DIY RumblePak for Nintendo DS Lite

Intro: DIY RumblePak for Nintendo DS Lite

This was an attempt to make a RumblePak for my DS Lite. Sure you can buy them for a few $$$, but where is the fun in that?

I wanted the Rumble Pak to fit into the existing blanking plate of the DS Lite that slots into the GBA cartridge slot. This would make it blend in with the NDS and not stick out or have an odd colour. I could have used the PCB that is contained within the blanking plate, but didn't want to ruin it in case I had to send it back. I opted to dismantle an old Pokemon Pinball GBA cartridge and use the edge connector.

I would have used the offset motor from the Pokemon Cartridge, but it was simply too large...

The motor I used is tiny and was salvaged from an old Nokia 5100 phone. The offset weight had to be trimmed down because it was too big.

A Rumble is requested on the write /WR pin (GBA Pin 3). The pulse is approx 350ns long and needs to be stretched to about 20ms since the motor will not budge if you pulse it with 350ns.

I could have used a 74HC123 Dual Retriggerable Monostable (One-Shot), but I didn't have any. I did have a Microchip PIC12F675 though.

The PIC12F675 contains an internal oscillator and has an interrupt pin that will detect the 350ns pulse (minimum is 25ns), polling the Rumble Request input is not an option as the PIC will most certainly miss it since it's instruction cycle time is 1us.

The PIC is placed into sleep mode to preserve power, however this is probably not necessary because the offset motor consumes about 200mA everytime it spins.

This information is provided as information only, these are my experiences and yours may vary...please don't blame me if you toast your NDS...

STEP 1: Inside the DS Lite Slot 2 Blanking Plate

I could have used the small PCB inside the GBA Slot 2 blanking plate, but opted to use an old Pokemon Pinball board instead.

STEP 2: Getting the Pokemon Pinball Board to Fit

I cut the board with a junior hacksaw and then drilled the 2 holes for the plastic PCB supports tracing the outline of the original PCB.

STEP 3: The PIC I Chose

I used a PIC12F629, which is basically the same as the PIC12F675 except it doesn't have the analog to digital converter. As the ADC was not used I chose to use the PIC12F629 and save the PIC12F675 for future projects.

STEP 4: The Offset Motor

This is the vibrate motor salvaged from a Nokia 5100 phone. The offset weight had to be trimmed down because it was too big to fit in the blanking plate.

STEP 5: Circuit Diagram

As mentioned before, a simple pulse stretcher like a 74HC123 could have been used, but I didn't have one so I used a PIC instead...

I was going to drive the motor from the PIC, but at 200mA, it is way more than the PIC san Sink (or Source). The transistor used can handle 600mA.

R3 (51Ohm) was added to slow the motor down. I would have used PWM from the PIC, but I had already soldered it to the board before noticing that the motor spun too fast.

R1 (10KOhm) tells the NDS that an Option Pak is installed. I assume that D1 pulled low indicated a RumblePak and that other Option Paks require other data lines to be pulled low.

C1 provides some decoupling.

There should be a diode across the motor, but it seemed to work fine without it and there just wasn't the space.

STEP 6: Source Code for PIC

Included is the simple source. I doubt that anybody will make somethig so simple, but who knows....

Comments

[Jehmyson]

Thanks bro. Nice project!!

[zimmemic25]

does someone know a website which tells me which pins on the SLOT2-connector do what? because i want to make my own DS-Lite extension packs, and i have to know which pins to use.

[Ds HaKa]

pinouts.ru

[zimmemic25]

and another question: can i set the state (power on/off) of the SLOT2 pins from inside my homebrew program? so that i could use the SLOT2 pins like an parport or serial port? that would it make easier for my program to communicate with the extension board.

[apr1694]

i can just buy one for 3 dollars

[Ds HaKa]

It says in the title that this one's for the fun of it, not to save money or anything

[CR4CK3RW0LF]

is there any way to hardwire this into the DS? basically i wonder if you could make this fit inside the DS and make it work without having to use the SLOT-2?

also im not sure how much you know about DS modding, but do you think its possible to get the DSi to have a SLOT-2 as well? i figured that in order to use it you could make a homebrew DSi ware...

sorry i just would really like a DSi without loosing SLOT-2 and the pokemon diamond/pearl SLOT-2 function which allows you to transfer pokemon to pal park.

but yes, having a built in rumble feature would be freaking awesome too.

[zack247]

i hear that those new dsi XL's have slot-2

[CR4CK3RW0LF]

sadly, no.

isnt that horrible? selling a "new" DS and adding teh smallest of upgrades? GOD ITS SO HORRIBLE! now everyone who bought the DSI XL has to shell out more money for a 3DS.. it really makes me sad.

[zack247]

the dsi-XL DOESN'T have slot 2?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!? but its so big, how hard would it be for nintendo to put a slot 2 into the xl? geez, nintendo really epic failed with that product...

[Ds HaKa]

It would be and extra $50 or so to accomodate for adding GBA hardware to the DSi. That's why it's not included in the DSi to begin with.

[toogers]

heck, they could have 3 NDS slots and 2 GBA slots, and just select it from the menu. THAT would be tight.

[zack247]

yes, but that would also make it easy to ushen again, they might have used that extra space for those built in games, in which case, someone should mod it so different games are pre installed

[MK3424]

I hope that the new 3DS will be better than the previous DS's

[zack247]

unfortunately from pictures released by nintendo they dont have slot 2 either...

[MK3424]

because they don't need the slot 2 because there is a gyroscope, a motion sensor and even 3D screen without glasses

[achris4321]

The walmart sales dude lied and said that the dsi xl could play everything even gameboy color..... what a lie i was looking forward to it i look and i got some stupid camera and internet access on my ds and lost slot 2 i got it in the first place because i lost my ds lite that had all my games in it because it was in one of this holding things i cant beleve i have goed all away down to this junk.... slot 2 ruled i would do anything to get it back! and if i do get a r4 i would have to waste slot 1 i dont wanna have to always goto slot 1 and switch if there was only a way to just have gba as a mod with out having to get a r4 and do alot of stuff

[aadz93]

how would i hook up a 74ls123 for this

[toogers]

sweet, but if i don't care about pulsing and am fine if it's continuous rumble, do i need any complex wiring? can i just wire a motor to a couple of pins?

[Maxaxle]

This is undeniably cool if you do it right.