Playstation 2 laptop

thisisjon · Post by **thisisjon** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 10:51 pm

Im in the process of making a playstation 2 into a laptop. Im using the old, fat ps2, so in order to slim it down to be more portable, I am flipping the dvd drive and putting it, essentially, where the expansion bay is. In order to do this, I need much longer connection cables to go from the disc drive to the mainboard. Does anyone know what specific cables are being used? there are 4 different cables, they all appear to be ffc, 2 of them are labeled and I found those online, but the other two have no marking to identify them.
Any help or suggestions?

HBN · Post by **HBN** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 11:11 pm

I don't pretend to be an expert, but as I plan to do the same thing, with the same system (Maybe we could help each other out?), maybe I can provide some insight.

Would it be possible to just trace pin-to-pin manually with some thin 3 volt wire?

thisisjon · Post by **thisisjon** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 11:35 pm

I was thinking about doing the same thing for one of the cables, but it would be very tedious because there is a 40pin cable. The other cables would probably be pretty easy, but I want to hold out to see if anyone knows where I could get these cables, because if I mess up a direct pin-to-pin, I'm s.o.l.

HBN · Post by **HBN** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 10:50 pm

Ouch. Yeah. I'll keep an eye out for ya, okay? If I find anything I'll let you know.

thisisjon · Post by **thisisjon** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 11:05 pm

Well, today I ripped the controller connector cable (the cable that goes from the controller input to the mainboard). I found a website that sells replacement parts for the ps2. They are pretty expensive and I am still stuck with the same length cables, so I have to buy multiple replacement cables and link them together, or keep trying to figure out type each cable is.

On a side note, in order to save space, Im thinking about removing the heat sink and putting fans on top of the processors. By putting fans in instead of the metal heat sink, I save about 1/2", and dont have to put in another fan. What do you guys think?

HBN · Post by **HBN** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 11:30 pm

Once again, I'm no expert, but I do know a bit about heat, and how to not have it (Extensive computer cooling teaches you things,

). A fan wont do much on its own without a sink. See, the fan only pushes air passed the fins to remove the warm air from between them. Without the fins, its just blowing air on a hot chip. Its not gonna do much.

If you want to save space, and have some fun, but risk blowing this whole thing to a very high altitude, I'd say do a liquid cooling system. The only problem with this is theres no easy way to do it. And retrofitting something that carries a fluid - which generally isn't electronics safe - its risky to say the least. But who knows. Look around. You may just find a way.

thisisjon · Post by **thisisjon** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 12:06 am

I was going to have the fans pointing the other way, pulling the air away from the chips instead of on them. Im pretty sure thats how fans as heat sinks work, but I guess I never have looked closely at them.

I thought about doing a water cooled system, but I think it would be a bit expensive. Ironically, I happened to fish this ps2 out of a friend's flooded basement. It was underwater for a few days, and then I got it. Ive had it for years but only got it working recently.

Speaking of old electronics, I was thinking about thinking about using a thinkpad monitor as the monitor. I figured the old monitor's connections would be fairly straight forward, or crazy complex. Does anyone have experience with thinkpad's screen?

lifeisbetterwithketchup · Post by **lifeisbetterwithketchup** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 12:11 am

thisisjon wrote:Speaking of old electronics, I was thinking about thinking about using a thinkpad monitor as the monitor. I figured the old monitor's connections would be fairly straight forward, or crazy complex. Does anyone have experience with thinkpad's screen?

I'll give you the short, blunt, rude-sounding answer: No

thisisjon · Post by **thisisjon** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 12:35 am

hows about a reason why. I realise it would take some time and effort, but has no one tried it?

Kyo · Post by **Kyo** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 3:43 am

Read the screen sticky.

Laptop screens send digital custom signals, and you'd have to translate your analog signals, which is simply not worth it.

thisisjon · Post by **thisisjon** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 8:54 am

My bad. I usually look for an answer on a forum before posting, I guess I overlooked that.