Sega Master System Dock

A while ago I posted this, a iPhone Dock made using a classic NES controller. I thought damn Stephen you need to gets you one of those, so today I've had been trying to put together my very own classic controller docking station. The main deviation from the linked guide is simply the choice of what pad to use, I was always a SEGA kid and since my old Master System gave up the ghost I have kept it around not really wanting to throw it away, this gave me the perfect opportunity to stop it collecting dust and re-purpose part of it.

What you need is a few basic tools such as, a small screw driver, Knife and a small hacksaw. In addition you'll need a iPhone USB lead and a Control Pad.

fig, 1

First unscrew the small screws on the back of the control pad, usually four or five, and remove the contents. Keep the screws safely to one side we will be needing them later, they are small so you don't want to lose them.

fig, 2

Cut the wires connecting the flex to the two chip boards, keep these boards safe as they will need to go back into the unit in order for the buttons to still press in and out. Clean out the top half of the unit and cut a hole with a knife, once you have an opening big enough you can remove the hacksaw blade pass it through the hole in the controller, re attache the blade and cut the plastic to shape. Knives and saws are sharp, so please be careful with this step. Once the hole is wide enough you can thread the lead through (fig, 3).

fig, 3

Now in order for the pad to look ultra cool we want the flex to fit through the hole in the pad originally meant for the lead that plugs into the console. This is fiddly but realistically quite easy to achieve, there should be a screw peg on the inside of the case, the flex will be able to snake around this and run through the half circle at the back (fig, 4).

fig, 4

Once this is in place you can insert the buttons and chips, make sure everything fits nicely and screw the back of the pad back into place. Congratulations you now have one awesome iPhone dock.

Finished dock from the front,

and from the back.

And with an iPod plugged in and charging, had to use my phone for the pics.

Touch my Gameboy

So if you had a nice new tablet what would be the first thing you do?

Obviously it's to install a Gameboy colour emulator and play Pokemon yellow.

I used an app called John GBC Lite, available from Google Play.

Paper Geek

Boredom in the office and access to the internet leads to terrible things, terrible but creative. Today I came across this, a paper iPod dock, which i thought was pretty cool indeed. I rustled up a quick version, however paper doesn't really work quite as well as card should. Very collapsible.

Template for the paper dock, A PDF is available Here

 This got me looking for other alternative paper docks, the German website DATENSTRUDEL offers this take on a paper dock. I really like this version, though it requires a digital clock app to get the full on effect, no free PDF's for this either.

I found a few, different lo-tech variations on the docking theme, including this rather cool Lego creation and an ingenious new use for the iPhone box itself,

But the master and king of all DIY iPhone docks has to be without doubt this, a classic NES controller upcycled into a docking station, instructions can be found here, It really genuinely doesn't look to complex to create and it almost looks like it was made with this in mind. This is one project that I think I'm going to have a serious go at re-creating.

Also worth mentioning because in the future I really want to have a crack at it is this bad boy,

Yeah that's totally a Gameboy external hardrive, how to do this unbelivable act you ask? Go here.

Ego

you can only take being told to politely fuck off so many times....