Super Nintendo Cartridge Wallet With Sound, Light, and Key Storage

I love any and all things Nintendo, but recently my controller themed, leather wallet has just been falling apart. Then an idea struck me, since I couldn't find a wallet that could hold all of my stuff for cheap, I would make one myself! And what better a wallet to make than another Nintendo wallet? I found a four pack of SNES games at Goodwill and knew immediately what I had to do to make this wallet epic. If you complete all of the steps in this instructable you will have; a SNES cartridge wallet with the faceplate as your ID or picture of choice, plays videogame (or ironically money themed) noise, switch on/off emergency lighting, and a compact place to store your spare keys and/or USB thumb drive! What the talk you will be.

SAFETY!

You WILL be dealing with dangerous tools and materials! But only if they are handled in a detrimental way. The Dremel tool that I use rotates at a high speed, but instead of cutting, it also melts the plastic materials from it's high speed! The soldering iron and solder also melt the plastic at points in this project! Do this project in a well ventilated area! Do not breath in the smoke from melting plastics and metals! Also the Dremel tool will send chunks of plastic and metal into your eyes if you are not careful! Wear protective goggles that wrap around the sides of your eyes as well! Super glue when mishandled could lead to dangerous skin related mishaps! Wear protective gloves if you are concerned with this! You will be switching bits on the Dremel tool! Be sure to disconnect the power or take out the battery pack if it's cordless whenever you are switching bits! Accidentally turning the Dremel tool on while switching bits could lead to a serious accident. You might even lose a finger! There are also electrical components involved! Be careful when soldering wires and other components together and NEVER solder while batteries are in place! This could cause the battery to explode!

And be sure to take any precaution that I have not covered if you run a seemingly dangerous situation. If you are unsure, google a helpful guide.

I have this entered into the Workshop of the Future Contest. If you like this instructable, please vote for me!

Step 1: Materials

I used a lot of junk that I've been saving up, quite a few things were torn asunder to create this.

SNES Cartridge
Plexiglass picture frame (with two right angle edges, 4x6 frame)
(On-off switch, - and + battery connections for two AAA batteries, red and black wires. I got all of these from one of those Plug n Play tv games.)
Clamshell eyeglass case (for the hinge only, so if you have a long thin hinge, go you.)
Videogame greeting card WITH SOUND! (This is important for one of the extras)
LEDs (got them from a Christmas light set, color optional, I went with white, used for second extra.)
Spare keys (for the third extra)
THIN USB thumb drive (for the third extra, capacity is optional)
Screw and bolt set (Screw needs to be slim enough to fit in the eye of your key)
Velcro
Elastic
String
Needle
Gorilla brand IMPACT TOUGH super glue (THIS IS IMPORTANT! Try not to use anything but this unless you are 100% positive you have a better working glue! This glue has rubberized elements that, as the name implies, absorbs impacts! Much like the constant getting up and setting down actions we perform daily. It also bonds to the plastics and metals we'll be working with!)
Piezo speaker (You know, the kind that is about as thick as a sheet of cardstock paper, for first extra, though if you don't have many cards you MIGHT be able to get by with a thin one, but I would still advise against it.)
Industrial (optional, normal may work) strength snaps.
Tape (clear, electrical, and painter)
Dremel with various cutting, drilling, and sanding bits
Soldering iron
Electrical solder
Pliers, (regular and needle nose)
Wire snips
Wire stripper if you really want to use it, I used my...
Exacto knife
Lighter
Pepsi or coke bottle
pen for marking
1 or 2 card sleeves
Ruler (6 inches will be plenty)
Dummy card (a card that will fill in for your other cards but you don't really need anymore, in case something goes... awry... I used a hotel door card.)
Money Clip (hard plastic or uncoated metal is good)
Sandpaper (normal and fine grit)
Parchment paper (the kind for cooking with that waxy side, not the old paper for writing kind)
A flat surface
and two AAA batteries to power it all.

Step 2: Opening Up and Carving Out the Cartridge

This part is just going to cover how I opened the cartridge and points on where to 'clean up' inside the cartridge. Some of the places that are cut out are Extras specific so be sure to read all of the steps before attempting!

When referring to the cartridge, to avoid confusion. Faceplate is the top piece of the cartridge that usually has the game title on the front of it, backplate would be the piece of the cartridge that has all of the Nintendo legal jumbo on it's side. Top, left, right, and bottom are referring to the cartridge sides.

Drink that 20oz beverage as you work along.

Lets start with those screws. They're irregular ain't they? This will be problem unless you have the right bit for it. If you can use a pair of needle nose pliers to get at them and unscrew them. My pliers were not small enough, and my tweezers were just not strong enough. If this is your problem you can do what I did.

Flip the cartridge over so the title is face down. Power up your soldering iron and push down inside that gap right around where the screw is.

If you hit resistance, success! You hit the screw dead on! Now just leave it there for a minute and just press on the screw, slowly it will move downward! What you're doing is heating up the screw enough to melt the plastic around it. Do this until the head of the screw is completely out then remove the soldering iron and use a pair of pliers to finish getting the screw out, either by simply pulling or unscrewing it the rest of the way. Repeat for the second screw. (there are only two, you can toss them unless you really want to dremel them down and superglue them back just for looks.)

Turn the cartridge back over and the front face plate should come off easily You'll then see the actual game. It might be held in by a single screw. It'll be a Phillips head or flathead screw, depending on the game, but you should have the screwdriver for the job, so take out this entire fixation and chuck it as well, we don't need the innards. (Bye Madden) Lay the cartridge pieces side by side like in the picture.

Inside there are different supports and ledges that were for the actual game. Most of these are going to come out! Especially the center ones. Take a pair of normal pliers and take off those 'hooks' that are on the top faceplate part of the cartridge that lock into the top backplate part and toss them into your bin. On the inside 'top' of the cartridge halves are tiny half nubs. Take your sanding drum on your dremel and sand these down. There is also a crossbar area on the frontplate. You only need to take out roughly a half inch from each side of this crossbar, the middle is nothing.

Where the screws were at on the backplate are two raised 'cylinders'. Take these off with your pliers and chuck em.

The faceplate has a very thin 'lip of plastic that sticks out and rests inside the backplate. Get your dremel sander band and dremel away the entire top lip, but not the sides or bottom lips.

The backplate has an inner ledge where that lip sat. Dremel away the center section of the top of the backplate until it's level with that inner ledge. Don't worry about the sides of the top.

START OF THE EXTRAS!
If you want something that just hold cards, you can ignore this part. Any other hollowing out will be in the section for that specific extra.
On the inside of the blackplate there is a 'side area' to the left and right of the piece. On almost every horizontal piece of plastic, sever the edges that touch vertical pieces with either wire snips or dremel. Then take a pair of normal pliers and pull them out as whole as you can. The only exception to these horizontal pieces is the bottom piece on the right side of the backplate. For now just leave this piece alone. SAVE THESE PIECES! You might need them later on for battery placement and will prove useful.

Take a piece of sandpaper and sand down any irregularities then go over it with a fine grit (320-400) sandpaper to make it smooth.

That about takes care of the basic hollowing out. Move on!

Step 3: Cut Out Clear ID Plate Area

If you want to leave your game title intact, you can skip this step.

Now first we need to measure before we cut. Place your faceplate section of the cartridge with the title face down, place your dummy card in the top center of the cartridge. See how it already fits inside long ways, just not shortways? This means we don't have to measure that way. It's done for us. Take out the card.

Now take a good hard look at your plexiglass picture frame and take careful note of how thick it is! Add the thickness of your plexiglass frame to the short side of your card, then add two more millimeters. The two millimeters is going to act as your buffer. Write down this distance. You will need this.

With the faceplate still title down, take your dremel with a cutting tool and with your cutter against the top edge (NOT PRESSING AGAINST IT) cut a line along the top inner corner/edge. Do NOT! go all the way to the corner of the game title sticker section!! We will finish that later with an exacto blade! We want this to be as straight and even as possible and a dremel just might get out of hand and create some sloppy corners. With an exacto blade you have more control.

Flip the faceplate over with the title upwards.

Starting from that edge you just cut, measure down the distance you measure out and draw a horizontal line with a pen or exacto blade across the inside middle of the cartridge, do not go past the imaginary edge created by the title area. Dremel cut your way down along the inside title area until you are a millimeter away from reaching the line that you drew from your own measurement.

Cut in the inside of your line that you drew from your measurement, again stopping when you're a millimeter from the corner.

Now you should have four corners, cut them out as exact (A pun!) as you can!

When you're done the center will fall out, congrats! Chances are you are not a perfect dremel-er, so take some regular, fine grit sand paper and lightly flatten the edges, take off any papery edges, but don't worry too much.

Keep the cutout! Whenever I mention plastic bits and you've run out, you can cut up this portion!

There are easier ways to cut this, and more exact ways, like say with a jigsaw table, or better dremel tools, but I'm using what I got. By all means if you have a better way of cutting, go for it, but the way of measuring and the method of going about cutting (not the actual act of cutting) are good, so they should be followed unless the new means of cutting doesn't allow you to follow my directions...

Step 4: Cutting the Face Plate

You'll need your dremel cutting tool or similar for this.

Measure the area you cut out of the faceplate (not the cutout, but the open space inside your faceplate). You'll need these measurements, but if you cut right they should be the same as your measurements before. You'll notice the scrap you have left from the inside of the faceplate has an angled part to it. So keeping this in mind, take that measurement and line it up on the plexiglass picture frame with one side as the side of the frame and the bottom of the measurement being the bottom of the frame that is right angled. Since you added the thickness of the plexiglass to your measurement before, then added two millimeters, any curvature of the frame will not affect how your card will sit in the wallet. Mark off on that plexiglass picture frame the edges of the measurements, drawing a full line.

For messup purposes add a quarter of an inch (1/4 in) to the two sides that are inside the frame (as opposed to the ones on the edges) and measure a half inch down the angled part and draw a line marking these distances. How exact these three lines are do not matter.

Cut along your outer lines then line this up on top of your plate. If you stick one corner of your angled part of the frame you cut out on to the bottom of the hole you made in the faceplate you'll see that your top measurement hits the top of the hole. This means you did well padawan!

Now use some thick non-clear tape along the insides of your measurement lines. This is to use as a guide for when you're cutting with your dremel. It's easier to see how thick your tape gets as opposed to seeing a line being cut away. After making your tape guides, cut along the very edge of your measurement line without actually cutting the tape.

Do a dry fit to see if your new faceplate center fit into the hole you created. (Your angled section is actually going to rest on the bottom of your faceplate hole, instead of going over it, that's why we made it so long!) Odds are if you did this with the dremel there is going to be some unevenness. Try to spot out these places. You might have to flatten out your plexiglass or your faceplate hole in order to get it to fit. I used a combination attack of my exacto blade and some 320 grit sandpaper.

By now you've noticed how far your plexiglass plate extends into your faceplate by now. Lay your faceplate face down on a table or other flat surface and with your plexiglass plate in place and as flat along the surface as possible. Take a pen and mark a straight line on your plexiglass plate where the the cartridge plastic is slightly raised up. Now take your plexiglass out, tape a straight line all the way across, and cut along the line like before. Now your plexiplate fits perfectly into your faceplate.

Step 5: Setting Your New Plexiplate Into Your Faceplate, Virtually Mess Free!

This part is pretty easy, there's just mainly the waiting that is aggravating.

Set your plexiplate into your frame and with the faceplate resting title up, take your pen and mark along the entire edge of where the gray plastic cartridge meets the plexiplate.

Take it out

Using your PAINTER'S TAPE, tape up the entire front and back of your plexiplate but LEAVE THE EDGES TAPE FREE!

(A handy tip. Wherever you use the tape at, press it down by running your fingernail across it evenly and firmly. This will help to prevent leaks underneath the tape, especially along the edges)

The only exception to the tape placement is the part past that line you just drew. Tape up the back of this area normally but the area past the line should be as clean as the edges. Since this area is resting on the bottom of the cartridge hole as mentioned before, this area also needs to be open so it can be glued to.

So it might help if you take that 320 grit and scuff this area up as well as the edges that you didn't cut yourself.

Set your taped up plexiplate into the faceplate hole. If you taped it up right, it should still fit just as well as before.

Take careful note of everywhere the plate touches then take it out.

Now on the FRONT of the faceplate, tape it up the same way as the plexiplate! Along those edges! Just do NOT tape up anywhere the plate directly touches the faceplate. Use the pictures if you're a little confused by what I mean.

The inside of the faceplate does not matter, and should not be taped up. The more surface area the glue has to stick to, the better.

ON YOUR FACEPLATE ONLY, take your Gorilla Impact Tough Super Glue (should be clear or dries clear) and completely cover every edge that touches the plexiplate, and once you have that in, place your faceplate face down on a flat surface that is covered by parchment paper (waxy side up of course). Set your plexiplate into your faceplate hole. Make sure both are as flat as possible. This is Gorilla impact tough super glue, once it sets it's gonna be helluva tough to get it UNset.

On the inside add a little more glue around all the edges except for the top (unless yours really looks uneven and needs it.) This is to add to the sturdiness, and to let glue seep into the places that had a little too much glue come off when placing the plexiplate in.

Once everything is dry peel the parchment paper away and add add a little more glue to the bottom of the plexiplate/faceplate meeting area edge (not the rest of the edges!) Then wait for this to dry.

Once the glue is set peel all of the tape away. The glue edges will probably try to cling a little to the edges of the tape so use your exacto blade to free them as well as clean up the glue edging. Try to use your fingernail first though.

Now since I've told you the proper way, your plexiplate will leave your ID card a little loose and will fall out. Take your card sleeve (that fits in the plexiplate area) and your dummy card. Insert your dummy card halfway into the sleeve. If your sleeve has one side colored and one clear side, place the clear side face down. Cut a semicircle into the open edge that is facing up. (very well can't cut something below on the surface can ya?) Take out the dummy card and with the frontplate face down, place the card sleeve in the plexiplate area with the semicircle cut side face up. Take your superglue and run it along the edge where the gray game cartridge and edge opposite of the opening meet. Now your ID won't go flying everywhere when you open your wallet!

Step 6: Hinge It Up, Basic Wallet Form Complete.

Rip open your eye glass case. (NOT literally). Mine had leather over it with a weak covering inside. You're going to want a traditional eyeglass case with a metal hinge, not a plastic one with a weak plastic hinge. Peel off any backing and insides to get to your hinge. Mine had parts of the metal case bent into the hinge where screws might have gone. If yours is like this just take your needle nose pliers and unbend these pieces till you can pop your hinge out without bending the hinge itself. You'll notice that your hinge also comes with these two metal 'springs' that can 'lock' your hinge in one of two positions, open and closed. Usually these springs assist with keeping your eyeglass case open so you can put your glasses in, and keeping it closed to protect your glasses. Keeping these is entirely optional. They'll serve the same purpose in your wallet if you do keep them.

Helpful hint! The Gorilla glue that I used bonds to most plastics, but most plastics are shiny! Totally flat! It really helps if you roughen any surface, plastic or metal, that you apply this glue to! Use your trusty 320 or even normal grit sandpaper to help roughen up those spots so the glue has something easier and better to bond to! Do this throughout the instructable.

Do a dry fit of your hinge against the inner top middle part of your backplate with the middle part of the hinge resting on your new ledge you dremeled flat (the springs on the inside of course, but for now you might want to take them out.). If it actually sets on the ledge you're good, if your hinge is too long to fit inside or too tall for the bendable part to set on the ledge, you might have to work to do with your dremel. Be careful! The metal will get hot!

Apply the Gorilla glue (Yay!) to the entire inner top side of the backplate that you had your hinge resting against then place your hinge into the sticky situation as carefully and centered as possible. Be sure that you do not add a lot or any at all near the ledge where the hinge sets. If any glue actually gets into the bendable part of the hinge, well, it just won't bend, and you'll be kinda screwed. Hold the hinge in place until the glue sets.

Once that's done turn it over and dab some more glue into those holes in the plastic. the more glue the better! But try not to get sloppy with it and actually keep the glue inside the holes.

Wait for everything to dry.

Do a dry fit of the loose end of the hinge in the same place on the faceplate. Line this up as evenly as possible. If it help set it on the floor and push the side against the wall. This way you have a right angle and it will help to line things up. Mark the sides of the hinge inside your faceplate.

Apply glue to the faceplate in the same area and then with the hing in the OPEN position, stick it on inside those marks. Now since this is an odd piece you can't really clamp it so you're just gonna have to hold it there. The glue starts to harden in thirty seconds but depending on how much glue there is, it may take a while to dry. Hold it in place anywhere from five to ten minutes and be sure not to shift it any.

Basic wallet form, complete! BUT NOT FINISHED! Replace the springs if you desire.

Optional! There is a very valid reason why the eyeglass case had that covering over the hinge! It keeps the springs from escaping! If you wish take a slightly durable but thin piece of plastic or cloth and in the open position dab glue on the top and bottom ledges of your hinge then set the fabric in place, Just do not add glue around the spring parts as this might affect their springiness or near the center as this may effect closing and opening. Then use an exacto blade to trim out the edges.

If you do not want any of the extras, skip to step 11 for finishing touches.

Step 7: Power It Up, Adding Batteries

You're going to need a 3v power source. Higher and you might need more advanced circuitry knowledge like adding a resistor. Here I'll show you how to add two triple As (AAA) to your wallet to power your sound card and LED emergency lighting. So if you do not want to add either, you can skip this.

The reason why I used two AAAs is because I wanted a longer battery life than a single battery cell that might power a big watch. I also wanted something I could find and replace easily. And AA batteries simply take up too much space.

Take your negative/positive battery connector piece (hopefully one where the batteries are side by side and have no free space between) and place it standing up inside the wallet then close it. If it closes, go you! Your work is easier now. If not, dremel it down on the bottom or top until it will.
Take one of those plastic pieces you pliered off and cut it so that it does not come above the ledge of the backplate. Then glue it in at the top of the right section in the backplate.
Cut away the entire little wall that is the top part of the right section, it'll get in the way.

Glue the battery connector in with the positive in the right side and the negative (springy part) in the place where that little wall used to be. make sure not to get glue on the battery connection points and to leave a space about a millimeter wide between the right most wall and the positive end.

Take a negative end by itself and a single AAA battery. Place the negative end and place it against the horizontal wall that you left and then stick the battery in. If it's loose, use those plastic tabs to beef up the wall until your battery fits snugly. Do not try to make it so tight that it is nearly impossible to get the battery out! If you have any backing glue those to the wall.

Before you glue your negative piece in, determine if you are going to use the sound card or LEDs. If you are just going to use the emergency lighting, You'll need to solder a 3 inch wire to the back of this. If you want the game sounds, you'll need another wire that is 6 inches. If you're using both, strip them then twist them together and then solder them to the back. It'll be easier that way.

I'm just going to assume you know how to solder, so forgive me for not elaborating on how. Also this end is going to get very hot! Hold it with a pair of pliers if you must. Do not hold it with your bare hand!

Now that you have the wires soldered onto it, glue it in!

This is where you might should deviate from the pictures and follow the instructions to a tee. If you follow the instructions you'll have a little more space for your credit cards than I did.

Dremel away the rest of the wall separating the right side from the middle section now up until the section where there is a TINY horizontal nub, which comes before the horizontal wall that you left.

Take your two batteries, place one in the completed right side and place one in the place where the wall used to be. take your other battery and press the negative end against the spring gently. If you have enough space in front of that nub you left for the positive end to be glued in front of or behind the nub, you're good. If not dremel down the rest of that wall until you're even with the horizontal wall you left and then press your positive end against the battery gently. Mark the place behind it, super glue a plastic piece to the wall on the back of that line and against it. Then let the glue set.

Now before you glue the positive end in, you have to yet again determine if you're going to use both the LEDs and the game sounds. Respectively 3 inches and 6 inches. Do the same thing as before if you're using both.

(These lengths are not the exact lengths you will use, and will most likely need snipping to fit properly without excess. I give these wire lengths so that you have a little to 'play with.')

Now place your end in place without gluing it in. Make sure it does not touch the negative end or else you'll cause a short circuit. Make sure that spring or the battery can touch it. When you've determined the proper position, then glue it in. Now you've got your power source! Take out the batteries if they are in.

Step 8: Ahhh, the Sound of (game) Music.

This step is for pure Lolz. Adding the game music has a few detriments to it but overall adds to the epicness of this wallet.

Detriments are: less space for cards and or batteries, harder to close if positioned wrong, takes more time to complete wallet, can't be turned off for quiet areas like libraries and schools without using tape to temporarily disrupt the connection.
Benefits are: Epic sounds when opening wallet, laughs and awe, the admiration of your gaming community.

The hardest part of this is getting it to turn off when closing. I almost gave up on this section for that reason alone.

PROCEED!

Purchase your game greeting card (with sound) of choice or recycle one that a relative gave you. I bought a game related card to better tie in with the wallet. (Go Dig Dug)

(Note, I've noticed freakin huge greeting cards as of late, do not get these! The sound card may be of different dimensions, that speaker inside sure is... Get the normal sized sound greeting card.)

Peel open the greeting card to get at the circuitry. Peel it away from it's double sided foam tape shackles.

Use your wire snips (dremel is a tad un-needed) to sever the top battery shell away and remove the battery, but keep the metal tab that completes the connection.

(keep the battery for a throwie!)

Use a soldering iron to melt the solder of the wires connecting the speaker to the card. (You can use a desoldering iron if you wish, but I didn't see a need.)

On the faceplate half, right side, dremel away the same vertical walls that originally stacked on top of the walls where the batteries now are.
Use double sided tape and place the card in the top right corner of the faceplate but give it a millimeter or two of a gap on the side that the hinge is on. This gap is so the battery terminals have somewhere to be and don't butt up against the card itself. (It's the top right if it were closed, if you have it open with the backplate on the ground, it's the bottom right. if you have the faceplate on the ground with the inside of the backplate in the air... then I mean your top left. If I've confused you look at the pictures.)
Close the contraption. If it's not closing all that well, you might need to dremel out a little scoup for your capacitor (that little black cylinder that hangs off) to lay in so it's flat. Also check if your wires are getting in the way. If it still does not lie flat completely, it's not the end of the world, as long as it closes most of the way you'll be fine.

Take your piezo speaker and if you wish, dremel or wire snip away one or two sides so that it resembles a rectangle with two rounded sides. This will not harm the speaker in any way, just do not dremel too close to the center section of the speaker, it is very breakable.

The reason why we don't use the speaker given with the greeting card is because it is simply too thick! This will take up the space that useful credit cards could fill! Also most speakers are made up of a magnet. The paper thin piezo speaker that we use does as well but it is very weak. Using a bigger speaker could tamper with the credit card magnetic strips! Oh noes!

Place your piezo speaker below (above if it's opened with the backplate on the ground) and then tape it in place. Solder the wires to the previous speaker's connection points. If you lost track just test them by touching the respective 6 inch wires from the batteries to the negative and positive positions on the card where the battery was then touching the speaker ends to the points where the last speaker was. if it doesn't work, you either got the speaker ends wrong, or the power connections wrong. DON'T leave your batteries connected while soldering!

After you have it soldered untape your speaker. Now ask yourself, how much sound are you going to hear out of this? Well if you tested it, you know the answer, not much. But it's still loud enough to be annoying in a quiet environment. But if you want to hear your speaker a little better get a 1/16 drill bit and put it in your dremel. If you observe there are two lines on the outside of the cartridge that overlap the section where the speaker sits! Line up your drill bit with these holes and dremel three evenly spaced holes in each line that overlaps the speaker. Now you can hear it just a tad better! Annoy those church ladies as you make your contribution! Entertain the cashier as you pay for those ingredients for the waffles you are about to consume.

Now for soldering your battery connections. (Be sure your batteries are out!) I said 6 inches before to give you a little to work with. Run your 6 inch wires up between and below the batteries then under the negative spring. Check how much extra it will take to complete the connection then snip off the extra and strip the wires. Twist the wires and solder. Make sure you don't have so much wire that it gets pinched buy the opening and closing of the wallet.

Take off that double sided tape and Gorilla super glue the card in the position it was in before then put some regular or electrical tape over it except where the clamp is.

Tape up your batteries in one layer of tape each. Put superglue over the place where the wires are at then lay them down firm and stick in the taped up batteries. Sticking them in like this will shift the wires where they need to be and prevent the glue from keeping your batteries in place forever.

FOREVER!

Well by now you've realized your music works. Good job you.

Now the hardest part of the instructable (at least for me). Turning your sound OFF when you close it.!

If you added the fabric like I did, you're going to eventually realize that it is in the way, like I did. So take out the portion of fabric that is below and around where the positive clamp is on your card.

If you haven't finished that Pepsi do it NAOW!

Clean out your bottle and take off the label, cone, and base with your exacto blade. Slit a straight line down the middle of the cylinder you have left. Cut off about a 2 inch square so you have something easier to work with. (Once again, the section under the label should be flat.)

With this square we're going to cut it down to make a tab that will slip under the metal positive connector to disrupt the connection and cut the sound whenever it is closed. So as far as wideness As far as wideness goes it needs to be no wider than the width of the metal section that the metal positive clamp hits to complete the connection. Make a tab and bend around 2 millimeters of it into the curve. (so that if it were still connected to the bottle, the tab would be inside the bottle. Glue this little tab to the space below the sound card (be doubly sure to roughen it up first) with the edge of the tab against the inner cartridge edge (look at the picture for clarity). Now it's longer than it needs to be of course, but you can always cut it shorter, which is exactly what you'll do. Cut it just enough so that it fits under the raised portion of the metal clamp but doesn't raise it any when fully opened. If it helps, do what I did and bend the end just enough so that it contours to the raised portion of the metal clamp.

If your clamp is having a hard time staying connected, take one of the bits you have for your dremel or a 3/32 drill bit precisely, and place it right below the part of the clamp that's bent and well, just push it down to give it more bend.

You will most likely have to play with this setup for a while.

Also, a note. After opening and closing this wallet for a while in normal use, the metal clamp still comes unbent, even after using the method mentioned above, because it's so weak. So my only suggestion to remedy this is superglue a small bit of rubber band over the metal clamp so that it always is pushed down by the rubber band.

Step 9: Blinded by the Light...

Now we'll add LEDs. This part isn't as hard as that plastic tab, but is is tricky.

In the bottom of your cartridge is a small space that allowed the actual game to poke out so it could actually be read and played.

Keeping this tiny gap in mind, we need to assemble our LEDs in a row. We're going to connect them in a series. I used 5 LEDs from a string of christmas lights, but you're more than welcome to find a brighter bunch as long as they don't go past 3v. If I were you, or redoing this, I'd probably use 4 though.

First you need to set them all in a row. KEEPING them in a row is hard though. I myself found some of those plastic pieces used to keep toys in their packages and used those. If you're finding yourself hard pressed to find one, use that center piece of plastic scrap we took out earlier for our new faceplate and drill some holes or use a thin strip of leftover plexiglass and drill some holes in that for the LEDs to fit snugly in. The thin plastic strip of your choice (I would use the gray) should fit inside the space that surrounds the gap.

Place them in your plastic strip you made with the wires in a single row, with negatives all facing one way and the positives in the other. The wire ends of the LEDs should slip easily through that crack and close all the way without a problem.

If your finding it hard for the line of LEDs to fit well in the gap while inside the plastic strip, open up the gap by lowering the backplate side of the gap a millimeter and flattening the part that lowered to make the gap on the faceplate.

Now use your snips to make all the wires 1/4 inch long. Bend whichever polarity wire that is closest to the batteries in half towards the batteries and do this for all of them, so that all of your negatives (or positives) are bent towards the batteries, and the positives (or negatives) are sticking straight up.

Now make enough small wires roughly one inch each to connect each LED end in a series (connect all the positives in a row and all of the negatives in a row). The bent ones are meant to be straight with the rubber coating overlapping the unbent ones so they don't short circuit. The unbent ones are supposed to have the wires curving outwards a little and not touch the bent ones.

Now take your NEGATIVE three inch wire and connected to the last negative end of your LED string series.

We'll interrupt this program by adding a switch, but first, stick your batteries in for a second and touch your positive end of your battery wire to your last positive LED wire. If the 'string' lights up, success! Now take out your wires. If it doesn't work, you crossed a wire somewhere on your LED series.

You're going to want a simple on off switch. I yoinked mine from the Disney plug n play tv game. You can use any type of switch you want but if you used the switch I used you can wire it up like so. Note you don't HAVE to rip open a plug n play tv game, but it is fun. You can go to your local electronics store and find a simple switch like this. As long as you can turn your LEDs on and off.

We took out the top cylinders before and left their bases. On the base below the batteries dremel out the center of the base and where it curves, leave in the straight vertical walls. See if your switch fits. If not take out one of the walls.

Set your switch in to see how it will fit then take it out, dab glue on the two or three sides where it touches the walls and set it inside. Hold until it sets. BE VERY CAREFUL THAT YOU DO NOT ADD TOO MUCH GLUE! If you add too much you could very well glue the switch in place like I did on my first time. I would even advise not to even fill in the cracks with the superglue for this reason. Take the three inch wire and snip it at one inch. Strip, twist, and solder to the outer connection closest to the batteries. (Take careful note, if you have the switch that I have, the two outer most metal pieces are not connection points but anchors. Snip these with the wire snips ASAP before going further, you won't need them.) Take your last two inches of wire that you snipped off and strip, twist, and solder to the center connection of the switch and the positive end of the light string.

Add batteries and switch on if it wasn't on before. I give you... Light! if it doesn't come on you somehow messed up the switch. Check to see if you soldered it properly and if the ends are touching or not, and that neither touches the metal shell of the switch.

We'll cover the open connections later. For now move on.

Step 10: Usb Thumb Drive With Spare Keys

This section was kinda inspired by this instructable.

Some warnings: This will not fit inside your wallet as is without a bit of tampering to the screw, bolt, head, and the insides of the case. Mine just barely fit. I also did not use washers. If you want to use washers, either use three keys and no usb, or one less key.

Firstly, you'll WANT to make some spare keys! If you do this with your normal set and accidentally mess up a key, you'll be completely screwed!

You will also need a very slim and uniform usb drive like the one pictured. Any other may not fit. It will also need a place on the end where you can actually dremel into without damaging the circuitry, or have a pre-existing hole. Test how well your usb drive will fit by placing it in the lefthand side of the baseplate by itself.

Find a small screw and bolt set that can fit inside a hole created by a 7/64 drill bit and a head that isn't terribly large.

Take each key and your reinforced metal cutting blade on your dremel. Saw off the edges of the key handle till they are even with the width of the rest of the key, then square the handle off by cutting the excess of the key off a centimeter before where the actual key part stops.

Take your grinding tool and soften the sharp edges you got from sawing the key metal.

In the center of each new key head drill a hole with your 7/64 drill bit. My house key was short enough to use the pre-existing hole. Your longest key should not go any further than a millimeter past your usb key end that isn't drilled into.

Get your usb key and and dremel a hole in the end that doesn't plug into your computer. Again, make very carefully sure you do not drill in a place that will touch or damage circuitry.

Put your screw through the holes and then thread on the bolt until it hits the top key. Cut off the excess of the screw and then sand it flat. Place it in the left side of the backplate. Check and see if it will fit and close. It probably won't. If not you'll have to do as I described briefly above. Sand down the head of the screw a bit and sand out a small scoop in the front and back plate where the head and bolt touch until it closes. Be very careful not to sand too much or else you will make a hole in the case that you don't want.

After it fits scuff up the side of the usb that the keys are not on. Cut a piece of velcro and glue them together. Make sure the velcro does not go past the plug in part of the usb and stays about two millimeters away from the head of the screw at least. Place the other side of the velcro where the usb and keys set. Be sure not to place it where the head will touch the case. Put it exactly where the usb and key velcro touches. Also be sure it doesn't go past the imaginary vertical line that the vertical walls create.

And that's it for extras!

Step 11: Lets Wrap This Up!

By now you're probably thinking something along the lines of,

"Golly gee this sure is radical, but my batteries keep popping out and whenever I open my wallet, my life savings go a flyin every which n way!"

Well, something like that.

But have no fear! Elastic is here! With his good buddy Velcro! Say hello Velcro! *arf* Good boy!

First we'll start with those LEDs. If you skipped over the LEDs, no worries, you'll still need this, which is why I included it in this step, so you won't have to go back and read pointless drivel.

Take your other piece of right angled plexiglass and cut it down till it's a centimeter extending both ways from the corner. The length of this piece should be around three or four inches, but you can make do with just two inches.

On your backplate stand up the plexiglass piece over the wires that make up the circuit of LEDs on the backplate. The top of your plexiglass should not come above the gray wall that the LEDs are glued to. (Not the support piece that kept the LEDs in line and together) So dremel it down a little at a time until it fits just right.

Before you glue it in, get your dummy card and put it in the center then push it against the top left corner of the wall that makes up the usb key wall. If it fits with the plexiglass piece in place you're good. If not, you're going to have to bring in the other side of the plexiglass piece until that side is short enough.

Your plexiglass piece is the right size when your dummy card fits perfectly with at least a card WIDTH of a card space between the dummy card and the plexiglass, When you have this, then glue your plexiglass into position. If you're not sure, use some double sided tape to hold it in place then close the wallet.

Take your elastic and glue 1/4 of an inch of the material on the backplate 'floor' below the hinge and somewhere between the springs. Use something like your exacto blade tip to gently press it down into the glue until it sets.

Helpful hint! Most elastic bands are made up of nylon or polyester! After cutting your elastic bands, take a lighter and run it over the newly cut portion. This will melt all the frays together and prevent any unraveling!

When your glue is dry, take all of your cards that you are going to have in your wallet and set them in with the elastic band going over them. Cut off the excess of the elastic that goes past your plexiglass circuit shield, cauterize the end, then sew on the fuzzy side of a velcro patch to the end that is as wide as the elastic itself but no longer than a half inch.

Take the rough side of the velcro and place it directly in the position that the elastic band will stretch to. if you're having trouble, use a pen or exacto to mark the area. Glue it onto the top of the plexiglass. When it dries your cards will stay in and not fly out! Hoo Rah!

You'll probably notice that it's a little hard to get your cards out, especially the bottom ones.

Take your second card sleeve and slice off the edges with your exacto blade, you only need one half of this sleeve. I used the clear part. Mark a horizontal line across the area where your cards lie and then roughen up one inch of one side of your card (one of the short ends, don't roughen it up lengthways). Spread glue over this roughened part then stick it on the baseplate floor with the edge of the sleeve along the line you marked. Let this dry. Now you have a pull tab to easily extricate all of your cards. Set your cards over this then fold it over the top of your cards then strap your velcro elastic combo in place.

We're going to do essentially the same with the batteries, except with no velcro or card sleeve.

On the innermost battery area place one end of another elastic band in the center. Mark the area, then glue the area and set the band end into it. Keep pressing it down with something until it sets.

After it's dry, place a battery into the inner most battery area (where you just glued elastic at) and pull the elastic band over it and over the edge and down the outside wall. Give it just a BIT of tension then cut the elastic where the wall and floor meet. (Use the pictures if you're confused.) Cauterize the end then spread glue all over the inner part of the wall that lines up with the battery elastic band and stick the edge of that cauterized elastic band into the inner edge where the wall and floor meet and press the rest against the wall. You'll need to hold it there with your fingers or exacto blade. Or you could wrap the battery in tape and press it against the elastic band end against the wall. I couldn't do that since I had a slightly different setup. I'm telling you the better ways. Learn from my mistakes! With this method we add just enough tension to the elastic to keep the batteries in but have the ability to stretch it enough to swap out batteries.

After that glue is set, nothing will fly out anymore! For added show get some hotglue and shoot it into the pocket created by the second plexiglass corner and the LEDs and over the extending wires but do not put any in the switch section!

Just one more step!

Step 12: Gimme Your Money! Snap to It!

These last finishing touches are the easiest.

No doubt you're wondering where you can put your cash.

Get your plain money clip. I used something I found on the ground that could very well be a belt clip. And you can too. If you see a beat up cell phone holder lying around, use it. Strip it apart and take out the clip. Or use a one piece clip of any kind as long as it isn't too bulky. (As in not a clothes pin)

Make sure the legal Nintendo warranty back sticker is taken off.

Roughen up a back area of the wallet and roughen up one side of your money clip. If your clip doesn't have a near flat side, make it near flat. And unless your anal your cartridge doesn't have to be flat either, but you can make it so if you desire.

Add a copious amount of your gorilla impact tough super glue to the rough spot on the cartridge and then stick your clip in it rough side to rough side. Let it dry a while then add more glue to the edges so that it really stays on.

Now you can carry cold hard cash.

To make doubly sure that your wallet stays closed, we're going to add some industrial strength snaps. You can either have these inside the wallet or slightly visible on either side of your LEDs

Use your bits of leftover plastic and glue to level out the spaces below your usb key area and around your switch area on the backplate. Tiny pieces to stack beside the switch and plastic inset and then one flat piece over each for a level surface. Make sure they are level with the inner lip/ledge and not the top of the edge. Then let these constructs dry.

Use your dremel to cut off the cylinders in the faceplate part that go above these areas. Make sure they're flat.

With your faceplate on the ground, put your metal snaps in the area where the cylinders just were.

CAREFUL NOTE! We are only using half of the snap set made for clothing! We are only using the inner parts and we are gluing them to the wallet itself. We do not need the outer parts which are used so the snaps don't come off the clothing.

Close the wallet as tight as you can, especially pressing down on the corners where the snaps are, and then turn rightside up. if the snaps do not fall, you are good to go. If not, do a few dry placement tests with various thicknesses of plastic pieces.

Once the snaps don't move, open the case, take the snaps apart, then get some thing plastic (like say from a sandwich bag) and press the snaps together. Make sure it's waxy enough that the glue cannot stick to it. Add glue where you had the snaps at on the faceplate side then press down the snaps into it until the glue dries. Keep adding glue around the snap against the faceplate until you're sure it's near immovable. (Note, I couldn't completely cover over the switch with plexiglass. And my snaps have an open area. If yours do too and you had this same problem with your switch, have your open area over your switch. so that it covers it above the extended switch connectors. Then before adding superglue, fill all the cracks with hot glue making sure not to get any on the surfaces the superglue will be sticking to.)

Once your snaps are glued in forever to your faceplate and dry, add a generous portion of glue to the parts of the snap that are going to rest on those plastic pieces you built up. Once you have enough clamp it down by holding it together firmly, laying some heavy books on it, or using clamps. Wait a while (more than an hour at least, it's enclosed and therefore harder to dry) then try to open your wallet. It should give some resistance before parting. Some of the glue might have stuck to your sandwich bag bits but because of your bits of plastic, the tabs should not stick to each other. Add some more glue around the edge of your snaps on your baseplate and let that dry.

(One last note, one of the snap pieces has a bit of wire inside that acts as a spring release, make doubly sure to not get any super glue in this. If you want fill the area around the spring with hotglue then press the other half into it. Hotglue is easier to pick out with an exacto than superglue.)

Oh my, it's finished! Bask in your glorious gamey geekiness! And with the combined powers of Nintendo and Gorilla you have a nearly indestructible wallet! Way to go! Also this can also be tweaked to make a nearly indestructible case for a survival kit, or for a great looking case for your ipod!