Dreamcast mod or dare I try, Portable?????

bioniclebert · Post by **bioniclebert** » Fri Oct 21, 2005 5:06 pm

Well heres the deal. Ive been working on my SNES for a while now, mabye a couple weeks. Its pretty cool, but ive been waiting quite some time for it. So its kind of delayed, until I can get it alive again. (Its not dead, I want to have it done eventually)

So I was sitting there, lazilly. I needed something to do.
At this point, I must have been crazy! Open up a dreamcast!!?? The thing takes 3 voltages? how would you power it????

Well heres the deal. I Opened it up, and I took a look at the boards. Then I looked at this empty PS1 (the white one) I Had laying around. I lined up the board, waay to big. So I took it over to my "not so cool" bandsaw, and the dremel and cut it up. Basically I was able to trim a little bit off, and it fit inside the PSone. This is not counting the CD contraption and its board. So it fits. I tested it with the wall plug, it works. I also put a Psone screen board underneath, and I still have room in the bottom half.

But with the CD parts, It is a little too thick. So what Im thinking is, either tackle power issues, Possibly just do what dkap did, or leave it and make it a New case for the dreamcast.
For thickness, I would seperate the halves until everything fit, Cut out some plastic to form side plates, Epoxy them in, Put the parts all together, and then epoxy the top on.

As for the controller, the buttons would be on the back side of the Ps1, along with the screen. Then use some of the holes for speakers. And I dunno, I might leave the expansion port on. Depends what i feel like doing.

So I know this is probably hard, but I think it isint as hard as I'm taking it to be. The only thing setting it back would be power, and the placement off all the components. Tell me what you think! (oh, and if you have pinouts For that A/v Thing, mine fell off.... I could find the video/audio by testing, which I will do unless someone has it.)

Post by **Sparkfist** » Fri Oct 21, 2005 5:49 pm

Dreamcast A/V pinout

Well yes that is very ambitious. Good luck on it.

lpjunior999 · Post by **lpjunior999** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 1:13 pm

I have an old DC minus a GD-ROM if you need spare parts, I'm sure we could work out a trade.

Conn · Post by **Conn** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 4:10 pm

Well, if you have a spare DC, try to make it a portable. If not, just mod it.

bioniclebert · Post by **bioniclebert** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 5:31 pm

Got an idea for power. 2 of those 7.2V NIMH RC batteries. (I have 1)

Connect one of them to a 7805. ----> 5V line
Connect the other to a LM 317 with a 18 ohm resistor as R1 and 30 ohm as R2-----> 3.3V line
Connect both in series -----> 12V line

Post by **Sparkfist** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 6:06 pm

Wouldnt it be easier to use the same setup dkap01 used; 2 7.2v batteries in series and a GameCube power supply to convert the 14.4v to 12v, 5v, and 3.3v.

bioniclebert · Post by **bioniclebert** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 7:00 pm

Sparkfist wrote:Wouldnt it be easier to use the same setup dkap01 used; 2 7.2v batteries in series and a GameCube power supply to convert the 14.4v to 12v, 5v, and 3.3v.

So I can get this by gutting a GC power cord? or would this be inside (this makes more sense)?

I happen to have a broken Cube but it powers up, so i might be able to grab that.(needs new lens, or a cleaning)

soundwave · Post by **soundwave** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 7:11 pm

The PSU that breaks the voltage up to 12, 5, and 3.3 is inside the cube. The brick outside of the cube drops the wall voltage to the proper 12 or 14 volts.

S q u e e ! · Post by **S q u e e !** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 7:16 pm

GC Power Regulator

Buy it here just in case you break the one you have.

atkafighter · Post by **atkafighter** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 7:27 pm

I was thinking. If you had a GC PSU couldn't you re-use it for each portable you make? You could put it all into a small project box, and have a wire coming out with diffrent combinations of voltages for each required portable (maybe with a molex connector or something). I don't think I would do this, but it seems like a good idea for testing portables. Maybe build one for testing.

bioniclebert · Post by **bioniclebert** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 7:36 pm

Good, I hope to get this thing out tomorrow.( I have to make a lot of noise to open this thing, cutting plastic or screws, whatever.) i only have 1 battery, so I'm probably going to find a cheap one. (id like to get the exact same kind.)

Oh, and i got the video working again! I tested it out with a game of quake.

dkap01 · Post by **dkap01** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 11:28 pm

I think this would work better.......

MM007 · Post by **MM007** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 7:00 am

atkafighter wrote:I was thinking. If you had a GC PSU couldn't you re-use it for each portable you make? You could put it all into a small project box, and have a wire coming out with diffrent combinations of voltages for each required portable (maybe with a molex connector or something). I don't think I would do this, but it seems like a good idea for testing portables. Maybe build one for testing.

That's one of the things I was thinking of doing if I made a multi-voltage system that needed these voltages.

It is the next logical step in the concept of modular design, after all.

Of course, What I was planning wasn't a wire, but more of a cartridge based design, where you insert the PSU into the portable using a pre-built cartridge slot.

This would allow easy swapping, no disassembly, and any special modifications could be done inside the console, after the port.

I am considering something similar for an LCD system.

bioniclebert · Post by **bioniclebert** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 11:54 am

ok according to gameys diagram in his GCP thread, I found the pins. So should I just take the ground straight form the 2 batteries, or where is it on the board?
thanks

(can you tell i'm looking for my multimeter?)

Turbo Tax 1.0 · Post by **Turbo Tax 1.0** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 12:06 pm

bioniclebert wrote:
Sparkfist wrote:Wouldnt it be easier to use the same setup dkap01 used; 2 7.2v batteries in series and a GameCube power supply to convert the 14.4v to 12v, 5v, and 3.3v.
So I can get this by gutting a GC power cord? or would this be inside (this makes more sense)?

I happen to have a broken Cube but it powers up, so i might be able to grab that.(needs new lens, or a cleaning)

bert if you use the GC PSU from that i will buy the discreader from you