Bacteria's project - PSone portable: IntoPlay finished: PICS

palmertech · Post by **palmertech** » Thu Jan 15, 2009 9:19 pm

They use the same joystick hardware.

Twilight Wolf · Post by **Twilight Wolf** » Thu Jan 15, 2009 9:27 pm

Well, I was referring more to the joystick caps themselves, though I don't know if they could simply be swapped or not.

Either way, naturally black/unpainted joysticks will definitely require less maintenance than painted ones. However, the choice is up to you, bacteria, and I'm sure whatever you decide will be great.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Thu Jan 15, 2009 9:35 pm

Twilight Wolf wrote:naturally black/unpainted joysticks will definitely require less maintenance than painted ones.

Indeed, however the black caps are matt and a little grey, rather than shiny black!

If the paint holds, as it looks like it may do on my joystick caps I will use them; if not, I will replace them. Not a big deal; they are interchangable after all!

Other thing to bear in mind is that the joystick shafts come in two flavours, the thin metal one (can't remember which ones use this, some do) and the much thicker plastic ones (used in PSone controllers and GameCube for example); so the caps you use need to fit - that's the only consideration - plus, some joystick caps are concave, some convex, some larger than others, etc - all down to personal choice.

Twilight Wolf · Post by **Twilight Wolf** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 1:42 am

Well, if the paint does hold up, the shiny black joysticks you've got installed now will give your portable a unique touch, and then, of course, there'll be no need to change them. My suggestion was just in case the paint wore off or something. I like them, honestly.

You know, I could swear I knew which controller (or controllers) used the thin metal shafts for their joysticks, but I can't for the life of me remember which one(s). I think it might have been the Xbox... If that's the case and you want to use Xbox analog stick caps, you'd have to change out the whole analog assembly.

Basement_Modder · Post by **Basement_Modder** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 8:12 am

the mad catz controller in my gcp has the thin kind...

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 8:25 am

Twilight Wolf - Indeed, if the joystick top you want to use is the one to take the thin shaft you would need to change the joystick assembly too. Not difficult to do, after all, I just had to do it in my system and it was quite easy to repair/replace.

Basement_Modder - The standard ones in my system are literally perfect height, but would be interesting to see the controller you refer to as sometimes you do want slimmer joystick assemblies. I think the ones in the official GC controllers are a bit slimmer than normal, but what does your Mad Catz controller look like, in case I see one?

BTW - I have an Xbox controller, looked at it earlier, looks fine, just matt not shiny.

Finished the other side for the other joystick; also wired up the memory card, about to do the controller wiring; in a few minutes time I will do the rumble motors and shoulder buttons. Then, trim down anything I need to (like the recesses for the screws), cover the boards with electrical tape. I can then put the system together and see what works and what doesn't. I hope there isn't much wrong!

Updates to follow in next hour or two...

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 10:20 am

Project update:

Made metal plate for other joystick too. Had to cut a weird shape so as to not touch any metal contacts, and as such make potentially a short.

Wired the controller as per the diagram I posted before. The memory card is now wired in too. Also wired the headphone jack.

Interesting fact - official PSone controllers have 8 wires inside, the unofficial controller I used for bits and the 4 button pad uses 6 wires. If you therefore use an unofficial controller's board, your wires may not correspond. I therefore suggest you use an official PSOne controller - anyway, the board is smaller which is why it fitted nicely on top of the PSone screen before.

Double checked the wiring diagram the connection between the green and blue wires doesn't correspond to the wires in the controller - one had to be a dead end, 9 connections and only 8 wires after all!

Put two of the small rumble (vibration motors, from pagers/mobiles) together and wired them up. Two together gives quite a good vibration.

Here's the thing - they are tiny motors, but the only place in my case front to place them is above the speaker connections.

Wired up, wrapped in electrical tape to keep the two motors together. I certainly don't have space in the case anywhere else.

Placed in positions; just below the perspex.

Started to place wires as best I can and cover with electrical tape. Obviously, I need to make sure electrical tape covers the whole area. I still have to check the sides will meet as they should, make holes where the joystick metal piece top screws are in the opposite sides of the case base to recess.

Having the wiring on one side means I can still raise the PSone console board if I need to to make any repairs; eg a loose connection I fixed earlier.

Turned system on a few minutes ago, still works fine. I have the backing plate I made a while back to protect the CD and cover it, in place, so I can run the system whilst upside down on foam padding.

On Monday I will put the two halves together and test the controls work.

Put memory card (black one of course!) in system.

jjhammerstein · Post by **jjhammerstein** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 3:09 pm

You have the fingernails of a creepy little man.

You might run into trouble with the motors that close to your speakers.
When they vibrate, you'll get noise interference. Also, you're going to want to fix them rigidly to the case, or their vibrations won't do squat.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 4:46 pm

Good point on the rumble motors.

Nothing unusual with my fingernails!

jjhammerstein · Post by **jjhammerstein** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 5:29 pm

bacteria wrote:Nothing unusual with my fingernails!

I'm sure it's just the angle.

This project is taking a lot longer than I thought I could be patient for.

You're probably only 2 pages from closing the deal though, I'm very excited to see the finished product.

themadhacker · Post by **themadhacker** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 7:19 pm

There's nothing wrong with taking your time. It helps come out with a very good, functional, sweet looking portable.

Can't wait to see this in action, Bac!

evilteddy · Post by **evilteddy** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 9:26 pm

I've been watching this topic from the beginning and for some reason I never made a post. The build is looking great so far. It looks like you're putting more into this portable than any other and that's saying something. You can see the increase in your experience in this portable and the results are simply amazing.

Back on topic I have put an xbox joystick on a superpad 64 (I think that's the brand). The board can be trimmed down really small but what really matters is that the joystick works really well. In a psone portable I don't think it is really necessary to replace the joysticks considering the stock joystick is pretty good.

I can't wait the see the finished product.

LBK · Post by **LBK** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 10:15 pm

This is going great and now i am trying my hand at making one but on the first day i immediately screwed up. I miss drilled a hole in my case and i was wondering if you guys know how to fix it?

jjhammerstein · Post by **jjhammerstein** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 10:16 pm

LBK wrote:This is going great and now i am trying my hand at making one but on the first day i immediately screwed up. I miss drilled a hole in my case and i was wondering if you guys know how to fix it?

Bondo.
Don't post in unrelated things in other people's topics.
Read the stickies.

collinE · Post by **collinE** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 12:04 am

Seems as though this project wouldn't be as good for a step by step tutorial as there are so many little custom things to do.

I'm looking forward to the final shot, though.