I've "Switched"!!!

See....., not what you thought, huh? I'm the father of two teenagers, my daughter is almost 13 and all that that implies. OK, so let's move on to the more pleasant topic,..... the almost 16 year old son. He has shown signs of coming out of the middle school to 10th grade funk which was the bane of our existence. But the last few months, he's actually been more useful and quite a bit more pleasant to be around, a switch that has led me to become more involved in his hobbies. In today's world, that quite often involves gaming. He has 2 main interests in that area; PC gaming which he participates via the gaming PC that I built for him a couple of years ago. It's still relatively current and very usable so doesn't need attention at this time. His other gaming interest is the Nintendo platform (which is a relief for my wife and I).

   

From the standpont of straight-up technology, I think that this platform is really interesting. A very successful adaptation of the favorite from my rather brief days of video gaming; the NEC TurboGrafx16.

Or more specifically, the legendary, NEC TurboExpress.

This thing was (technologically speaking) the "Tour de Force" of the mobile gaming world of the late 90s. In a world where the typical handheld gaming device was a monochrome Gameboy, with weak, chopped down games, the TurboExpress had color and played the full-sized NEC TGX16 games! The only problem....., it ate batteries like an 8 year-old does candy! Unfortunately, the NEC console was a distant 3rd in the gaming platform world of that era. I only got involved with it because my favorite arcade game, Galaga was only available on it! 

Fast forward 30 some-odd years, we now have a successful marriage of the power of nVidia hardware with the marketing might of Nintendo, and you get the Switch! A console platform with a mobile form-factor, capable of playing the full games. I've become so intrigued by the concept that I've began researching extending the capabilities of the system. 

A major part of our lives these days, is the amount of time we (Josh and I) spend on a school bus traveling to and from swim events. Sometimes, it's many hours in one sitting. Texas is a big state! What I learned from driving the team around is that they will often play Switch games together to keep the boredom at bay. It's apparent to to any observer that its a struggle for them to play together in "table-top" mode when multiple kids need to crowd around the relatively small 7" screen. The other issue is the struggle to keep the screen stable on a moving bus. The solution?

The Gaems Vanguard Black Edition, "personal gaming environment" for $299 of course! Uhhh, no..... I don't have $300 just to run out and buy something like this, and on top of that, it doesn't resolve the issue of power. Not only does the thing not resolve the issue of powering the gaming platform, it in fact creates another need for AC power in the 19" screen that's built in to the case. So in reality, it's simply a fancy case sized to hold a game system, and a LCD monitor to display it, so really, it doesn't resolve the problem of playing in a mobile environment nor real of portability either. What's then is the solution?

The top image is the Dell Latitude E7240; it's about a 3 year-old ultra portable notebook that's less than 4 pounds, has a 12.5" 1366 x 768 screen built into a nice aluminum case of less than 1 inch. The lower image is a Suaoki D100 26,800mAh power bank with a critical attribute of having an AC plug as well as 1 USB Type-C, and 2 USB 3 "Quick-charge" ports as well. Why is the AC plug "critical", and what does one have to do with the other?

It appears that the Nintendo Switch, despite having a USB-C power/connection port, does not comply with the power draw standards set for that type of port. Sooooo, it's generally accepted as a bad idea to power the device by anything that's not officially sanctioned by Nintendo! Besides that; in order to send a signal to an external screen, one must use a dock which has an HDMI port, so yeah...... So my little project needed to have a source of power that has an AC plug for the adapter, AND a lot of power to drive the screen and the Switch itself. The Latitude was free courtesy of a client who killed one and I was tasked to replace it, leaving me with a laptop with a dead motherboard, but functioning screen. The power bank came about because my wife decided that she should carry our old one and that I was free to buy a replacement of my choosing.... thus leaving me with marching orders, and the freedom to buy the D100! Anything else is required to complete this project?

I did have to order a controller board from China for the screen in the laptop. It was about $20. I also need a case to build it all into as well.

This actually gave me a lot of trouble tracking it down. There are tons of these light weight "hard-shell" cases out there for things like GoPro cameras and external hard drives, but they just aren't big enough. After hours of fruitless searching, it occurred to me that I need to search for a case designed for something bigger, but also commonly carried around, ..... which led me to the drone case. This one by DBPower was $22 on Amazon with free shipping! So, all I'll need to do is to cut some new foam to fit my pieces and figure out a way to attach a carry strap. 

Why? Well..... being a dad to a teenager isn't the easiest thing in the world. And our time with them under our room is limited. Sure, it sounds good to raise them to appreciate what we do, but that isn't always a practical reality. I'm on the back end of my 50s and he just started driving this year. We aren't going to have that many interest in common. I gave up a few things this year to be his swim coach, is taking some more time to show an interest in his hobbies isn't much more. Plus, it's kinda cool! I'll put up another post when I get done.