dommie Posted March 31, 2009 Author Share Posted March 31, 2009 The FB2 seems pretty cool, but nobody knows if/when it will be coming out. I'm thinking I could build the cart handheld pictured in like a week. Good luck Its harder than it looks. What are you going to do for power? How about a backlight? How do you switch from paddle to joystick fire buttons (pins are different). What about ground loop RF after you have removed all the caps on the pcb (pack of 470pf solved my issues). What about CNC code, sublimation supplies and the various knobs, buttons, etc... More than a week..... CN Power=6 AA batteries. Backlight=leds, paddle/joystick fire=2 buttons, RF loop=not sure what you're talking about there, I'll have to consult the blueprints, CNC=pre-made kit. knobs/buttons/etc.=radio shack, mouser, nes controller. As for time... we'll see. Sounds like a bet. Have you built one before? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+selgus Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 The FB2 seems pretty cool, but nobody knows if/when it will be coming out. I'm thinking I could build the cart handheld pictured in like a week. Good luck Its harder than it looks. What are you going to do for power? How about a backlight? How do you switch from paddle to joystick fire buttons (pins are different). What about ground loop RF after you have removed all the caps on the pcb (pack of 470pf solved my issues). What about CNC code, sublimation supplies and the various knobs, buttons, etc... More than a week..... Power=6 AA batteries. Backlight=leds, paddle/joystick fire=2 buttons, RF loop=not sure what you're talking about there, I'll have to consult the blueprints, CNC=pre-made kit. knobs/buttons/etc.=radio shack, mouser, nes controller. As for time... we'll see. Sounds like a bet. Have you built one before? I've built one, and it is not rocket-science hard, I wouldn't call it trivial either. The project seem to me like the sort of thing you got better at, the more of them you built. I built mine from Ben's book and more time was spent trying to figure out what he was referring to in the B/W pictures than anything else. If you are skilled with a soldering iron, you should be able to tackle the project. I cheated and got the CNC plastics from him, so that saved a bunch of mechanical cutting. --Selgus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassidy Nolen Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 Built 2, 3 if you count my working (non-cart version) proto. Engraved faces on two, vac. formed body on the first model. CNC milled the cases and used a small RC battery (6V) pack to power it. Stayed florescent tube lighting because of screen quality. Watch out when you extend the ground and control wires nearby the electronics. The FB2 I used as a brain picked up RF noise. I know its an issue with that one, don't know about a 2600 proper board. Ben would be the authority on that one. I'm just saying how are you going to mount the batteries? In a little wired in holder or are you going to do a jack for the recharger? Then how to fit that into the case (behind or to the side, etc). It gets deep to make a "good" design. I saw one once in a SNES shell... Truly "uuugly". I know, Mouser, use them for auto circuit work frequently, just saying man, when you tool up to machine something, you will be ordering in bulk. Gets tricky to make changes. Making it work, not that hard. Getting it to all work "well" (the buttons are actually playable and smooth, battery life decent, etc) is hard. Its R&D man, if it was easy companies wouldn't have entire dept's dedicated to it. I'm not saying you can't do it, I just think you're going to have a long week. Took me a number of months. FWIW, find a supply of common monitors that you could use in a "kit". That way you are not retooling you G-code every time you cut one out. CN Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Climber Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 Built 2, 3 if you count my working (non-cart version) proto. Engraved faces on two, vac. formed body on the first model.CNC milled the cases and used a small RC battery (6V) pack to power it. Stayed florescent tube lighting because of screen quality. Watch out when you extend the ground and control wires nearby the electronics. The FB2 I used as a brain picked up RF noise. I know its an issue with that one, don't know about a 2600 proper board. Ben would be the authority on that one. I'm just saying how are you going to mount the batteries? In a little wired in holder or are you going to do a jack for the recharger? Then how to fit that into the case (behind or to the side, etc). It gets deep to make a "good" design. I saw one once in a SNES shell... Truly "uuugly". I know, Mouser, use them for auto circuit work frequently, just saying man, when you tool up to machine something, you will be ordering in bulk. Gets tricky to make changes. Making it work, not that hard. Getting it to all work "well" (the buttons are actually playable and smooth, battery life decent, etc) is hard. Its R&D man, if it was easy companies wouldn't have entire dept's dedicated to it. I'm not saying you can't do it, I just think you're going to have a long week. Took me a number of months. FWIW, find a supply of common monitors that you could use in a "kit". That way you are not retooling you G-code every time you cut one out. CN I too would be surprised to see it cranked out in a week. The pre made kit he is using for the housing will be nice, but will ad considerably to the cost. Being a CNC machinist myself I could make all the housings I want for free, I have so much time now at work it's not even funny....seriously my last check sucked If these are able to be made in a week then I will order the Ben Heck book and give it a try, I couldn't see all the parts for this totaling more then $50 or so? I could build them at work, sell them for $100 a pop! Thats $5200 a year ($2600 profit!) if I can crank out one a week.....maybe I could talk to my boss about doing an actual run of these things Now that would be cool!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari Dogs Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 Built 2, 3 if you count my working (non-cart version) proto. Engraved faces on two, vac. formed body on the first model.CNC milled the cases and used a small RC battery (6V) pack to power it. Stayed florescent tube lighting because of screen quality. Watch out when you extend the ground and control wires nearby the electronics. The FB2 I used as a brain picked up RF noise. I know its an issue with that one, don't know about a 2600 proper board. Ben would be the authority on that one. I'm just saying how are you going to mount the batteries? In a little wired in holder or are you going to do a jack for the recharger? Then how to fit that into the case (behind or to the side, etc). It gets deep to make a "good" design. I saw one once in a SNES shell... Truly "uuugly". I know, Mouser, use them for auto circuit work frequently, just saying man, when you tool up to machine something, you will be ordering in bulk. Gets tricky to make changes. Making it work, not that hard. Getting it to all work "well" (the buttons are actually playable and smooth, battery life decent, etc) is hard. Its R&D man, if it was easy companies wouldn't have entire dept's dedicated to it. I'm not saying you can't do it, I just think you're going to have a long week. Took me a number of months. FWIW, find a supply of common monitors that you could use in a "kit". That way you are not retooling you G-code every time you cut one out. CN I too would be surprised to see it cranked out in a week. The pre made kit he is using for the housing will be nice, but will ad considerably to the cost. Being a CNC machinist myself I could make all the housings I want for free, I have so much time now at work it's not even funny....seriously my last check sucked If these are able to be made in a week then I will order the Ben Heck book and give it a try, I couldn't see all the parts for this totaling more then $50 or so? I could build them at work, sell them for $100 a pop! Thats $5200 a year ($2600 profit!) if I can crank out one a week.....maybe I could talk to my boss about doing an actual run of these things Now that would be cool!!! If you could do that, I would take one. Maybe two. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Climber Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 Built 2, 3 if you count my working (non-cart version) proto. Engraved faces on two, vac. formed body on the first model.CNC milled the cases and used a small RC battery (6V) pack to power it. Stayed florescent tube lighting because of screen quality. Watch out when you extend the ground and control wires nearby the electronics. The FB2 I used as a brain picked up RF noise. I know its an issue with that one, don't know about a 2600 proper board. Ben would be the authority on that one. I'm just saying how are you going to mount the batteries? In a little wired in holder or are you going to do a jack for the recharger? Then how to fit that into the case (behind or to the side, etc). It gets deep to make a "good" design. I saw one once in a SNES shell... Truly "uuugly". I know, Mouser, use them for auto circuit work frequently, just saying man, when you tool up to machine something, you will be ordering in bulk. Gets tricky to make changes. Making it work, not that hard. Getting it to all work "well" (the buttons are actually playable and smooth, battery life decent, etc) is hard. Its R&D man, if it was easy companies wouldn't have entire dept's dedicated to it. I'm not saying you can't do it, I just think you're going to have a long week. Took me a number of months. FWIW, find a supply of common monitors that you could use in a "kit". That way you are not retooling you G-code every time you cut one out. CN I too would be surprised to see it cranked out in a week. The pre made kit he is using for the housing will be nice, but will ad considerably to the cost. Being a CNC machinist myself I could make all the housings I want for free, I have so much time now at work it's not even funny....seriously my last check sucked If these are able to be made in a week then I will order the Ben Heck book and give it a try, I couldn't see all the parts for this totaling more then $50 or so? I could build them at work, sell them for $100 a pop! Thats $5200 a year ($2600 profit!) if I can crank out one a week.....maybe I could talk to my boss about doing an actual run of these things Now that would be cool!!! If you could do that, I would take one. Maybe two. Okay, just ordered the book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dommie Posted March 31, 2009 Author Share Posted March 31, 2009 Built 2, 3 if you count my working (non-cart version) proto. Engraved faces on two, vac. formed body on the first model.CNC milled the cases and used a small RC battery (6V) pack to power it. Stayed florescent tube lighting because of screen quality. Watch out when you extend the ground and control wires nearby the electronics. The FB2 I used as a brain picked up RF noise. I know its an issue with that one, don't know about a 2600 proper board. Ben would be the authority on that one. I'm just saying how are you going to mount the batteries? In a little wired in holder or are you going to do a jack for the recharger? Then how to fit that into the case (behind or to the side, etc). It gets deep to make a "good" design. I saw one once in a SNES shell... Truly "uuugly". I know, Mouser, use them for auto circuit work frequently, just saying man, when you tool up to machine something, you will be ordering in bulk. Gets tricky to make changes. Making it work, not that hard. Getting it to all work "well" (the buttons are actually playable and smooth, battery life decent, etc) is hard. Its R&D man, if it was easy companies wouldn't have entire dept's dedicated to it. I'm not saying you can't do it, I just think you're going to have a long week. Took me a number of months. FWIW, find a supply of common monitors that you could use in a "kit". That way you are not retooling you G-code every time you cut one out. CN I too would be surprised to see it cranked out in a week. The pre made kit he is using for the housing will be nice, but will ad considerably to the cost. Being a CNC machinist myself I could make all the housings I want for free, I have so much time now at work it's not even funny....seriously my last check sucked If these are able to be made in a week then I will order the Ben Heck book and give it a try, I couldn't see all the parts for this totaling more then $50 or so? I could build them at work, sell them for $100 a pop! Thats $5200 a year ($2600 profit!) if I can crank out one a week.....maybe I could talk to my boss about doing an actual run of these things Now that would be cool!!! If you could do that, I would take one. Maybe two. Okay, just ordered the book. Hey! Quit cuttin' in on my business model! j/k. Seriously though, you work at a CNC shop?? Maybe we can work out something for cases. I was considering vacuum forming myself if the CNC cases Ben sells ended up driving the price up too much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari Dogs Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 I tried to make a handheld myself. I have a cut up 2600 that I think I fried, and a 2600 that I cut up but did not start working on. I also have a 3 inch tv, a Sony PSOne screen and some led lights that I got from someone on BenHeck.com. If you guys can get a nice model working, maybe I could send you my parts and you could put them together for me. I'd get a big discount for supplying the parts, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GameGirl420 Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 I'm about to begin work on a handheld 2600 (Ben Heck's design). Just throwing this question out there: would you buy something like this? If so, what would you pay? Ooh that looks sweet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Climber Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 Hey! Quit cuttin' in on my business model! j/k. Seriously though, you work at a CNC shop?? Maybe we can work out something for cases. I was considering vacuum forming myself if the CNC cases Ben sells ended up driving the price up too much. lol Don't worry man, I doubt my boss would go for making a run of these unless it was worth his while. Probably need 100 or so pre orders before I could get an eyebrow to raise I don't see that much interest in them. I could make a few of them here and there though, he is pretty cool about letting us use the machines for personal projects. I got the book so I'll what it's all about. I could make you cases also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dommie Posted March 31, 2009 Author Share Posted March 31, 2009 I tried to make a handheld myself. I have a cut up 2600 that I think I fried, and a 2600 that I cut up but did not start working on. I also have a 3 inch tv, a Sony PSOne screen and some led lights that I got from someone on BenHeck.com. If you guys can get a nice model working, maybe I could send you my parts and you could put them together for me. I'd get a big discount for supplying the parts, right? Is the 3" screen for sale? I'm having issues locating one. Keep getting outbid on ebay in the last few seconds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari Dogs Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 I tried to make a handheld myself. I have a cut up 2600 that I think I fried, and a 2600 that I cut up but did not start working on. I also have a 3 inch tv, a Sony PSOne screen and some led lights that I got from someone on BenHeck.com. If you guys can get a nice model working, maybe I could send you my parts and you could put them together for me. I'd get a big discount for supplying the parts, right? Is the 3" screen for sale? I'm having issues locating one. Keep getting outbid on ebay in the last few seconds. For sale?!?. What about my portable? You would have to design and make me portable out of the PSOne screen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dommie Posted March 31, 2009 Author Share Posted March 31, 2009 I tried to make a handheld myself. I have a cut up 2600 that I think I fried, and a 2600 that I cut up but did not start working on. I also have a 3 inch tv, a Sony PSOne screen and some led lights that I got from someone on BenHeck.com. If you guys can get a nice model working, maybe I could send you my parts and you could put them together for me. I'd get a big discount for supplying the parts, right? Is the 3" screen for sale? I'm having issues locating one. Keep getting outbid on ebay in the last few seconds. For sale?!?. What about my portable? You would have to design and make me portable out of the PSOne screen. Ah, I thought you just wanted to unload some parts. That PSOne screen is rather big if I remember correctly. To use that with the 2600 handheld would require a case redesign. I think the current specs call for a 2.5 or 3" screen. What's the PSOne, like 7" or something? Since I haven't built one of these before, I want to make sure I can and build it properly before I try and build any for anybody else. I have confidence in my skillz, but also don't want to get in over my head. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari Dogs Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 I tried to make a handheld myself. I have a cut up 2600 that I think I fried, and a 2600 that I cut up but did not start working on. I also have a 3 inch tv, a Sony PSOne screen and some led lights that I got from someone on BenHeck.com. If you guys can get a nice model working, maybe I could send you my parts and you could put them together for me. I'd get a big discount for supplying the parts, right? Is the 3" screen for sale? I'm having issues locating one. Keep getting outbid on ebay in the last few seconds. For sale?!?. What about my portable? You would have to design and make me portable out of the PSOne screen. Ah, I thought you just wanted to unload some parts. That PSOne screen is rather big if I remember correctly. To use that with the 2600 handheld would require a case redesign. I think the current specs call for a 2.5 or 3" screen. What's the PSOne, like 7" or something? Since I haven't built one of these before, I want to make sure I can and build it properly before I try and build any for anybody else. I have confidence in my skillz, but also don't want to get in over my head. The PSOne is 5 inches. Ben Heckendorn made one, but most people use the 2.5" or 3" screen. I had a hard time getting this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassidy Nolen Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 The 5 incher screens pcbs are all round inside. Very hard to fit that into a normal looking or small case. Mine looks more like a football. FWIW, Ben is and should be very protective of his exact design. Methinks a design of your own might be more accepted in the community if you were planning on marketing more than just a one-off. He also was using a mold and pouring resin at one point to save costs/tooling/time. My g-code cuts the front face interior in about 4 hours, the back in about 2 and the engraving in about 1. Then the buttons and controls take another 10 minutes. Soldering for the cart port and controls about 4 hours. Then getting it all together, because you KNOW something won't fit...another hour or two. Its not a snap-together model. In retrospect, I would have retooled more often and used coarse cut paths versus staying with a 1/8 cutter the entire interior. Added to time and tool wear. Hey, I don't have a degree in this stuff (I wish I knew what CrazyClimber has forgotten~!) From experience, if you plan to ship one to CA from DC, drop a spot of hot glue on all the ribbon connections between the pcb and the screen...."Wonder" how I know that one....? CN Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dommie Posted April 1, 2009 Author Share Posted April 1, 2009 The 5 incher screens pcbs are all round inside. Very hard to fit that into a normal looking or small case. Mine looks more like a football. LOL, I've seen those and thought the same thing myself... how do you get that into a small case and make it look good? I think it was Ben's Jaguar portable that looked like a monstrosity, even for an expert like him. He called it a tongue depressor for an elephant, or something to that effect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Helmet Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 I used to really want a portable 2600...but then I got a psp with custom firmware Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari Dogs Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 I used to really want a portable 2600...but then I got a psp with custom firmware I just saw a PSP 2000 clearanced at Best Buy for $125 out the door. What does the custom firmware do? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Climber Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 I used to really want a portable 2600...but then I got a psp with custom firmware I just saw a PSP 2000 clearanced at Best Buy for $125 out the door. What does the custom firmware do? You can hack them and put all the 2600 roms on it to play(not to mention every other systems roms also) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Helmet Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 (edited) I used to really want a portable 2600...but then I got a psp with custom firmware I just saw a PSP 2000 clearanced at Best Buy for $125 out the door. What does the custom firmware do? Lets you play homebrew, play commercial games from the memory stick, and play countless emulators. Right now mine has emulators for the 2600, 5200, Colecovision, Inty, NES, SNES, Gameboy, GBA, MAME, Genesis...all on one memory stick Edited April 1, 2009 by Lord Helmet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari Dogs Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 I used to really want a portable 2600...but then I got a psp with custom firmware I just saw a PSP 2000 clearanced at Best Buy for $125 out the door. What does the custom firmware do? Lets you play homebrew, play commercial games from the memory stick, and play countless emulators. Right now mine has emulators for the 2600, 5200, Colecovision, Inty, NES, SNES, Gameboy, GBA, MAME, Genesis...all on one memory stick How do you upgrade the firmware? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Climber Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 I used to really want a portable 2600...but then I got a psp with custom firmware I just saw a PSP 2000 clearanced at Best Buy for $125 out the door. What does the custom firmware do? Lets you play homebrew, play commercial games from the memory stick, and play countless emulators. Right now mine has emulators for the 2600, 5200, Colecovision, Inty, NES, SNES, Gameboy, GBA, MAME, Genesis...all on one memory stick How do you upgrade the firmware? Here is some wiki info http://www.wikihow.com/Upgrade-Your-PSP-Firmware Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Helmet Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 I used to really want a portable 2600...but then I got a psp with custom firmware I just saw a PSP 2000 clearanced at Best Buy for $125 out the door. What does the custom firmware do? Lets you play homebrew, play commercial games from the memory stick, and play countless emulators. Right now mine has emulators for the 2600, 5200, Colecovision, Inty, NES, SNES, Gameboy, GBA, MAME, Genesis...all on one memory stick How do you upgrade the firmware? I found these forums really useful: http://www.psp-hacks.com/ I also have a local AA member that already had everything needed. Thankfully he hooked me up. Thanks again shadow460! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari Dogs Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 can a ds with an R4 card or something similar run emulators? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iwan-iwanowitsch-goratschin Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 can a ds with an R4 card or something similar run emulators? Yes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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