psx controller on my lappy

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timmeh87
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psx controller on my lappy

Post by timmeh87 »

well i spend most of today not doing homework and instead making myself a psx controller port for my laptop. i had an old parallel pcmcia card lying around, along with a broken ps2, so i decided to combine them to make what turned out to be one of the coolest things i have ever made.

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i hope i get slashdotted for this or something

(oh, and it works, in case you were wondering)
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Jeff
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Post by Jeff »

Now, you COULD have just gotten a PS2 to USB converter like 99.99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999% of the world, but you decided to do this, and now need to get drivers.

Eh, good job, but dumb idea.
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timmeh87
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Post by timmeh87 »

ive been playing ocarania of time for hours man.

http://www.psxpad.com/index_e.php

and it didnt cost me a penny
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Bay_Wolf
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Post by Bay_Wolf »

That is awesome. And some people (like me) cant use a usb to playstation thing because i only have one usb port and i use my mouse on it. GREAT PROJECT.

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jeep
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Post by jeep »

Bay_Wolf: Might get a USB hub :wink:
timmeh87: Really cool because it's inside. I'm thinking about trying to make a kind of dock inside my pc with NES/SNES/N64/PS2 etc. port. Anyway, it looks GREAT ! :D
Weebl
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Post by Weebl »

I like it, that's pretty spiffy. Congrats on your successful mod.
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wolfchanger89
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Post by wolfchanger89 »

Thats pretty spiffy

Do you think you are going to make a tut for that?
soundwave
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Post by soundwave »

Did you have to cut part of the laptop case away to get the PSX port in there? Or is it just the space of a second port that its taking?
Last edited by soundwave on Sun Jan 22, 2006 10:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
cennar
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Post by cennar »

well i have a nes port on mine on the front and nes vent holes, needs to be painted nes colors though.
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timmeh87
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Post by timmeh87 »

a tutorial really shouldnt be nessecary. this is bascially what i did

1) happened to have a parallel port pcmcia card
2) opened it up, and realized that the circuit board only takes up the bottom 2/3 of the casing. also, the parallel cable disconnects easily from a pin header on the card
3) took the "controller module" from a ps2, and used a hacksaw and brute force to remove a single controller port (its all one piece of plastic... thats where the hacksaw comes in)
4) belt sanded away a lot of plastic until it fit into the card bay on my laptop.

now, as an aside, my card bay is two cards high, but the top card is not actually connected. you cant even physically plug anything into the top one, theres a piece of metal stopping you. so i was able to make my adapter card 2 cards high, without reducing the function of my laptop. as far as i can see, there is no way to do this without blocking both slots.

5) connecting a psx controller to a parallel port is incredibly easy, you just need 5 diodes and some wire. i got the diodes from my junk box, and soldered the psx controller port directly to the pin header on the card.

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6) i cut away some of the metal from the original enclosure so that it would all fit (which is where i got the obligatory hand injury)
7) i smothered it in epoxy glue
8) i added some hot melt glue over the contats so that they wouldnt bend and short

and thats about it. the card installed without a hitch, as did the controller driver (psxpad). i had some trouble at first, because the card was using a nonstandard i/o address range. i managed to change it to something that the driver liked, (to 140-14F if you were curious) and it has worked ever since
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timmeh87
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Post by timmeh87 »

lol. i hate to bump such an old topic, but i figured id see if i could get myself hackadayed for this, and gosh darn it, i did! yay for me. :D
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fom_4_life
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pci hub?

Post by fom_4_life »

<s>hey u no u can get usb hubs. well wot about like pci hubs coz like my pc only hav 4 and its not really enough

????</s>

Hey, you know you can get USB hubs. Well what about, like, PCI hubs because like my PC only has four and it's not really enough.

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Unidentified Assilant
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Post by Unidentified Assilant »

Cool, and USB Hub is the way NOT to go
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Post by SpongeBuell »

I think that he was asking about USB hubs in general, taking the thread a little off-topic.
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Extreme_Jesus
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Post by Extreme_Jesus »

i did something similar a while ago

cept i used a paralell port instead, you can find drivers easily on the web so i was fine

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one thing i never could sort out was the analouge sticks, when you turned the analouge on the d-pad stopped working and the analouge sticks just took the place of it
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