Megadrive project

[ruckage]

Hello, just thought I’d share my just completed Megadrive 2 conversion.

Here is the console freshly disassembled.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/FAaxDnS.jpg[/img]

Sadly a Megadrive 2 was most definitely harmed during this. I wanted to retain the power buttons, power LED and the cartridge slot but still needed space to fit the raspberry pi so the board had to be cut up.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/T3VAkI5.jpg[/img]

Here are the board sections back in the case. As it turned out this still wasn’t enough to fit everything inside comfortably so more hacking was required.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/xlfjrK6.jpg[/img]

After lots more hacking and use of a rotary tool to remove unwanted plastic bits I was finally able to fit everything inside the case comfortably. Below you can see all the components. to the right are what remains of the Megadrive board – the cartridge area had to be cut in half to allow everything to fit how I wanted.
The power socket has been replaced with a new socket and this will be wired to that cut off usb connector to power the Raspberry Pi.
The power button and power led have wires attached so that they can be connected to the ‘Powerblock’ so that they will both be functional (great piece of kit by the way).
I couldn’t decide on how to do the HDMI connector originally but settled on the solution shown which works really well – there is a hole already at the back of the console which as it turns out is a perfect diameter for the HDMI extender cable.
The USB extension leads pictured will be shortened and then used in place of the original controller ports.
The ethernet socket will be connected to the raspberry pi and will replace the original AV socket.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/WkZXOJW.jpg[/img]

Everything secured in place. I drilled holes in the original circuit board and used cable ties to hold the ethernet socket and USB extension leads in place. It’s actually really sturdy surprisingly. Holes were drilled below the Raspberry Pi so that it could be secured using nuts and bolts.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/EYsw0Yv.jpg[/img]

View of USB ports.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/UpcwDOb.jpg[/img]

Rear panel showing HDMI extender, ethernet socket and power socket.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/Wlt364W.jpg[/img]

Here’s the reason I wanted to keep at least some of the cartridge slot. Here is a bog standard Menacer Cartridge bought on ebay.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/BWesNB6.jpg[/img]

And after lots of label peeling and some time spent in photoshop here is the all new cartridge.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/DYtT55t.jpg[/img]

And here’s the finished product :)

[Floob]

Really cool. I like it :)

[lilbud]

Is the cartridge purely cosmetic, or does it have a function?

[ruckage]

[quote=116970]Really cool. I like it

[/quote]
Thanks :)

[quote=116971]Is the cartridge purely cosmetic, or does it have a function?

[/quote]
It’s purely cosmetic. I just wanted for it to be able to still hold a cartridge for nostalgia reasons really, and if I want to I can swap the cartridge for another to have a different look.
Also on the original consoles you couldn’t play anything if there wasn’t a cartridge in the system (with the exception of the Master system which had a built in game) so I think it looks more authentic :).

[lilbud]

You could put a usb port in the slot. And a usb drive in the cart. Roms go on the usb drive

[ruckage]

[quote=117040]You could put a usb port in the slot. And a usb drive in the cart. Roms go on the usb drive

[/quote]
Yeah you could, I had thought the same but it seems a bit unnecessary as there is so much space on the SD card.
It would be a cool gimmick, but personally I’m happy with the cartridge just being cosmetic.

[Author]

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