Bacteria's project - PSone portable: IntoPlay finished: PICS

jjhammerstein · Post by **jjhammerstein** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 4:28 pm

mdp872105 wrote:I got one question, the analog sticks are located on top and some people prefer them on the bottom will you be able to do a switched version of the case?

The case comes without holes.
If you want them lower, you're free to drill the holes wherever you want.

mdp872105 · Post by **mdp872105** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 4:37 pm

I withdraw my question

jjhammerstein · Post by **jjhammerstein** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 4:41 pm

mdp872105 wrote:I withdraw my question

If you're going to be that way, the I withdraw my answer.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 6:22 pm

Yes, it will come without holes, the buyer will need to make their own (I will provide a template to help of course); so if someone wants to use different button holes, a cross d-pad, shoulder buttons from something flatter, etc they can.

You can have the d-pad and 4 button pad swapped with the speaker grill (as per my case) if the d-pad is slightly smaller (eg a GC d-pad) and the 4 button pad a smaller one (perhaps made by using rubber tact switches) without an issue.

You can have the joysticks swapped with the speaker grills, however it would mean using mini mylar speakers, 20mm (not included of course) instead of the PSone screen; not as good audio but acceptable; or using flat larger mylar speakers and mounting part of them over the PSone screen itself.

In practice however, I doubt having the joysticks at the bottom of the case is ideal, harder to hold the case, and awkward to get to the d-pad and 4 button pad. I think the layout I have is ideal and the best layout; but hey, if you want to make yours different, have a go!

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 7:56 pm

Couldn't sleep; so got transfer onto backing plate.

Worked out best method - keep decal in water until it starts to peel off the edges; don't leave it any longer or it rolls up - when the edges are peeling off, it is easy to apply the decal to your system without stretching or damaging the decal.

The clear windows mean I can see the disk spinning in the system; nice touch!

mmoshkowich · Post by **mmoshkowich** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 7:57 pm

that's so awsome this portable is epic!

khaag · Post by **khaag** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 9:41 pm

EPOCH PORTABLE! Great work, John.

Mario · Post by **Mario** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 10:05 pm

Sleeplessness seems to be quite common when working on a portable.

Awesome work so far. Your write-ups are amazing, perfect for a newbie to follow, which is your intention.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 5:26 am

Onto the hardest part of the project; the R1 shoulder button and joystick. Why hard you ask? Well, this part is really snug, in fact, needed to shave the 1mm edging off the corner part of the PSone screen holder; yes, really - although there is an option not to do this if you don't want to...

Anyway, on to details:

Here are a couple of joysticks from an old controller, a PSone controller.

And the reverse (board) side. Keeping the joystick in the board, although the contact traces will be cut through so I don't get any rogue behaviour.

Putting in the R2 shoulder button, as you see, it sticks out a bit. That needs to be trimmed down, especially the insides. Take a bit off here and a bit off there until you get it "just right".

The tact switch needs to be mounted at the top, under the board; to give it extra space, I used a small sanding drum on the dremel to just trim off the corner off the metal.

Hot glued in place, two of the tact switch contacts snipped off (two on short side), only need the top two.

The surround on the joystick cap needed trimming so it rotated around the tact switch:

Here's the part I referred to - used sanding drum on dremel to gently sand down the edge of the plastic and metal on the edge of the PSone screen; not to go through of course, but close to it.

Secured PSone screen with just a few small spots of hot glue, will secure it better later.

...here's why...

If you don't, the joystick casing just catches on the edge of the screen

This is how it looks - tact switch works fine, joystick moves fine.

Not stuck it in place yet, spray painting the joysticks black first.

If you don't want this palaver, you can by-pass it, by just having the stick itself, without the plastic surround, and cut out a piece of fabric to put the hole through, then stick the fabric inside the case - you then don't see the joystick underneath - novel idea, works; and would save trimming down the plastic surround on the joystick (as per the animation above) and also the edge on the PSone screen.

I had intended to do this method originally, as "option B", however I managed to use the original plastic surround. If I don't like it in practice, I will use the fabric method.

Kyo · Post by **Kyo** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 6:23 am

this is definitely going to be one of the cleanest portables on this site

hailrazer · Post by **hailrazer** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 8:10 am

Looking nice.

But this is an example of why I won't do vacuum forming yet.

HOT GLUE !!

Parts that depends on hot glue to hold them just won't last. That joystick and side buttons, etc, well after a while with constant pressure and playing they will come loose.

I have bought so many portables done with hot glue and after a while they had parts that break down.

Thats why I prefer case mods. Or vacuum forming and then Abs cementing the parts in and then epoxy/painting. I don't want to have to keep fixing things later. And if I sell it, I don't want it coming back.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 9:36 am

Kyo - Hope to please!

hailrazer - All my systems have incorporated hot glue, all remain solid. Hot glue I know is a problem in a hot climate, but I live in the UK, so no issues. Hottest it gets here in direct sunlight in a car is about 36 Celcius! (and I only play my systems at night, or at home, so about 1/3 that temperature normally!). The melting point of hot glue, I understand is 60 Celsius and the plasticard (vacuum forming) is 80 Celsius. Hot glue certainly sticks very effectively on plasticard; when applied, the plasticard gets quite warm in the reverse side, which I imagine also helps the seal. I use quality sticks, Loctite brand, not cheapie stuff.

There is no reason not to use epoxy instead, as you do, personal choice; it's just that I don't have any epoxy (I tried some a while back without success) and hot glue works great. Anyone who buys my case kits can use something different to hot glue if they like, up to them. BTW - the joystick assembly isn't secured in place yet, it was only placed in position. I have opened N64 controllers and systems (including plug'n'play gadgets) before and found parts stuck on with hot glue, and these are fully commercial products; so there you go. Ben also has used hot glue in his projects too, BTW.

I intend to screw a piece of perspex in place to secure the joystick assembly, so I can easily remove it if I need to later. I'm also not going to sell my portables, I prefer to give people the tools to make their own...

Ok, more updates:

There are two reasons it takes two controllers to make my project (or three if you prefer) - one as the main controller, the master; and the other as a slave; the contact parts of the boards get hacked apart.

Good example of hacking a controller - cut out this shape from the above for the start and select boards.

In the middle, I bridged the thin trace to the thick grounding area, so I could solder a wire (white) to one of the pins to make life easier. The yellow wire is the Select button and red is Start.

The tact switches come with the caps on:

Put the tact switches through the holes, applied some hot glue to a piece of perspex, pressed to tact switches; then removed assembly and put hot glue onto the perspex and pressed onto the PSone screen back. Did same also for the Start and Select buttons; hot glued the piece against the case too, naturally.

The items are secured in place, without using much hot glue at all. When I have tested the buttons when whole system works fine, I will reinforce the glue.

Pic of the system from the top, looking down on the 6 buttons:

hailrazer · Post by **hailrazer** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 10:16 am

bacteria wrote:Kyo - Hope to please!

hailrazer - All my systems have incorporated hot glue, all remain solid. Hot glue I know is a problem in a hot climate, but I live in the UK, so no issues. Hottest it gets here in direct sunlight in a car is about 36 Celcius! (and I only play my systems at night, or at home, so about 1/3 that temperature normally!). The melting point of hot glue, I understand is 60 Celsius and the plasticard (vacuum forming) is 80 Celsius. Hot glue certainly sticks very effectively on plasticard; when applied, the plasticard gets quite warm in the reverse side, which I imagine also helps the seal. I use quality sticks, Loctite brand, not cheapie stuff.

There is no reason not to use epoxy instead, as you do, personal choice; it's just that I don't have any epoxy (I tried some a while back without success) and hot glue works great. Anyone who buys my case kits can use something different to hot glue if they like, up to them. BTW - the joystick assembly isn't secured in place yet, it was only placed in position. I have opened N64 controllers and systems (including plug'n'play gadgets) before and found parts stuck on with hot glue, and these are fully commercial products; so there you go. Ben also has used hot glue in his projects too, BTW.

Understand I'm not knocking your cases or design choices. It's just hot glue will fail over time. And it doesn't have anything to do with heat.

It's stress. Just put a part on plastic with hot glue and twist it a little back and forth. It will break off. It's the nature of hot glue. I've used it in my profession for over 12 years. There are Industrial strength glues that I use that are a lot better, but they still will fail if the object is pushed/twisted / moved a lot. (Like joysticks,d-pads,buttons).

Of course our handhelds aren't supposed to be retail quality, but I HATE fixing something after it's done and buttoned up

NesScotland · Post by **NesScotland** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 12:03 pm

this thread is awesome. Top work !

stephen0205 · Post by **stephen0205** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 12:47 pm

very very nice work