Bacteria's portable DreamCast handheld console - IntoDream

[DNT 2.5]

If it does put a small piece of aluminum from the original drive heatsink. not much is needed for that one.

[bacteria]

Indeed, I used a bit before, but took it off. I figured it made sense to see if I needed it, and if so, if the metal strip being cooled by the general direction of a fan would keep it cool enough or not. Easy way initially is to see if it is needed.

[DNT 2.5]

Yo most likely will need it, At least mine gets burning hot. the burn on my finger proves this...

[bacteria]

Yes, half expecting the chip to get hot, however this gives me a chance to see how hot it gets or doesn't get before closing the case shut.

[hailrazer]

Nice work Bac, can't wait to see it finished.

In regards to that other Dreamcast portable from China. I don't think it has batteries or even the gdrom in it. I have several of those DVD players and there's no room for all that in there. I think the reason he doesn't show the back and doesn't move it much is because there are wires coming out the back for power and going to a Dreamcast. So basically it is just a controller and screen for the Dreamcast.

But I could be proved wrong

[DNT 2.5]

I don't know, I think he may have a full DC in there, you can't really say anything unless you see more pictures

[bacteria]

That would account for it hailrazer, we both know how thick the drive unit is and how hungry the DC is for power. Normally people showing off a unit will show the back and sides, which he didn't. I was a bit interested as to how he could hold his system like he was if the system wasn't reduced enough to be good to hold. My unit is 74mm thick which is fine, another 10mm and it would become harder to hold.

Well, my system is turned on at the moment, has been for 5 minutes so far, and I have that irritating PenPen music playing and every now and again it jumping in with "here comes the PenPen triathalon", "go" and other phrases! Can't complain though, proves it works fine!

After 5 minutes the chip on the drive board that is normally connected to the metal shielding (like it gets hot), is still cool. Will leave it another 15 mins or so and see if it stays cool (will update this post with that).

BTW, from another post here:

I didn't use a fan in my Darth64 but I used the original heatsinks and aluminum. So it stayed plenty cool. In fact the unit never really heated up at all.

Did you therefore remove the fan connecting the controller board to the motherboard, which I understand is needed to ensure the system works (timer, or whatever)? How about cooling the processors, which do get rather hot?

[bacteria]

Ok, I am getting so freakin' annoyed with this project it isn't even funny anymore.

Initially, all was fine, logo came up, select time and date came up, did it, left system to run for a while - BTW the chip doesn't seem to get hot with 7.4v but does get hot with 12v I noticed. Lifted screen after a few minutes, and screen was off - WFT? Turned system back on, screen image was shaky and lost some colour - huh? Tried it again, and system started to beep a couple of times then shut off before going to the moving DC logo. Crap, might be fried, yes? So disconnected the DC and ran via the 12v DC power board, all runs fine, image good and stable, works fine; so not fried.

So, either issue with my screen (easy to test), or a short, or something bizarre. This is driving me nuts frankly. If the DC board does fail, I might well consider abandoning this project as "jinxed" - been nothing but problems lately! Not giving up yet though, the DC board is working fine and outputting fine, so issue is elsewhere. Issue is if I can find the problem and fix it or not.

[bacteria]

God damn it! Problem was a noobie one - the batteries were drained! They didn't even have enough juice just now to drive the screen, which is only about 750mA. Screen is fine, ran it off a different battery to test. So, that's about 3 hours wasted today, plus more to get the system rewired again (about another half hour to do and check). Guess I will have to then leave the system for a few hours to recharge, then test again late afternoon when the cells are charged.

I forgot that the system is far heavier on batteries than my normal systems; and testing a few minutes here, half an hour there, etc chews up the life remaining quickly. So, what will be really interesting is how long the system will run off full charge, until system dies.

Accounts for the issue before - screen ok, then off (batteries draining), then DC just beeping and not booting (not enough amperage to make it boot ok).

Back on track. Goes to prove that even experienced portablizers make stupid noobie mistakes sometimes!

[DNT 2.5]

Sounds like you need to get some sleep buddy!