Dreammary wrote:
That’s a spectacular design, and honestly looks like an official peripheral.

Thanks.

I’ve had some requests for more of these but it’s limited by the VB connector. If enough people want one I could design and 3D print the VB connector. If anyone is interested please PM me. Just collecting an interest list for now.

[mellott124]

Here’s a version I just built for someone for playing Hyper Fighting.
VB connector with cord switch to 2.1mm jack power supply. SNES controller adapter to VB using a SNES extension cable.

I like this red and black retro-bit controller. May even have a sticker made so it looks like the controller in the HF manual.

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by mellott124.

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I have a few more assembled link cables again if anyone is interested. Send me a PM.

I think I do. I’ll check this weekend.

I have a few more of these assembled if anyone is interested. Just PM me.

First couple free developer units going out. 🙂

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OK, updated for Keyboard HID so now it can be used directly in emulators like Mednafen. The particular board I’m using with integrated bluetooth will only support HID for keyboard so that’s about it for this project.

You have to use a CSR 4.0 BT receiver as well. Once you have that everything works great. 🙂

I’ll put something up on my site so people can replicate it.

Dreammary wrote:
Yes, it’s a slightly better design then Flashboy+ but still only one game at a time. The upside is you can dump games using it (but who honestly will ever need to use that feature) and also it will allow for larger games (if they get made in the future).

He’s hoping to eventually make a multicart but that would be later down the road. At this point it’s just a really cool novelty item for the VB collector that wants everything (everyone else should just stick with a Flashboy+).

Correct. At this point its a programmer for my 16Mbit and 128Mbit reprogrammable carts. A two part flashboy with an option of a larger cart. It can also dump and save RAM contents (save data) for those who have expressed interest. Yes, can dump the RAM as well. Works with any size RAM/ROM by setting a couple parameters. It recognizes my boards and chips sizes automatically and sets them up appropriately.

The USB cable is for connection back to the PC where a user menu is displayed on screen via a terminal program like RealTerm. ASCII menu that can do quite a few things that mimic a normal EEPROM/Flash programmer like ChipMax2.

More info here: http://www.mellottsvrpage.com/index.php/virtual-boy-cartridge-programmer/

This is meant as a developer tool. Most VB users shouldn’t need anything like this. I just got a bit carried away with the case to make it more interesting. Turns out I’ll be using a form of the case in a new project so it was worth the time. 🙂

Also correct that my boards don’t need a battery for SRAM backup. They use an nvSRAM which has a unique approach to saving SRAM data upon power down as to not require a battery. Should outlast most of us.

Knightcrawler wrote:
Mellott, you have done geat things for this community and I trust you. I am willing to donate a decent amount toward those metal molds.

Thanks Knightcrawler! This may get rolled into the Maiden Kickstarter if it goes well.

No new updates. Still a paper design at the moment while I finish up other things. Secretly hoping someone will step in and do it before me so I don’t have to… otherwise its still on the road map and I’ll design one if no one else does.

I’ll post here with updates as things progress. I generally give updates when schematics are done, PCBs have been fabricated, and when the first units are assembled.

Here’s the final Grey Pro FormLabs test print. Comes out similar to Tough but grey. Not bad but for the cost I’d still just buy a donor.

I’m done with 3D printing testing for cases. If I go any further with any of this it will be with injection molding.

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Testing black letters.

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A few pictures of the first assembled unit powered up. I made some additional updates to the model and will be printing what is hopefully the last test print.

There have been some additional FW updates as well for functionality and I animated the character feet. 🙂

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Rigid material prints nice cases. Definitely usable. Still not cheaper than a donor though at $8 in material just for the case.

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I got quotes for aluminum molds for the cases. $750 per side. So $1500 for both sides plus a DIY injection molder for $1800. Haven’t quoted the connector yet but I’m guessing it will be about 2x the case. So for DIY injection molding and aluminum molds somewhere around $4800.

If you 3D print the molds the mold price will go down to around $500 or so total but the surface finish won’t be quite as nice. That would be about $2300 which isn’t too bad. It would be good for about 50 to 100 parts and then the 3D molds would need to be reprinted. You could get 1000’s of parts out of the aluminum molds.

You could make cases of just about any color for a couple dollars. Same with the connector minus the pins, which I still haven’t found a great alternative for. This assumes you eat the NRE for the DIY machine and molds.

You’d have to make a lot of cases and connectors to break even on the DIY path to recover the NRE, but at least its somewhat in reach.

On the 3D print front, printer went down for a few days but is back up. New Rigid material is due in about 2 weeks. Should have some case test prints by end of June or so.

STL file to have the VB USB controller adapter housing 3D printed. Tweaked for Markforged Onyx. Do what you’d like with it.

Here’s my page with more details: http://www.mellottsvrpage.com/index.php/vb-controller-usb-adapter/

It’s a bit bare at the moment but I’ll update soon with more part details so someone can build their own. Takes about the same time and effort as the link cable.

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I was going to wait until the one year mark of first posting about this project (7/2/18) but why wait… Here’s the STL files for the link cable parts. You can have your own parts 3D printed with them. You’ll need 1 set for each end of the cable.

This may also help: http://www.mellottsvrpage.com/index.php/virtual-boy-wired-link-cable-build/

They’ve been tweaked to print best in Markforged Onyx, but feel free to try anything you’d like. No strings attached with these models. If you want to start a company building and selling VB link cables, have at it!

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MineStorm wrote:
If you want to dump it, we can send you the community dumper (as I like to call it). It’s an adapted retrode 2 unit.

AFAIK Eric (bigmak) or Ben has it at the moment.

Don’t what ever you do send the cart to Mellott (he’ll steal the ROM and make carts for EBay).

LOL. You’re too funny.

Didn’t someone say in this very thread that you made Bound High carts for them? You paid the original Bound High developer for that, right? Or was money > ethics? Funny how it’s not a problem if you’re doing it.

Seam wrote:
Any updates? I’d love to see how this is progressing 🙂

Yes. An email just went out to those who filled the initial list.

I’m making updates to the enclosure and I’m about to order parts for the builds.

I also tested some High Temp material as well as dyed it RED. This material is stiffer than durable but way too brittle. The case cracked when I twisted it slightly. As a side note, the durable has gotten a little less flexible over the last day or two. I think the tough or durable material would be fine for people who want to print their own cases. Don’t think it would ever work for the connector. I’ll test Rigid and Grey Pro next. That will probably do it for 3D printing tests.

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