TechyMagThings

Considering that the Nintendo DS already has its own remake of Super Mario 64, one might be tempted to think that porting the original Nintendo 64 version would be a snap. Why you’d want to do this is left as an exercise to the reader, but whether due to nostalgia or out of sheer spite, the question of how easy this would be remains. Correspondingly, [Tobi] figured that he’d give it a shake, with interesting results.

Of note that is someone else already ported SM64 to the DSi, which is a later version of the DS with more processing power, more RAM and other changes. The reason why the 16 MB of RAM of the DSi is required, is because it needs to load the entire game into RAM, rather than do on-demand reads from the cartridge. This is why the N64 made do with just 4 MB of RAM, which is as much RAM as the ND has. Ergo it can be made to work.

The key here is NitroFS, which allows you to implement a similar kind of segmented loading as the N64 uses. Using this the [Hydr8gon] DSi port could be taken as the basis and crammed into NitroFS, enabling the game to mostly run smoothly on the original DS.

There are still some ongoing issues before the project will be released, mostly related to sound support and general stability. If you have a flash cartridge for the DS this means that soon you too should be able to play the original SM64 on real hardware as though it’s a quaint portable N64.

With the ESP32-P4 not having any wireless functionality and instead focusing on being a small SoC, it makes sense to combine it with a second chip that handles features like WiFi and Bluetooth. This makes the Guition ESP32-P4-M3 module both a pretty good example of how the P4 will be used, and an excellent opportunity to tear into, decap and shoot photos of the dies of both the P4 and the ESP32-C6 in this particular module, courtesy of [electronupdate]. There also the blog post for those who just want to ogle the shinies.

After popping the metal shield on the module, you can see the contents as in the above photo. The P4 inside is a variant with 32 MB of PSRAM integrated along with the SoC die. This results in a die shot both of this PSRAM and the P4 die, though enough of the top metal seems to remain to clearly see the latter.

The Boya brand Flash chip is quite standard inside, and along with a glance at the inside of one of the crystal oscillators we get to glance at the inside of the C6 MCU. This is a much more simple chip than the P4, with the RF section quite obvious. The total die sizes are 2.7 x 2.7 mm for the C6 and 4.29 x 3.66 mm for the P4.

When you’re livestreaming, it can be tempting to fire off all kinds of wacky sound effects like you’re a morning radio DJ back in the heady days of 1995. If that’s who you want to be, you might like this soundboard project from [Biker Glen].

The build is based around an RP2040 microcontroller. It’s paired with an I2S digital-to-analog converter for sound output, which in turn feeds a small amplifier hooked up to a speaker or a line output.  The RP2040 is programmed to respond to MIDI commands by playing various sounds in response, which are loaded off a microSD card. It’s able to act as a USB MIDI host, which allows it to work seamlessly with all sorts of off-the-shelf MIDI controllers like the MIDI Fighter or the Novation Launchpad.

It’s an interesting hardware solution to a problem that you could probably also solve with software on your streaming machine, especially if you’ve already got a USB MIDI controller. However, there’s something to be said for lightening the load when your streaming computer is already doing lots of hard work to truck video up to the cloud already. Files are on Github if you’re eager to replicate the build.

Soundboards are just fun, which is why we’ve featured them before. Meanwhile, if you’re whipping up your own streaming accessories at home, be sure to let us know on the tipsline!

As common as the Xbox 360 was, the development kits (XDKs) for these consoles are significantly less so. This makes it even more tragic when someone performs a botched surgery on one of these rare machines, leaving it in dire straits. Fortunately [Josh Davidson] was able to repair the XDK in question for a customer, although it entailed replacing the GPU, CPU and fixing many traces.

The Xbox 360 Development Kit is effectively a special version of the consumer console — with extra RAM and features that make debugging software on the unit much easier, such as through direct access to RAM contents. They come in a variety of hardware specifications that developed along with the game console during its lifecycle, with this particular XDK getting an upgrade to being a Super Devkit with fewer hardware restrictions.

Replacing the dead GPU was a new old stock Kronos 1 chip. Fortunately the pads were fine underneath the old GPU, making it easy to replace. After that various ripped-off pads and traces were discovered underneath the PCB, all of which had to be painstakingly repaired. Following this the CPU had apparently suffered heat damage and was replaced with a better CPU, putting this XDK back into service.

We are going to bet that as a kid, you had a View-Master. This toy has been around for decades and is, more or less, a handheld stereoscope. We never thought much about the device’s invention until we saw a recent video from [View Master Travels and Peter Dibble]. It turns out that the principle of the whole thing was created by the well-known [Charles Wheatstone]. However, it was piano repairman [William Gruber] who invented what we think of as the View-Master.

[Gruber] didn’t just work on normal pianos, but complex player pianos and, in particular, the pianos used to record player piano rolls. He was also, as you might expect, a stereo photography enthusiast. Many of the ideas used in automating pianos would show up in the View-Master and the machines that made the reels, too. In the 1930s, stereoscopes were not particularly popular and were cumbersome to use. Color film was also a new technology.

[Gruber] realized that a disk-like format would be easy to use and, more importantly, easy to mass produce. The reels had a few features to simplify their use. For example, if you show each image in sequence, you’d eventually see pictures upside down. [Gruber’s] solution? Use an odd number of pairs and advance the reel two positions for each jump forward. That way, you never show an image to the wrong eye.

The model “A” didn’t look much like the View-Master you probably remember. By 1940, the toy was a hit. But initially, it wasn’t really a toy so much as a way for adults to view distant sites. Of course, World War II could have stopped the enterprise dead, but instead, they shifted to producing training aids for the military. The War Department would buy 100,000 viewers and about 6 million reels to help train soldiers to identify aircraft and ships, as well as to estimate range.

Training was always a key use of the View-Master technology, but the company eventually bought a competitor with rights to Disney films and exploded into a must-have toy. When the company was bought by GAF, the focus on the toy market grew. Despite some efforts to keep the company relevant in an era with virtual reality and other 3D technologies, View-Master is, sadly, a bit of nostalgia now, even though you can still buy them. But it is impressive that despite many changes to the viewer and the production methods, the View-Master reel remained virtually unchanged despite the production of about 1.5 billion of them. Sure, there were fancy viewers that had audio tracks, too, but the basic idea of an odd number of film frames mounted in a circle in a notched disk remained the same.

These days, a phone can be your View-Master, at least, if you can cross your eyes. Want to preserve your View-Master reels for posterity? So did [W. Jason Altice].

[James]’ Mechanical Organ of Dutch origin has been around longer than he has, but thanks to being rebuilt over the years and lovingly cared for, it delivers its unique performances just as well as it did back in the day. Even better, we’re treated to a good look at how it works.

The organ produces music by playing notes on embedded instruments, which are themselves operated by air pressure, with note arrangements read off what amounts to a very long punch card. [James] gives a great tour of this fantastic machine, so check it out in the video embedded below along with a couple of its performances.

The machine is mobile and entirely self-contained. It would be wheeled out to a venue, where it would play music as long as one could keep cranking the main wheel and the perforated cardboard book containing the chosen musical arrangement hasn’t reached its end. As perforations in the card scroll by inside the machine, each hole triggers valves that operate pipes, percussion hits, and even operate animatronic figures.

The air pressure needed to do all this comes from a reservoir fed by two bellows operated by continuous rotation of a large wheel, a job that requires a fair bit of effort. Turning that crank would likely have been the responsibility of the lowest-ranking person within reach. Today, the preferred method is a belt drive and electric motor.

The perforated cardboard arrangements mean that the machine is just as programmable today as it ever was, and happily plays classics as easily as Lady Gaga, Daft Punk, and Queen. [James] has an enormous library of music, so take a moment to listen to it play “Night Fever” by the Bee Gees and Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky”.

One interesting tidbit [James] shares is that there is a bit of artistry and skill involved in arranging music for the machine. Some instruments play immediately when triggered (such as the pipes) while others trigger after a delay (like percussion), so one needs to take all this into account when punching the cardboard. There’s a bit more info on [James]’ website about his machine and its history.

In addition to being a fascinating piece of musical and mechanical history, it is another example of just how effective of a technology punched card was. Many of us might think of early computing or even music when we think of punched cards, but the original use was in running looms and knitting machines.

Thanks [Keith Olson] for the tip!

Although not a typical focus of people who fly quadcopter drones for a hobby or living, endurance flying has a certain appeal to it for the challenge it offers. Thus, as part of his efforts to collect all the world records pertaining to quadcopter drones, [Luke Maximo Bell] has been working on a design that would allow him to beat the record set by SiFly Aviation at 3 hours and 11 minutes.

By using knowledge gained from his PV solar-powered quadcopter, [Luke] set about to take it all a few steps further. The goal was to get as much performance out of a single Watt, which requires careful balancing of weight, power output and many other parameters.

Crucial is that power usage goes up drastically when you increase the RPM of the propellers, ergo massive 40″ propellers were picked to minimize the required RPM to achieve sufficient lift, necessitating a very large, but lightweight frame.

The battery packs are another major factor since they make up so much of the weight. By picking high-density Tattu batteries and stripping these down even more this was optimized for as well, before even the wire gauge of the power wires running to the motors were investigated to not waste a single Watt or gram.

All of this seems to have paid off, as a first serious test flight resulted in a 3 hour, 31 minutes result, making it quite feasible that [Luke] will succeed with his upcoming attempt at the world’s longest flying electric multirotor record. Another ace up his sleeve here is that of forward movement as well as wind provides effectively free lift, massively reducing power usage and possibly putting the 4 hour endurance score within easy reach.