NES Cartridge Powered Speakers

Some of you may have seen my NES Controller MP3 player. This is a companion project for it. I sometimes like to sit around and listen to music so I made these powered speakers. And since it was to go with the NES controller I made it in a NES cartridge.

Now before you even read any further. These are not really loud. Just so you know. They are great for sitting at your desk, but you would not want to have them as music for a party or anything. Now you could make a larger more powerful amp, but I didn't. Just FYI.

Here is a video of it playing with the MP3 player I made.

Step 1: Getting everything you wil need....

Just get your normal tools. I.E. Dremel, glue gun, soldering iron, etc...

Then you will need the following:

One NES game of your choice. I only used Rush N Attack because it was the cheapest one I could find.
Two small speakers that will fit into an NES game. 1 Watt 8 ohm. ((0.5 watt are better.))**
Two LM386N ICs
Four 100uF caps
Two 100k resistors
Two 1k pot resistors
Two rectifier diodes
One ON/OFF switch ((Just get the smallest one you can.
6-12 votls worth of batteries. I used watch batteries ((6 volts worth)) due to the limited space. You could wire up a 9 volt and just have it on the outside of the game case. But it would look kinda weird. LOL

** I got these speakers out of an old Dell laptop I had sitting around.

Comments

[bruechel87]

I don't get it. The schematic says the cap goes before the resistor and the resistor into the pot. You have it backwards. And why did you wire the audio input to ground? How does this even work?

[noah472]

i have a question i have some small speakers but bigger then yours and i want to do the same thing you did with them but i was just wondering do you need the amps and how would i wire them together through the power and the head phone plug with out the amps
any help would be great thank you.

[choloescuintle]

buen trabajo
intentare hacerlo con baterias recargables

[dylanlarson]

i bought some really cheap speakers of dealextreme.com and was able to fit all the components in the cart. Although i accidentally burnt a little bit of the cartridge with my soldering iron   thx for the awesome instructable

[TSC]

cool mp3 player!!!

[TSC]

sweet I made some thing like this

[shams]

lm396 isnt an audio amp !! It's genaral purpose op-amp!!

[shams]

Haha crazy amp !! dude try a hifi one.. this is nothing... use high quality amp like discreet solid state or vacuum tube or use this chips:tda 1517,1519(2x6 watt 9 pin class ab),TDA 2615 (2x6 watt 9 pin class AB ultra low distortion HI-FI amp chip).....use this little chips they are really good!

[Yerboogieman]

Hello, i hope you reply soon, is there a way to make the little amps more powerful, i know a 386 chip is a little better than that. bigger caps maybe? i really wanna build this but only have 5-10 watt speakers.

[grenadier]

if you add a 10uf cap across pins 1 & 8, instead of a gain of 20 you will get 200

[Yerboogieman]

what would happen if i used a photo capacitor?

[grenadier]

caps coom in different values, you need the right values or your circuit wont work

[grenadier]

if you add a 10uf cap across pins 1 & 8, instead of a gain of 20 you will get 200

[Yerboogieman]

i made a few adjustments to the schematic, it was almost unreadable, same stuff, better look.

[NetReaper]

Why do you even need an on and off switch?

[TheShawMaestro]

So you can turn the speakers on and off.

[NetReaper]

But doesn't the mp3 player have that ability?

[NetReaper]

wait sorry, i forgot about the batteries. I'm used to my ipod.

[logan996]

not bad good idea but how do you make the mp3 player?

[Morte_Moya]

There is another one for it. Just click on my name and it should take you to my page and then you can get to it form there.

[ac1D]

I LOVE IT! Both of your instructable are good, and i builded them. now, i have a BIG favor to ask you. Can you make a docking station with a NES? could be crazy. Im waiting for this :D (lot of idea come: plug the controller to the nes, put the cardrige in, and listen ! or could even use it to play video if the mp3 can ! You can't don't try to make it!

[hawkfan45]

It wouldn't work because you are ripping the game components when you make the speakers. The controller you are taking out the connection to the nes cord. So unless you are building them with everything still attached. It wouldn't work.

[NetReaper]

I think it's possible, just very hard and would take some tricky wireing

[element291]

You could have cut the sound slots a little neater. lol

[Morte_Moya]

Yeah, check out step three and I said something about that. I think next time I will do it by hand instead of using a dremel. Because even on the lowest setting it just was not as clean as I can do by hand. Oh well.

[NetReaper]

just sand them

[Treviun]

Nice idea, sick song! FM + LP<-best bands ever!

[sammystephens]

What kind of screw driver do you need to open the nes cartridge? Great tutorial by the way!

[n0ukf]

It's a special security bit, like a reversed torx. You can find them on ebay. Be careful when looking, there's two sizes (3.8mm and 4.5mm), the smaller one for cartridges and the larger one for the consoles. There's also a 3-winged phillips type screwdriver for the Gameboys.

[PyroMonger]

can you please post an instructable on making just the amp please...i'm having trouble with the one i put together

[ionfreek458]

this is amazing. u might of seen my post on the nes controller mp3, but i love this idea. im going to go buy the controller and game off ebay right now! THANX!!!

[ionfreek458]

W8, WHERE DID U GET THE SPEAKERS??

[Morte_Moya]

I ripped them out of an old Dell laptop I had.

[Wingmaster700]

how did you put in the volume

[Morte_Moya]

Huh? Do you mean the two knobs on the back of the cartridge? Those I just drilled holes for. Or are you talking about something else?

[Morte_Moya]

I thought about doing that. Maybe even having it be bluetooth enabled hard drive player or something.