New to the scene, longing for a portable.

Sonic · Post by **Sonic** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 9:48 pm

A little intro thread, per say, but a short one.

I've been into the portable scene for a while, but haven't really done anything due to my doubts of screwing up a perfectly nice console. However, since I have two Dreamcasts, I have one to spare.

I would live to turn this into a portable, but I wouldn't know what to solder, or where to solder, so I'm asking you guys for help. I can get the guts of the Dreamcast I'm going to turn portable, that way you guys can see for yourself, and possibly label it for me.

Basically, I just want to attach the PSOne LCD Screen to it, and have it run without having it plug into the wall. I'm not sure if that's exactly possible, but it would be sufficient for me. If it's a real hassle having a portable that way, I might switch over to the 'real' portable

So, is it possible? I don't know what kind of battery it would need if it were to run without a plug going into the wall.

Thank you for your time and helpfulness. =)

PeglegJimmy · Post by **PeglegJimmy** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 11:19 pm

I LIKE PIE

That should help you.

Sonic · Post by **Sonic** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 12:11 am

Thanks for the links, but I still wouldn't really know what to do as far as soldering which wire where.

I'm sure that I connect both grounds, though. I got that much .. What about power to the LCD screen, and such?

Sorry if I sound a bit dumb.

PeglegJimmy · Post by **PeglegJimmy** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 7:42 am

That link with e screen is showing you were to solder to the screen. the one with the Dreamcasts pins is showing you were to solder there

You want to tie the type of video to the right places, Like lets say you wanted to do RGB, you would solder to the RGB pins, and vertical and horizontal sync.

If your really new to soldering I suggest you do this. If you have an A/V cable(not rf) Plug it into the back of the dreamcast like normal, clip the wire, open the PS1 screen and solder the inside yellow wire to the yellow spot(Shown in picture), and the ground to the ground spot. Do the same with audio.

When doing it that way you only solder 6 times.

To power the screen, (Depending on the power it needs...

Those pins go in this order from left to right. 3v, 5v, grnd, grnd, grnd, 12v

So take wire, solder to the positive, and negative spots on the screen, put the positive on whichever your screen takes. (Solder under that plastic thing so the PSU can sit down again. Then the negative to the ground.(Doesn't matter which one of the three. Be very careful not to get even a drop of solder on the board under there as it will heat up and most likely trash your dreamcast. After that, Plug in the Dreamcast, hit power, and it should turn on. (If not, make sure you didn't solder anything together and caused it to short out. Or you just switched positive and negative.)

If you are comfortable with soldering, you may want to pin video out, audio out.(Wire that to the Dreamcast on the inside. Then you can still you it on the TV.

jedi knight · Post by **jedi knight** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 2:09 pm

Welcome to the forums! A dreamcast portable is something that is very difficult to make, heck Ben hasn't even made one. There are no step-by-step guides available to aid you in this either. If you think you can do it, then do so by all means, but if you are a little skeptic I wouldn't even try.

Sonic · Post by **Sonic** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 3:25 pm

Thanks for the replies.

Jedi Knight: I do not plan on making this a 'pure' portable. I basically want to carry around the console with me, along with the PSOne screen attached to it so I can play it anywhere I'd like, considering I'm away from my house more than 3/4ths of the day, anyways.

I understand most of the pin-outs, now, and I'm going to order a PSOne screen as cheap as I can possibly get it (ebay, perhaps).

It does not look very hard to accomplish my goal, and I'm sure I'll eventually get to it.

My original idea was to put the guts of the Dreamcast, and the PSOne screen, and integrate them both into a small, wooden box (of course, it'd look stylish.) called the "Dreambox", where the controller would be on the bottom, as well as the spot to plug in the VMU cartridge.

Thanks for the encouragement and help, though. It's greatly appreciated, and I'll let you guys know my progress on this project.

THON · Post by **THON** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 5:12 pm

jedi knight wrote:heck Ben

*Looks up irony definition*

jedi knight · Post by **jedi knight** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 5:23 pm

If you have had no prior soldering experience, maybe you should check out the "Treamcast". It is exactly what you are looking for and is sold on eBay for ~$200 IIRC.
If you want to make this, practice soldering if you haven't already. It will reduce the number of dead Dreamcasts if you do.

THON wrote:
jedi knight wrote:heck Ben
*Looks up irony definition*

Yeah I did that on purpose

Sonic · Post by **Sonic** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 1:02 am

jedi knight wrote:If you have had no prior soldering experience, maybe you should check out the "Treamcast". It is exactly what you are looking for and is sold on eBay for ~$200 IIRC.
If you want to make this, practice soldering if you haven't already. It will reduce the number of dead Dreamcasts if you do.

I have a lot of soldering experience; I've made a couple of perfectly working home-made DDR pads in a few years time. (Approx. 4 throughout the last 2 years.)

This shouldn't be that different.

Post by **Sparkfist** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 8:24 am

I would suggest if you really want to make a portable Dreamcast, you should contact dkpa01, he's a member on the forums that has made one. He did have a site that went into great detail as to how he made it, however the site is gone. Contact him and ask for the info he has, notes and pictures would be really what you get.

I will say this if you're not skilled with a soldering iron don't bother trying to relocate the GD-ROM, it's a 50-pin connection and not something amateurs should mess with. This means unfortunately that the resulting portable will be rather thick.

Best thing to do as far as making it is start with the basics like they say on PoD and get power first, once that's done you can start shifting things around.