SNES USB 2.0 4 Port Hub

I have applied the same procedure as described in the N64 Zelda SD Card Reader blog.  A Tarus USB 2.0 4-Port hub fits perfectly inside a SNES cart with out having to sand down the molding inside.  These hubs can be found for about five bucks on ebay. 

There are a plethora of inexpensive usb items with free shipping from all over the world.  For the actual game carts a used video game store is the way to go.  I just scored a bunch of Odyssey and Atari 2600 carts for about a buck a piece.   Perhaps an external hard drive project is due in the coming months! -kaokensho

The NES Clock

It's NES cartridge clock time.  Now if you Google image NES Clock you'll get a plethora of hits.  Some made by individuals like myself and others for sale with a cartridge of your choice.  Today we'll go step by step and make two of our own.  The first step is to get a 3.8mm inverted hex bit (available on ebay) to  separate the cartridge pieces and remove the awesome 1980's ROM chip set.  This is where there are several variants in procedure and design...the backside.  Also alot of people seem afraid to drill a hole in the center of the cartrage (through the label) and instead elect to offset the clock to the left.  That will not work with particular setup.  Standard analog clocks are about 0.5" wide where as the inside of a NES cartridge is only 0.4."  The back of the clock unit also requires some space for a AA battery and a time adjustment wheel.  So somehow the backside of the cart has to be cut to allow the rear of the clock to be exposed.  I have seen many methods:  jigsaw (which I DO NOT recommend), dremel tool or some other insane risk of personal safety.  I do not plan on showing off the back of a wall clock so I took a different approach.  A round cutter...courtesy of my father-in-law.  A round cutter is mainly used to cut holes for door knobs.  In this case we'll use a 3" round cutter blade.  So we are going to line up the drill bit in the center of the middle screw hole on the back of the NES cart and round drill away!  Now on the front cart piece we will drill a .25" hole exactly the plastic part for the screw is and then sand it down so that the clock can sit fairly flush against the inside of the cartridge.  The center of the clock face or the axis should be approx 2.4" from the left, right and top sides.  Now hot glue the clock in there with enough room for the outer clock gear (the hour hand) to turn and presto you're half way there!  Use two of your security screws the re-attach the pre-drilled backside and add an optional wall hanger via hot glue.  And the rest is simple!  The kids love it almost as much as I do.  -kaokensho



The Super Gentari: 4 in 1 Retro System

All I can say is that this guy is braver than I!  I have seen a few of these "custom" combined retro systems.  This is by far the best that I've seen yet and deemed it worthy for a second showing here.  Notice that each system has a seperate power/video out for each system.  Surprisingly most people don't do it that way.
http://forum.akron123.com/viewtopic.php?t=234
-kaokensho

Game Boy Link

 Sometimes you have to step away before you can move forward.   I bought this classic Game Boy Link for a dollar.  It's been sitting around for months till finally one day, when I had a box of components laying about the table, I chose to do something with it.  Didn't matter what at the time.  So three 1gb usb drives sticking out of this Game Boy multi tap.  What's the point of this story you ask?  Well exactly two days later I am cruising around on ebay looking for various usb hubs (coming to a future blog near you) and I found two usb hub variations that would have been perfect for this.  That will teach me to get so crazy with the hot glue gun!  -kaokensho

DS Lite Hinge Repair

 Okay, so this is only technically a mod but that still counts!  My DS Lite had a broken left hinge.  Other than the fact that it felt like it would break in two at any given moment it worked just fine.  Since I'm so cheap I set out on the internet to find a solution.  There are several different sources for replacement shells and hinges.  Also you'll need a special triwing screwdriver for the 50 million funky screws throughout the DS construction.  I bought a hinge+triwing and a case on ebay all together for about twenty bucks.  Not bad.  I watched a few youtube videos and got my self taught Ph.D. in DS repair...two hours later...I finally got it all together and nada.  I had done something wrong and bricked it.  Disgusted with myself I went to bed.  The following day I tried again by simply dissecting and reassembling it again.  Second time around it only took about twenty minutes.  By golly it worked!  Thank goodness for youtube and never giving up.
-kaokensho

Intro- Zelda N64 Card Reader

So I have dabbled in small projects with the intent of showing a step by step process on future projects. I also hope to develop a personal craft for such things by increasing the difficulty in each project.

So let's start with some basic materials. First off for all NES, SNES AND N64 carts you will need a 3.8mm inverted hex bit. The same applies for Genesis carts except that the bit is a larger 4.5mm security bit. While inverted hex bits are around in various specialty retail shops, eBay is probably the way to go. Your independent used video game store is best source for cheap game carts. The obvious Mario/Duck Hunt NES cart goes for about a buck. Obsolete sports games are awesome buys. Rip that nasty label off and Google image search for the cart art of your choice. Here's one of my first projects. An SD/Sony Memory Stick Pro USB card reader inside a black N64 cart. For the label I printed some scanned cart art I got off the web and took that to Kinko's for it to be "lamilabeled." It’s a sticky back thin glossy lamination that runs about four bucks for an 8.5x11 area. So it pays to do more than one label at a time. Other must haves include: a high temp hot glue gun, a dremel style drill, an exacto knife and some standard epoxy. Stay tuned for the next post as we explore more USB hub mods. Thanks!

-kaokensho