Worklog PS2RP

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Hi, I'm posting my project, provisionally called PS2RP. I am using a box, similar to the Switch, which is a common case to use with a rasperberry. Possibly I use a translator, so I'm sorry for mistakes in writing and grammar.

Specifications:
• 7 "TFT Chinese LCD 800x600 - 1024x600 IPS RTD 2660H Controller with custom firmware with the YPBPR input enabled.

In tests I have identified that the brightness and the viewing angle of this screen is horrible, I will change soon.

• Generic PS2 control
• 2x tablet batteries for use in series ~ 7,4v
• Stereo Sound
• Headphone output
• Freeboot on the memory card
• Games uploaded by Orange Pi Zero Plus
• Cut-out 79xxx GH-061-12 board


Some points have not yet been defined, such as the BMS and the type of connection to the screen.
My option would be VGA, but I could not make the connection yet, even taking the H and V points from the motherboard, the screen did not display. In this case I believe they can help me without the synchrony should not display the image in green at least?



Thank you all for the great work on the guides.
 

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Nold

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My option would be VGA, but I could not make the connection yet, even taking the H and V points from the motherboard, the screen did not display. In this case I believe they can help me without the synchrony should not display the image in green at least?
Hi,
first of: your work looks really nice so far!

AFAIK the PS2 only outputs interlaced / 15khz VGA, which is not supported by many displays. I'm not quite sure, but according to the datasheet of the RTD2660H, it should also accept component / YbPbR input. It seems to be the same chips as in the eyoyo screen - so component might be a very good alternative for you!
 
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Looking good, nice trim! As @Nold mentioned only a handful of screens support 15khz VGA signal so that would explain why you are not seeing an image. From memory there is a 5” and 5.6” in 4:3 ratio from good display and I think Nold mentioned that the screen he is using for his build might work.

Something to be aware though is that the good display screens I used didn't play well with my previous PAL PS2 board, the image was flickering a lot. This could be due to native resolution, the PAL (European) PS2 board is outputting 576i vs an NTSC (US,Japan) PS2 board which is does 480i. It's also a good idea to get NTSC games for this reason if you want to use that screen.

Mind you, you could use a PAL board and load NTSC games, in that case the flickering image will only happen when you navigate the menu, if you load a NTSC games the image will be fine.

At least this was the case for the 5.6” good display screens that I tested.
 
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Hello, I am posting my advances in PS2 development.

I replaced the 78M05 regulator with an LM2940 and mounted a 7.4v 20,000Mha battery which was a Pineng Powerbank. This PowerBank has always worked a lot, managing to carry 4 full charges on a Zenfone Max Pro M1.

IMG_20190721_104631.png IMG_20190726_131956.jpg IMG_20190726_141020.jpg

I faced many difficulties to perform control welds. The PCB quality of this control is very poor, dropping tracks. The result in my opinion is not good, but it works.
IMG_20190803_205807.jpg IMG_20190803_215317.jpg IMG_20190803_215345.jpg

In relation to the LCD screen, the one I have had bad average viewing angles. I bought a new IPS in China that showed good results.

IMG_20190726_211044.jpgIMG_20190726_141309.jpg

I started studying a way to use Ypbpbr, which should be simpler. For now I am using ps2hdmi.
IMG_20190803_151359.jpg

At the same time I started studying the RTD2660 / 2662 firmware to enable the video component and change the Boot Logo. So far I managed to dump the firmware, I believe that next week I have more advances in this point.
IMG_20190808_230347.jpg IMG_20190808_004022.jpg

Following photos ;)
 
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It is a case printed for rasperberry pi, but I ended up customizing the case of a lcd with plastic mass.
 

MRKane

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The problem with the HDMI adapter is that it letterboxes the image. This is something I've had a chip on my shoulder about for a while now, but I've found no way around it. I'd love to hear if anyone else has any suggestions on that!
 
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So my studies and attempts regarding firmware are to enable ypbpr, but the available source codes do not have the menu options currently available on my firmware. And the question of customization of my factory firmware is not possible since there is no way to open it in Keil.

Also the process of writing this firmware is extremely slow.


QUOTE="MRKane, post: 35558, member: 1944"]The problem with the HDMI adapter is that it letterboxes the image. This is something I've had a chip on my shoulder about for a while now, but I've found no way around it. I'd love to hear if anyone else has any suggestions on that![/QUOTE]
 
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Speak personally, some updates.
Since the last post, I was not happy, with some features mainly finishing. so I acquired an Ender 3 in the meantime. I continued developing the case based on timee1994.
I printed out some templates for testing and adjustments. Below are some photos.
As the next steps, I will organize the internal part better, the idea is to support all the items trying not to focus on anything loose and to facilitate possible maintenance.
 

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Hello guys, I've been trying to finish the project, but the weather is complicated.

I made some changes to the project, adding boards with FPC connectors, which brought a general cleaning.

However I face problems with the network connection, I proceeded with the removal of the original connector. I did tests with the network cable connected directly to orangepi zero, but without success. Using 33 capacitors I had the same result. I tested the SMB on the pc and it's ok.

Thanks for support and inspiration.
 

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MRKane

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Hey dude, I hit the same problem when working with the OrangePi. There's a handful of things to look out for:

  • The OrangePi has a different network chip to the Raspberry Pi (it's the one with "MAX" on it) and it requires an inductor along the line for the PS2 to make sense of the signal. I see you've dismantled the PS2 inductor in your forth photograph
  • Frustratingly I found the PS2 inductor couldn't be too far from its original placement on the board as it quickly lost signal integrity resulting in failed communication. Twisted pairs run straight into the PS2 ethernet chip might resolve this issue allowing you to place the inductor elsewhere
  • However the line length from the OrangePi to the PS2 inductor (assuming it's on the PS2) can be massive, and even with quick and nasty lines I found there was good communication between the two
  • Armbian Linux turned out to be less hardy than that on the Raspberry Pi, and the image I compiled had to be shut down correctly each time otherwise the SMB server just refused to start up upon restart, thus I setup a pin to take a shutdown signal on my unit
Now I see you've wired USB into the available pins on the OrangePi - this is impressive soldering and I actually opted to take the USB mount from the side pins (as demonstrated on the datasheet) and this doesn't need any setup, it'll just work :) Finally for the last "gotcha": UART on the OrangePi can cause arguments with other overlays - it's a known problem that not many people mention. For me this resulted in the unit hanging until I plugged UART into it.

The irony of this entire journey for me is that I've been using my OrangePi as a server bluetacked onto my PS2 and I still haven't picked up my PS2 portable because I'm still sick of that project and don't want to look at it.
 
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Hey dude, I hit the same problem when working with the OrangePi. There's a handful of things to look out for:

  • The OrangePi has a different network chip to the Raspberry Pi (it's the one with "MAX" on it) and it requires an inductor along the line for the PS2 to make sense of the signal. I see you've dismantled the PS2 inductor in your forth photograph
  • Frustratingly I found the PS2 inductor couldn't be too far from its original placement on the board as it quickly lost signal integrity resulting in failed communication. Twisted pairs run straight into the PS2 ethernet chip might resolve this issue allowing you to place the inductor elsewhere
  • However the line length from the OrangePi to the PS2 inductor (assuming it's on the PS2) can be massive, and even with quick and nasty lines I found there was good communication between the two
  • Armbian Linux turned out to be less hardy than that on the Raspberry Pi, and the image I compiled had to be shut down correctly each time otherwise the SMB server just refused to start up upon restart, thus I setup a pin to take a shutdown signal on my unit
Now I see you've wired USB into the available pins on the OrangePi - this is impressive soldering and I actually opted to take the USB mount from the side pins (as demonstrated on the datasheet) and this doesn't need any setup, it'll just work :) Finally for the last "gotcha": UART on the OrangePi can cause arguments with other overlays - it's a known problem that not many people mention. For me this resulted in the unit hanging until I plugged UART into it.

The irony of this entire journey for me is that I've been using my OrangePi as a server bluetacked onto my PS2 and I still haven't picked up my PS2 portable because I'm still sick of that project and don't want to look at it.
Hello MRKane, look at my case I was extremely stressed with this project. I had numerous problems with the controls and now I have seen this problem with the Orange Pi. Do you happen to have a good picture of your ethernet connection?

Regarding the image of the armbian, I don't remember the version at the moment, but it was the last of about 2 months ago. In tests they always go up the SMB, I had no problems here.

Thanks for the support; D
 

MRKane

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Dude, I totally get that - this was a royal nightmare for me to get going.

Using the cap trick just didn't work no matter what I did, and after digging deep down the "90s ethernet rabbit-hole" I eventually got told by a telecommunications expert that my problem was because of the Pulse chip on the OrangePi (sorry, not the MAX chip - I'm horribly tired and apologise for that!) as the Ethernet communications out of the OrangePi requires an inductor on the line. In some conformations I was able to get chatter, but never any connection or communication.

You'll also see in this photo that I've taken the lazy path and wired the USB up to the side pins.
GManWiring.jpg

So essentially what's going on here is that I'm wiring the pairs into their respective pins on the PS2 inductor. Pin 0 on the OrangePi is the one closest to the USB port, and pin 0 on the PS2 inductor is the one closest to the AV port.
DirectlyWired.jpg


Wiring is standard cross-over ethernet, BUT the only lines that you need to wire up in this case are 1, 2, 3, and 6:
1604889708068.png

And that's about the thick of it really. I got it going, completed the competition, and then threw it all in a box because is simply was that frustrating and difficult. It might almost be worth your time trying to squeeze a RaspberryPi in there somehow and adopting the tried and true methods instead of breaking new ground, but I think that's at least all the information you'll need to get it going.

Finally: Please don't hesitate to ask if you've got any more questions on this, your work with the RTD 2660 chip is super-impressive and something I never managed to do so you're a bit of a hero of mine :)
 
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HI Dude

Some progress :D with YPBPR


Dude, I totally get that - this was a royal nightmare for me to get going.

Using the cap trick just didn't work no matter what I did, and after digging deep down the "90s ethernet rabbit-hole" I eventually got told by a telecommunications expert that my problem was because of the Pulse chip on the OrangePi (sorry, not the MAX chip - I'm horribly tired and apologise for that!) as the Ethernet communications out of the OrangePi requires an inductor on the line. In some conformations I was able to get chatter, but never any connection or communication.

You'll also see in this photo that I've taken the lazy path and wired the USB up to the side pins.
View attachment 14940

So essentially what's going on here is that I'm wiring the pairs into their respective pins on the PS2 inductor. Pin 0 on the OrangePi is the one closest to the USB port, and pin 0 on the PS2 inductor is the one closest to the AV port.
View attachment 14941

Wiring is standard cross-over ethernet, BUT the only lines that you need to wire up in this case are 1, 2, 3, and 6:
View attachment 14942

And that's about the thick of it really. I got it going, completed the competition, and then threw it all in a box because is simply was that frustrating and difficult. It might almost be worth your time trying to squeeze a RaspberryPi in there somehow and adopting the tried and true methods instead of breaking new ground, but I think that's at least all the information you'll need to get it going.

Finally: Please don't hesitate to ask if you've got any more questions on this, your work with the RTD 2660 chip is super-impressive and something I never managed to do so you're a bit of a hero of mine :)
 
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