Bacteria's project: "Project Unity"

[bacteria]

Opened up the PS2 phat console, retained the section with the heatsinks after trimming the shielding down a bit.



Jobs to do:

* Relocate the various ribbon connectors from the motherboard to the disc drive unit to give them longer wires
* Remove the ports, wire up the player 1 port section, and the A/V port for using
* Work out the voltages from the board and use regulators instead of mains power

Then cross fingers and hope all works ok. I'll do this in stages of course, starting with the drive unit ribbon cable relocation.

[bacteria]

Removed the first port; squeezed a screwdriver head gently under the edge of the port to give a little leverage, and then got a needle into the corner of each pin in turn to try and lift the pin upwards a bit when the soldering iron is applied to melt the solder on the pin itself.



As you see, it worked, after a while the port is released. This will allow me to use some wires to attach to the port pins and then to the board, in effect providing a cheap cable extension. It is fine for these ports, as the gaps between the pins are 1mm, however the drive ribbon drive - forget it, it's 0.5mm between each pin, which is why I bought an extension ribbon for that one.

[fvgazi]

Which model PS2 controller is that?

[bacteria]

Console is PS2 phat; controller I used was a Madcatz one, although will use a standard PS2 controller for the system.

[bacteria]

Taking break from the GBA large format N64 project, to revitalise my interest (i'm not that interested in portables as used to be, my interest is mainly in this Alpha Omega project). Back to this project for a little while, will complete the PS2, then do Philips CD-i, then back to the N64 stuff....

--------------

Thought i'd connect one of my (expensive) MadCatz Playstation controllers up, as per pic (expensive because it's designed like a NES controller, and small).

Interestingly, the MadCatz controller wasn't happy on the PS2, the joystick didn't work all the time; so tried an official Sony PlayStation controller and it registered the joystick in permanent left; also no use; so I got my box of several mixed PlayStation controllers, original and third party ones, and a 3rd party one worked great, a Radica Gamester one. Good enough! Perhaps the PS2 is tempremental? Played a couple of quick Quake 3 matches, worked fine, although I much prefer using a proper mouse than two joysticks. I might experiment to see if a compromise is possible.



As this pic shows, connected the power to my bank of regulators, only used the 12v line. The long ribbon for the drive section is long enough to keep the drive unit off the motherboard, and the relocated other ports work fine too. I needed to move the drive unit away from the motherboard so could have the CD unit for the Philips CD-i (next system) alongside ok.



Anyway, this old PS2 phat unit is working fine. More to do yet!

[bacteria]

Two chips on the back of the board get very hot, which explains why on the original shielding plate there were raised areas on the metal to press against those chips to keep them cooler. I'm not using the old shielding as it makes everything too large, so instead, cut out some metal strips and screwed them to the grounding on the edge of the board, pressed against the two small chips (using a small amount of Arctic Silver thermal paste of course) to reduce the heat. On the larger of the two, found a suitable place on the board where there were no traces and drilled a hole through the board for a screw to go through to keep the metal piece in place. The PS2 motherboard is only two layer so not hard to work out spaces.



All works fine, tested it.

[bacteria]

Spent a couple of hours, removing the digital port, A/V port, USB port, wiring composite, making basic legs for the drive unit so it can have the memory card in place; which is attached into place and done. Tested system, all works fine.





Next job will be to turn the system over, secure drive unit into place, secure motherboard into place. As before, will mount onto foam board before going onto the wood, just a bit easier to work with.

[bacteria]

Turned system over and secured to the backing board with hot glue. As the drive unit doesn't need to be removed, going to have the PS2 at the bottom of the final system casing, and alongside the PS2 drive, i'll mount a strong 12v fan exhaust to give good airflow; if needed; otherwise will use the surrounding space for some other console boards; not sure yet.



The black piece is to keep the ribbon working correctly and without catching. On top of this will be probably mounted the controller boar

[thelolotov]

Turned system over and secured to the backing board with hot glue. As the drive unit doesn't need to be removed, going to have the PS2 at the bottom of the final system casing, and alongside the PS2 drive, i'll mount a strong 12v fan exhaust to give good airflow; if needed; otherwise will use the surrounding space for some other console boards; not sure yet.

The black piece is to keep the ribbon working correctly and without catching. On top of this will be probably mounted the controller boar

Nice, decide if you're adding an Xbox to this?

[bacteria]

Intending to, however not looked at my Xbox yet.