Spare VGA LCD, 15 inch VGA dell , slim PS2, can you help me?

[supermortalhuman]

Hey everyone, first post and first potential project.

The title really says it all right now. Run of the mill VGA LCD and a slim PS2. I want to turn it into a PlayStation2Station. Can I do it?

[Zeturi]

If you can or are willing to learn to solder, create new cases (frankencasing, vac-forming, cnc casing), etc. If you have any of these skills, also consider:

What exactly do you want to do? Do you want to completely recase the whole system and lcd? Do you want battery power, integrated wireless controllers, or sell it once you complete it?

Tell us what you'd like to do, in detail, and if this is your first project, shed some light on your current skills. (i.e., beginner at soldering, have worked with wood before, availablity of funds for what you need to buy)

If you can't solder incredibly well (like me) then try practicing on some circuit boards first. Desolder off old parts, then see if you can reconnect them. If you have any wire available, try attaching it to pins on the motherboard.
Or if you have zero experience in making cases, consider getting someone to cut plastic for you, or frankencase several things you have laying around.
If you don't think you can spend more than $100 on spare parts, batteries, and tools, then see if you have anything usable (or sellable) around you that can help reduce the overall cost. ($100 is cutting your budget very well, just to let you know.) If all else fails, have a garage sale or sell stuff in the Trading Post.

If this does happen to be your first project, then I suggest buying this first, and attempting a NES or SNES.
http://www.amazon.com/Hacking-Video-Gam ... 355&sr=8-1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Good luck!

[supermortalhuman]

Hey, thanks for posting back!

This is indeed my first project, and I don't really have any plans for what comes after "PS2 is displaying on my LCD monitor".

That's all I want to accomplish right now. I have an LCD for a laptop, but I guess that is a lot more complicated since the main board is fried and it would take parts that I already have in my extra desktop LCD here. Also, the desktop LCD is 4:3, so I think it will be easier (unless that setting for screen format in the PS2 works - but I don't think it works for every game, and I've never played a game on anything but 4:3 in terms of TV's)

So, Eventually I'd like to put it into it's own (preferably wall mounted) case mod, but it is at the bottom of my list.

I have $0 budget, but I have other stuff around. I do not have any skills at all like the ones you mentioned, and I basically just wanted to get started by getting help from the community of people who are already modding hardware. I'm the kind of person that will become an asset to the community of modders mainly because I'll end up sharing whatever I learn (you know how it is, when you are taught in a community, you tend to help that community, and otherwise it tends to be different).

Basically, I have PS2 slim, Dell FP1505 or something like that (not sure the model off hand from here, but it is basically "the most common 15 inch dell monitor ever" - most PC-savvy will know the one lol) and I want to keep the PS2 working the way it already does, with the A/v out being hardmodded to the analog VGA input somehow in the monitor (DNW tv-to-vga adapters or anything like that, for all that I might as well just get that and not mod anything, right? )

PS2 slim -> LCD monitor. That's step one. How do we accomplish this? What needs to go in place of the VGA plug, or in place of the ends of the PS2 wires? It can't be hard to take Yellow and feed VGA with it - I'll do what it takes, but I want to do it home-made as possible. Not only am I suicidal-broke, but I don't think it will take anywhere near the kind of purchase you suggest.

[Zeturi]

Okay, there PS2-VGA adapters out there, but since you wanted to stay homemade, then heres a pinout for the lines on a ps2. Please ignore the ps1 part, since you'll be using a monitor.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v32/d ... oPStwo.gif" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
(credit to davicoro or this image's creator)

http://www.yoreparo.com/foros/files/vga_pinout.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
(credit to whoever made this, too lazy to find the creator)

You could try to solder the lines for vga (R, G, B, C sync and audio). I'm uncertain on how this works, though, so hopefully someone with some experience with ps2s can look at this topic

Also, what I posted above was more if you planned to make a more portable unit. Just seems like you'd like to use your ps2 weith vga, which isn't as hard as going through case modding, and not anywhere near as much soldering. The main cost to portablize something are usually batteries, the system, and the supplies for the case, but you have prettymuch everything your need anyway. (Assuming you own a soldering iron and some solder.)

And yes, you have reason to live! PS2 games are still being published! If you're bored, these kinds of projects can keep you busy, so now worries about free time. Good luck with your mod!

[supermortalhuman]

Does that mean I can splice my RF and use the inside of the yellow wire directly into the RGB pins?

I'm so new at this, and you're awesome, thanks for helping me to begin to get my bearings back and about this.

[MegatronUK]

Does that mean I can splice my RF and use the inside of the yellow wire directly into the RGB pins?

I'm so new at this, and you're awesome, thanks for helping me to begin to get my bearings back and about this.

No. That 'yellow' wire you're talking about is composite, and it's right next to an RF modulated picture for quality (ie absolute bottom of the barrel). You need the seperate signals that make up the picture in order to connect to a VGA screen, and for that you'll need to look at the pinout for the AV port on the PS2 and take, R, G, B and then also figure out where to get the HSync and VSync signals.. because they're not present on that diagram.

Your monitor *might* and I repeat: *might*, support sync-on-green, in which case the sync signal is bundled with the green signal... in that case you can just get a PS2 component cable (the one with red, green and blue connectors) and set the PS2 to output RGB (instead of YUV) over component.

[supermortalhuman]

I've all but given up on this. Thanks guys, it doesn't seem possible without the kind of knowledge you guys shared. No time to learn at the moment. If I get some extra beans, i will try to commission a job to someone for it!