Worklog The PSBlock

[Bigbutcher]

Hi guys, I have begun a PS2 project recently and am getting the hand of things, though there is plenty of things I am clueless about and need some help!

I am a complete electronics noob, and somewhat a novice in 3D modelling, just FYI.

I have modelled my own case, which is now in the 3D printed testing stage to iron out any tolorance issues.

Here is a run down of what I have done so far and what needs doing:

Front​

The screen size will vary, as I am struggling to find a screen that has a drive board that is well documented and can be ran off 5V, if anyone can help me out with this I would be greatful!

Front Internals​

Buttons are all custom, only using the OEM Analog sticks on a custom made bracket.
Buttons have not been tested, and have little experience with modelling buttons so more advice would be great!
Tactile switches will be mounted to plastic mounts, however I have reconsidered this and may end up using perfboard/custom PCBs as a more secure mount.

Back Internals​

The back section has rough cutouts for various ports, am considering having the memory card internal as well as the USB, if I can justify the space. Case is currently 40mm or so thick, but considering the awkwardly placed rear buttons I think it works in my favour.

I have another rough cutout for the MB, but have yet to cut the pcb down and see if it fits.

Bracket
​

I'd say this is my magnum opus, since it will use up a lot of dead space in the case. Hoping to mount things like the batteries, charge board, amp board and even the controller pcb to this.

I have also included vents for better airflow, should i choose to use a blowerfan.

Back
​

Nothing too fancy here, might slap a logo on it once I decide on a name for this baby

Things I haven't done yet
​

1. Test my PS2 motherboard.​
2. Trim the board if it works (Standard Trim).​
3. Wire everything up without screwing it up (Unlikely, lol).​
4. Create test prints, mainly for buttons and tollerance checks. (And show them, of course!)​
5. Profit.​

Any advice and tips would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Bigbutcher]

Model Update​

Moved the rear buttons to the sides, as the placement before was very awkward, feels much better now, 3D printed parts to follow

Added a the ps logo to the back, came out pretty nice on the printer too somehow!

Naked views​

Not much changed here other than that I changed all screw posts to accomodate for brass inserts, I will no doubt be taking this appart constantly knowing my skills with electronics lol

I changed the type of buttons I was using as they had square tops for easier button modelling, downside is they are incredibly loud switches.

There is also a mount for screen controls, I will also make the posts for mounting the back much wider as one broke very easily on my print.

 

[Bigbutcher]

Electronics Progress​

I have cut the board down but I have struggled to actually get a output with the cheap TFT screen i bought, I have little faith the board is working honestly.

I am assuming this 2cs battery charge board is okay for this project. If there is anything I am missing please let me know, electronics are not my strong suit.

I will only be using one of the usbs, I actually ended up dremeling into one of the power regulators so that is why.

Also, is the original ps2 power jack okay to use for charging? I have seen others use it on projects before but am not sure if this is just a direct power or how people are charging their portables.

Board placed in the back housing​

This will have two brackets mounted over the top to accomodate for the batteries, charge board, memory card and usb port.

 

[Bigbutcher]

3D Prints​

Excuse the dirty first layers, I forgot to clean my bed before printing these.

Thoughts so far​

I started this project with very little knowledge of 3D modelling in CAD software, and have learnt a lot during this project. I feel I have finished this chapter of the project and now need to work out how to get the guts working inside it.

More to come so sit tight!

 

[thedrew]

Looks great man! Excellent job modeling the playstation logo.

 

[GingerOfOz]

Really liking the shoulder buttons on the side, I think that's the most comfortable placement for non-landscaoe portables. Excited to see how it comes together!

 

[Bigbutcher]

Looks great man! Excellent job modeling the playstation logo.

Thanks dude! Im suprised my printer could handle it honestly its like less than 0.5mm thick in the logo i think lol

 

[Bigbutcher]

Really liking the shoulder buttons on the side, I think that's the most comfortable placement for non-landscaoe portables. Excited to see how it comes together!

Thanks yeah the previous revision made it very awkward I had to put my pinky finger on them, this one is just perfect for my hands at least.

 

[Bigbutcher]

Finally got some things wired up now. I have the screen working and my power all set up the way I want now.

I had a step down converter as you can see in the photos but decided to remove it as it seemed to drain power incredibly fast and I was also informed they are prone to failure. I decided to just to avoid play and charge all together and only use it when it's on battery power.

I had a go at adding a PAM8403 as well and this worked but no only produces crackling noises now and not sure why. I tried wiring directly to the audio dac on the ps2 but no luck. I will likely try replacing the amp first and see if that is the issue.

As for the fmcboot memory card I am having some issues with that. All wired up fine as far as I can tell with continuity on all points, voltage is correct etc. Only thing I can think is maybe I should only wire to the top side with the capacitors/resistors and not use both top and bottom points. It could also be because my memory card is an unofficial and could have a go at using a official one.

I also tried to wire up the usb but not sure how reliable this connection is, I think my thin tipped iron needs replacing because I can't seem to heat tin the exposed copper very well. Still to be tested.

As for how the system is coming together and looking here is a prototype i did a while back in white, and now I have a near finalised print in transparent blue which I think looks really nice. Reminds me of the transparent controllers.

Oh and I reduced the size of the ps logo since it was kind of a pain to print.

 

[Norbylirious]

Did you use any voltage regulators? Is it necessary for this build?

 

[Bigbutcher]

Did you use any voltage regulators? Is it necessary for this build?

I will be adding a 5v switching regulator now as I have decided to load my games via a raspberry pi SMB server. I am only doing the standard trim so multiple custom regulators will not be neccessary.

I am doing things as i go along and learning so my worklog is very inconcistent.

 

[vipe_202]

I got a dimensions question. You mentioned on discord it was about 27mm thick overall? What's the width and height of the rest of the portable?

 

[Bigbutcher]

I got a dimensions question. You mentioned on discord it was about 27mm thick overall? What's the width and height of the rest of the portable?

it's 140mm tall and 150mm wide, so not quite a square lol

 

[vipe_202]

it's 140mm tall and 150mm wide, so not quite a square lol

Thanks, maybe I'll have to go take a look at the thickness of my portable walls, I'm sitting at about 155 mm wide by 172mm long and I'm trying to tweak things so my thickness isn't too bad. Currently ball park is 50ish mm but it fits in a 180mm print bed

 

[Bigbutcher]

Thanks, maybe I'll have to go take a look at the thickness of my portable walls, I'm sitting at about 155 mm wide by 172mm long and I'm trying to tweak things so my thickness isn't too bad. Currently ball park is 50ish mm but it fits in a 180mm print bed

In some cases a square design that is thicker might actually turn out more comfortable than a slimmer one I would think. I may need to add an extra mm or so to account for the PI, I am going to attempt the capacitor method for that and see if it works

 

[Bigbutcher]

Update!

Good and bad news...

Good news is everything on the ps2 is now fully functioning, bad news is i am scratching my head trying to figure out how to wire my smb pi correctly. It's a pi b+ v1.2 but im sure it would work as I can hook it up to my pc and access the usb over ethernet. I cutt of all the ports and wired it up but OPL does not seem to be able to find it, it gives me 'error 200: Network adapter not found' and freemcboot takes a while to fire up.

Here is the points i have wired to on the ps2, there are 4 dots along these traces that i assume are test points. I have drawn what i assume is where they go, but have no idea as i don't have the pins on my ps2 anymore to varify (hope you don't mind me using your photo as an example, vipe_202).

If anyone can confirm I would be eternally grateful!


And here is the pi's wiring, with the 33nf capacitors.

Here is a diagram i followed with the capacitors, I have not tried the method with the transformer. I do not have the original pins to know if where i have wired to is correct and i cannot find a clear enough picture of the traces leading to that broadcom chip.

Anyway here's how things are looking overall, pretty pleased with the look minus the buttons and analog sticks since i haven't gotten around to them yet. Also not sure about the colourful LEDs lol.

Again, any assistance with smb would be much appreciated. Should be done with this project very soon if so!

 

[vipe_202]

@Gman I don't know if you want to way in on the capacitor method, I know you used it in your ps2 razer



If BigButcher wants to try something else and has the ethernet port still from the pi the transformer in it was my guaranteed way to get the pi smb going, you mentioned using an older pi I would assume the pins would be the same across Pi1 to 3b not 3b+ it had gigabit but there could be a chance of RX and TX being moved on the Pi 1

If you soldered the ethernet to the traces you could always try and solder to the vias those traces go to for the ethernet chip on the ps2, just to double check you got the pins right as well



If you go for the transformer method I've attached a pic from where I connected the wires and a diagram, I followed this method as a user Darkwing with his PIIS2 portable had issues with the capacitor method as well.



I was also under the impression from Darkwing's worklog that the transformer in the ethernet port was necessary for the pi to communicate properly

Looks great so far

 

[Bigbutcher]

@Gman I don't know if you want to way in on the capacitor method, I know you used it in your ps2 razer



If BigButcher wants to try something else and has the ethernet port still from the pi the transformer in it was my guaranteed way to get the pi smb going, you mentioned using an older pi I would assume the pins would be the same across Pi1 to 3b not 3b+ it had gigabit but there could be a chance of RX and TX being moved on the Pi 1

If you soldered the ethernet to the traces you could always try and solder to the vias those traces go to for the ethernet chip on the ps2, just to double check you got the pins right as well

View attachment 15916

If you go for the transformer method I've attached a pic from where I connected the wires and a diagram, I followed this method as a user Darkwing with his PIIS2 portable had issues with the capacitor method as well.

View attachment 15918View attachment 15919

I was also under the impression from Darkwing's worklog that the transformer in the ethernet port was necessary for the pi to communicate properly

Looks great so far

Thanks for the response, perhaps i will try the transformer method, i had an asumption that maybe the transformer method was for gigabit ethernet but maybe im wrong.

I did try searching for 'ethernet transformer' but had no luck finding anything on ebay, is there something specific i should be looking for?

Thanks again

 

[vipe_202]

Thanks for the response, perhaps i will try the transformer method, i had an asumption that maybe the transformer method was for gigabit ethernet but maybe im wrong.

I did try searching for 'ethernet transformer' but had no luck finding anything on ebay, is there something specific i should be looking for?

Thanks again

No need for eBay, the ethernet port you took off of the pi has the piece in the jack, you'll have to remove the pins and shielding, but that's where I got mine

 

[Bigbutcher]

No need for eBay, the ethernet port you took off of the pi has the piece in the jack, you'll have to remove the pins and shielding, but that's where I got mine

Ah dang that's long gone haha, threw it out last week! I guess i could always buy another port as long as it's the same type.