Motherboard dividing?

[DuroMentis]

Hello Everyone! I've been lurking through the forums for a while now, but never really had interest in modding stuff until now. In a nutshell, someone gave me a free psp, and after looking at some concepts of the infamous PSP2, or PS2P however you want it called, I decided it would be fun to make my own case and mod for my PSP. Now don't take that the wrong way, I am unaware if I am going to do this yet, but the interest in doing it is deffinetly there. My main problem with the psp is that its not as portable as I'd like it to be, and while viewing concepts I stumbled upon this nifty little image:



I think we can all agree that this case would be amazing. The problem here is that the motherboard is too wide to actually do something like that. I have a few ideas on how this sort of case can be done, but I'm not sure if these are possible. My first one is to cut the motherboard in half, and place one half in with one side of buttons, and the other half with the other buttons. The next idea is to put the motherboard behind the LCD, which would make it easier to connect the LCD, but then the buttons would require some sort of an extension. By the way, I decided I don't even need the UMD loader, so I'm removing that. (UMDs are crappy anyways).

So to sum up everything, I need to figure out how to fit everything in place. So the question I'm hoping to get answered is, if YOU were to mod a PSP and make it look like the above picture, how would you do it? I'll get pictures of the hardware up in a bit. I'll have everything seperate, and one picture with just the hardware connected (no casing on it or anything). Thanks!

P.S. Does anyone know about the touchscreens? I know you can buy them, but I'm not sure if you can use them very well. I would like one but can you use them on the XMB? Thanks if anyone can get some info on this, I've tried looking all day, but I doubt I'm googling the right thing.

[thewise1]

Actually making the case would be the hardest part.

I would just make a small case under the lcd for the mobo, and all of the extensions for the buttons.\

And the touchscreen would be nearly impossible to find one with the right size, and be able to put software on it to make it compatible with the psp.

[nevermind1534]

And the touchscreen would be nearly impossible to find one with the right size, and be able to put software on it to make it compatible with the psp.

More like write new software (firmware) to add compatibility.

[thewise1]

Yeah but I think you would have to write the software from the ground up. And I don't think even with custom firmware that you could get a plugin to get a touchscreen to work. And there's no real way to attach the screen to the mobo.

[jleemero]

Uh...
There are already working PSP touchscreens that work with certain homebrew.
Google is your friend boys.
In fact, I haven't touched the PSP homebrew scene in over a year, and I remember that.

[bicostp]

You won't be able to split the board if it's multi-layered.

[sgtpepper]

Well I know that the phat PSP has daughter cards for the controls... I would recommend just keeping the LCD and motherboard together, and extend the controls. As it has already been said, making the case would be the hardest part!

[jjhammerstein]

http://photos-951.friendster.com/e1/pho ... 62325l.jpg
That's what you're looking at.
the mobo will fit behind the LCD totally, you just need to relocate the controls. That's really no big deal.
The sliders won't be so easy.

[jongscx]

I think the bigger problem here is that the motherboard extends the almost the entire width of the PSP. From the sketch, it looks like you want the package to be just bigger than the screen itself... so you'd need to chop the motherboard anyway.


Unless you used a bigger screen, which I would be surprised if you could find one that had the same signalpinout as the present one and would require you to build a new casing.

What I would do is this then.

```````________________________````````
``````[...........screen..................]````````
``````[.....mobo.....memory slots....]````````
[Left-keypad ]```````````````[right keypad]
[battery.......]```````````````[battery.......]

This will probably result in a closed PSP that's about twice as thick as the current form, without the UMD reader.
The slider mechanism is also going to be a pain to find.

[Rekarp]

You won't be able to split the board if it's multi-layered.

Why do people say this? You can still chop the board in half it is just much harder to do. All traces come to the surface eventually. You just tap there.

[eagle5953]

Fascinating. It would be awesome to see complete, but it certainly would be thicker than the original.

That said, as everyone knows, just because it doesn't make sense to do does not mean you can't or shouldn't do it. (I had to re-read that myself!)

You won't be able to split the board if it's multi-layered.

Why do people say this? You can still chop the board in half it is just much harder to do. All traces come to the surface eventually. You just tap there.

Yes, but is there an easy way to find where the trace comes up? And how do you know how many traces you have severed?

[Rekarp]

What you do is you need a sacrificial board first. You remove the lacquer top and bottom by either sanding it off or acetone. Then slowly sand of the top traces till you get to the next layer. Make note of the traces and keep going. I had to do this a couple times before >_>

[eagle5953]

What you do is you need a sacrificial board first. You remove the lacquer top and bottom by either sanding it off or acetone. Then slowly sand of the top traces till you get to the next layer. Make note of the traces and keep going. I had to do this a couple times before >_>

So, difficult but do-able. Thanks.