Worklog [2022 Contest Entry] First Portable: The PS2

[destroyer12]

IT IS DONE! It has been a lot of troubleshooting and painting but I finally have a working portable. I added an Arduino Nano as a basic battery fuel gauge. It is just measuring the battery voltage and lighting up the led based on the voltage. It was also supposed to auto reset the PS2 when the systems starts up, but I ran into a weird issue. It would only work if it was plugged into my computer. Once it was powered from my regulators it would not reset the PS2. I ran out of time today trying to troubleshoot this so I might look into this at a latter time. Another issue is if you are charging the batteries, the USB drive can not be accessed by the MANGO. This is a problem with my circuit that allows this, but I did not have time to redesign it and order the boards. I am really happy with how the control boards turned out. I am using a ribbon cable to connect the two sides. Wiring is a bit of a mess but this is my first portable so hopefully it will get better in the future.

Here are the specs:

• Advanced Trim motherboard
• Relocated the CMOS battery
• 3D printed case in PETG, Painted by me and my girlfriend (would not look as good without her)
• Games loaded over Ethernet using the Mango router
• 5" screen from the 4layer store
  • Relocated an inductor and crystal for better fitment
• Custom regulators:
  • LM20124 for 1.25v
  • TLV1117 for 1.8v and 2.5v
  • TPS61023 for 3.5v
  • TPS61032 for 5v
• Heatsink and fan from eBay
• Nintendo switch joysticks and speakers
• PS2 controller buttons
• U-Amp 2 for audio
• Chinese controller chip
• Custom controller boards
• Internal 128 Gb USB drive
• Arduino Nano for battery fuel gauge and auto PS2 reset (not working)
• 2 3000 mAh lipo's in parallel
• IP2312 for battery charging
  • Not to happy with this chip
  • Only charges batteries to about 4.18v
    • I had to change the RVSET resistor to 100K to set it to 4.35v option because before it would only charge them to 4.1v
  • If I had more time I would of liked to design a complete power management solution

My main goal for this project was to have everything mounted with a screw or bracket and not use hot glue. The nano and the usb drive are the only things that do not have something to mount to.

Spoiler: Internals

This was before adding the Arduino Nano but everything else is the same

I have not tested the battery life but I plan to do that tomorrow. The regulators seem to be very reliable. i left them powering the system on the bench for a couple hours and haven't had any issues.

I really should of taken more pictures along the way but I would always forget. I already have ideas for my next portable.

edit: here is my initial post

Hi, I have been lurking around the forums for a year now and have decided on starting my first portable. I have designed a custom PMS from TI regulators and using two transistors it should be able to turn on and off with a button press. These are my first ever boards I have ever designed so if you see anything I can do better I would love to hear it.

For the screen and audio I will be using the UAMP2 and the screen and driver board from 4Layer. I have the screen running off of 3.3v. For the controls, I plan on using a cheap aftermarket controller with custom boards for the buttons along with switch joysticks.

This is the DPAD board. It has a connector for the joystick, and a ATMEGA32p. I plan on using this for the screen controls and battery fuel gauge. We will see because I am a really bad programmer lol.

Here is the button board. It also has a connector for a joystick. I plan on using the buttons and membranes from a PS2 controller. I might look into casting my own buttons.

I am using the IP271 for PD control as well with Gingers circuit he posted a while ago to be able to access an internal usb drive.

For game loading I will be using the Mange Router (GL-MT300N-V2). MRKane did a bunch of research on it and figured out how to use it without the Ethernet ports or transformers. I through together a board based on the circuit he had..

I have started on designing the case in Fusion. So far I have the front pretty much done and have done a lot of test prints to get the controls right.

A lot of test prints lol.

I did print he whole front to get a feel of the layout and I am really happy with how it is feeling.

I cut up 1 PS2 so far and that is what I have been doing my testing on. I was trying to solder up the USB and I think I shorted something because it will not read the memory card now. I did test the card on another PS2 and it works so I guess I have to cut up another one. It looks like a mess but everything was working.

I have ordered all the PCBs from JLC and they should be here this week along with all the components required. I still need to trim another PS2 and get everything working on it, finish up the modeling and print everything. I still have not decided on a color for the case. There is still a lot of work to be done. I would like to redesign a lot of the boars to use ribbon cables to clean up the wiring but I am not sure if I will have the time. I hope I can finish this for the contest but I am moving across the country sometime in the middle of the contest so I will try by best.

Edit: I forgot a couple of things. For the charger ill be using IP2312. It says it can charge at 3A, we will see. I was looking into designing a charger into my pms but with the shortage, every IC I looked at was out of stock so this was easier. I have 2 3000 mAh lithium polymer batteries that I will be running in parallel.

 

[Benge]

Oh, pretty nice start !
For your PMS you need to make the switching side area of the regulator inductor the smaller possible and the closest to the circuit (or mosfet).
I don't know if you are using a 4 layer board but for the power supply I really recommend it, even if it can go over 2 layers, the 4 layer is much better for managing signals or large currents, and it's better for EMI too, and also heat dissipation.

To learn PCB design, I recommend you this amazing channel : https://www.youtube.com/c/RobertFeranec
And for game loading, I think that can be more convenient (IDK If it work with all PS2 model) :

 

[destroyer12]

Oh, pretty nice start !
For your PMS you need to make the switching side area of the regulator inductor the smaller possible and the closest to the circuit (or mosfet).
I don't know if you are using a 4 layer board but for the power supply I really recommend it, even if it can go over 2 layers, the 4 layer is much better for managing signals or large currents, and it's better for EMI too, and also heat dissipation.

To learn PCB design, I recommend you this amazing channel : https://www.youtube.com/c/RobertFeranec
And for game loading, I think that can be more convenient (IDK If it work with all PS2 model) :

Thank you for the tips! It is a 2 layer board, I will see if this design works and if not then I will redesign it. Ill check that channel out.

Yes I have looked into loading games through the memory card slot but some of the games I want to play are not yet compatible yet. I may add it in if I have space for it.

 

[MRKane]

Oh nice! We're going to be walking similar paths this year I think, except I suspect that mine will be significantly stripped down and lacking features in comparison with yours! I will note that the wiring for the capacitive coupling doesn't quite look correct as you don't have a line from R5 to C1. I do like the way you've opted to lay this out and might do something very similar! The other thing I was wondering about is that the logic would probably work at 1.8v meaning you can use the same voltage for both the ethernet and UAmp, but this is something I'll have to check too.

 

[destroyer12]

Yes I fixed that after I made this post. Thank you! I am following your project as well! I am planning on running it on 1.8v.

Update!
The boards came in and i found 2 major issues. First on the pms there is a direct short between vin and ground. I somehow ordered a previous version of the design before I fixed this issue. I probably shouldn't place orders in the middle of the night lol. Second issue is with the USB board. I used the wrong simple for the USB port so the connections were mirrored. I already fixed this and have ordered the new versions and they should be here in 1-2 weeks.

In the mean time I have been working on the CADD and have done some test prints in white. I am really liking the white with black controls.

 

[destroyer12]

UPDATE TIME!
I received the boards in the mail and have assembled the PMS and USB board. The PMS is working but has a few issues. The inductor I chose for the 3.3v line was not up for the task, I ended up using the inductor I removed from the LCD driver board and that seems to be working but is making some noise so I will be ordering a replacement. The inductor on the 5v line I used the wrong footprint (I really need to better read the datasheets). The USB board is fully working, it is outputting 5v for the charger and I am able to access the USB drive.

I have also been working on the CADD. It is pretty much done just a few minor things to complete. It is 24mm thick with the mini router inside. I am going to paint the logo on the back.

Here are some test prints I have done. I am still undecided on the color but I am leaning towards purple with black buttons or the teal with black buttons.

Next steps are to trim another motherboard, wire up and test the router, wire up and test the controller, test the battery charger, and then print and paint the final case.

 

[destroyer12]

So I trimmed the new ps2 and can not get it to boot. The case said it's a 79001 but it resembles the 79003 pictured in the trim guide but it has a few differences. Does anyone see if I am missing a voltage relocation?

5v- white
3.5v- green
2.5v- yellow
1.8v- red
1.25v- blue

 

[thedrew]

I would check for shorts on all the voltage lines with a multimeter. I see a lot of areas that are concerning where you have exposed wire that shouldn't be exposed such as the 1.8v exposed wire literally above the ground pad on the bottom of the motherboard. You only need the thick wire for the 1.25v line and GND, the rest you can use much thinner wire since those lines barely consume any power. Here is a prime example from Ginger's worklog:

 

[destroyer12]

I would check for shorts on all the voltage lines with a multimeter. I see a lot of areas that are concerning where you have exposed wire that shouldn't be exposed such as the 1.8v exposed wire literally above the ground pad on the bottom of the motherboard. You only need the thick wire for the 1.25v line and GND, the rest you can use much thinner wire since those lines barely consume any power. Here is a prime example from Ginger's worklog:
View attachment 23189

Yea I know about the exposed wire. Nothing is shorting I have checked for shorts. The thicker wire is just for testing to color code the different voltages. I have thiner wire for the final build. I'm going to rewire it and check for shorts again later.

 

[Fly_5]

Hi, did you run the board ? if not, I think I know where the problem is.

 

[destroyer12]

It ha been a while since the last update. I have been busy moving but I managed to make some solid progress. I could not get the mango router working with the capacitive coupling, it would only list the games and not load them. I hacked up the Ethernet transformers and managed to get it working.

So far I have everything working besides sound and the 3.5v regulator. The 3.5v regulator I originally would only output 3.0v making the ps2 unstable. So for testing I am using a external regulator for the 3.5v line. The rest of the console is being powered from the batteries. Charge and play is also working.

Everything is hooked up besides sound. One issue I have found is the right joystick does not have full travel down but does every other direction. The next steps are finish up the PMS revision with a different 3.5 regulator and revise the control boards.

I am getting very excited about finishing this and actually playing some games on it.

.

 

[destroyer12]

IT IS DONE! I have edited the initial post with all the specs.
Here is the final video: