Help Ben Heck Finish His Portable N64!

Instead of replacing the vertical connector, why not make a small 'extension cord' device to plug into the existing port?

Use 'cart' pins on one end that sits flush inside the connector walls when plugged in, and provides a ribbon-cable out the top (for connection to another connector) that you can then position horizontally however you'd like?

Random question what model of the n64 are you using as if you are trying to mix components they usaly aren't compatible

Also how many n64's have died for this?

Hello,

Can you desolder the connector, etch a pcb with traces that go to the side and line up with the pads (double sided so the line up perfectly), use solder paste and lay it flush on the other board? Then fix it with glue.

Haha I posted a link to that above a little bit ago.   

So i found this on another forum , and i think this might be the best way to go about it, and probably the cleanest, removing the 'extension' entirely. All you need is tons of flux and a chisel head on your iron.

FierceDeity said:

Actually, the Expansion pack contains 4mb of ram. N64 boards revisions 1-5 all have 2, 2mb ram chips. Revisions 6-9 have 1, 4mb ram chip. To ramswap, you have to get a revision 1,2,3,4, or 5 board, take off the 2 ramchips, and replace them with ramchips from a expansion pack or a revision 6,7,8 or 9 board.

Why not just make a port on the device for the expansion slot? Then you are able to use any card in there including the memory pack, ram expansion pack, and any other ones. It might take up some extra space, but it could be worth it.

make sure that the traces for the rambus do not go anywhere else as that might be where some of the instability is coming from. Also make sure that the in used traces aren't connected as they might be introducing reflections in the signal.

Hey there Ben!

look at this forum post I found from a while back: Miceeno's Project Phoenix | The Official ModRetro Forums

The guy did a pretty standard job of just bending the pins and soldering them directly to the pack. It worked out fine.

I'm going to suggest the obvious, check all of your connections again, maybe you missed something, you know how Murphy can get you every time.

If there are timing issues with the RAM, the game should still boot and work, then crash or have shader issues. So i'm thinking it doesn't have much to do with the timing and trace lengths.

Looks like the best solution - glad Ben reached out for assistance.

Hi Ben Heck, First: maybe you should analyze the speed signal of some signal in the RAM bus with the Logic analyzer in a working Nintendo 64 and get some snapshots. Second, you should take some snapshots of the bus signal of a already modified Nintendo 64. The problem is the Crosstalk effect because the wires soldered by hand are working as antennas. Maybe you should use a ribbon cable with a ground shield. You should compare the snapshots in order to view the level of degradation of bus signals. I hope you can achieve it because I like so much with your work with game consoles mod and retrocomputing.