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Updated occasionally. Questions? Email me. 4 December 2003 Pictures up. To avoid death threats from modem users, they're on another page. Go here to check them out. Stuff I still need to do (this list keeps growing):
20 November 2003 HHPS 0.9 is finished. Wiring took me all day yesterday. Here's a tip: If you make a case that opens, don't put buttons on both sides. I have 20 wires running between the case and the lid, plus the bundle for the screen. They're tied in groups, but it's still a hassle to get them out of the way to close the lid. I think this will be more suited to games like Final Fantasy as opposed to Gran Turismo. The shoulder buttons are uncomfortable to use for more than a few minutes. The spring force on these buttons is a little higher than it should be. Two more things I want to do before I finalize this thing. First is the LED mod for the screen. I have to put that off until I can get some 3mm white LEDs...I can't find them anywhere but mail order. Second is a power reservoir cap. I'm thinking around 3000uF. That should stabilize the power and let me turn the screen off and on without restarting the Playstation. Pics to come. 18 November 2003 Casework is 99% done. All the holes are cut and all buttons are mounted. I have the sticks and buttons mounted where I want them. To mount the sticks, I used half of a Radio Shack 276-148 protoboard mounted on a pair of screws, diagonal across the stick. The Pelican controller works strangely, but it's pretty simple. Most of the buttons link between a sensor and Vcc. The start-select-analog group connects to ground on one side. The sticks are a variable resistance between Vcc and ground. It doesn't like to work without the sticks hooked up...it thinks both sticks are pointed up and to the left, which makes it hard to run diagnostics. The audio amp is working well. I have volume control on a big thumbwheel on the left side. This clear case is going to look nice in the dark. Already there's a yellow LED on the PSOne board, a red LED for analog, and a blue LED for amp power. Two things about Playstation power to keep in mind. First, the power supply that came with the screen, while nice, is not overbuilt. It can't provide any more than 3 amps. Second, while the Playstation sucks 850mA on average, it spikes to over 2A at times. When you have the 3A adaptor powering the PSOne and the screen, you can hear the sled motor crapping out just after you start up the PSOne - it's starved for power. When I turned the amp off and on, the Playstation restarted. I guess it took too much current to charge up those 470uF power caps. It runs much better on batteries. So what's left? Wiring. I have to wire the screen to the board, the buttons to the controller, and the speakers to the amp. All while keeping the wires out of the way from the CD and allowing me to open and close the case without a problem. For hookup wire I'm using the extra wire from the controller cord. It's made of eight colored wires, 26- or 28-gauge stranded wire. There are also some fibers running with the strands, but those burn off. 12 November 2003 The damage so far:
I'm using a Pelican Chameleon controller. For anyone using separate buttons - I recommend it. It's a good half-inch smaller than the Mad Catz one I bought. The buttons on the right side are what I'm using for the face and shoulder buttons. They cost about $3 each from Digikey. On the left is a $3 4-pack from Radio Shack. Decent, but the build quality doesn't impress me. The speakers are $7 'hi-fi' micro speakers from Digikey. The circuitboard you see is an amp meant to drive low-impedence headphones, but it works well for the 16-ohm speakers as well. Since I took the picture, I mounted one of the sticks in the case. The sticks that came with the controller had smaller tops, but I replaced them with full-size ones from another controller. I'll need to run four wires to each stick - voltage, common and two sense. The battery works well, but it's way too big to fit in the case. I'm going to have to mount it to the back, hence the plug adaptor. Tools I've used. I mention these because I'm living in a dorm and working out of a shoebox.
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