I apologise for the serious lack of update, my life has been up-ended in a good way in some aspects, and in a bad way in some others, but the short story version, is I’m back and I plan on resuming updating the site with the projects.
In fact, I may end up posting some stuff I did years ago to apologise for the lack of content over the last few months.
… here’s an update, I’ve received all but one delivery, (the diodes, but I got a refund on those because it’s taking for ever), and I’ve been working on / off the project since the last major update (Front Panel Update), I have half reworked the front button panel, I’m using smaller buttons with extensions on the NES buttons as the RGB LED’s I have are quite big (5mm) compared to ones I planned on using originally. I’m starting to wire it together and turn it into a module.
Always build something you can take apart
– Ben Heck
With that in mind, everything is going to be modular in some respect… the USB Panel, the ATTiny85 IR circuit will be modules, the voltage dividers are already modules, but we’re going to incorporate that into our final PCB design.
The reasoning behind this is pretty simple… with us making the entire bottom of the base basically a giant motherboard, we don’t want to replace the entire thing if something becomes faulty, or do more damage in an attempt of desoldering, so with a modular system, you can track down which bits are broken and easily replace them.
Just saying sorry again for lack of updates, I have been working on the project and been documenting it as I go along, but I’ve had a few personal issues arise as well as a number of shipping issues (Items taking way longer than they should to arrive), but I will be aiming to post an update on Monday!
Hey guys, just want to apologize for the lack of updates, the project is still on and I’ve made a huge leap by the fact Sparky bought and gifted me the raspberry pi 2 model B! So that has taken a huge chunk of time out of the project as well as reduced the overall predicted expenditure.
He has also said that he will soon have a 4 TB hard drive laying around… so that’ll reduce the cost of the project even further!
Also in other news I plan on reducing the number of photos within the gallery so it’s more straightforward and less fluff!
I’ve received more packages today, this time I got my 100x tactile buttons, 20x 68 Ohm and 50x 1.5k Ohm resistors.
That just leaves the 100x Zener Diodes, 50x RGB LED’s and my Straight pin headers.
I’m mainly annoyed at the headers not arriving yet as I’ve realised / figured out the perfect way of sorting out the front USB panels (Still having wiring issues) and the pin headers will solve that issue, because I’ve found a couple of USB Expansion slots (For the back of a PC)
Just like this one
That in itself is brilliant as the wiring is already done, I can just solder on 2 rows of header pins to one side of the prototyping board, solder the USB header on the other side then remove the stand off from the header pins, finish the connection and jobs done for the front panel, I’ll obviously need to connect USB Male headers to the other side of the cables.
I only have 2 of these, but I need a third as I will be using the one that’s exactly like the image above to extend the USB ports from the Raspberry Pi to the back of the case.
Speaking of the case… I’ve spoken to my father in law (Will be called Sparky from now on) and he’s suggested I use a small piano hinge to open / close the back of the case as I don’t want to be constantly flipping it upside down to get at the screws just to open it. This will be added once the case has been painted and finished (the holes for the rivets will be pre-drilled).
One small aspect of the project (the power supply board) has been changed to the major aspect of the project as I discussed with Sparky about the idea of having the Pi and Hard Drive mounted to the same PCB as the power supply, kinda like a “motherboard” I guess, when we etch the PCB we won’t be etching away all of the copper, just what’s required to be removed as the rest of the copper will act like a heat sink / grounding plain for the entire build as well as mounting everything securely.
Hey guys me again, just giving you a heads up that I’ve started receiving my deliveries, so far I’ve received my IC extractor, AVR Programmer, micro servo, ZIF socket and right angle header pins… so yeah progress so far!
I’ve also spoken to my father in law and instead of making a single power board we’re making a huge PCB to sit in the bottom of the case that we can mount everything to securely so they won’t flap about! The copper will act as a heat sink which will keep the case cool, certainly when I add a couple of fans!
Okay, yesterday was the “start date” of the window of my deliveries, so between then and the 21st of September I should start getting packages…
Onto other stuff.
I’ve started salvaging various electronics I have laying around my office / man cave and found a few key components I’ll require… such as an IR receiver module from an old SkyTV box, as well as a few wires and USB headers (The mountable kind you get for PC back panels).
When I went on the hunt for the mentioned electronics, I had a good rummage through various boxes that I still haven’t unpacked since I moved into this house with my wife 4 years ago lol. I managed to find some matte black spray paint, as well as an old box of scrap electronics and wires, as well as some motors and steppers… It’s a goldmine lol.
I’m thinking about purchasing the body filler and epoxy so I can get the bottom of the case finished and ready for priming and painting, or at least get the holes filled up and sanded ready for when I need to put holes in it for various cables.
Just a small text based update… I went to my local hardware store and started to price up some spray paint, epoxy and auto body filler when it dawned on me that I had (have) an airbrush… so to be safe I priced up the spray paint as well as some airbrush materials, airbrush kit, can of propellent as well as cleaning solution.
As soon as I got home from the pricing spree I started rummaging through some old boxes and I found my airbrush gun as well as a half empty can of propellant.
So that’s reduced the cost of the paint aspect of the project to some degree, It means I don’t need to buy a new airbrush kit… as far as I can tell it still works.
I’ve got some acrylic paint, but before I can use it with the airbrush I need to mix it with water and rubbing alcohol at a 25/25/50 ratio (paint/water/rubbing alcohol) then I’ll be able to find out if it works or not.
The colour scheme I’ve chosen is in my opinion is quite nice, I wanted to go with Hot Rod Red and black but where the console will be going (the living room) it would stand out horribly against the purple and grey colour scheme we have in there.
So I’ve picked brilliant white and black, the top half of the case will be brilliant white with a band of black (the vent) along the top, and the bottom will be black with white buttons, It’ll also have a satin finish for a semi-gloss appearance.
Continuing on straight from the previous post, I realised if I wanted the custom power supply to fit where I want it, I would have to compact the POWER/RESET/LED board to make it smaller to fit everything in more comfortably.
So, I rummaged through my “odds ‘n sods” box and found a couple of 9x6x6mm momentary tactile buttons and wondered if I could do anything with them.
I managed to pry off the buttons from the original button board to discover they have a square notch in the back, so like a typical human male that has a mind of a 12 year old… I placed the shaft of the button into the hole, low-and-behold it fit, and the tactile button still functions!
I placed the tactile buttons where I think they’d need to go, and brought in the NES buttons.
Once I bent the pins of the tactile buttons to hold them in place I pushed the NES buttons onto them.
The button positioning was close, but not exact so I moved them about and placed it back into the NES case for a “test look” (Sorry about the blurry picture, didn’t focus correctly)
I’ve not soldered them on or anything yet, as I need to work out the LED circuit as well as everything else related to this circuit, also I need to paint the buttons before I fix them with epoxy.
I really wanted to get both USB headers on the same prototyping board, which would make it a bit easier to mount to the inside of the NES case.
I removed the central divider so I could freely slide the slots into position.
I removed the divider from the front panel in the previous image, but I nearly forgot to remove the main divider that holds the ports in place.
I almost didn’t realise I had to remove this as well so I could freely move the sockets into position.
To get the USB headers to sit as straight as possible, I nearly destroyed the ports in the process, but once I’ve epoxied the USB headers in place I will be using some auto-body filler to fill up the gaps and smooth it down ready for painting.
I sanded and filed the sockets to the point of near destruction, but it was worth it so the USB sockets have some wiggle room now so I won’t risk breaking the USB sockets when I try and remove something.
Like the previous step, I will be using some body filler to fill in some gaps. But I will be using some plasticard to start the process of holding the stuff in place for the auto body filler to adhere to.
This is how it’ll look with the spacers, I will have to make some custom spacers and fill in any remaining gaps with some auto body filler like I will be with the bottom of the NES case, you can’t really make it out, but both the headers are on a single prototyping board.
Other than what work that’s been mentioned in this blog post I’ll be re-working the USB ports, and I’ll be working on redoing the power / reset (eject) buttons as well as the new LED system that’ll use a RGB LED, but more on that in another post!
The Sarge Project 