Worklog PIS2, a long overdue ps2 portable

[darkwing]

My understanding is that the PS2 doesn’t output H sync and V sync natively.
VGA is basically made of 5 signal Red, Green, Blue, Horizontal sync, Vertical sync (RGBHV).

The PS2 output natively 15Khz RGB but not RGBHV sadly. To solve this we can get the H sync and V sync which are present in the composite and Luma (s-video Y) lines.

This is why we need to use that LMH1251 board to split composite or Luma into Horizontal sync and Vertical sync so that we can make a 15Khz VGA signal. I have also order a few LM1881 to play with them and see if they could also work for this purpose.

The 2 screens mention above seem to be able to receive our 15Khz RGBHV signal which most modern LCD wouldn’t recognize.

As for the 5” screen, I could be wrong but the board look identical to the one in is worklog

 

[Dave Mackintosh]

It does indeed output native HV sync signals via two tiny vias (and off the CXM4 chip but i don't know which pins yet) but the sync strip also works, you've got to have some pretty atomic soldering skills for those vias/traces.

 

[Gman]

Getting vga out of the ps2 is super easy and you don't need to use any splitter circuits

 

[darkwing]

Nice, that would be great to skip the splitter.
Do you guys have any pics showing which points we can use to get those H and V lines directly?

 

[Dave Mackintosh]

Nice, that would be great to skip the splitter.
Do you guys have any pics showing which points we can use to get those H and V lines directly?

I followed the wires in this photo

Took off the video encoder!

View attachment 2258

 

[Gman]

Lol that's one way I suppose. I'm working on a ps2 trimming guide that will cover vga and other techniques. We need more ps2 portables!

 

[Dave Mackintosh]

Lol that's one way I suppose. I'm working on a ps2 trimming guide that will cover vga and other techniques. We need more ps2 portables!

Where there's the will, there's a way . I did my trim based mostly on your photos.

 

[darkwing]

@Dave Mackintosh that's impressive, definitely not for the faint-hearted. Remind of my modchip wiring time.

@Gman definitely need more PS2P, looking forward to that guide.
Also wondering if you still have the lost of signal between screens when you wire to the lines directly?

 

[Gman]

@Gman definitely need more PS2P, looking forward to that guide.
Also wonder if still have the lost of signal between screens when you wire to the lines directly?

Yes the signal still cuts out when the screen goes black and the screen displays the infamous "auto config". I'm not sure if there is a solution to stop it but luckily it doesn't usually occur during gameplay.

 

[darkwing]

I see, was hopping that could have been due to the splitter. I guess we just need to live with this
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[cfc_12]

Based on this diagram that @Lightning found, the HSYNC & VSYNC is on the top left of this picture and HSYNCO & VSYNCO is on the bottom right.

which is actually

H is the orange
V is the red

I talk to @Luigid before, he told me that VGA worked for him in his 5.6 dalian screen when he get the H&V from those 2 holes in the top left of the picture above.

And the reason I draw the line for HSYNCO & VSYNCO on the bottom right of the picture above is because Lightning told me that logic level is only 1.8 volts if you connect it to those 2 holes above, the chip bumps them up to the needed 5 volts if you connect it to the two lines on the bottom right.

Tell me if this works for your screen.

 

[Lightning]

As much as I'd like to take credit for that, I'm hardly the first to make use of that service manual

 

[darkwing]

Thanks for the pic @cfc_12, might be playing with this later on.

Those point are pretty tiny and in order to achieve this I would need to gear up.
Will probably need a good magnifier with led (lost mine after moving out a few years back), a really fine soldering tip and some flux.

For the moment I’m ok with the LMH1251 board as I’m looking to just do a basic trim for the PS2 board, I’ve got space for it in the case and as Gman pointed out this doesn’t help with the lost of signal.

 

[MasterNate]

If you want, you could follow the traces for sync and see of there is a better place to take the signal from.

 

[darkwing]

So for the last few weeks I have been busy filling/sanding which isn’t the most passionating part of the project but needed to be done.

In that time I also received a PS2 79001 model(NTSC) which I order a couple week ago.
I tested it with the Dalian screen and as expect the image is perfect, no more motion sickness!

VGA cable
I use a spare splitter board to make a PS2 VGA cable, the plan is to have a home setup with a Pi and a large LCD screen and be able to switch between the 2.

3d printed parts
I have also been thinking about make the fan holes for a few weeks, after a bit of playing around I end make a logo for the device which works as a cut out, 2 birds 1 stone kinda thing.

I just made it in tinkercad (I know what you guys think, need to get on fusion 360 but time constrain and all…) then printed it through 3dhubs.

Using some homemade ABS glue I then join the logo with the case

And after around 5 or 6 rounds of filling and rough to medium sanding, it is finally ready to fine sand before painting

Back ports
I also hack a spare ps2 case for the fan exhaust and merge it with the case, made a hole for the micro SD card

and holes for the Pi USB and PI on/off button

And finally the quiz of the day

Is there anything noticeably missing in this video?

 

[cheese]

You should upload your pictures to BitBuilt, they don't work for me.

 

[darkwing]

Should be fine now, copied the wrong link again

 

[cheese]

1st and 3rd are still a nope, you should just upload them here
Looks cool from what I can see though

 

[Doom]

that logo is super dank

 

[cfc_12]

that logo is siiiiccckkkkk!