My Dream Arcade NES Mini-Computer - Part 4: Adding Components

Part 1: It Begins

Part 2: Components
Part 3: Modifications to the Case
Part 4: Adding Components
Part 5: Software
Part 6: Finished!

This is the mainboard I'm using. On the side that's facing you can see all the inputs and outputs. The board is meant to be put in a case where these ports all stick out the back so they can be accessible. Some people building NES computers have cut a chunk out of the back of the NES to allow access to the inputs and outputs. My goal was to keep the case as intact as possible, and extend the ports to the part of the case where there were originally connectors (audio, video, power, that channel 3-4 switch...). In order to do that I'm going to connect 1 ft extension cords to each of the ports I want to use. I'll have the extension cords lead to the 5 original holes in the NES case + the 2 USB holes I drilled.

This is what I mean. On the lower part of the box, I have a 1 ft component video cable that I've connected to the mainboard and led to the NES port marked "Video" . The laptop hard drive is under that pink foam. The silvery/white cable on the very bottom over the q-tip is the SATA cable that will connect the HD to the mainboard.





Extension cables plugged into the ports on the left side of the main board.






Under the mainboard I placed the hard drive (wrapped in electric tape), and ran the extension cables to the original NES port-holes on the right side and back of the case (on top of the hard drive). The NES controller to USB adapter sit in the original controller ports that I expanded. I will put the USB wireless adapter and the wireless gamepad receiver under the mainboard in the back-left of the case.





This is the power switch for the mainboard. It is a simple push-button with a cord that plugs into the mainboard. Because I want to use the NES switch, I cut off the switch part, exposing two wires, black and red. I need to connect these wires to the NES power switch.






I used a soldering iron to connect the wire to the switch. Soldering is kind of like welding. You use the iron to heat up a metal that melts at a low temperature (used to be lead, now something safer). You then rub the melted metal on the wire and what you want to connect it to, and when the mettle cools and solidifies it holds the two together.





I soldered the wires to the NES power switch. The NES switch that I bought has the 2 buttons (power and reset), and place to put an LED, but it didn't come with its own LED. I bought a red LED with the wires to connect it to the mainboard, along with a reset switch that looks just like the power switch I just cut. The red LED will show when the machine is powered on. For the reset button, I employed the same technique as the power button. I cut off the switch, exposed the wires, then soldered them to the NES reset switch. The red power LED that I bought wasn't bright enough for me, so I cut it from the wires that connected it to the mainboard. I used pliers to remove the 20+ year old LED from the original power switch that the NES came with. I soldered the original, brighter, LED to the cable. I then stuck the LED into the slot next to the NES power switch.





The power button, reset button, and LED all soldered to wires connected to the mainboard. On the left is the coil of metal that is used to solder. When I touched the iron to the metal it melted onto the iron. I then used the iron to rub the melted metal all over the wires I wanted to connect. I did some serious coating, and everything looks pretty well connected.

Part 5: Software