my first portable: The Sega Game Block...

twilightprincess · Post by **twilightprincess** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 4:37 am

Wow! Nice use of the duct tape, and I love the screen cover.

dman762000 · Post by **dman762000** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 11:41 am

I have to say man, very clean work, I like how you fixed the a/v out with a plug and your solder on the controller wires is very nice that has to be one of the most professional jobs I have seen

sam_thornley · Post by **sam_thornley** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 4:47 pm

segasonicfan wrote:Simple yet clean and stylish... I like it

As for your aims, let me offer some info/help:

The PSOne screen cannot be modded for S-video. I spent a very long time working on this mod through a thread I started a couple years ago. You can input S-video but the signals ill still be mixed into composite because the encoder circuit is controlled by the Samsung OSD chip which is controlled my an I2C bus. There is no documentation anywhere for the Samsung chip and people have been searching high and low for years. Until that datasheet surfaces I'm afraid this mod (and component input) are not doable.

As for S-video on the radica, check out the Genesis mods section on my website for instructions on how to do the mod. There under the Genesis mods section.

As for the audio amp, I recommend using like the LM386 as a easy and low cost solution. Don't yank the built in amp entirely though because it is nice to be able to use it for digital volume control. You can just tie the output to the LM386 input if you want.

and FYI the LED mod is just not a good idea with the PSOne screen if you care about video quality at all. Even with the finest most expensive LEDs you wont get an evenly lit picture and it will most likely disappoint. I did the mod a while back to find this out the hard way.

and definitely add a car slot

-Segasonicfan

Hey Thanks for the help and suggestions! Yeah, i wanted to try and get the best picture possible by using s-video. I saw that thead you posted about adding an s-video input to the psone screen. I was going to try do a s-video mod to the radica and psone screen, but its a good job that you told me as it would'nt of made any differance to the picture quality if the Y and C signals get mixed on the psone screen its self. I'm just going to have to live with composite. But theres some thing thats bugging me...the color intensity of ps1 screen apears to be very high. (Like when you adjust the color of your tv to full) Is there any way that i could bring the intensity down to a subtable level? I'm guessing that this is not possible by moding
but by some kind off hidden menu?? (Ive heard this somewhere on the internet)

As for the audio amp i'm going to just stick to the built-in one its good enough!

As for the led mod i thought i'd mention it to see if any one recomends it. It does kinda suck so i'll take your advice and stick to cold cathode

and i will try to get a working cart slot to a spare radica ive got.

-sam

schmellyfart · Post by **schmellyfart** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 9:52 pm

Awesome!

sam wrote: As for the led mod i thought i'd mention it to see if any one recomends it. It does kinda suck so i'll take your advice and stick to cold cathode

The LED mod doesnt suck if you do it correctly. I used 4 LEDs (one in each corner) and a 22-ohm resistor. It looks awesome. But it wont be very bright until you bypass one the component (CV 23 IIRC, should be in the sccreen sticky though)

Post by **CronoTriggerfan** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 9:59 pm

schmellyfart wrote:Awesome!
sam wrote: As for the led mod i thought i'd mention it to see if any one recomends it. It does kinda suck so i'll take your advice and stick to cold cathode

The LED mod doesnt suck if you do it correctly. I used 4 LEDs (one in each corner) and a 22-ohm resistor. It looks awesome. But it wont be very bright until you bypass one the component (CV 23 IIRC, should be in the sccreen sticky though)

Agreed. I've LED modded many a PSOne screen, and it looks just as good as a standard cold cathode tube backlit one, if not better, if you do it right. Using super bright and frosted LEDs is a good idea, and the more you install, the brighter. And then if you bypass the section of the board mentioned above, it gets REALLY bright. Just my humble opinion, though.

CTFan

sam_thornley · Post by **sam_thornley** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 5:15 am

so ok yeah, it seems the led mod does'nt suck afterall.

I will think about it first as i'm not to botherd about battery life at the moment because i've added a DC input jack to the system.

genestealer1282 · Post by **genestealer1282** » Sun Aug 26, 2007 11:31 am

The original(ish) gameblock was an achievement in itself. the controls were great fo me and I spent many a break time nearly completing sonic the hedgehog 2, it was also a handy defensive tool against the person who me and the creator did not like to much.

errm after all that babbling i forgot what i was going to say, was it important. anyway good work

Tom Bower

"Life cannot be REF,"

sam_thornley · Post by **sam_thornley** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 5:30 pm

Whoa! its been a wile since i last updated this post. I've been off these forums for a wile but now i'm back... Heres the...

Game Block REV 2!

Ok, like i said on the first post i set myself a few aims to improve the system. Over the last couple of months since i last posted (well its been longer than that but hey), I've been heavily modifying my portable. So much in-fact that most of the internal hardware has been completely redesigned/improved. Here all the new features and improvements that i've added.

Improved Case

I've made it so that the front pannel is screwed on rather than being held on by duct tape.

DC IN Jack and new battery

I've added a 7.5v input jack to the system so that i can use the PSOne power adaptor to power the system aswell as batteries. I also had to remove the original battery as it started to leak. I installed a new 7.2v 1800mah battery in place of the old one.

Improved Sound/Video

I decided to Stereo sound Mod my radica. I did this by removing the radica's stock op-amp and Biulding an external LM358 op-amp with 4 adjustable inputs. It is connected to the radica's 4 outputs. I've ajusted the inputs so that all the missing sounds (such as Sonic jump) can now be heard! And in stereo! I got the schematic for this amp from the radica mods sticky. I also biult a low power speaker amp from a TDA2822m to power the speakers.

My modded radica with the external op-amp...

The sound amp...

I also modded my radica to s-video using this post: http://benheck.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=18907" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

To get better picture quality with the psone screen and the radica i managed to input S-video into the screen with gave a slight increase in picture quality.

After reading segasonicfan's thread i believed it was not possable. But i discorverd that PAL/UK screens have differnt video circuitry to NTSC screens and allow a separate Chrominance signal to be inputed if certain components are by passed. See here: http://benheck.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=20158" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Psone screen with s-video...

Quality improvment!

More pics of the system...

Inside views...

Notice how my radica has connectors? This is so that i can swap to another radica easily without having to solder loads of conections, when i get board of the biult in games...

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions previously...

khaag · Post by **khaag** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 6:14 pm

Wow man, nice job! I have to say that that thing is probably the cleanest wired portable in existence! Kudos to you for that!

17daysolderthannes · Post by **17daysolderthannes** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 9:55 pm

isn't it hard to play though with the direction buttons separated like that? Maybe I'm just not quite clear on the size, but it seems like it would be tedious to do something as simple as change direction.

sam_thornley · Post by **sam_thornley** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 7:45 am

Not really, i just hold it like a giant game boy advance. All the buttons can be pressed easily using one's thumbs. Its not that big...but big

i'll have to get a video up off me playing it.

Website · Post by **Life of Brian** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 11:18 am

Zip ties? Screw mounts? Heat shrink? Cable connectors?

Jeez I feel sloppy

What an awesome portable! You have some serious talent at this!

nubie · Post by **nubie** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 10:45 pm

That is just Sick!

I love it, my only thoughts are using AA (2000-2500mah) or AAA (800-1000mah) NiMH batteries for the same effect but a slimmer case.

The S-Video mod schematics are missing from SegasonicFan's post

. I guess I should PM him if I want them.

(and I threw away my Legends I unit, stupid stupid

, but I bought a Legends II on eBay to replace it $2.25 + 6.20 shipping

)

sam_thornley · Post by **sam_thornley** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 5:14 pm

Life of Brian wrote:Zip ties? Screw mounts? Heat shrink? Cable connectors?

Jeez I feel sloppy

What an awesome portable! You have some serious talent at this!

Thanks, I know...i'm a little obsesed when it comes neatness in electronics.

nubie wrote:That is just Sick!

I love it, my only thoughts are using AA (2000-2500mah) or AAA (800-1000mah) NiMH batteries for the same effect but a slimmer case.

The S-Video mod schematics are missing from SegasonicFan's post Sad. I guess I should PM him if I want them.

(and I threw away my Legends I unit, stupid stupid Confused Shocked , but I bought a Legends II on eBay to replace it $2.25 + 6.20 shipping Very Happy)

Hey thanks, i'm currently working on new portable the Game block II thats thinner the the original, but i'm using another 7.2v ni-cad again. I think i might have the S-Video mod schematic on my hard drive some where. Anyway all the best with your portable build.

sam_thornley · Post by **sam_thornley** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 1:51 pm

I grabed my camera and took a video of the game block in action...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkbhdovzdA0

benheck.com Forums

my first portable: The Sega Game Block...

something important!