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NES in a Cartridgeby dany32412 on March 13, 2011

Table of Contents

NES in a Cartridge .............................................................................................................

Intro: NES in a Cartridge .....................................................................................................

Step 1: Materials ...........................................................................................................

Step 2: Disassembly ........................................................................................................

Step 3: Testing the button simulator .............................................................................................

File Downloads ...........................................................................................................

Step 4: Making the controller board .............................................................................................

File Downloads ...........................................................................................................

Step 5: Making the game port connector .........................................................................................

File Downloads ........................................................................................................... 1

Step 6: Making the case ..................................................................................................... 1

Step 7: Putting it all together .................................................................................................. 1

Step 8: Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 1

Related Instructables ........................................................................................................ 1

Comments ................................................................................................................ 1

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Intro: NES in a Cartridge

Have your ever seen any of "Ben Hecks" portable console builds? Well if you haven't, he often uses these Chinese Famicom clone consoles. These cloned consoleare often times refered to as NOAC's, meaning NES On A Chip. They are called this because they are a fully functional Nintendo Entertainment System literally on onchip. The best part about the NOAC is that they include a 60 pin famicom game port, which in our case can easily be converted over to a 72 pin NES game port. I originally got this idea from Kotomi (link below), and figured i would try to do the same thing. My plan was to use the original NES controllers, instead of the cheapsuper joy ones, which is what i believe Kotomi used. Kotomi's system also incorporated the original Famicom connector instead of the NES connector. In order to useNES controllers, I would have to convert the NES controller's shift register data into the NOAC's controller chips. So... what better way to do it than with an Arduino!!!!http://kotomiblog.blogspot.com/ 

Step 1:MaterialsOne of the toughest things to find is the Chinese Power player unit (or Super joy thingy), which ever system you find, they all should work about the same. I was luckyenough to find mine at good will for 6 bucks... can't beat that. Any ways, if you can't find one locally then check on ebay. The only problem is that if you buy one off ebthen it will run you around 20 bucks. All the rest of the stuff you can get either from Radioshack, or once again on ebay. In my case I bought the 72 pin connector and ports seperate, however you would probably be better off just buying a broken NES. My only problem was that I was kinda pressed for time, and couldn't find one FORCHEAP!!!!

1. Power Player Unit (or similar)2. NES 72 pin connector3. 2 NES controller ports4. An NES game that will serve as the case5. An atmega168 (arduino chip)6. Texas Instrument TLC5940 (you can get these as samples from their site... their free)7. Some basic parts such as switches, leds, along with a 7805 voltage regulator8. PCB making stuff (I used the toner transfer method)9. Basic knowledge of soldering and electronics10. And most definetly a dremel tool with some bits and cut off discs

11. A multimeter is probably a good idea as well, because you will need it for troubleshooting

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Image Notes1. This is the light gun that the system comes with. I do plan on incorporating thisinto the console... eventually.

Image Notes1. We will cut this in half

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Step 2:Disassembly After you've played around a little with your Power Player, and got a kick out of some of the things they've put on it..... sadly it is time to take it apart. Hopefully it wobe too long until you will being games on it once again though. So once its all apart, start off by locating where the power inputs are. Something that I like to do is to take a picture of the board (or scan), and put it into photoshopand color in the traces according to their use. It's a helpful tip that I like doing, because sometimes when your cutting up a board, you will forget what things went wherand things just get crazy. Once you've found the power connections, I would test to see what voltage the unit runs one. Most commonly it's going to be 5 volts, but just check to make sure. Imy case the wall adapter was ouputing 13 volts, but there was a 5 volt regulating circuit on the controller PCB. The next thing you want to check on, is there or not the player buttons have a common connection. Most of the time they will use ground as the common, but I've sothers. In my case it was ground, which works out perfectly because the TLC5940 outputs only grounded signals to achieve PWM.

Step 3:Testing the button simulatorThis step isn't necessary, but it would definetly be a good idea to do it. So first I would download the TLC5940 library found here.http://code.google.com/p/tlc5940arduino/downloads/listInstall it like your would with any Arduino library.Then download the NES controller sketch (called "NES_micro_2_check.pde"). Go ahead and upload it onto your arduino board.

TLC5940:Connect the TLC5940 as follows. I got this from the basic use sketch that comes with the library.Arduino TLC594013 2511 2610 239 243 18+5v 19 & 21

GND 22 & 27GND -WW- 20 (2K resistor goes from pin 20 to ground)

NES Port:For this part, I just cut the wires on my stock NES controller port and wired them up according to this diagram. ___ | 1 \ | 2 5 || 3 6 || 4 7 |-------1 = GND2 = CLK3 = Latch4 = Data_Out5 = +5VDC6 = N/A7 = N/A

Power Player:Now solder some leads on to the button pads of your controller, make sure it's the NON common side of the pads.Next, you can connect the leads up accordingly.NES button TLC5940Player One: A OUTPUT 0B OUTPUT 1Select OUTPUT 2Start OUTPUT 3UP OUTPUT 4DOWN OUTPUT 5LEFT OUTPUT 6RIGHT OUTPUT 7Player Two: A OUTPUT 8B OUTPUT 9

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Select OUTPUT 10Start OUTPUT 11UP OUTPUT 12DOWN OUTPUT 13LEFT OUTPUT 14RIGHT OUTPUT 15

Finally, connect the system up to the TV, making sure that the arduino and the Power Player share the same power supply or their grounds are connected. Go ahead test it out. If everything works good, then great! If not, then try to trouble shoot the problem.

Troubleshooting Tips:1. Test each output with an LED, connecting the long leg to +voltage, and the short leg to the TLC5940 output pins. If they don't work, then check the wiring of theTLC59402. If all the LED's turn on when you press a button, then check the wiring on the controller port. This will occur when there are some wires switched around.

3. Also make sure that your Power Player, or Super Joy, or other thing works off of common ground system. Meaning that when the buttons are pressed on thesystem, they short out to ground.

File Downloads

NES_micro_2_check.pde (3 KB)[NOTE: When saving, if you see .tmp as the file ext, rename it to 'NES_micro_2_check.pde']

Step 4:Making the controller board For this step, I'm not going to go through all the steps on how to make a PCB, but there are plenty of tutorials out there. So download my design, which was madeusing diptrace. You can download a freeware version of diptrace from their site. It's a very good PCB design program. Once the board is made, solder all the parts on.Download the freeware version: http://www.diptrace.com/download.phpParts:Atmega168TLC594016MHz crystall2k Ohm resistor

28 pin ic socket

Once it's all put together, it is time to cut up the Power Player boards. Start by locating the glob top where all the button inputs go into. Then take your dremel tool wa cut off disc, and cut it right out of the board. In my case, I think I made the board a bit small, so I ended up making the player 2 board a bit larger. The problem withmaking it so small is that when you attach wires, they tend to rip the traces right off the board. This happened to me about 3 or 4 times with player 1, it came to the powhere i actually had to chizel a little bit of the black glob away, just to get more copper to solder onto. Now that the glob top is seperated from the PCB, it is now time to scrape the solder mask off of the necassary copper traces. Use your diagram that you made, orhowever you chose to remember the pinouts to solder the correct wires to the PCB. Use the diagram ive uploaded to connect the wires. Repeat this same process forplayer 2.

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Image Notes1. This is the chip we need

Image Notes1. Remove the green solder mask with some type of picking tool. I used thoseyellow tools that radioshack gives away with their soldering irons.

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Image Notes1. Cut the plastic off that goes in between the pins on the controller port.

Image Notes1. Then take a pair of wire cutters and cut the pins off. We going to nee toconserve as much space as possible.

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File Downloads

NES 2players.dip (21 KB)[NOTE: When saving, if you see .tmp as the file ext, rename it to 'NES 2players.dip']

Step 5:Making the game port connector1. Start off by taking a dremel with the cut off disc, and completely cut the connector in half.2. Then using the same cut off disc, shave the mounting bracket off each side.

3. Then if you choose, you can use some sand paper to smooth it over.4. Attach wires on each pin that is required by Ben's diagram, which i have attached. (i like using old IDE cables from computers, because they are relatively smallguage, and they bend nicely)5. Next, you have to desolder the crappy Famicom connector from the NOAC.6. Reconnect all the wires that go to their respective spots on the NOAC.7. Try it out! put a game in the system, and if it works great. If not make sure that CHR A10 and CHR A11 are flipped.

Image Notes1. we only want this side

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Image Notes1. you can sand this down if you want

Image Notes1. Fits like a glove!!!

Image Notes1. cut into ~1.5" sections

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Image Notes1. hi

File Downloads

NES_Famicom_Pinouts.pdf (27 KB)[NOTE: When saving, if you see .tmp as the file ext, rename it to 'NES_Famicom_Pinouts.pdf']

Step 6:Making the case This step is kinda of a free for all, meaning that you can go about doing it which ever way you want. The way I cut the parts was I would use a cut off disc/dental bucut off big pieces. Then i would use the needle files to smooth out the edges. This is relatively time consuming process, but it produces a nice piece of work.

Image Notes1. Start by putting the cartridge where you want it. Then mark it using somemasking tape.

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Step 7:Putting it all together The first thing that i had to do was to find a good spot for the power switch, and the led. So i found a good spot that had space where there weren't any electronics.Once that was in, I hot glued the power jack, and soldered the voltage regulator onto it. I then connected the regulator output to the switch, and the led. The hardest part was to fit the cartridge port in the case. In order to do this I had to hot glue and somewhat put the case together, then i put a game in the port andheld it where i wanted it to be. This technique worked good, but had to be done quickly before the glue cooled. Once that was in, I was on the home stretch. The next part was to put the CPU right between the connector and controller ports, and tack that down with some hot glue. Next i hot glued the controller ports in,along with the AV outputs. Now I had to find a good place to connect the power to, so i chose one of the controller ports. I soldered the power off the switch to the poson the controller, and the negative does the same. The only thing left to do was to fit the controller board in, and screw the case closed. The controller board fit right between the ports, and the power switch (intentionally). Making sure as to not crimp any wires, I screwed the case together. DONE!!!!!Finally, I could run over to the TV and test it out.... works like a charm!

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Step 8:Conclusion This project was definitely rushed due to the dead line of the Epilog challenge contest. However, I did my best to take my time, and complete it in steps. That is themost important thing with building stuff like, to always take it steps, making sure to test it along the way. I plan on making more console mods, and portable units,however the only thing that limits me is that I can never get a nice case to put it in. If I won this Epilog Zing laser cutter, I would explode with new ideas, from makingcases for portable NES systems, to making side lit LED signs. The possibilities are endless. I'm hoping for the best. Good luck to everyone, and may the best Instructawin!

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Comments

4 comments Add Comment

arpoky says: Mar 20, 2011. 8:36 PM REP

How the heck did you get this? I heard some bad stuff about these clones.Oh look, it's an NES game clone with a SEGA Dreamcast Controller! I hear these things are i llegal because they steal Copyrighted Nintendo Games.

WhatULive4 says: Mar 20, 2011. 8:52 PM REP

www.digitpress.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-39691.html

Yep, people have gone to jail for selling them.

cheeserdane says: Mar 20, 2011. 8:33 PM REP

Love you work on this it turned out awesome and I want one for myself, only problem is to me (a non electrical device knowledgeable person) a lot of thisconfused me from my lack of knowledge for this type of thing. It would help to clear this up for people like me (the random acronyms, components types oruse, etc..)

WhatULive4 says: Mar 20, 2011. 7:49 PM REP

But does it work? =)

Looks really good, you did a nice job of keeping everything clean. I really appreciate nice handiwork, there are too many hack-jobs kicking around. Check omy NES Arcade, also inspired by the Benheck community.