I am not mounting the speakers in the doors because:

1. They sound better on the dash

2. I've always wanted to try my hand at making a fiberglass custom speaker box

 

In the doors would be easier, faster, but I like a challenge (as you can see by my NES endeavour)

This is awesome! I can't wait to see the finished product!

The first 20 solder points will be a pain, but you'll get in the grove of it, and the rest won't be so bad. I do quite a bit of really minuscule soldering and it isn't to bad once you get the technique down.

I got a hold of a used NES from someone today. Earlier I got it to show some garbled letters but now its just black and grey blinking. I'll replace the 72pin connector and it will be a-ok!

 

Here are some pics just for the heck of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The motherboard. This is the heart of the NES. The only other parts I really need are the controller plugs and power switch. The rest is extra, taking up space in my GL.

 

This is the connector that is the weak point of Nintendo systems. I bought 2 replacements on ebay for about 11 bucks, should be here by the end of the week.

It will probably be ok that this connector is bad. I will get to work on creating the cables to relocate the cartridge...

 

I am going to use an IDE ribbon cable. Stripping it wasn't hard.

 

Starting to solder it to the pins.

 

Whoooo that took a while to solder.... and a kinda crummy job too. I need 2 extra wires on this set of pins. There is another 30 some odd pins on the opposite side of the connector waiting to be soldered. I'll get another ribbon to do this tomorrow or something.

Edited October 27, 201015 yr by mulletsquirrel

86 pin SCSI cables have more pins, and are generally longer than IDE cables

Of course you can use an 80 pin dual channel IDE cable, but you don't get as long lengths as the 40 pin ones...

86 pin SCSI cables have more pins, and are generally longer than IDE cables

Of course you can use an 80 pin dual channel IDE cable, but you don't get as long lengths as the 40 pin ones...

 

I just had the IDE lying around is why I chose to use it. Should only need to go a few feet. The IDE I believe is 34 pins, 34x2 cables = 68, which means I should only have 4 extra wires besides the two ribbons. I think it should work fine ( as long as I re-solder the bad soldering from last night ).

IDE is 40 pin.

Some is 80 pin, but that just has extra grounds for less interference.

I must be using a floppy connector then, since it is 34. :-\

Yes indeed. The easiest way to tell the difference between IDE and floppy is this. The index pin (the filled in hole so you plug it in the right way) on IDE is right near the middle. One floppy cables it is about 4 from one end. Otherwise if you don't have one of each to compare it can be a little hard to tell the difference without counting.

Well regardless of the ribbon type, I'll be happy once it works! Luckily I found the donor NES to mess with, leaving my original one free from Frankensteining. I should be able to get this running tonight (on the modular cartridge slot) if I can get another ribbon cable!

I wish I lived closer to donate a cable to the cause. This is so awesome

In hindsight, I wish I would have purchased a head unit with a screen and AV input so I could have it all right there. That would have been really cool.

Not a lot of progress today it would seem, but I resoldered all off the pins from yesterday, and finished the entire connector! 72 pins down, 72 to go!

 

Finally finished the soldering on the NES. Wow was that a bee-hatch. 144 total solder joints, many resolders later..... EDIT: I now realize that I will have to resolder one side. My original NES cartridge slot thing is getting really crappy. I have some coming in the mail that I will solder. Then it should work as well as new!

 

 

 

 

 

Still have a few kinks to work out.... Click the video below:

 

Edited October 30, 201015 yr by mulletsquirrel

Thats so sweet to put the nintendo in there. I would agree that to me it makes more sense to keep the speakers in the doors. save the dash for the game stuff in my opinion.

 

And the band... my guess is Journey.

nice hammer, (guitar for you folks who dont know) i havent seen one of those in awhile

 

 

RV

Wouldn't it be called an "Axe" rather then a "Hammer"

Edited October 31, 201015 yr by TheLoyale

Wouldn't it be called an "Axle" rather then a "Hammer"

 

I think he's right...

Actually its a Hamer not a hammer. It could be called an axe though.

yeah like i said, its been awhile. i forgot how to spell it. and yes his "axe" is a Hamer. i play a custom warmoth bass, and custom les paul (non gibson, hence custom) among other "axes" im familiar with the term, as well as makes/ models of guitars. even built one once.

 

 

RV

Thats pretty cool. I haven't tried building a guitar, but it seems like it would be fun and a lot of work. Later today, I hope to have more progress on the NES going into my Subaru. But that is after trick or treating

nothing like a sugar rush to get the juices flowing eh??

More progress:

 

We go back into the Subaru!

 

Got my dash apart a bit and did a quick test of where the NES would go. ( Notice that I still have it in the bottom shell for protective purposes ) Hopefully It will all be able to fit in there and I can put the center console back on top of it.

 

So many damn wires inside there. I'll do a better job of tucking those away tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

Note I am in first gear.

 

 

 

It works! Well kinda.

 

 

 

While moving stuff around, I broke some solders, notice the funky display. By the time I was done, it was just showing weird blocks.

 

 

 

I brought the connectors back inside to do a better job soldering. Probably more progress tomorrow.

Seeing some progress! Looking purty interesting for sure.

Wish I had more time to work on it. O well. Tomorrow I might be able to get it all hooked up and looking better. One tough thing is getting the spring tray into the dash and having it be inside of the faceplate. I guess we will see how that goes tomorrow.