just being clumsy and absent minded :confused-new:


Thanks again, mate.

 

It's all good.

I found this little button for ya if it helps: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Black-Push-...mponents_Supplies_ET&var=&hash=item19d6c7453e

 

If you want to keep both functionality on the buttons, just wire them in series. That way eigther button will break the connection. Plus you could just tap off on of the wires going to the reset button itself. Splice in your wires to one of the reset butting wires and run it in series to a normal closed button.

 

You still need to somehow disable the factory button since it is a normally closed setup. Otherwise the new button won't do anything. Button breaks the signal and if the original is still passing the signal though the new button won't do anything. Simplest way to do that would be to just tape the factory button down so the connection is broken and the new button carries all the signal.

 

That's what I mean by wiring them in series. Either button breaks the circuit.

reset line---------reset button on N64----/splice/-------your reset button normally close--------/splice/-------ground

This is a wiring diagram above. In red is where you cut the wire going to ground and add your wire and button in series. simple as that. Bothe buttons normally closed completing the circuit. Either one opens the circuit opens.


the easy part here is that you should not need to solder anything if you don't want to or disconnect anything. Just snip a wire and connect your two wires to it.

 

Ok I just looked and the switch appears to be surface mounted. So on the reset line trace you would need to break the trace somewhere and wire your switch on either side. Alternately you could cut the reset pin and solder one wire to one side and one to the other on your switch and that would keep the buttons both in series and both functional.


(or you could just do what sonic dude said and permanently press the switch down to disable it and wire it in parrallel on the solder points.)

 

Cut the red trace in sonics picture, solder wire to the reset point of the switch (his picture from underneath) and then solder the other wire to the leg of the PIF chip.

Which is doing what you said - wire in series.

 

Yes, above sounds like the simplest answer.

 

Technically you can just remove the reset switch on the N64 board. Then you can use a standard Normally Open switch hooked to the two points on the N64 board.

Works the same way. That's how I have it wired on my N64 Gamecube Player and my N64Boy Advance.

You can see it in the red box on this pic.

 

Thanks for all the advice, it's much appreciated, and I think I'll stick the switch in series, like sean697 suggests. I've not gotten around to it yet, as I want to get a decent soldering iron (things have been hectic, real-life wise, and I've not had much time to myself).

 

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but unless I'm reading it wrong (I probably am...) then isn't there a discrepancy between sonicdude10's second image (back of the N64 motherboard), and hailrazer's image (front of the motherboard)? If I'm right then in the following parts of their images;




I've (badly) drawn a blue square around where I think the physical reset switch would be. If I'm right, then the physical switch covers five points on the motherboard, in a sort of dice shape, like so;

1---2
--3--
4---5

(the forum software won't let me use spaces in the above diagram, so please read the minus signs as spaces.



Now, bearing in mind of course that the second image is from the back of the motherboard, I've drawn two purple arrows, both pointing to the same point on the motherboard (albeit on the front and back of the motherboard, respectively), which is 1 (as you view it from the front of the motherboard). But it seems to me that the second point (the GROUND point) is different in the two images, as in sonicdude10's image (from the back of the motherboard) the GROUND is number 4 when seen from the front of the motherboard (though it's number 5 in that image, as it's from the back of the motherboard), whereas in hailrazer's image, the GROUND is (judging from where the wire is connected to on the motherboard) number 3.

I'm probably reading the images wrong, but I want to be sure, as I'm a total beginner at this.

To get the physical reset switch off the motherboard do I just de-solder the connections from the back of the motherboard?

Though I'll probably do as Bad_Ad84 suggests, as it sounds the simplest;

Is the track represented by the red trace just a metal line that I can sever/scrape off with a sharp knife? And then I connect the second leg on the right hand side of the PIF chip to the RESET solder point on the back of the motherboard (via a normally closed momentary switch)? Is there any specific sort of solder (or soldering iron) I should use for something as delicate as working on a chip's leg?

 

All what you asked after my quote is correct.

Difference between motherboards are to be expected. I would take apart your console and take some pictures and post them here for us to look at. Also a multimeter for checking things is helpful

 

The point I noted in my image and the point in hailrazer's mod both go to same place. They're both GND points. Either point can be used.

 

If you do it the way I did, there is no need to de-solder anything. Take a pair of needle nose pliers and grab the reset switch and break it off. The 5 little pins will then just bend back and forth and pop off. Solder a Normally Open tact switch or button to the two points where I did, and voila you have an external reset switch. Like I said I do it all the time in my Mods.

 

And ruin the stock look and operation. Yours works because its a case mod. Doing that to this will mean the console will not work as normal. Doing it the way he planned, it will.

Also, desoldering > breaking stuff.

Also, he doesnt need to desolder anything anyway. Cut a trace, solder 2 wires.

 

Also, just thinking about it.... is sonic certain its push to break? I would assume its a push to connect.

Multimeter would be handy to check it.