New here... PICTURES!

HANDHELDLOVER · Post by **HANDHELDLOVER** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 4:53 pm

Hi guys!
Sorry at all if i seem noobish at all at any point.lol.
But i have a few questions...
First of all can i buy the book at like borders or barnes and noble?
Also, how hard is it to do this for someone with really no expierence at all with this kinda thing? My dad is really good with electronics and everything so i could get some help with him sodering and all but is this REALLY difficult?
Next...
How costly is this really? Am i going to be spending more than 100$ doing this? If so how much money are we talking. I'd wanna go ahead with the portable psone first. Is this the best choice? I'd like to go get the book tonight so a speedy response is appreciated! THANK YOU SO MUCH AND GREAT SITE BEN!

Post by **bicostp** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 4:58 pm

1. Yes! The book is avalible at Borders, so I'm guessing you can get it at Barnes and Noble too.

2. Not very. Basically it boils down to "solder the wires to the right spot and slap on a battery" for the simpler ones like a NOAC portable. However for disc-based systems, it's more complex than that. But if your dad is experienced with electronics, it shouldn't be hard with his help.

3. Cost depends on the system you want to portablize, the materials you want to use, and the parts and tools you already own. Here's an example:

SNESp:
Mini SNES- $35-40
PSone screen- $30
RC battery: $30

so you're looking at about $100 right there, plus add on the book ($30) and case supplies ($0- $infinity) and you've got a bill well past $100. (But it's worth every penny!

)

Post by **SpongeBuell** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 4:59 pm

well, Ben's book is very newbie friendly, and gives step-by-step instructions. Of course, having a dad that's good with electronics doesn't hurt

Some stores have it, but it's not a certain thing it will be in stock. Grab the phone book and call around. It will probably cost more than $100. it depends on what you already have, but I'm guessing it will be $200ish (more of a rough guess than anything else, I haven't built a book portable yet) As for a PSOne, that's not the best option for a first portable, but it's definitly not the worst. Given your situation, I say go for it

SpongeBuell

HANDHELDLOVER · Post by **HANDHELDLOVER** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 5:02 pm

wow thanks for the timely repsonse. I'd like to start out with the easiest system possible and work my way up. I have nothing really but a dead ps2, and i'm not even thinking of hacking that yet (i'll wait till i get a lil' better) what are we talking price wise for the easiest system possible?

HANDHELDLOVER · Post by **HANDHELDLOVER** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 5:04 pm

crap... about 200$ bucks! I'd just buy a PSP then. Or were u being sarcastic?

atkafighter · Post by **atkafighter** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 5:11 pm

Well if you already have some of the parts (RC car batteries, charger, PSone system with a LCD, couple controllers, and time) it can be really cheap. Especially if you decide to do a case mod (check out G-force's PSP, and mine). Personally, I would spend more money building a PSP than I would to buy one. I really like the games from the PSX era, and the games are dirt cheap. The PSP on the other hand, has few games, high costs (cards, and $50 umd's), ONE analog stick, and you don't get the satisfaction that you do from building one yourself. In the end, its up to you. But its a lot of fun to build portables.
EDIT: Forgot to mention I built my PSP for less than $40, and it was also my first one. What a daunting task it was.

madc0w · Post by **madc0w** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 5:14 pm

the cheapest is probably an nesp, the super joy is only $18 from gannon

mattb419 · Post by **mattb419** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 5:15 pm

well... you could spend upwards of $200 on a portable, or you can do it much cheaper, it just depends on how far you go with it. I would suggest not jumping in and buying the first thing you see (as far as supplies go). look around and get the best price you can for system/screen/case parts etc. In parts alone (not counting tools), I probably spent $100 for my portable NES (screen, NES, case parts, and a sony-style battery that will power any of the projects in ben's book).
so my suggestion would be to take your time acquiring parts. ask a friend/neighbor, go to yard sales, check the trading post on here, and check eBay!

-Matt

HANDHELDLOVER · Post by **HANDHELDLOVER** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 5:17 pm

Wow! less than 40$!!!!? well i have a contoller and an RC car battery. i also have a sony lithium battery shown on god's (ben heck) pictures. i also have a couple controllers and a dead psp i wouldn't mind taking parts out of. So what are we looking at now? One more question i forgot to ask how much time do you think this will take?

(P.S. My budget consist of trying to convince my parents to fund me. and a 10$ a week allowance

i have 15$ saved up so far

i know a teenager who budgets!!!!!!! lol thanks

PSS i also can't really online shop except from ebay so that kinda rules that out.

daguuy · Post by **daguuy** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 6:32 pm

if you know how to be cheap, it shouldn't cost much. get a broken PSone screen for <$15 and see if you can bet a broken (but fixable) PSone cheap and a battery. the trading post usually has very affordable stuff; i got a 4200mah battery for $15+shipping

atkafighter · Post by **atkafighter** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 6:41 pm

a dead psp

Why is it dead? You can't use anything from it, unless you want to tear it up for the buttons, and the button holders. If time is an issue you might not want to dive into portablization quite yet. Many of us planned to build, but actually wait (put off) projects for years. I have been planning (procrastinating) to start my PSP for about 4 years, and I got it done about 2-3 months ago (a little after my join date). It was also my longest build time (about a month, a lot of it with case work), but it was my first so I guess that makes sense. The quality of your product is directly proportional to the amount of time you spend on it (You can work like mad for a few days and complete one, so I guess you can express the time in hours not days, or months). Not saying that churning out portables is a bad thing, but you definitely want to spend some time on the case (expect to spend days on one, because of drying, sanding, painting, etc). For your first one I would say your going to put in about 40-50 hours. Should be about a month or two if you work every weekend or so.

HANDHELDLOVER · Post by **HANDHELDLOVER** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 6:42 pm

yes but you must remember i can't online shop. I have parents who think that the internet is controlled by evil robots or somethin lol. i can however shop on ebay.

S q u e e ! · Post by **S q u e e !** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 6:43 pm

eBay is controlled by evil robots, so they shouldn't let you buy there, if any online store.

HANDHELDLOVER · Post by **HANDHELDLOVER** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 6:46 pm

wha?!?!?

!?! lol good one

HANDHELDLOVER · Post by **HANDHELDLOVER** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 6:48 pm

atkafighter wrote:
a dead psp
Why is it dead? You can't use anything from it, unless you want to tear it up for the buttons, and the button holders. If time is an issue you might not want to dive into portablization quite yet. Many of us planned to build, but actually wait (put off) projects for years. I have been planning (procrastinating) to start my PSP for about 4 years, and I got it done about 2-3 months ago (a little after my join date). It was also my longest build time (about a month, a lot of it with case work), but it was my first so I guess that makes sense. The quality of your product is directly proportional to the amount of time you spend on it (You can work like mad for a few days and complete one, so I guess you can express the time in hours not days, or months). Not saying that churning out portables is a bad thing, but you definitely want to spend some time on the case (expect to spend days on one, because of drying, sanding, painting, etc). For your first one I would say your going to put in about 40-50 hours. Should be about a month or two if you work every weekend or so.

No time is definatley NOT an issue. The issue rather is price. My budget consist of trying to convince my parents to fund me. and a 10$ a week allowance i have 15$ saved up so far i noticed that you said that you built your first project under 40$ how did you complete this task? that's amazing!