SNESp V1 - The Next Daring Episode of Portablizing BEGINS!

Status: Complete

Table of Contents

2/22/2007 - Designing

The SNES is probably one of my favorite consoles of all time. It had great games (Link to the past, Chrono, Starfox to name a few) , awsome graphics (for the early 90's that is), and a slow motion feature to boot. I mean anything with the name "Super" in the title has to be awsome... right? The SNESp I am designing will use the smaller, less known SNES V2 console. It is smaller then the original "brick" SNES and used less electricity, perfect for portablizing.

The mini SNES that I was talking about. It was only made for a few years so they are kinda rare.

Size comparison between the SNES V1 and the Mini SNES V2.

A sketch of the SNESp design I drew up in while I was bored in lecture.

A sketch-up mock-up to see what would be the smallest, most compact way to but together the various parts. Features a 5 inch LCD, slide down cartridge (like the gameboy), and a 4200mAH 7.2V battery for roughly 6 hours of gaming. The really hard part of the design will be desoldering and resoldering the 64 or so pins on the Cart slot. Not something I am looking forward to.

Rendering of the outside of the design. Starfox ftw. At the moment, I am going to use the same style of case as with my NESp, Birch and Walnut.

4/18/2007 - Designing finished

Ah finally the finished design.

It is about half the size of the NESp V2 and has almost double the battery life. Ill get to build it around summer time.

5/25/2007 - Progress on electronics

The bulk of the electronics done already but I still haven't made a single cut for the case yet.

My semi-complete LED-modded PSone screen. By replacing the original back light with LEDs the power consumption of the screen gets cut in half. I just love these little screens.

The initial test setup to see if my Cart slot relocation was successful. OF course, It worked first try.

Close up of the 64 pins that I had to desolder and resolder 128 times (2 for each pin). Took me about 2 hours to do. This is probably the most pain in the ass thing I have had to soldered to date.

Composite Video input for now. Can't wait to bust some RGB Video on this screen.

6/27/2007 - Case almost done

The long overdue update for this project. I just finished the majority of the cuts for the case. Decided on a Cherry/Birch combo instead of the Walnut I used on the NESp. I also completed the RGB mod for the PSone screen.

The framing of the case is made out of Cherry. The four holes are for the Power Switch, DC input Jack, Battery Charger Jack, and a Headphone Jack.

Birch front and back panels. Still need to be glued and have the openings for the speakers, screen, and buttons cut.

And a quick comparison between my old NESp and the case of the new SNESp. It is the same width but I knocked an inch or so off the height and about an 1/8" thickness.

7/06/2007 - More progress on case

Did some more work on the SNES portable. It is almost ready for the electronic guts to be installed inside.

The front panel is almost finished. All the cuts are done and I just have to drill the holes for the buttons.

A view of the cart slot from the inside.

Another view of the cart slot. The glue hasn't been sanded down yet.

Mock-up of the guts. Everything fits perfectly and snug.

During the last update I didn't take a picture of the RGB output so here it is.

7/23/2007 - Finished

Two weeks later the SNESp is now complete. Took much longer than expect to finish this portable but I guess that is expected do to taking some summer classes and work.

Heres a shot of when I was about halfway through the final assembly of the electronics. The controller and power circuitry are still missing.

Using a quick mock up of how the portable's insides would mesh together, I was able to figure out where I would be able to place the controller and power circuitry.

Finally, all the electronics done and squished inside the portable.

The left side of the electronics. To mimic the SNES controller two 4021s are used. Also on the same board a Switching Regulator set at 7.5 Volts supplies power for the screen and the SNES mainboard.

The right side of the portable. Nothing really interesting here...

Compared to my first portable, the SNESp is a more compact and designed better. On my next portable I hope to push the envelope even further.

7/30/2007 - Video of portable

A little game play video of the SNESp in action.