The design is coming out so much better than I hoped. Case is super strong. Tweaks needed but this is going to be awesome!

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arthur wrote:
Yippie!

Will you post production / assembly images when you are starting to put these together?

Eagerly awaiting receiving mine as and when.
🙂

mellott124 wrote:
PCBs have finally shipped for the mechanical for test. Should be here next week.

Yes, I’ll be posting periodic updates here with pictures as things come together.

PCBs have finally shipped for the mechanical for test. Should be here next week.

malick[ai] wrote:
Are both options sold out now? I got a VB for Christmas and am looking to buy one. I have a donor I can spare too.

Yes all sold out. There should be a second batch in around April or May timeframe.

ScreamingNarwhal wrote:
Is there a timeline for sending the donor carts? I didn’t remember seeing specifics when I placed my order, but I could have missed it.

Send them soon as you’re ready. I’ve received most of them already.
Not many people ordered that option.

Here’s a 3D printed carbon fiber connector. Stuffing the pins is a pain. Needs some sort of tool.

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[mellott124]

Full mold for the top piece of the case complete with texturing.

And the first test piece.

Things are still being tweaked to get a better part out of the mold. Some of this stuff seems to still have an art to it even with an experienced mold guy.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by mellott124.

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I’ll be doing another small run of link cables in the next month or so. This is to coincide with my new 32Mbit cart. If anyone is interested, email or PM me. Thanks.

One version of the connector being tested now. Another one is being worked on for potential injection molding.

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Think I found a way to get connectors made as well. Even found pins that will work. Issue is how to stuff 60 pins into a connector housing. Anyone want to volunteer? LOL. This kind of thing really needs to be machine automated and that costs money.

Also the math for new cases and connectors is coming out to about $35 to break even. That’s what the cost of a donor would need to rise to to make it worth making new cases and connectors for VB carts. That’s at VB like volumes. It easy to compare to higher volumes of other systems but VB doesn’t have those kinds of volumes. This is assuming a thousand connectors, which would supply enough VB carts for about 3 to 4 years.

With that all being said I’ll probably build one or two to show it can be done.

Case mold machining has started!

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samson7point1 wrote:
It seems like things are moving quickly. If all goes well, what’s the ETA for actually holding one of these in my hot little hands?

Shipping is still on track to start in March. Once hardware comes in I still have to develop some of the firmware and do testing.

Schwanck wrote:
If we were to load padded roms on this, would it work faster or does it still go through all the steps? If there is even a noticeable difference

Doubt you could tell the difference. The load from the SD card would be faster if not padded, most likely. The programming and loop time will all be the same.

Well, well… some new parts just came out that would make MultiBoy32 a lot easier to build. Could be an interesting year in 2020. 🙂

Orders for the test PCBs just went it. These are to check the mechanical assembly and the bonding of the ePaper display into the FR4 cover.

It will take about 2 weeks for me to have them in house.

Splain wrote:
Aww I missed it. All sold out. Glad it’s doing so well!

I just added a couple more to stock but that will be it until after the first build.

samson7point1 wrote:

Good ideas. Not sure I can increase the BOM cost any further. It’s all ready too high. USB cable will probably have to be the solution for now.

Absolutely understand. You just put a call out for alternative ideas for powering the cart outside the VB and I thought those might be feasible. I would LOVE to see the cart be able to power itself through a couple dozen game switches and recharge through the VB while it’s in use. That would make it more self-contained and mass-market friendly. It might be worth plunking the charging circuit and battery into the BOM just to see what the impact would be for sure. However scope creep has a way of killing these things, so I think the design is fine as it is.

Personally I have one of these:
https://www.totallypromotional.com/square-power-bank.html

It’s not much larger than a VB cart so I’ll probably keep it with a short USB cable next to my VB so I can switch games without having to fuss with a PC or wall socket.

Yes I did. Thanks!

samson7point1 wrote:
Have you considered something like this to power the display when the cart isn’t plugged in to USB?

https://www.powerstream.com/thin-lithium-ion.htm

OR

https://www.mouser.com/new/Murata/murata-dmh-supercaps/

As long as there’s _some_ room in the case you could add either of these. You could charge it with USB or even siphon some power off of the VB while the game is running to keep the battery or supercapacitor topped off. Unless people are sitting around flipping through screens all day without ever playing a game, there might just be enough power in one of these to operate the e-ink and game switching function the way most people would use them. When the power’s about to be exhausted, have it switch to a screen that says “plug in USB to charge”.

Good ideas. Not sure I can increase the BOM cost any further. It’s all ready too high. USB cable will probably have to be the solution for now.

Schwanck wrote:
I would of recommended QI wireless charging but then buttons wouldn’t be accessible.
I’m ok without a battery since you can plug into just about anything including smart phones to share power.

I did consider this previously. I’ve worked inductive charging into several designs in the past.

I never have eye strain from psvr. I’ve played hours on end of Farpoint. Did you set the software IPD?