congrats! there's no better feeling than a successful electronics test... hours (read: days) of microprocessor programming have shown me that.

Had fun, a wire kept coming loose on the connector on the board connecting to the CD drive, so gave the "no CD drive" logo; fixed it and secured it now. All fine again!

I really hope the two halves close ok - touch and go, but hopefully should be ok.

Going to put a thin sheet of PVC, 6 thou thick between the two sections or I will certainly get a short.

Talking of shorts, got a couple of minor spark flashes when re-attached the positive line which got loose on the switch, when the soldering iron touched the grounding on the console board - however, all fine, batteries fine and board still works fine. Phew!

Need a minor break now, so going to install the rumble packs and then look at the LED mod for the low battery. I can then see if in fact I can get the LED in the case front somewhere good, else it will have to go near the on/off switch.

EDIT - spent the time trying Mario's low LED mod - doesn't seem to work. Lights stay on irrespective. Spent a couple of hours on this - never mind.

I've been watching this project from the beginning, and I've got to say it looks like it's shaping up to be one of the best PSone portables out there. I really like how it's turned out so far.

Keep up the good work, and good luck!

A tip for avoiding shorts:

A piece of perspex is completely rigid and unmoving, and also pretty thick and heavy; I would use a large piece of paper, cut to size. This will allow a bit of "give" for things that stick out a little, and will trim a bit of thickness. Less likely to bump a wire out of place, too.

palmertech - Yes, in fact I will have to just use electrical tape, double layer. The wiring will need to be positioned around other components.

Mario - Intend to try the low battery LED mod again, with different transistors and see if that makes any odds. Frankly, i'm not sure I want a hole in the case for a light, and space is so small it will be a problem anyway; so I will try the mod but may not use it; not sure yet. Getting the tiny rumble motors in the system will be fiddly in itself!


Only had a couple of hours today for project work, will have about three or four tomorrow.

The last time I left the system after testing, I stuck three pieces of perspex between the top of the perspex edge to the board, to ensure I got the board no higher than the case base casing. This is just to illustrate the fact.



I thought I would have this problem - the perspex piece I used to keep the joystick in place before, 2mm thick, will stop any chance of the case closing, especially as I have about 1/2mm to max of 1mm gap and the perspex is 2mm thick.



So, I needed to have a material which was rigid and thin; if the material was flimsy then the joystick will move about. The back of the material will rest on the PSOne console mobo, so will have a hard backing.

Only material I could think of was metal, and the easiest metal to find, and the most accessible, was the metal from the PSone casing.

As you see below, I used a metal diamond cutter on the dremel to cut out the metal. Be VERY careful, you car cutting through steel, it is really really hard material, sparks will fly and you must be in complete control over the dremel when you do this. You MUST also wear goggles too due to metal dust and also sparks flying everywhere.



To get this:



Drill a hole to correspond to hole in case, cover rest in two layers of electrical tape to stop shorts.



The idea is to use hot glue to secure the metal to the joystick backing (I had to use a new joystick as I destroyed the last one getting the perspex backing off), if you need to remove the joystick for repairs, hot glue will come off the tape easily by prying it off with a screwdriver. The screw keeps everything in place firmly, a small dab of hot glue on the other side to keep it in position; when the two case halves are put together, this plate will rest against the PSone console motherboard and be really rigid.



Done.

I will need to make a hole recess on the other case half to accommodate the screw takes.

If I need to, I can sand the perspex surround to recess the metal plate, but I don't think I need to.



Teaser pic....





Have to do the other side, tomorrow.

I still have to finish the rest of the miscellaneous wiring too and then test all controls work ok. It's fine testing the screen, CD mechanism and boards work but it is easy to get control wiring backwards if you aren't careful, especially when working on the inside of a case instead of from the outside!

is that painted rubber? Are you sure it's going to last?

somehow i doubt it will. try stripping the rubber off it and repaint it then with vinyl spray dye.

I initially tried a few coats of spray paint and then spray varnish, however after testing it by rubbing my finger vigourously over it, the covering came of quickly, so I tried enamel plastic paint like you use for model planes, did same thing, rubbed vigourously; but that paint seems to stick on there really well and didn't mark or show signs of distress. If it comes off after time, easy to apply more paint and a couple of good varnish sprays later to get it back to looking excellent again! Some of the joystick caps are soft rubber and some are harder, hard of course take better to painting. If, after prolonged use the joysticks start to look bad, I can easily replace them with generic joystick caps from any controller with nice black ones. It only takes a few minutes to remove the joystick assembly to replace the joystick caps after all.

Looking good! This is so close to being done, it's crazy! I can't wait for pics of the entire thing!

If I wanted to make screwposts for the controls in my portable, would I take them out of the controller (or something like that) and glue them in with superglue? Hot glue? JB Weld? What do you think?

Yes, hoping to have this finished Monday and some/all testing completed. Then I need to make the guide.

Regards gluing, if Poly-Weld works on that plastic, that is the best; if not, superglue (again, doesn't work with everthing) or epoxy, or bondo.

I would use an abox /ps2 joystick, I have tried painting joysticks and buttons before; Never, ever lasts. Might as well save yourself the trouble of opening it later.

Besides, rubber is on the tip for a reason; It is much easier to grip and keep your thumb on. You may think it is good now, but try playing it with hands dripping sweat after an intense round of street fighter.

Why not just use the analog sticks from a black DualShock? That way you've got the black color, but no chance of the paint wearing off, plus the rubber coating can do its job of keeping your thumb from sliding off more efficiently.

This was on my mind too before; however the d-pad and joysticks were that funny grey stock colour and I wanted black. I will keep my eyes out at car boot sales in the next weeks for black ones, so if the coating on my controls fails I can replace them with stock black ones - easy. There is plenty of grip using the plastic paint, which is great, it is just how hardwearing it will be which is the question. Replacing them now or later will be just as easy, so will stay as-is and see how they fair. Also means the system will look extra great with the nice shiny black controls in the pics when it gets posted over the 'net!

Xbox 1 analog sticks are black and coated in rubber.



Also, they're cheap on ebay.

Ah, the Controller S. Couldn't stand it, myself, and both of the ones I have seem to be broken, but the analog sticks were quite good. They'd make very worthy contenders for this portable, but personally, I think you should try for a DualShock first. Gives a more authentic PlayStation feel.