Sharp C1 Famicom Inspired NES T.V.

I made my own NES version of the Famicom TV with the Sharp C-1/Sampo as the main inspiration. All boards and parts are held in place with brackets and easily removed. Using the original NES board with region free mod. This is just a fairly rough overview, for example; specific info on making a side loader NES is widely available. As are soldering techniques and other specific tool skills. New CRT main board( sourced from AliExpress, after watching a vid on Adrian's Digital Basement), screen and speakers from 2006, case from 1981, NES 1985.

Update: The main power button died, which is the perfect example of why I made everything removable. I installed a new power switch with led and took the opportunity to take some more pics.Also still doing some finishing touches, will update again when officially 100% complete.

<<<<WARNING: CRT tv's contain extremely high voltages even when turned off and unplugged, DO NOT attempt unless you have experience working with and knowing how to safely discharge a CRT television. Various tutorials are available on youtube for the correct and safest method. If you are unsure DO NOT ATTEMPT!!>>>

This is a project that involves many different skills and potentially life threatening voltages, Not recommended for the amateur.

Previous electrical experience is a must!! You are either qualified or experienced in working with high voltage appliances or electrical equipment. Otherwise DO NOT ATTEMPT!!!

Dremel or any rotary cutting tool using the brown cutting discs, fine tip soldering iron with adjustable temperature, Nintendo security screw drivers, large and small. various sizes of philips head screwdrivers, wire cutters, 2 meter spool of various color hookup wire. An original Nintendo main board with region free mod and the RF module removed. 2x tv's, The Tv you will mod, the Tv that will be a donor. In short a decently stocked area for working on electronics.

WARNING: CRT tv's contain extremely high voltages even when turned off and unplugged, DO NOT attempt unless you have experience working with and knowing how to safely discharge a CRT television.Various tutorials are available on youtube for the correct and safest method.If you are unsure DO NOT ATTEMPT!!

I started doing this project primarily as a treatment for insomnia, some steps may not be completely clear or totally explained, I also didn't photograph every single step but I have included the important parts. So at 3 am one morning I designed the prototype in sketchup. I had already modeled the tv itself a few months ago, all I had to do was take measurements from the Nintendo and make them fit.

After safely discharging the donor tv the old parts were removed and I started cutting the case. The holes are still fairly rough, I then filed and sanded for more straight edges and sharp corners. This is not important as the panels from the Nintendo and door from the clone console have a larger area that will cover where I have cut tv.

Heavy modifications were done to the NES board, removing the RF/power module and adding a wiring harness and the "side loader" connector from a non working game genie adapter. The case itself was also cut up for the power, reset and controller ports. I use masking tape to try and keep a straight line when cutting and always cut more than what I need to allow for sanding, filing and precision fitting. Face parts should aspire to perfection. The game door is from a $15 clone console from about 10 years ago, brand is Yobo. Would not have been my first choice as I found it to be flimsy when I cut it out of the case. After fitting the door housing on the back it was ok to work with though.

After removing the power and RF module I needed to make the controller and power/reset harnesses longer, same color and gauge of wire insulated with heat shrink, length of the harness will vary of course depending on your specific setup.

Before painting I decided to attach the NES panel with a superglue that will melt plastics together, this helped to replace the structure of the tv case and make it safer to handle while painting. I basically used Rustoleum 2x white primer first and then red for the case and black for the screen frame.

Lining things up and finding the right spacing is critical. I must have laid it out 10 times to make sure the board and connector were perfectly level, that the tray was the right height and that it didn't have hangups where the cartridge would catch while being inserted. I found some old board brackets from the tv that the screen and speakers came from. Luckily they were the perfect height (10mm) to support the board and leave enough space for half the original loading tray to act as a guide.

The front and back of the board need to be braced strongly to allow for inserting and removing a game many times. I ended up using two separate brackets glued and bolted at the front and one single large bracket at the back of the board which is bolted to alloy flat bar, which in turn is bolted to the base of the TV. The two side brackets mainly serve as guides and support.

Time to put the CRT guts back in. I needed to fit the screen first so I knew how much space I had left to play with. Since there's an NES in the bottom of the tv now, this is one step where you can't really guess, you just have to fit where it sits.The safest option was to make a shelf that slides into brackets. I made sure the shelf even when loaded would totally clear the NES by at least 5mm. The top brackets were salvaged from the NES loading tray and I had to level and glue a wood block to serve as the bottom shelf slider on the right hand side.It worked surprisingly well and just needs one screw to keep it all in place. Shelf is 6mm MDF (craftwood) painted black. The CRT board has its own support tray so I simply glued that to the shelf.

The wired AV is fairly simple, straight from the NES rf unit to the back of an external composite connector. I'll add a mode switch at some point on the back of the tv next to the connector, to switch between internal and external connections.

Here's some nicer pics of the finished product. I also decided to add a small micro lever switch inside and red/green led to the front left corner. Just a a simple game in/out indicator that shows you the cartridge is properly seated. I added some custom vinyl stickers to the buttons and a Nintendo logo from Etsy. As a final package I modded the accessories to match, a painted red zapper and red controllers with led's.