It actually works out to $0.63 per cable in cost. Now, alternatively, I have a roll of 3M that I could just use to do it myself for less, but I’m currently looking at about 250 cables. That’s a lot of work and time, and it wouldn’t be as neat and orderly as a factory install.

But those are exactly the sort of opinions I want to hear, Force. That’s why I set up the nintendoage poll.

Nicely done, you lucky bastard.

I have added a poll on my NintendoAge Thread to determine whether or not I should add 3M tape to each cable for $1 per pair more, bringing the final total up to $12 per pair.

Please vote and let me know!

http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=6&threadid=186222

I’ll probably do a run of these myself. I’m also working on an upgraded version in what little free time I can spare.

Excellent news! I have just received written correspondence from my fab house confirming that adding castellated holes on the edge of the VirtualCable adds NO COST to the cables! Turns out that the extra dollar base increase covers new tooling capabilities that allow for castellation without a price bump!

I’m happy that you’re pleased, and future installs will benefit from the small teething pains that you so graciously put up with.

Biscuit wrote:
The tape sounds like a good idea, and I wouldn’t mind the added cost. Although I’m only in for a couple, and could see how it might be a problem if anyone’s buying in bulk.

I’m not sure about your single layer cable idea. While it sounds good, it seems like pressing from the back while soldering could easily squeeze out some solder to short neighboring pads. I’ve never tried that before, but I’d assume you can’t really clean up individual shorts without removing the cable and trying again, unless you can massage them apart through the back of the cable.

Hopefully the castellated holes work out with the current design.

The idea behind the single-sided version would be that the pads would be pre-tinned and pre-fluxed. Only a thin layer of solder would be on the pads, far too little to ‘squeeze out’, but rather just enough to solidly bond.

So far, no one individual buyer has asked to purchase more than 10 sets. I keep hoping that some fanatical stockpiler of VBs wishes to have all 1000 units of his pride and joy receive VirtualCables, with an equal amount extra for backups, but so far, nuthin’.

[RetroDan]

Okay a quick update:

I’m putting the order in at the end of May, so any changes to quantity or new orders need to be in to me by 17:00 US Central Time on June 1st. Estimated time for production and shipping to me is about ten days (I love DHL).

I’m thinking of making a slight modification to the design, based on my experiences with the prototypes. First, I’m considering adding a strip of 3M tape under the solder end to assist with stabilization and to help protect against pull damage. If I did this, though, the cost would go up yet another dollar per pair, so I’d like buyer’s inputs on that.

Secondly, I’m trying to see if I can get castellated holes at the solder end of each cable for ease-of-installation. The prototypes’ main problem was that they were very thick, being almost 0.25mm thick at the solder end, which is almost double what they should be. In addition, the solder ends terminated on the top layer, leaving a barrier of polyamide between the pads of the cable and the pads of the board. This made installation extremely difficult and time-consuming. By ending in castellated holes, there will be direct metal-to-metal contact for a solid solder bond, eliminating this issue. I’ve sent a potential revision including this off to my fab house for pricing.

Alternately, I could design an alternate version as a single-layer cable. In this option, the LED board and cable pads would be pre-tinned by the user and pressed together, held by 3M tape, and then soldered by pressing a wide solder tip to the back of the polyamide. This would be more difficult to pull off for the end user, but would provide an amazingly strong connection.

Let me know what you think!

• This reply was modified 5 years, 7 months ago by RetroDan.

mellott124 wrote:
I found parts for two more units if anyone is interested. I think I’ll do these last two in the VB mini case.

I PM’d so quickly I nearly broke my keyboard.

I think I have a spare servo board. Pm me.

[RetroDan]

As of right now, the five users who still have not responded to my followup interest check have been dropped from the list. Sorry, gents – poor communication makes me uncomfortable as a seller.

Fish17 wrote:
Dan,

I signed up but no longer need one as I had NESfreak do his welding fix.

Just wanted to give you a heads up.

Best Regards,

Fish1717

That’s perfectly alright. Not to disparage NESfreak’s work at all, but he is working with 23 year old cables. Time will get to them eventually, no matter how excellent his work. My project is oriented towards a slightly different solution – new cables, installed correctly this time around, which should add another quarter-century onto the VB’s lifespan, or just about the time that the chips on the VB start failing due to age.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by RetroDan.

KR155E wrote:
A VSCode-based successor to VBDE is currently in the works. It will be available for Windows, Linux and Mac. So if you can wait a few more weeks (or possibly months), we’ll have you covered. 🙂

What codebase will be used, or will there be bases for multiple languages? I’d love to be able to use my native C++ instead of dealing with the kludgefest that is straight C.

As of right now, enough people have responded to ensure that 101 pairs of the VirtualCable get a home.

That’s honestly more than I expected. Only five people haven’t responded (with six pairs of cables between them), though I know for a fact that they’ve seen my messages. As it stands, 94.39% of those who indicated interest have confirmed their place. That’s pretty good, as far as I’m concerned.

I’ve decided that I’m going to order however many I have guaranteed buyers for, plus a small number of extra for latecomers or if someone finds they want some more. Extras outside of the original allocation are going to be priced at $15/pair, which I have determined to be neither outrageously expensive, and will allow me to recoup some of the costs from this run.

I am, ultimately, coming out ahead, but the margin is pretty tight. I would strongly recommend that if anyone feels they may need or would like more, get in contact with me before June 1st – this is likely to be the only such run of this project, and I will not have more than a mere handful in reserve.

Remove the screw and epoxy the parts in a safe place away from the VB. Use a small clamp to apply pressure evenly while the epoxy cures. I cannot stress enough to let the epoxy cure for at least a full day before you touch it.

If you could provide a picture of the damage, is me able to give more specific advice.

Use an epoxy to fuse the pieces back together. $5 on Amazon, let it cure for 24-36 hours, and you’re sorted.

Perhaps if you were to take a picture of the issue you experience, it might shed some light on your problem. Are you experiencing a ‘glow’ on the outside border of one/both screens, or is the entire screen lit up? A picture would help a lot.

You need to be more specific.

vuefinder83 wrote:
Damn…somebody scored BIG TIME!

…Holy ballsack.

Super Mario Land III

The SD Gundam series of games.

The Mario Tennis “games”.