Wiring almost complete, small video problem

[warmachine]

Okay, so I've got my PSOne screen backlit with LEDs and working, my SNES is chopped up, and I've started wiring up all the connections. However, I have a couple of questions (and problems) I need answered before I continue and maybe ruin something.

First, where on the PS1 screen does power go in and come out, is there a point on the board that one solders to? I can't find anywhere such a pin/point would be.

Second, can I run 12v into the screen/SNES, or would that be too taxing on the circuitry?

Third, I would like to reuse the A/V and Headphone jack that came with the PS1 screen, dos anyone have the pinouts for the jack's A/V and Headphone pins? (The headphone pins are the same as any normal headphone pin, correct? If so, I found that topic discussed earlier)

Thanks for the help.

[Sparkfist]

First, where on the PS1 screen does power go in and come out, is there a point on the board that one solders to? I can't find anywhere such a pin/point would be.

Yes there is a point, I believe its around the power input.

Second, can I run 12v into the screen/SNES, or would that be too taxing on the circuitry?

No you can put 12v into the screen and console. However it is not every efficanet.

Third, I would like to reuse the A/V and Headphone jack that came with the PS1 screen, dos anyone have the pinouts for the jack's A/V and Headphone pins? (The headphone pins are the same as any normal headphone pin, correct? If so, I found that topic discussed earlier)

I know that you should be able to find the pinout of the screen in one of the stickied threads in the Screens Forum. You can also follow the trases to figure out the audio jack's pinout.

[gannon]

1. Not sure what your asking, but the power input is the first 2 pins of the left connector on the lcd controller. It doesn't really come out anywhere
2. No, max. input for the psone lcd is ~9V, use a 7808 if you want to use a 12V battery
3. Somewhere around the boards IIRC

[warmachine]

Okay, the wiring is almost done, but now I have a slight video problem. The screen (Sony PS1) has a slight bend in it at the top (the image, not the physical screen). It looks like this:



Also, the video kinda flickers, like it's refreshing the image slower than it should be. Anyone have some advice?

[G-force]

It sounds like it's not getting enough power. Try checking the power supply. If using batterys replace/recharge them. I don't know what kind of setup you are using so it's hard to guess (and I have no experience with SNES sadly)

[warmachine]

Crap on a crutch. Now it's resetting randomly. I replaced the batteries with duracell one-time use batteries, the plain, off the shelf variety, it's only been about an hour since I replaced them, but the thing still has distorted video and it's resetting. Sigh.

[JeffMan]

My friend's started doing that when he was using batteries, because he hadn't charged them after taking them out of the package. Try testing it on the PSOne screen adapter that came with it if you can.

[marshallh]

When you ran it with alkaline batteries, you fed 9v into the screen. 7.2v is not quite enough, that's why there's the bend. It needs 7.5v.

Alkaline cells are 1.5v each,
Nickel-based cells are 1.2v each. (Li-Ion cells are 3.6v each)

[warmachine]

Whew, okay. I hooked a 9v cell up to the system and it works perfectly now, no bend or distortion. I apologize for my crappy questions at first, I hadn't had much rest when I posted, and I should have known better than to think about plugging 12v into the system. As for the PS1 wiring, I had completely overlooked the thread at the TOP of the screen hacking forum marked accordingly. Doh. Anyways, my father is going to help me build the case tonight/tomorrow, as my knowledge of plastics is very low and his quite high. Tomorrow I should have some pics of the complete project. It will look a lot like one of the classic "color" gameboys (the original, bulky kind that came with varying case colors, not actual color gameboys) that was clear, only the cart slot has not moved, so it sticks straight out the back. I used original components as often as I could, from the board to the controller (it's an SNES controller board, no PC board at all) and the project has cost about $100 USD; $50 for the screen on eBay, +/- $40 on parts, and $6.00 for the SNES 2 at a Goodwill in San Antonio (300 miles away, but I was there for another reason altogether, just hppened to see the place and walked in.)

Thanks for the help guys, this is probably one of the nicest and most helpful (directly or indirectly) groups of people I have yet to come to know.

[warmachine]

*GROAN* Well, I upped the input to 9v, dropped in a fresh pack of duracells, and the dang video still distorts at the top and now its wavy a few minutes in. Is the thing just not getting enough power? I don't have a camera with me, or I'd take a pic of the layout. I've been working on this little problem since eight this morning (Thursday), and it only looked good once. The thing still randomly resets after a couple of minutes too. Somebody helllp, I don't want this to be a waste of time and money. *Falls asleep at the wheel*

[marshallh]

Why did you 'up the input' to 9v? The screen needs 7.5v
The reason it worked when you hooked up a 9v battery is because the screen was drawing so much from the poor battery, the voltage dropped.

9v batteries have about 120mAh. The screen draws 750/350 (unmodded/modded)

You can use alkalines, but you'll need 5 cells of them to get 7.5
You can buy 2200mAh AA batteries at allelectronics.com, about twice the capacity of alkalines!

[timmeh87]

i was led to believe that an alkaline these days will hold ~2800mAh

[JeffMan]

My rechargeable AA's have 2500mAh
They cost me a fortune though

[warmachine]

*Whew* Okay, one more time, I think the problem is fixed now. The battery problem? Coincedentally, I have been putting bad batteries into it every time (unknowingly). The pack of duracells I've been using was just a lemon, apparently. As for the random resetting, there was some kind of short on the bottom of the console that happened whenever the thing moved around. Now, the system is in good working condition and we're making the case this afternoon.

Thanks again guys.

[warmachine]

One more question though, how much time do you usually get out of your batteries powering the screen and nintendo?

EDIT: Also, what batteries do you guys use? I have a 9.6v rechargeable RC car battery (a 7.2v as well, but no such luck there, I know it needs 7.5v minimum) but I don't know if that's too much; I'm running out of cash here, so if there's a relatively inexpensive solution to ridiculously short battery life (20-40 mins), please let me know.

EDIT2: The 9.6v battery outputs 11v when a voltmeter was hooked up to it. I only ask if this would work because I'm just about out of solutions.