N64 Portable (Please Help) continued

Hi Adam,

According to the photo here:

How to test the N64 AC power adapter with a voltmeter

the Nintendo 64 needs 12V at up to 800mA worst case, and 3.3V at up to 2.7A. That will require a pretty good DC-DC converter, and will also require you to supply 12V as well, not 8.4V.

What DC-DC converter are you using, and what battery are you using to supply 12V? If you have links to them then that would help.

Also, to debug this, do you have a multimeter? If not, you really need one (cheap ones are $5, if you intend to do more than just this project then better ones are listed here Deck The Bench - Engineer Wish List  , but a $5 one will be fine). Then, you can check the voltages (12V and 3.3V) on the power source and DC-DC converter _before_ it is plugged into the Nintendo 64, and then you can re-check after it is connected to the Nintendo 64 to see if the rails are sagging (due to battery choice or DC-DC converter issues).

Hi Adam,

According to the photo here:

How to test the N64 AC power adapter with a voltmeter

the Nintendo 64 needs 12V at up to 800mA worst case, and 3.3V at up to 2.7A. That will require a pretty good DC-DC converter, and will also require you to supply 12V as well, not 8.4V.

What DC-DC converter are you using, and what battery are you using to supply 12V? If you have links to them then that would help.

Also, to debug this, do you have a multimeter? If not, you really need one (cheap ones are $5, if you intend to do more than just this project then better ones are listed here Deck The Bench - Engineer Wish List  , but a $5 one will be fine). Then, you can check the voltages (12V and 3.3V) on the power source and DC-DC converter _before_ it is plugged into the Nintendo 64, and then you can re-check after it is connected to the Nintendo 64 to see if the rails are sagging (due to battery choice or DC-DC converter issues).

I have ordered this boost converter to get 12 volts. That, or I could use 6 1850 batteries. In series and parallel. Do you recommend one or the other?

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I do have a multi meter. I am using 4 1850 batteries. In parallel and series, so 7.4-8.4 volts with double the amps. The 12 volts, I was testing with a plug adapter, 12 volts at 3000mah. I am using a Texas Instruments WAS chip to get 3.3 volts. I hope to get a knew one that runs on 7.4 volts and not 12 volts. WAS PTH08080.

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What voltage do you measure from the output of the boost converter, and from the output of the TI module?

Do the voltages change when you connect them to the N64 and power it up? If so, what voltages do you measure? Does it fluctuate?

Without this information, it is all guesses.

The information is needed to a couple of decimal places by the way, because it is not known what multimeter accuracy you have.

It stays at 3.4 volts connected or not. My multi meter is known to wrong at most by two tenths.

Also do you recommend a better way to power the n64 off of 18650 batterries?

Kind-of clutching at straws here. If you don't supply enough information, you can't expect sufficient information in return.

If you're supplying the correct voltages to the correct pins, it should work.

It really is up to you to measure and confirm both voltages, and the pinout, or at least show the connections in detailed photographs if you've already measured the voltages.

And if you have measured and confirmed them before you seeked help, then you ought to have mentioned it, to save this back-and-forth of messages.

I've already asked for you to measure both voltages, and I don't really want to nag and ask you again.

There is only finite time I can spend on a problem, it really is a waste, I could have helped more if I'd had more information. I'm finished for the evening.